Excited Caucasian Wieners - ECW Barely Legal (1997)

We’re rewinding all the way back to ECW’s first-ever pay-per-view—Barely Legal (1997)—a night of beer-soaked chaos, barbed wire mayhem, and Philly filth that changed wrestling forever. From RVD flipping into a cult hero role to Terry Funk bleeding his way into a title shot at age 53, we break down the ladder-swinging insanity, the infamous crowd, and the Sandman’s cigarette-soaked entrance in this Paul Heyman–induced scrappy, umm… masterpiece (?).

Plus: we talk TNA Rebellion 2025, Joe Hendry’s rising star, and why L.A. absolutely buried Tessa Blanchard. It’s ECW’s bloodstained legacy in all its outlaw glory.

(626) 657-SLAM

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Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.

Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.

Transcript

00:00.10
Aaron
Oh, right. My, that's me. Shit.

00:01.68
Bradley Palermo
Hmm. Hmm?

00:22.79
Bradley Palermo
and welcome to Grapple City Rewind, taking you all the way back to the iconic pay-per-views and whatever else we can find from wrestling history. Today, we are getting into some crazy shit, some ECW, barely legal 1997, and

00:39.02
Aaron
yeah

00:39.08
Bradley Palermo
It's the first time that we watched anything from UCW.

00:43.53
Aaron
Yeah.

00:43.42
Bradley Palermo
So we will be getting into all the violent... Ladder tossing and beard slamming, outlaw, pay-per-view shit, hair throwing, blood, of course.

00:49.56
Aaron
Chair throw in.

01:00.26
Bradley Palermo
626-657-SLAM,

01:03.06
Bradley Palermo
or hit us up on Instagram at grapplecitypod. We love hearing from you. Aaron, I think before we rewind to our ECW pay-per-view, maybe Maybe we should talk about that TNA pay-per-view from last night.

01:15.56
Aaron
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:15.61
Bradley Palermo
Rebellion.

01:17.33
Aaron
TNA Rebellion at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. ah You were there. i was going to be there, but unfortunately couldn't make it. But I was able to watch while it was happening. And

01:27.04
Aaron
I have not, a full disclosure, I have not watched a TNA pay-per-view in many, many years. um I sort of you know, hear about it because I'm a frequent listener of busted open and Tommy dreamer is one of the hosts on there. And he, I believe is working in creative at TNA. I'm not sure if he's the head of creative or not.

01:45.46
Aaron
It's sort of ah ah well-guarded secret, I suppose, but, yeah, a fun show. I think highlights for me were probably the X Division match.

01:57.80
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

01:58.31
Aaron
ah ah what What was the stipulation? What was that called? with the there So for the people who didn't see, there there was there were ropes in an X like 10 feet above the top rope of the ring.

02:11.27
Aaron
And so the stipulation, they had to climb on the rope, grab the belt, and land with both feet on the ground with the belt in their hands.

02:11.61
Bradley Palermo
Right.

02:17.66
Bradley Palermo
Is that how the X division works always? Is that how you become the X division champion?

02:22.13
Aaron
i don't think so. I feel like it's a new thing here.

02:23.22
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

02:25.33
Aaron
Actually, let me, let let me, let me look it up and see what, what they called this.

02:25.34
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

02:29.36
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it was a cool match. I've never been to a TNA pay-per-view live before, but it's kind of like going to an indie match with like full-on high-level production because you have you know the Jumbotron and the lights. not No pyro, but but you have a lot of sort of have that indie excitement. you know It's a little bit less Disney-fied, I guess, than WWE.

02:49.72
Aaron
Yeah.

02:49.81
Bradley Palermo
Mm-hmm.

02:50.44
Aaron
I mean, know it it it did feel like ah ah like an independent show, but it did also feel like it wasn't, you know, the bottom tier, right? They have production value. They have stories that they're telling.

03:01.69
Aaron
And so it was an ultimate X match. That's what they called it.

03:04.69
Bradley Palermo
Ultimate Oh, cool.

03:06.10
Aaron
And it was... called it and it was Wow, how many people? Moose, Casey Navarro, Leon Slater, Matt Cardona, El Hijo del Viquingo, and Sidney Akeem.

03:18.34
Aaron
That was the first match to start off the pay-per-view, and it was really fun. Lots of high spots. I'm sure you were having a great time in the audience for that one. Seemed like the crowd was really excited for it.

03:29.52
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I think it was the Kingo that hopped off. Was it off the very, very top of that thing, right? Or was that somebody else?

03:35.92
Aaron
That was Leon Slater who did...

03:37.40
Bradley Palermo
Oh, right.

03:38.04
Aaron
He did like a... What did he do? Like ah like a 450 swanton or maybe it was ah it turned into a slam, but yeah, that was crazy.

03:46.20
Aaron
He was like...

03:46.24
Bradley Palermo
So he he was on top of, I mean, he had to be 20 feet in the air. Like it kind of harkened back to like some McFoley shit. I mean, I know he landed on, on people that caught him, but it was, i was, I can't believe someone's going off of that thing.

03:56.76
Aaron
They barely caught him, dude.

03:59.64
Bradley Palermo
I was on the other side of the ring, so I didn't see like the actual land, but.

04:00.05
Aaron
Leon Slater... Yeah, yeah. Dude, they did not catch him at all. it was It was pretty wild.

04:05.82
Bradley Palermo
Oh, really?

04:07.75
Aaron
Yeah, they straight up missed him, which was insane.

04:07.47
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

04:10.43
Aaron
And, you know, if you know insider stuff like Brad and I do, you can always see like everyone was like, are you okay? Are you okay? Like, you know, whispering to him like, oh my God, I'm so sorry.

04:19.22
Bradley Palermo
Right.

04:21.58
Aaron
He was fine, which is good. But yeah, yeah, that was ah that was definitely the craziest spot probably of the entire night. I mean, like you said, he was... It's 25 feet in the air for sure.

04:32.13
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

04:32.81
Bradley Palermo
And then he nearly won, but while he's hanging up there, I think Moose speared his ass and kind of cheated or whatever.

04:37.12
Aaron
Yeah. Right. As he was coming down that. So well, yeah, I mean, he kind of landed already is what happened.

04:39.76
Bradley Palermo
Wait, somehow there was a cheat there. you Oh, wait. Yeah, he came down.

04:47.52
Aaron
yeah. So,

04:47.56
Bradley Palermo
And he'd already gotten the belt off out of the sky.

04:50.20
Aaron
yeah so

04:50.51
Bradley Palermo
And Moose sort of grabbed it out of his hand on the ground. Yeah.

04:53.64
Aaron
Kind of, sort of, yeah.

04:53.79
Bradley Palermo
Like it wasn't executed.

04:54.56
Aaron
there were a There were a couple finishes in in the whole entire show that I bet weren't as smooth as the people backstage wanted them to be.

04:56.92
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah.

05:03.54
Aaron
This was one of them. As you mentioned, Leon Slater was... dangling off of these ropes suspended above the ring. He's got the belt.

05:13.13
Aaron
He's about to land. And I think that the finish was supposed to be that Moose speared him in the air before his feet hit the ground because the stipulation was you had to have the belt in your hands, have both feet touch the ring.

05:26.31
Bradley Palermo
Right.

05:26.65
Aaron
so what ended up happening was Leon kind of landed already and then Moose speared him. So it didn't look as smooth as I think they wanted it to be, but the ultimate, you know, end was that Moose retains.

05:35.05
Bradley Palermo
Right.

05:38.49
Aaron
He's still the X division champion.

05:40.75
Bradley Palermo
Yes. And I think, you know, two things about about this whole evening together. Joe Hendry, who was in a triple threat with Frankie Kazarian and and Ethan Page, is, I have never seen a man this over and this charismatic.

05:56.04
Bradley Palermo
You instantly feel like he's your friend when he comes out. He doesn't take himself seriously, but like you take him seriously. There's just something about this guy that's so magnetic and the way the crowd reacts,

06:08.12
Bradley Palermo
I mean, I've been to a lot of wrestling matches from the bottom to the top as far as like draw and venue types go. And there's just something going on with this guy.

