02.06.96
From:  Queens, New York City
Your Host: Joey Styles

Raven cuts a promo saying he wants to introduce is to his most prized possession—the ECW belt as he throws that whore out of the way.

Opening Match: Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

This is JG’s debut into ECW—and he faces Rey who has been in ECW for a couple of months now. We cut to commercial as we come back there is a “Fonzie Must Die” tee-shirt plug. The bell rings, and JG hits a firemans carry into a slam. Rey gets the advantage with the side headlock, but JG gets out, but Rey Mysterio hits a nice arm drag. JD hits an arm drag of himself. Joey Styles mentions that their both 21 years old right now. JG hits a spine buster but only gets two. They start exchanging slaps to the face. They both get up, JG softy paintbrushes him, but  Rey gives him a big slap. Now the action gets fast; Rey kicks his legs out, but JG lands on his feet. Rey tries to monkey flip him over, JG lands on his feet on the outside of the ropes. Rey goes to the top and hits a hurrcanarana. Rey and JG both exchange flashy moves. Rey comes back, and hits a closeline, and a head scissor. Rey then hits a springboard hurrcanarana followed by an over the top senton onto JG. Rey puts the chair on JG neck and drives him into the turn post, twice. JG comes back in, and hits a dropkick. Rey tries to do a dive under the legs, but JG hits him with a German Suplex. JG goes for a tigerbomb, and nails it. ONE-TWO-NO. JG press slams Rey into a throw away slam with a bridge. ONE-TWO-NO. Rey comes back, and hits a hurrcanarana for only a two. Rey hits a powerslam, but cannot put JG away. Rey goes up to the top, but JG cuts him off. JD is going for Splash Mountain, but Rey counters with a hurrcanarana and gets the win @ 9:34. The match was a very good opener; it had incredibly high pacing and tons of innovative and outstanding moves. Even though Juventud did not pick up the win, he still looked very credible in the match. I wish they gave this match more time, but it would have been very difficult to that because they really only got 45 minutes of TV time a week—so it was hard to actually give the midcard much time for Paul E. The match also gets an extra boost because Joey Styles was so excellent at calling all the moves in this match—and getting everything over. ***

More plugging shirts and Enter the Sandman (which shuts the volume off due to copyrights on youtube, so I had to download the show because of it).

Joey Styles is promoting Douglas vs. Jack; then summarizes their friendship and rivalry over their career.

Foley is in the back with Whipreck and Foley starts putting Whipwreck over. Foley then ask if he wanted to go to WWF, but Mickey says he is happy here.

ECW Tag Titles:Mikey Whipreck/ Cactus Jack vs. Eliminators (Perry Saturn/John Kronus)

Foley takes off his shirt, and under his other shirt, it says “WW F’N F”, which breaks out a “you sold out” chant.  John Kronus and Mikey tie up and John pushes him down. Mikey takes John down with a headlock. Saturn tags in, but Mikey does some nice arm drags into a headlock. Cactus pulls him off because he wants in the match. Foley gets on the mic and buries Mikey on the mic by saying Mikey has not done much, and that he won the titles all by himself. Foley works over Perry, and then tags in Mikey. Mikey puts in an arm hold, so Foley gets irate and pushes him off. Eliminators work over Mikey. Kronus puts in a rest hold, but Mikey comes back but Saturn cheap shots him. Kronus powerbombs Mikey; then PS drops a knee on Mikey from the top rope. PS hits a lariat but only gets 2.  Eliminators work over Mikey more.  Mikey is slowly going to Foley and makes the tag. Foley starts to work over both of them, but the numbers game start to take place. Foley regroups and hits a Cactus closeline and sends Perry over the top. Foley hits a springboard elbow on the outside to Perry. Foley hits a Piledriver, but does not want the count. Foley wants to hit Perry with it,but Mikey stops him. Perry has the glass, but Mikey saves Foley from getting hit. Mikey starts to clean some house. Eliminators regroup and hit Total Elimination @ 11:20. After the match, Raven does a beat down on Mikey, but Foley saves him. Foley trash talks Raven in the corner, but then Cactus closelines Whipreck. Raven grabs a chair and starts smashing Whipreck with it. Foley then hits a DDT on the chair. After that, Eliminators cut a promo with Styles. Francine says she joined the Eliminators, but ends up being a trick as Pitbulls come out; then they do a beat down on them. Pitbulls then cut John’s hair. The storytelling was great, but the wrestling in the match varied from great to sloppy. The more newsworthy and better action came after the match than in it. **

OG cut a promo on Pitbulls saying that they should not be attacking Eliminators because they beat them, not the Eliminators.

In the back, Dreamer cuts a promo with a candle lit over his bloody hand. He talks about mental pain and his hate for Raven. He talks about how he must snuff him out.

Foley cuts a promo with Raven with some Pulp Fiction playing in the background. Foley rants on Mikey on how he helped him in life. However, all he did was throw it down the toilet.  Foley talks about how he has an eating disorder, and other weird stuff.

Shane Douglas is just laughing

Taz and Whistle man are ranting about New York. Taz says he will choke out all comers.

Pitbulls rant on Eliminators.

OG tell Pitbulls are going down, and the Gangstas are alive.

Beulah then tells Raven she faked it with him.

Raven is under the stairs, he talks about his scars, and how people think he does not have love but they are wrong.

2 Cold talks about how he loves a good women than describes what he loves about them. He asks if his baby wants to come in, he brings her in and it is his title. He gives the title a big kiss. 2 Cold talks about he gets all the women and now has the gold.

Pitbulls talk about how they took Eliminators pride and hair.

Eliminators are in the back, as John cuts his hair off asking them do they really think he cares that they cut his hair off. John says all that matters is that they have the gold because they make more money.

Going Home: No matter if you are pro-ECW or not; you cannot deny that ECW in 1996 was not written awesomely. Everything on this show was very enjoyable and set a purpose. The opener was a very good match, the ECW tag match was entertaining, the Dreamer promo was deep, and then the ending promos are brilliantly done. I just loved how they played the Pulp Fiction music in the back round as they all did their promos. Out of all the promos, I have to say that Foley’s was the best, but not to take away from the awesome, crazy segment with the Eliminators when John cut his hair off in a psychotic way.

In this show, they did a great job of explaining what is going on, and it also made you want to see want is going to happen on the next show. Dreamer-Raven, Foley-Whipreck and Pitbulls-Eliminators were all very interesting feuds that were must see. ECW in 1996, is when I think Heyman didn’t write with a pencil; he was writing with gold, because he made the best out of nothing, and that is why he is considered one of the greatest writers of all time. If you do not believe it, watch this episode, and this is coming from a person who thinks people overrate ECW.