06:16.55
Bradley Palermo
It just like blows my mind. And I fall into it too. You're like, does anyone not like Joe Hendry? And the match was fine.

06:23.04
Aaron
Yeah.

06:24.29
Bradley Palermo
But you're just like on his side like 100% 100% with his little smile and whatever that is that unlike like almost undefinable thing that is charisma like he has it so much.

06:26.72
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

06:35.41
Aaron
Yeah.

06:35.88
Bradley Palermo
So it was really cool to see him come out and the crowd go nuts.

06:36.26
Aaron
Yeah.

06:38.69
Aaron
He's he is over. He was over last year and he's over this year.

06:40.48
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

06:42.82
Aaron
And I'm sure this is the beginning of his moment. However long that moment will last. and You know, he deserves it. I think he your he has earned it, I think, is the better way to put it.

06:52.12
Bradley Palermo
Right. and And the other thing last night that was just a riot to me was Masha Slamovich versus tesa Tessa Blanchard, who Tessa obviously has so accusations of being a racist.

07:01.36
Aaron
I knew you were going to do this.

07:05.10
Bradley Palermo
Dude, don't bring your racists to Los Angeles. Like, we're going to fucking bury them. We fucking buried Hulk Hogan. We fucking buried Tessa.

07:12.34
Aaron
Yep.

07:13.80
Bradley Palermo
And yeah, it was like this other town's like, you're a racist and stuff. But then the crowd just starts ignoring her. And they're like, just people are hollering random shit.

07:22.95
Bradley Palermo
L.A. Night. And the crowd's like, yeah. And then they're C.M. Punk. C. And then the whole crowd erupts into, let's go Cena, Cena sucks.

07:32.20
Aaron
I did hear that one.

07:33.11
Bradley Palermo
Completely ignoring the match that was happening and watching these two girls work.

07:35.54
Aaron
The match.

07:38.11
Bradley Palermo
I mean, I feel bad for Masha, but watching these two girls work while the crowd is completely fucking ignoring them was something I've never seen before. Like they were just shutting it fucking out.

07:48.21
Bradley Palermo
And, could tell ah Tessa was pissed, you know, like when she get up and flip them off, it wasn't just like heel heat stuff.

07:48.41
Aaron
Yeah.

07:53.60
Bradley Palermo
Like she was, she was fucking mad. And I think I hope TNA learned something from that, but, uh, yeah,

07:55.80
Aaron
Mm hmm.

08:00.34
Aaron
Yeah, it would be one thing if she had, as far as I know. Tessa Blanchard has never apologized for whatever this incident is. And it would be one thing if she had, right.

08:09.81
Bradley Palermo
Right, she kind of...

08:12.05
Aaron
If she said she was sorry, but, but we've never, I've never seen her apologize.

08:12.33
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

08:17.01
Aaron
And TNA is kind of just acting like it didn't happen. And, you know, Part of the problem for me is she's really good. Like she's the son the daughter of Tully Blanchard. She's going to be good.

08:26.71
Bradley Palermo
Right.

08:28.33
Aaron
But yeah, there's no place for for racism in locker rooms. And I again, this was a good match. and You know, it's a bummer that you crazy sons of bitches hijacked that.

08:38.89
Aaron
But, you know.

08:38.90
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I didn't see it.

08:39.81
Aaron
Yeah.

08:40.46
Bradley Palermo
I mean, I really didn't see it. I was just interacting with the crowd and it was hilarious.

08:43.60
Aaron
Yeah.

08:43.62
Bradley Palermo
And, and it's like, you know, the security guards are getting in on it too. Like, not like chanting, but they were kind of like, what's going on? Oh, oh, ah really? She's a race. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Fuck her.

08:53.37
Bradley Palermo
Like there, it was, it was hilarious, you know?

08:53.78
Aaron
yeah

08:55.84
Aaron
Yeah, that that was a good match.

08:57.60
Aaron
All things considered. The other match that I think I like the most was probably Santana versus Mustafa Ali. That was really good.

09:05.50
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah, that was good. I mean, dude, there was only like one match, like the Eric Young match I didn't really care about, I think. But it was great to see the Hardys and the Nemeth brothers.

09:12.06
Aaron
Mm hmm.

09:13.84
Bradley Palermo
I mean, the Steve Macklin-Eric Young match wasn't bad or anything, but it was like everything else was like packed with people that I was aware of or have seen before or knew or had something on the line.

09:22.67
Aaron
Yeah.

09:24.39
Bradley Palermo
And um yeah, the Mike Sintz

09:25.71
Aaron
You know, how did it, how was the crowd in it? Like, cause the interesting thing for me being a viewer was y'all didn't sound super loud the whole time. Like there were really only like maybe five or six, like the first match y'all were loud as hell.

09:34.16
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

09:39.39
Aaron
the Santana and Mustafa match, you were loud. The Masha match. I heard some of the, you know, chance that had nothing to do with the match, but not much.

09:44.47
Bradley Palermo
Right.

09:47.49
Aaron
And then yes for the Hardys. Yes for Joe. But like, did you feel like you were, you're the crowd was hyped the whole time?

09:50.54
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

09:53.46
Bradley Palermo
I feel like, Those moments were really loud. i feel like there was i feel like it's so it's a weird venue. It depends where you sit. We were we were the um can ah first level, but in the back. So we're pretty much sitting like by the concession stand. like We're almost out of the arena, but we're down low. It's hard to explain.

10:10.19
Bradley Palermo
The sound was not getting to us at all.

10:10.69
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

10:12.71
Bradley Palermo
So...

10:13.32
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

10:13.80
Bradley Palermo
when like the busted open guys were on the stage talking in the pre-show, like we were in our section just chanting like, we can't hear you, you know? Cause it's like, what the, I mean, it was, it was really weird. But then I, all of sudden i went like, cause it's general admission. I went up upstairs to the top, like, like more level with the ring.

10:30.74
Bradley Palermo
And all of a sudden it was loud over there. So there was some, yeah, it was hard for me to tell. And I depend i think where it depends where you were. It probably depends where the mics were in the room.

10:38.68
Aaron
Yeah.

10:39.21
Bradley Palermo
As I moved around, it felt louder in certain areas. It was mostly that group on the first level and that was getting, you know, that was facing the hard cam that was the loudest. But the people on the ground didn't seem to be too crazy. So it's hard to say.

10:51.42
Aaron
The audio nerd in me is like super fascinated by, you know, recording arenas and stuff.

10:51.23
Bradley Palermo
It's hard say.

10:57.49
Aaron
Like where's the optimal microphone position?

10:57.83
Bradley Palermo
yeah

10:59.53
Aaron
How many do you need? What kinds of things do you have to think about? i don't know. You know, I'm sure nobody gives a shit about that, but.

11:03.97
Bradley Palermo
I couldn't believe that I was shut out of the sound by being in the back row of the first level.

11:09.13
Aaron
That's interesting.

11:09.14
Bradley Palermo
just Just by there being kind of like a lip over me a little bit. um And there was a PA there.

11:14.08
Aaron
Cause then it couldn't come back down.

11:15.54
Bradley Palermo
but the PA was turned off that would face at that last couple rows.

11:18.90
Aaron
oh interesting.

11:19.19
Bradley Palermo
And then when I, but when I went out into the actual bowl, it was like 20 degrees colder and all of a sudden it seemed loud. So I, I was really fascinated by And I was walking back and forth up and down and like reporting back to my section.

11:29.52
Bradley Palermo
Like, like you guys, I think we were the assholes because everyone else could hear them, but we were sitting there shouting it busted open.

11:30.08
Aaron
Yeah.

11:35.47
Bradley Palermo
Like we can't hear you. And I feel like they were looking back at us. Like the fuck are these assholes saying?

11:39.61
Aaron
Why are you guys so mad? Yeah.

11:41.44
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

11:42.88
Aaron
Well, I'm glad you had fun. It looked like fun. I enjoyed watching it. I have TNA plus now, so I'll go back and watch some back catalog and keep, keep watching.

11:52.37
Bradley Palermo
Awesome. And now it's time for the rewind. So we're talking ECW barely legal, April 13th, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ECW's very first pay-per-view event.

12:14.04
Aaron
Yeah, we should explain that to them. because

12:20.92
Bradley Palermo
And Paul, I think it cut some, I don't know the extent of the injuries, but

12:25.25
Aaron
he there So there's a whole Dark Side of the Ring episode about New Jack. To all of our listeners, if you haven't heard of Dark Side of the Ring, it's a fantastic documentary series on Vice about different wrestling moments throughout history, different wrestlers and their careers.

12:42.12
Aaron
And there's an episode about New Jack. This mass transit incident gets discussed in length, in detail.

12:48.67
Bradley Palermo
Mm-hmm.

12:49.39
Aaron
And yeah, so basically New Jack is a professional wrestler. He's known for being very violent. And there were... I think whatever this wrestling show was, somebody was supposed to be there for a tag match, and then they didn't end up showing up.

13:03.71
Aaron
And so this match kind of came together out of nowhere. This guy, Mass Transit, who his name real name was Eric Koulis, they found out that after the fact that he was 17 years old, so he's a minor, wasn't supposed to be working, and he had a match with New Jack, and New Jack had a little bit of an attitude about something that happened, and he cut...

13:16.68
Bradley Palermo
right

13:25.29
Aaron
uh this kid's yeah i think i i think it was on his still on his forehead but he nicked something bad and this kid was in big trouble and they had to take him to the hospital and he survived but it was like a big deal and everybody in the industry heard about it and so yeah like you said when

13:27.07
Bradley Palermo
Arteries, right?

13:31.42
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

13:45.02
Aaron
Paul Heyman was trying to get pay-per-view companies to air barely legal. This was around the same time that this incident had occurred. And I think it was actually Wade Keller who who is still a wrestling journalist to this day. And he was the one that spoke about, he brought up the mass transit incident in some sort of interview or like talking about barely legal. And so then it became very difficult for them to try and get pay-per-view companies to to carry the and ultimately they did, but it was in 1997, not in late 1996. And they were trying to get it up.

14:19.07
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and Paul Heyman had to convince – because it was canceled, and then he he got it back on, but he had to promise – I think it was No Blood, which he kind of waited until the end, but or is that I didn't really follow that one.

14:28.16
Aaron
He did not do.

14:31.95
Bradley Palermo
And then he had to start at 9 instead of 7. So this was kind of like a late-night thing. I tried to put myself in that in that position of like having never seen sort of like hardcore –

14:39.46
Aaron
A

14:44.14
Bradley Palermo
wrestling maybe and you you get the pay-per-view at 9 p.m on a sunday night which is kind of a weird time spot and and and then you yeah you're seeing like this because i've seen a lot of stuff like what we're about to talk about but i think a lot of people who saw this hadn't seen stuff like this before so

14:51.15
Aaron
weird time. Yeah.

15:02.55
Aaron
Yeah, that was what made it so interesting and so you know against the grain at the time. I mean, ah for our listeners who don't know, ECW Extreme Championship Wrestling is the brainchild of who you now know as Paul Heyman, the wise man in WWE. wwe But this was meant to be an alternative to WCW and the WWF, who at the time that ECW started were very cartoony and very much focused on the younger audience.

15:30.13
Aaron
And ECW decided to be extreme, as it says in the name. They had blood, they had vans. other types of violence. They had more sex and nudity and adult themed topics and created a groundswell of fans in Philadelphia who loved this promotion and came to the same arena every week to see them. And so for the the diehard ECW fans, of which I was not one because I was a little kid,

15:54.24
Aaron
this This event was a huge deal. And you know you can tell right as the pay-per-view begins, they get right into it. And the crowd is so excited.

16:04.80
Aaron
Joey Styles, the a commentator for ECW and I guess a partial interviewer and announcer is in the ring. And you know just as he's about to like tell you how how the pay-per-view is going to go, what the matches are,

16:18.87
Aaron
We get right into it and out come the Dudley boys, Bubba Ray and Devon. I thought it was pretty funny in juxtaposition of what we watch in the first three minutes of this paper, review we get a fuck you Devon chant.

16:33.31
Aaron
Not to tell you what kind of crowd you're dealing with.

16:33.44
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, that was the first thing I noticed of the night. Yeah, it was like loud fuck you D-Von chants.

16:39.53
Aaron
You know, what i the first thing I noticed was how every single piece of ECW that is on Peacock has had all of the music replaced.

16:40.16
Bradley Palermo
Oh,

16:50.41
Aaron
And it drives me up a fucking wall.

16:50.67
Bradley Palermo
really?

16:52.89
Aaron
Yeah, and I... and i

16:53.41
Bradley Palermo
I didn't notice that. That's funny.

16:55.41
Aaron
It's so, so if, it's for those who don't know, Paul Heyman, when he was running ECW would use popular music of the time. He certainly didn't have the rights to do so.

17:04.99
Bradley Palermo
Nah.

17:17.12
Aaron
you know, Muzak garbage that like was close to the popular music of the time. So if you pay attention, every single person's entrance sounds really weird because they're like ducking the real music down, ducking the audience down, filtering in this terrible Muzak stuff.

17:36.16
Aaron
And then you hear the commentator over it and you're like, this sounds a lot different than what I was just listening to.

17:40.90
Bradley Palermo
It's like when you used to watch, when like Dawson's Creek went to Netflix, they got rid of the the song and it was just like some woman just kind of like carrying on about like, good times, Sundays, like just random things. like Like somebody's sister was like, I'll i'll sing something on the beginning.

18:01.55
Aaron
Yeah, so like even the ECW, so ECW One Night Stand 2005, this is, you know, almost 10 years after what we' we're watching and discussing.

18:01.29
Bradley Palermo
I haven't really

18:10.14
Aaron
But after ECW been purchased by WWE, wwe they had a standalone pay-per-view to celebrate what ECW was. And in that pay-per-view, I'm pretty sure Vince like to Paul Heyman, don't use any of that music that you used before. And Paul was like, yeah, okay.

18:27.07
Aaron
And then he used all of it anyway. So yeah.

18:28.84
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

18:29.60
Aaron
There, while if you go to Peacock and you watch ECW One Night Stand 2005, you will not hear the original music. That pay-per-view with the original music exists on the internet so you can see it.

18:41.12
Aaron
And in particular, um the Sandman who makes an appearance in this pay-per-view that we're watching always came out to enter Sandman by Metallica. And it's kind of just ruins the Sandman's entrance when you can't hear the Metallica song, including in in this pay-per-view.

18:55.05
Bradley Palermo
Right.

18:56.29
Aaron
So if you ever want to watch ECW One Night Stand 2005, 2005, go Google it. I tried to find this without the music cut out, but I could not find it so

19:04.13
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. So Devon insults the crowd. He calls them some inbreds. They kind of, they you know, it's fitting for this kind of this particular crowd.

19:13.07
Aaron
Yeah, and it's like a real promo.

19:12.89
Bradley Palermo
It's a very... Yeah.

19:14.79
Aaron
like I think what's interesting what's interesting about this is like we're getting promos and like storyline progression throughout this pay-per-view, which didn't really happen in a lot of what we've watched so far.

19:26.26
Bradley Palermo
Right. Yeah. I think it's like that... I think it's like that a lot with indie matches. You have to, because people aren't watching television and feeling, you know, getting the storyline, at least today when I go to like GCW and stuff, they get in the they get in the ring they kind of they kind of explain to you if they're a bad guy or they're a good guy and like what their gripe is.

19:37.38
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

19:45.72
Bradley Palermo
So you have something on the line in the match. and I guess that's what they're doing here, right? Because it wasn't like they had a TV spot.

19:50.92
Aaron
Well, I mean, they were on TV, but they certainly weren't on national TV.

19:53.86
Bradley Palermo
Okay, right.

19:54.20
Aaron
That's for sure.

19:54.73
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, yeah.

19:55.17
Aaron
Yeah. but yeah, it was, you know, a fun little heel promo to start us off. And then we get the, the famous ECW intro package where again, you can see that the music has been replaced, but, uh, then we got our first match of the night, which was the Dudleys versus the eliminators and the eliminators being, uh, Perry, Saturn and Cronus.

20:16.21
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, there's some big athletic guys and the Dudley boys just big old farm boy looking guys.

20:21.70
Aaron
Yeah, it was actually an amazing opening match, in my opinion. i mean, i I've never seen this pay-per-view. I've seen ECW, so I knew what to expect. But they just came out so hot, and like everything was so exciting. The crowd was so hot.

20:38.36
Aaron
The Dudleys, as the heels, took control a little bit. Then it just became, you know, the eliminators show, like all these crazy high spots.

20:46.54
Aaron
What I really loved was the crowd was like clapping so much. They're like so appreciative and polite.

20:50.62
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

20:52.77
Aaron
But then two minutes later, I'll be like, fuck you, you know, or whatever.

20:56.10
Bradley Palermo
Right, yeah.

20:57.08
Aaron
Great crowds. So different in style from the tag matches that we've seen before. There were literally no tags in this tag match. All four guys just chilling in the ring the whole time.

21:07.42
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, there's no rules, I don't think, in ECW, right?

21:10.40
Aaron
Yeah, none.

21:10.21
Bradley Palermo
It's just, it's it's not like everything's a no DQ match. um It's kind of interesting. I mean, that's... It's interesting all the things that Paul Heyman, I guess, invented i that I learned as we go through all these these things and learn more about Paul Heyman, but um or at least was part of popularizing, right?

21:27.64
Aaron
Yeah, yeah, because to me, like, there were a lot of moves in this match that we see today very often. And I think when you watch something like this, and everything that's in it has become so commonplace, it's very easy to think like, oh, that's not that exciting. That's nothing, no big deal. But But you have to remember, like these things weren't happening as often back then. You know, you can you can very much see the lasting impression that ECW has left on the on the wrestling business.

21:57.86
Aaron
And this pay-per-view shows it so many times.

22:00.55
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and I didn't realize that the triple threat match, the it was a Paul Heyman concept. I mean, we'll get into that later, but i guess he popularized that as well.

22:10.97
Aaron
Oh, wow. I didn't know that.

22:20.73
Bradley Palermo
be ECW in so many ways. It looks a lot like it. I mean, the vibe of this, like, as far as like watching it on um television, it's, you know, it's a shitty audio mix.

22:31.20
Bradley Palermo
Like the video looks like, you know, they got the lady who, you know, videotaped her kids' school play or whatever to videotape it. It's like the lights are just hot and on. Like, I mean, there's energy and people are stoked, but it's like raw.

22:43.31
Aaron
you you look at it and you feel like it you look at it and you're like it's it looks like it smells in there yeah

22:49.21
Bradley Palermo
You can smell it. Yeah. And you can tell it's probably pretty warm in there too. Yeah.

22:54.33
Aaron
ah ah yeah it's definitely a vibe as ah ah as we say nowadays wait no they didn't I thought the eliminators won

22:55.04
Bradley Palermo
and

22:58.62
Bradley Palermo
So the Dudley boys won, by the way, before we move on from that one. Wait, no, they didn't. No, the double roundhouse sandwich move. Oh, wait, that was... Sorry. So the Eliminators won, by the way, before we move on from that one, with their double roundhouse sandwich move.

23:13.09
Bradley Palermo
They were new champions.

23:13.57
Aaron
New champs.

23:15.24
Bradley Palermo
Did the announcer mess up the call on the finish?

23:18.07
Aaron
Maybe, i don't know. no you know what it was? So Joel Gertner is like the, you know, like a like a stooge of the Dudleys, I guess.

23:27.39
Aaron
And he was the one that came up after the Eliminators won and he grabbed the mic and he was like, oh the Dudleys are still the champions and the crowds the crowd was like fuck him up and I wrote down Joel Kertner is gonna get kicked in the face and I was right good lord he he got smacked in the face so yeah that was the end of that first match is like the we got new champs but the heels were like no you know you didn't win we're still the champs and then kicked in the face

23:27.62
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

23:36.40
Bradley Palermo
Oh, okay.

23:44.28
Bradley Palermo
He did.

23:55.98
Bradley Palermo
And then we get a Chris Candido promo in the ring, right? His match versus Lance Storm was canceled due to an injury. i i don't know. I'm having a hard time hearing everything. It so he sounds like he's he's rambling about WrestleMania for some reason.

24:08.52
Aaron
Yeah, Candido, he was talking about, I think he was must have been in the ww WWF for some short period of time and then came back because that's that's what it sounded like to me.

24:08.50
Bradley Palermo
I'm not really sure.

24:13.75
Bradley Palermo
Okay.

24:18.07
Aaron
And yeah, he had torn his bicep.

24:18.30
Bradley Palermo
Right. Right.

24:19.55
Aaron
He really wanted to be a part of this, but he couldn't be. So then we got Lance Storm versus rvd

24:25.03
Bradley Palermo
which is kind of cool to see um RVD.

24:26.87
Aaron
Cool to see Lance Storm, dude. i haven't seen Lance Storm in a while. was no backstory to this match that I was aware of. Certainly none explained in the pay-per-view. But the first thing I noticed, and I probably should have, I think I noticed this in the first match too, but dude, the ring, whenever somebody takes a back bump, like lands on their back, sounds like a gunshot.

24:41.13
Bradley Palermo
So loud.

24:45.77
Aaron
It was insane.

24:46.00
Bradley Palermo
i Yeah, it's like bombs going off. I think ring like rings are loud, right, in indie matches and stuff. And in WWE and probably some other organizations I've heard, they do something to like mitigate what how much of that sound booms through.

24:59.11
Aaron
Soften the the sound.

25:01.75
Bradley Palermo
And I've heard on Jim Cornette's podcast, he would always complain.

25:02.57
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

25:05.87
Bradley Palermo
He's like, you want that sound. like Why are you... Why do you guys, he would always try to tell them, like, stop doing that. Like, it sounds so much more brutal when they hit. But for some reason on this, it's like, it's worse than I ever heard heard it. And in in a good way, because it sounds brutal when they hit. But you, yeah, it's an it's explosions.

25:21.79
Aaron
Yeah, you just you you heard it a tiny bit too much in this.

25:25.21
Bradley Palermo
Right. Maybe, yeah.

25:26.14
Aaron
Just a tiny bit. and And I think it was because you know something that wrestlers do often is when they do a punch, they'll stomp one of their feet.

25:33.39
Bradley Palermo
Right.

25:33.85
Aaron
And so every anytime anyone did that, it sounded the same as somebody taking a back bump, landing on their back on the mat.

25:39.27
Bradley Palermo
Right.

25:39.65
Aaron
And you know you kind of want a little bit of dynamics, right? You don't want everything to sound crazy, insanely painful, but you do want some of it to.

25:48.59
Bradley Palermo
I remember one time I was this rehearsal space with my band and it was a lot of rooms.

25:51.29
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

25:53.50
Bradley Palermo
and There was like a big room in the back and there were wrestlers back there. And when they came out and I was like out there by the vending machines, I kind of felt the door and it was unlocked.

26:02.52
Bradley Palermo
So I was like, cover me. And I ran in. I just wanted to get into a wrestling ring, you know? So I ran in, like crawled under the ropes and just ran, like just ran the ropes once. But like,

26:11.60
Bradley Palermo
It was so fucking loud that I was like, i i just fucking called myself out that I'm in here.

26:16.85
Aaron
I'm gonna get caught. Yeah.

26:18.11
Bradley Palermo
i mean, no one cared. i just i just left and and no one ever looked back. But I was like, I didn't expect it when I climbed up there.

26:22.49
Aaron
Yeah.

26:24.44
Bradley Palermo
It was like, boom, boom, boom, boom.

26:28.18
Aaron
Yeah.

26:27.93
Bradley Palermo
thats

26:29.23
Aaron
I believe it. I believe it.

26:30.02
Bradley Palermo
And the ropes aren't like slingshots either. Yeah.

26:32.76
Aaron
No. Yeah. They're stiff.

26:33.21
Bradley Palermo
pretty fucking hard when you hit it but yeah anyways they're chanting kill him at somebody kill him kill him

26:34.49
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

26:41.23
Aaron
Probably art RV chanting it at RVD because they were also chanting like sellout or you sold out or something. So maybe I think this might have been at at a point where RVD Rob Van Dam was already on his way to the WWF perhaps.

27:09.20
Aaron
Mm hmm. Oh.

27:11.05
Bradley Palermo
So like they were, they were like in cahoots, like in this episode, they talk a lot of shit on WWF, but like, I think that they were already kind of working with each other.

27:18.26
Aaron
Mm-hmm. Yeah, you know, I i i watched... ah I don't know if you ever watched it. There was an ECW documentary that came out very shortly after it was purchased by the WWF in, like, 01, 02.

27:28.14
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

27:28.85
Aaron
one ah two And it was, like, a three-and-a-half-hour doc. And they talk a lot about how... Vince was helping them early, like for a while, even despite the, you know, the jabs that ECW would send towards the WWF and to WCW.

27:35.28
Bradley Palermo
yeah

27:45.27
Aaron
Vince, I think, realized the value of having an alternative like that. And then obviously stole from it for years and years and years until he bought it.

27:53.89
Bradley Palermo
And you can use it as a farm league and then, yeah, then you, like you said, eventually you own it.

27:58.04
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

27:58.53
Bradley Palermo
Lance's buzz cut slash rat tail was probably my haircut of the night.

28:01.18
Aaron
Unbelievable. Yeah, mine too.

28:03.16
Bradley Palermo
I have to say.

28:03.66
Aaron
That rat tail was absurd.

28:06.06
Bradley Palermo
Yes.

28:06.93
Aaron
But what a great match. I mean, RVD, Rob Van Dam is known for a lot high-flying moves. He's very... high risk. remember he did a, uh, like a somersault plancha, over the top rope to the floor outside to the ring, you know, the, the little alleyway where the ring is. And man, it is not wide.

28:26.24
Aaron
Like when you look at, at, you know, the amount of space that he had to do that move, there was so little space, number one.

28:28.05
Bradley Palermo
Oh yeah.

28:32.70
Aaron
And number two, there's no mats on the floor.

28:36.54
Bradley Palermo
Right.

28:37.48
Aaron
Outside the ring. So anything that they do outside the ring, they're just landing on concrete, which is.

28:42.16
Bradley Palermo
No pretty, no pretty but blue little mats like over there in Disneyland.

28:45.05
Aaron
Yeah.

28:46.59
Bradley Palermo
I believe the commentator said, yeah.

28:47.09
Aaron
Yeah. That is exactly what he said.

28:48.98
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

28:51.53
Bradley Palermo
Did you notice that the the the guy in the front row, we're looking at his back the entire time. He's wearing like a red shirt with white lettering that just says, who gives a fuck?

29:00.58
Aaron
I did not notice that.

29:01.06
Bradley Palermo
And he's got a he's got like a crew cut, like a cop's haircut, like a blonde. He looks like this blonde cop in the front from the back. Just who gives a fuck on the back of his shirt? I was like, that's so trashy. I love it.

29:13.72
Aaron
Yeah, very, very particular type of crowd at ECW shows.

29:13.75
Bradley Palermo
oh

29:17.61
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

29:18.92
Aaron
To anyone who watches, you'll see 98% white guys. But there were a couple of women. I saw them in the crowd like towards the end of the show.

29:26.91
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I was thinking like if I had to, if if you didn't tell me what ECW meant, if I had to just guess and I didn't know, i was going to excited Caucasian wieners.

29:37.88
Bradley Palermo
That was going to be my guess. That's just what came to my mind. But...

29:42.70
Bradley Palermo
But let's see. What was I going to say?

29:44.55
Aaron
Let's get back to the match. Yeah. So.

29:45.84
Bradley Palermo
RVD dominates. He wins big with the aerial offense. And then we go to a match that I didn't really care personally for. Six man tag. Mika no shoe pro wrestling.

29:56.82
Bradley Palermo
I don't know. Like, I don't know what's going on. There's

29:59.36
Aaron
It was the the great Sasuke Gran Hamada and Masato Yakoshiji against Takama Chinoku, Terry Boy, and Dick Togo. This is a 17 minute six man tag match.

30:11.40
Bradley Palermo
It was dry, drug on. it was athletic.

30:14.23
Aaron
Yeah, it was a little long. i mean, it was you it was not as violent as what we had seen so far, but it was equally crazy because of how much athleticism was on display.

30:15.81
Bradley Palermo
They were slippery.

30:25.80
Aaron
You know, like, I understand maybe didn't grab me in the same way as the other ones did, the other matches did, because the only person I recognized in this match was Takamichi Noku.

30:36.68
Aaron
But still, like, there was a...

30:37.99
Bradley Palermo
Well, we saw him fight the other get dude from the other side once, right? The great Asuke or whatever.

30:41.29
Aaron
Yeah, in i think it was i think it was yeah I think it was him against the great Sasuke in WWF.

30:46.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Which was a cool match, but i don't...

30:47.84
Aaron
It was the Canadian Stampede, I think, the first thing we watched.

30:51.31
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, but this one, i mean, was like, oh, I recognize those two guys, but with the six men and they were trying to, they said they were doing like a luchador meets Japanese style thing.

31:02.49
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

31:02.81
Bradley Palermo
I don't know. I don't know if it was really really well placed in here, especially not for a half hour or whatever it was.

31:07.91
Aaron
You know, the thing that I really didn't like was the next match.

31:11.86
Bradley Palermo
We can just go right to that because I don't.

31:12.44
Aaron
So, yeah, we could skip over the six-man. I mean, i will say there was a moonsault over the barricade that was pretty crazy in that match.

31:21.32
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

31:21.61
Aaron
That was the one thing that I wrote down. But, yeah, the next match, Pitbull number two versus Shane Douglas for the TV title. I didn't like this one very much at all. Started off with Shane Douglas cutting a promo.

31:33.94
Aaron
He's back. I assume he was in WCW or WWF. I guess the story was that he broke a pit bull. Number two is part of a tag team with pit bull. Number one. And I guess Shane Douglas broke pit bull. Number one's neck.

31:46.32
Aaron
and yeah, so this was, sort of a grudge match. It was for the ECW television title.

31:52.74
Aaron
Crowd seemed kind of dead. They were really, really quiet for the majority of this match.

31:54.50
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

31:57.13
Aaron
Also, it was the longest match on the card. It was 20 minutes. minutes. um

32:01.24
Bradley Palermo
They were shouting, Shane's got herpes.

32:01.67
Aaron
There were...

32:04.00
Bradley Palermo
This is like a pretty toxic drought.

32:05.16
Aaron
No, it was... They were chanting, she's got herpes to Francine.

32:07.46
Bradley Palermo
Oh, she's got herpes.

32:09.33
Aaron
Yeah, they were chanting that. They were chanting, like, she's a whore. and They were chanting, want blood.

32:13.60
Bradley Palermo
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Francine, she's a, she's like a, at this point, she's like a, I don't i't know who who this was, but she's like a pretty young lady and she's stuck in there with these fucking like super toxic dudes, like screaming like about how she's a whore and she's got herpes and like,

32:28.82
Aaron
This is what the dynamic was in ECW in the 90s.

32:28.98
Bradley Palermo
but

32:32.44
Bradley Palermo
yeah.

32:32.90
Aaron
They played that up. you know They had women who were were heels. They were bad guys. And they wanted the crowd to think that they were sluts and whatever.

32:40.11
Bradley Palermo
Right.

32:42.26
Aaron
That was the way they they marketed them.

32:43.80
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I think it's like, I like this for its a place in wrestling history. And I think there's some interesting stuff there. But like, I'm really glad that wrestling isn't like rape culture anymore.

32:54.05
Bradley Palermo
Because this shit like sucks.

32:54.90
Aaron
Yeah.

32:55.72
Bradley Palermo
like Like, I wouldn't want to actually probably be in there. Especially there. Especially as ah as i wouldn't be able to be a woman working there. You know, like, that shit was like super hostile.

33:02.98
Aaron
Yeah.

33:04.15
Bradley Palermo
But yeah.

33:04.75
Aaron
It'd be rough for sure. I think we can all agree that the women being equal with the men is how it should always be.

33:06.08
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

33:12.86
Bradley Palermo
Right. Like that's one thing it's evolved with GCW and stuff.

33:14.00
Aaron
So.

33:16.12
Bradley Palermo
It's like very like inclusive and LGBTQ and has women matches and women versus men.

33:18.57
Aaron
hmm.

33:22.03
Bradley Palermo
And I mean, you'd get fucking thrown out if you started yelling, she's a whore. I don't care if she's a heel or not, but

33:27.29
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah, it was, you know, it was and it was a different time. It was a long time.

33:31.37
Bradley Palermo
yeah.

33:32.26
Aaron
It was over, well, it was almost 30 years ago.

33:34.88
Bradley Palermo
Right. Right.

33:35.86
Aaron
So, yeah, this match was very long. ah Some of the highlights, things that I laughed about, Joey Styles, the the commentator, was taking pot shots at WCW and Sting. I think he said something about how...

33:50.75
Aaron
He's making fun of the fact that sting was coming down from the rafters on a on the wire whatever.

33:55.65
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

33:56.79
Aaron
um um And then the finish was really weird. It ended with a belly to belly suplex and then a cover like what was that about?

34:01.36
Bradley Palermo
Duplex.

34:03.73
Aaron
i don't know.

34:04.63
Bradley Palermo
I don't know, man.

34:05.61
Aaron
And then it wasn't really over because.

34:07.34
Aaron
Bulldozer Brian Lee came out in a luchador mask and ravishing Rick Rude's robe. I guess there had been some story where he was terrorizing Shane Douglas and and then Shane Douglas attacks who he thinks is ravishing Rick Rude.

34:21.90
Aaron
Turns out it's not. And he's in disguise as a security guard or something. And then they attack him. And that got the biggest reaction of the entire match. Like the match was nothing.

34:32.23
Aaron
And then Rick Rude came out and was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

34:33.63
Bradley Palermo
weird to see Rick Rude wearing clothes. He's wearing a t-shirt.

34:37.07
Aaron
Yeah, it was very weird. He looked.

34:38.04
Bradley Palermo
He's still air humping and stuff, but he's wearing a t-shirt. You know, earlier, there was a, before this match, there were some weird promos too. There was like some dude with hair in his face who they don't even tell you like who's on the promo.

34:49.26
Bradley Palermo
And he's just like mumbling about like what it means to be a man.

34:52.68
Aaron
I think it was Stevie Richards, maybe.

34:52.60
Bradley Palermo
Man, just want to be a man.

34:55.02
Aaron
and round from round yeah

34:54.77
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, i was like, this is fucking weird. And then like, well, then well yeah, then, yes t yeah, and um Blue Meanie, who's like this, like,

34:59.93
Aaron
There was a Raven one too, like that too, with just the hair all over his face, just talking.

35:04.98
Bradley Palermo
dude, yeah, it's, is there some weird shit?

35:06.10
Aaron
It's very grungy.

35:07.11
Bradley Palermo
But they're, yeah, it's like Chris Cornell with muscles.

35:09.72
Aaron
But that's what they were, they were trying to be the, they were trying to be like the Nirvana of professional wrestling, you know?

35:12.76
Bradley Palermo
Right. Yeah. And then, yeah, the Raven promo was was after the Rick Ruth thing, right? And I wrote another hair and face mumbly black and white promo.

35:19.44
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

35:22.34
Bradley Palermo
So... Yeah.

35:23.76
Aaron
but But that was Raven's shtick for sure. Like he but he was always doing the mumbly downtrodden stuff.

35:26.34
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

35:51.60
Aaron
um I believe Taz was undefeated. so yeah, the, the hype was real for this one. Um, I enjoyed this match quite a bit.

36:00.89
Aaron
I I'm a big fan of Taz and Sabu and, uh, man, Bill Alfonso with that whistle drives me up a wall.

36:07.26
Bradley Palermo
yeah it's awful it's yeah like in the if you ever watch early 2000s wcw wcw um they had this woman who would sit on the side of this of the ring it was like the death of wcw like the end like or late 90s early 2000s and she would just squeal at like the top of her lungs constantly just

36:08.45
Aaron
He's every time drives me crazy.

36:31.33
Bradley Palermo
It just reminded me of that. I don't remember who it was that did that. I know she was the same she killed herself on Instagram too recently, but do you know who that was?

36:39.78
Bradley Palermo
Anyways, it reminded me of someone that I... Let me look it up now.

36:43.92
Aaron
Yeah, you look it up. I'll continue talking about Sabu and Taz.

36:46.84
Bradley Palermo
that rest That whistle guy though was so fucking annoying for sure.

36:50.00
Aaron
Yeah, Bill Alfonso. He's not really sure what what what the reason was why we needed a Bill Alfonso back then, but who am I to judge?

36:58.06
Bradley Palermo
I don't feel like he was all there, you know, like, I don't think he was playing with a full deck, you know?

36:58.39
Aaron
So...

37:03.40
Aaron
Full deck of cards. Maybe that was his character. i don't know.

37:06.19
Bradley Palermo
Do you see like when, when he got excited, he just sort of start jerking around like epiletic sort of style on the, on the ropes and don't know, man.

37:14.12
Aaron
Yeah. i he Maybe he was a little touched, as we like to say.

37:17.69
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, but I hadn't seen Taz wrestle a lot.

37:18.41
Aaron
Yeah.

37:20.68
Bradley Palermo
So this was cool for me to see him like like prime Taz.

37:24.85
Aaron
Yeah.

37:24.67
Bradley Palermo
He is like very like very um UFC style. like I think Taz might have brought Tapping out to wrestling, at least popularizing it, right? Yeah.

37:34.55
Aaron
I think so.

37:34.57
Bradley Palermo
you

37:35.31
Aaron
Yeah. He's, he's got that meatball like a frame and he, he was all about the, the Taz mission.

37:35.71
Bradley Palermo
yeah

37:41.67
Aaron
He was just a submission guy, a technician and Sabu was sort of the crazy, let me do really reckless stuff and maybe hurt myself, but also hurt you at the same time.

37:52.51
Aaron
um um And so that's,

37:53.29
Bradley Palermo
Oh, Daphne was the the the lady who screamed all the time. She was very similar to the whistle guy.

37:58.35
Aaron
Daphne.

37:58.46
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, Daphne.

37:58.96
Aaron
Got it.

37:59.91
Bradley Palermo
Anyways, not place.

38:00.20
Aaron
So, so yeah, like I was saying, Sabu really a lot of like high flying, big, crazy moves. Whereas Taz was, you know, very ground and pound, very submission, very MMA, like you were saying. And um Taz starts to focus on the head and neck area of Sabu to set him up for his submission.

38:20.31
Aaron
And um And um yeah, Taz gets him in the Taz mission and Sabu, Taps out, I believe. And And um they had this really nice moment at the end where Taz was showing Sabu respect. They shake hands and out comes RVD to attack Taz.

38:36.90
Aaron
And I guess Sabu was like, yeah, maybe I don't respect Taz because I'm RVD's tag partner. And then then they both start attacking him. and And then Bill Alfonso turns on Taz.

38:47.24
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, Whistleboy turns and he has a a homicidal, genocidal, suicidal t-shirt on so he was planning to the entire time.

38:54.96
Aaron
Yeah, dirt.

38:55.65
Bradley Palermo
Taz was, I mean, Taz was the real star. I was actually surprised sabu kind of looked no less lost than he did like in his last match that I saw last week.

39:07.03
Bradley Palermo
Like kind of crawls around a lot and then, and then takes a huge bump and then crawls around a bit where Taz is doing all the moves and stuff like that.

39:09.83
Aaron
He does. Yeah.

39:14.76
Bradley Palermo
So

39:15.31
Aaron
yeah

39:16.02
Bradley Palermo
Taz was much more, I was kind of expecting a little bit more from Sabu, but Sabu, but um i guess so and maybe he just went all in for his final match because that shit, I mean, he was, he just let them damn near murder him last week. And then 30 years earlier, he was kind of just, I don't know, lot of crawling around.

39:32.50
Aaron
lot of crawling around, a lot of lot of crazy spots.

39:32.26
Bradley Palermo
But...

39:35.13
Bradley Palermo
A lot of crazy spots and crawling around between. and then um And then we got into Tommy Dreamer coming out to to be a guest on the mic or whatever. But this guy is he gives me the creeps, man.

40:02.79
Aaron
Wait, what what did when when did the set what dark side episode is this?

40:06.55
Bradley Palermo
plane ride from hell where he, he basically just went on and and on about how like, Oh, you're so offended.

40:08.32
Aaron
Oh.

40:11.96
Bradley Palermo
Like boys will be boys. He said like all the, the most like terrible, like lamest things. He got fired from TNA basically,

40:19.18
Aaron
Oh, I don't remember. I didn't remember that he was a part of that at all.

40:22.14
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I mean, he he was basically the one that's like, you know, going to be around wrestlers, you're going to get what you get. like And ever ever since like i got ever since I heard him talk like that, like when I hear him on on a radio show, I turn it off. When I hear him when i him on ah on a special, I just fucking...

40:38.24
Bradley Palermo
It bums me out and you know, it sucked that he was there last last night. Like i I think Tommy Dreamer should go away, but he was there and he was being weird and like look he's coming out with some like hot chick, but he's like looking at her up and down.

40:53.90
Aaron
bula his it was his girlfriend. And actually, he's married to her now in real life.

40:58.04
Bradley Palermo
Oh, I see. Yeah. but um But yeah, he's like a boys will be boys.

41:00.15
Aaron
Has has two two girls with him.

41:01.90
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Boys will be boys apologist sort of guy.

41:04.52
Aaron
I see. i didn't I did not remember that.

41:05.85
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

41:06.83
Aaron
That's disappointing.

41:07.98
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. Yeah. But and but but then we get to the main event, which is Sandman versus Terry Funk versus big Stevie Cool and a triple threat. But it's like a different kind of triple threat, right?

41:17.36
Bradley Palermo
Like it's elimination.

41:18.19
Aaron
A three-way dance is what they called it.

41:19.30
Bradley Palermo
Did they, Freeway Dance, they explain how the the rules go in this or...

41:24.26
Aaron
I'm not sure if they did. i don't, the this probably wasn't the first three-way dance that they had ECW. So my guess is that it had happened before and they didn't bother to explain it.

41:36.33
Aaron
But yeah, you're right. This is different than, you know, the triple threat matches that we saw at WrestleMania, for example, in this, it's like an elimination match.

41:43.20
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

41:44.92
Aaron
So it starts with three people and then the first person to get pinned is eliminated and then it becomes a singles match.

41:50.93
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. So I thought the match was over before it was because when the first guy got pinned, I was wondering how they were kind of like willing to do a submission hole with the other guy just looking on.

41:55.40
Aaron
They didn't explain it.

42:01.21
Aaron
That's, dude, yeah.

42:01.03
Bradley Palermo
cause Because I...

42:05.17
Aaron
there was a There were several moments where big Stevie Cool, or I'm just going to call him Stevie Richards. Stevie Richards is pinning Terry Funk, and Sandman is just standing there, like, with this you know, it's just kind of like waiting to see what happens. And I'm thinking, like,

42:20.47
Aaron
the the the the modern day fan in me is like why is he just standing there and then remembering oh right because he doesn't want to the matches it over if this person gets pins he wants them to be pinned

42:29.31
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, I was so confused, but but i get it now. Yeah, the I mean, we should talk about the entrances because at least this the Sandman, he,

42:39.80
Bradley Palermo
he I mean, if you've never seen it, he also has, I think you already said he has a dark side of the ring. oh Well, yeah, he has his own dark side of the ring, right?

42:47.00
Aaron
Yeah.

42:47.84
Bradley Palermo
Episode, but but yeah, dude comes out like big beer belly, wearing a t-shirt, smashing a beer. on his you know on his head he's bleeding before the match even starts he's got a cigarette indoors he's smoking he's got a big old kendo stick to beat people so he's walking out there with his weapon um fucking just i mean i guess we didn't get this enter sandman music like you said but terry funks 53 years old still going hard um uh

43:00.68
Aaron
Yep.

43:07.04
Aaron
Another vibe, dude. We didn't get Enter Sandman. Yeah, but...

43:14.98
Aaron
Stevie, Stevie cool, part of the, uh, the blue world order, the, uh, you know, satirical group making fun of the new world order, the NWO. Yeah.

43:23.38
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, and they're like kind ah kind of like the Dark Order AEW a little bit, right? like Almost like kind of like a carny bunch. like You've got like tall guys and fat guys and short guys and weird this weird masks and drawn-on facial hair and crazy colors.

43:34.03
Aaron
Yeah.

43:39.12
Aaron
all meant to make fun of WCW, right?

43:41.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

43:41.48
Aaron
The guy with the drawn on facial hair is supposed to be macho man and whatever, you know? So yeah, very the it was over with the ECW audience at the time. They just hated everything that was WCW and WWF.

43:54.26
Bradley Palermo
And Joey Styles drops his line there. He's like, you're watching ECW. Everything else is a cheap imitation. Trust me, you'll find out tomorrow night. This, of course, was a Sunday night. So he's talking about, you know, Nitro and Raw.

44:04.39
Aaron
Nitro and Raw.

44:05.91
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. um There's, I don't know, it's just beer, blood, ladders everywhere.

44:10.49
Aaron
Yeah, Terry Funk does the ladder twirling bit that's pretty famous now.

44:11.84
Bradley Palermo
yeah Yeah, just knocks up.

44:14.42
Aaron
you know

44:15.91
Bradley Palermo
All the dudes try to get up and the ladders twirling around and they almost like, it's a what?

44:19.95
Aaron
Hits him hard. It hit him hard. He hit them really hard.

44:22.81
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah. Yeah, and the crowd, I mean, I think there was a pretty big applaud after after all that ladder spot action, the spinning ladder.

44:31.62
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

44:32.24
Bradley Palermo
But yeah, Stevie Cool was eliminated eventually, which gave us Sandman versus Funk. I wish they would do triple threats like this now because... You know, you can have the three, but then you can maybe get the two that you really want to see one-on-one. Because I did want to see, like, Sandman Funk for a while after after there was some three-man action for a while.

44:53.50
Aaron
Yeah.

44:53.74
Bradley Palermo
just sandman's wrapped himself in barbed wire that's got party streamers attached to it and he's jumping off the rope and onto funk in the barbed wire and they're both just cut there is a lot of blood and it doesn't stop they're just going at it with the barbed wire as much they possibly can

45:13.79
Aaron
and And, you know, Stevie, big Stevie cool gets eliminated, but like he just kind of sticks around like he came back into the ring and he super kicked somebody.

45:22.16
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, yeah.

45:22.69
Aaron
It's kind of weird.

45:24.61
Bradley Palermo
I was like, oh, he's back.

45:24.94
Aaron
I was like.

45:25.34
Bradley Palermo
I guess it's no DQ, so if you want to come back, you can.

45:27.06
Aaron
Right, so.

45:27.86
Bradley Palermo
But there...

45:28.74
Aaron
But like he looks so tired, he was just kind of like standing in the corner and he's like, oh, look, so I'm going to go kick somebody now.

45:28.80
Bradley Palermo
know

45:31.79
Bradley Palermo
Right. He was like, I'm stunned. But then, i yeah, then he's back.

45:36.16
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

45:36.49
Bradley Palermo
and And there was, like, trash cans. And, like, the trash can wasn't just a trash can. It was, like, trash can wrapped in steel, you know?

45:44.24
Aaron
Yeah, yeah. it This was a long and slow one.

45:45.02
Bradley Palermo
Fucking...

45:47.30
Aaron
um um Honestly, not my favorite, but I did enjoy certain parts of it. And, you know, by the time it became Sandman and Terry Funk, it just felt like they were all out of gas and they were just struggling and moving slow.

46:02.22
Aaron
But ah but eventually Funk got the win over Sandman.

46:01.95
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

46:05.93
Aaron
So that means that He is about to fight Raven for the ECW championship immediately after this match that we just saw.

46:11.98
Bradley Palermo
i didn't really I didn't realize it was going to be immediate. I thought it was like at some point then he gets a title shot. But... Raven just runs right on out and starts beating the fuck out of Terry Funk and then gets all of his friends to beat up Terry Funk.

46:23.45
Aaron
yeah

46:25.64
Bradley Palermo
And um eventually Tommy has to come in and I don't know, some guy named Big Dick Daryl or something.

46:33.02
Aaron
Big Dick Dudley. He was a Dudley.

46:34.09
Bradley Palermo
make ah ah Big Dick Dudley.

46:48.35
Aaron
They come over, set up three tables on top of each other, say they're going to, you know, choke slam Terry through the tables and Tommy gets up and and fights against Big Dick Dudley and throws him through the tables and the crowd goes nuts.

47:04.32
Bradley Palermo
I mean, you know, i think, again, like, I'm glad we've watched this. And i'm I'm glad I have the reference point. But, you know, things evolve.

47:13.11
Bradley Palermo
And I just feel like even these, like, really rough matches, i feel like they're better now. You know, they've had 30 years to figure it out. But I feel like the the night the evenings move on a little bit.

47:21.52
Aaron
Yeah.

47:25.01
Bradley Palermo
more smoothly and things like matches are timed a little bit better and even the gross shit they can do it like they can do it even grosser and and safer i don't know it's just it just seems like i

47:37.05
Aaron
Yeah.

47:39.21
Aaron
I mean, it was it was very like, uh, Guerrilla style wrestling, you know, just doing things that they wanted to do, whether or not they knew it was going to work and things that probably hadn't been done before or things that had and didn't work and they wanted to try a new spin on it.

47:43.40
Bradley Palermo
yeah i think

47:54.65
Aaron
You know, it was like renegade filmmaking.

47:55.46
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

47:57.17
Aaron
It's like renegade wrestling.

47:57.74
Bradley Palermo
Right. It's like for being this edgy, i was bored a lot, like more than any other thing we've watched so far.

48:02.24
Aaron
Yeah.

48:04.48
Bradley Palermo
And it's like, it just doesn't really have a good pace. It's like a lot of fucking around, but, but, but, um, it was cool to see funk and, you know, in his final image, it's just like bloody broken, holding up the belt, know,

48:09.31
Aaron
Mm hmm.

48:16.94
Aaron
Yeah, we didn't mention that Funk did actually um This was a seven minute, 20 second match. And it was kind of weird. You know, I think that they did some kind of finisher or big move on Raven and he kicked out, but then Funk rolled him up and then that was the three. And I was like, that was kind of weird. Maybe they miscommunicated about it or something.

48:36.22
Aaron
I even think I heard the bell ring.

48:36.32
Bradley Palermo
Oh, wait.

48:37.50
Aaron
Do you remember that?

48:37.55
Bradley Palermo
No, they they did a two count kick out and the ref counted it too.

48:39.73
Aaron
Yeah, they did a two count and then the bell rang.

48:42.78
Bradley Palermo
And they kicked out as opposed to and the bell rang and they kind of scattered and were like, it was almost like they were like, fuck it, just do it now because we rang the bell.

48:45.46
Aaron
Yeah.

48:49.44
Aaron
Just do a roll up. Yeah.

48:50.91
Bradley Palermo
So they rolled them up and hit three. And then then they didn't ring the bell again because it was already rang. It was, I think i think still there was some sort of error there at the end, but...

48:59.89
Aaron
Yeah, a little bit, but you know you know ah Funk took a a chair to the head, and he was bleeding profusely. My God, it was like pouring out of him at the end of this match.

49:13.08
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, an absurd amount of blood for sure.

49:15.13
Aaron
So yeah, definitely went against their promise and for there to be no blood on this pay-per-view. There was quite a bit at the end. like Literally, you could see it just puddling, pooling on the mat.

49:25.18
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, one of the bigger like juice spots I think that I've ever seen.

49:25.66
Aaron
Yeah.

49:29.91
Bradley Palermo
but

49:31.41
Aaron
And then that was it. It was just over. It's like, yay, he won.

49:32.92
Bradley Palermo
oh

49:33.85
Aaron
Okay, bye.

49:35.21
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, it was weird. we I mean, well, now we go to the, what?

49:37.69
Aaron
We done did it. I said, we done did it. We watched it.

49:40.74
Bradley Palermo
We done did it. And now we go to the grapple grade where we give it either a play, fast forward or rewind play, meaning thumbs down.

49:48.97
Bradley Palermo
Fast, what is it? No. Fast forward play or rewind.

49:53.01
Bradley Palermo
No.

49:53.68
Aaron
Yeah.

49:54.98
Aaron
Fast forward is skip it. Play is watch it if you want to watch it.

49:57.41
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

50:00.55
Bradley Palermo
Let's see. What do you give this one?

50:02.00
Bradley Palermo
I'm going to go with it.

50:02.30
Aaron
you want

50:02.72
Bradley Palermo
Okay. Now we go to the grapple. Let's see. Now we go to the grapple grade where we give it either a fast forward play or rewind fast forward being thumbs down play being, yeah, it's good. And rewind meaning watch it and watch it over and over again. Cause it's so fucking awesome.

50:19.74
Bradley Palermo
I think I'm going to have to go ahead give this one um this one the play rating. I think it has a historical significance, but it has some some dull spots.

50:30.03
Bradley Palermo
um um If it was made today, I would say skip it. But because because of where it's at in the timeline, um I'm glad we watched it. and I'd recommend checking it out someone gets a chance. What do you what do you think, Aaron?

50:40.36
Aaron
Yeah, I think we're in agreement. I would give it a play as well. It's... it's In a bottle, it's not the best pay-per-view, but when you think about its place in um how important ECW was, the people that came from it, the style, just so many things that are a part of professional wrestling now because of ECW, I feel like it's worth watching.

51:02.74
Aaron
um um It's not a must-watch, but it is like if you're interested in wrestling and you've never seen it, turn it on. It's on Peacock. It's easy to watch.

51:10.16
Bradley Palermo
Cool. And let's see if we got any emails or voicemails. I have an email right here. Kevin from Richmond writes,

51:21.18
Bradley Palermo
let's see. all Oh, he wants to correct a mistake from our Clash the Champions 9 episode. He said we accidentally suggested that Chad Gable and El on Grande Americano were the same person.

51:33.84
Bradley Palermo
They indeed are not. are not Okay, well, thanks for setting us straight, um um Kevin in Richmond.

51:41.59
Aaron
Kevin, I'll take your word for it, but I have my suspicions.

51:45.20
Bradley Palermo
if If you guys out there want to send us an email, it's grapplecitypod at gmail.com. You can always call and cut a promo on us or leave us a voicemail. We'll play it on the air, 626-657-SLAM.

52:09.65
Aaron
Well, I think that since we are heading into the month of May, um May, um and I'm also realizing how old I am and that 1999 was years ago

52:23.62
Bradley Palermo
uh, well

52:24.00
Aaron
So because of all this, we're going to watch No Mercy, the first WWF No Mercy from 1999. It was in the UK, and at at the time it was only broadcast in the UK. So this will be an interesting one. We've got all the people that you know and love from the Attitude Era. we got Undertaker, Stone Cold, Triple H, Kane, Mankind.

52:44.40
Aaron
It's be fun. I'm excited.

52:45.72
Bradley Palermo
I've not seen that one, so I'm looking forward to it and hope some people watch it before the episode so we can all think about what we just witnessed together. Thanks for listening to this episode of Grapple City Rewind. you can find us You can find us across all but podcast platforms.

53:01.07
Bradley Palermo
And if you're an Amazon Echo device user, you can just say, Alexa, play Grapple City Rewind podcast, don't forget to use the word podcast at the end or she won't know what you're talking about.

53:11.62
Bradley Palermo
um um As always, you can...

53:12.54
Aaron
Why is she so dumb?

53:18.79
Aaron
Sorry.

53:19.58
Bradley Palermo
No, you're fine.

53:20.65
Aaron
Screwed up your flow.

53:24.24
Aaron
Yeah.

53:26.95
Aaron
Peace out.