ECW Hardcore TV begins its’ first few episodes in the spring of 1993 with an intro including shots of Jimmy Snuka, British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, Nikolai Volkoff, Ivan Koloff, Don Muraco, and of course The Sandman. By summertime, the intro includes Terry Funk, Jimmy Snuka, Road Warrior Hawk, a girl getting her shirt ripped off, a guy falling off a balcony, a guy getting choked with a chain, a guy with a garbage can on top of his head, a fireball, and of course The Sandman.
The WWE Network recently filled in a few patches in its’ 1993 ECW Hardcore TV section, and now has every episode up. It seems pretty in tact, outside of the expected music edits and the wear and tear that comes with old tape. Some episodes are marked: “Presented in the most complete form possible, due to original production technical difficulties.”
Early ECW is weird as hell. It was still Eastern Championship Wrestling until the summer of 1994, but you see a lot of the early appearances of the guys who took it to the next level. You’re also seeing remnants of a late-80s and early-90s Northeast indy promotion – Eastern Championship Wrestling was born out of co-owner Tod Gordon buying shares from his partner, Joel Goodhart, of the TWA (Tri-State Wrestling Alliance). It was at TWA where some of the early “hardcore wrestling” match types took place. But here it’s a lot of their guys in straight matches, and this can all be very hit-or-miss. A lot just feels like it didn’t need to be on TV – there are soooo many Super Destroyers and Sal Bellomo matches, man. Hardcore TV #4 has what might be the finest example of this, with the Super Destroyers vs. Tony “The Hitman” Stetson and Larry Winters. Wrestling doesn’t have to be perfectly polished, but my word.
A lot of this stuff is interesting but not very good, though without it we wouldn’t have stuff like Don Muraco vs. The Sandman for the ECW Heavyweight Title and that would be a shame. ECW in 1993 is ECW in its’ awkward teenage years. There is certainly a lot of good stuff – Terry Funk, Paul E. Dangerously, Sabu, and campy stuff like Jason the Sexiest Man on Earth and a Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco stable – but there’s a lot of ugliness to sift through to get to it. It’s kind of a blast going through though, as it’s incredible how quickly ECW got its shit together. As seen below, this is how presentation started and ended:
1993 is all about the changing of the guard in Eastern Championship Wrestling, with the first half of the year focused mostly on Tod Gordon as the authority figure along with lead heel (and booker) “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert, Terry Funk, and a cast of characters from the TWA that didn’t go very far in Paul Heyman’s ECW (Super Destroyers, Stetson, Winters, Johnny Hotbody), along with a lot of appearances by guys who had made their name at an earlier time (Snuka, Muraco, Neidhart, Koloff). By the fall, Gilbert had left the company and Heyman had secured power as booker, and he immediately begins pushing homegrown stars (Sabu, Dreamer, Public Enemy), and though he retains some of those stars from an earlier time, he puts the focus on his new guys and by 1994 also starts to bring in guys with buzz that hadn’t made their name in the WWF or WCW – Cactus, Malenko, Benoit, Scorpio, and eventually the whole gang of premium wrestling fellas. Heyman, as Paul E. Dangerously, is also hyping the absolute fuck out of everything with promo after promo and video package after video package, and it looks different and feels important. If I was an impressionable young fella into Pearl Jam or the Big Bossman I would have probably said that this thing seems to be for me.
Hardcore TV #1 begins with a crappy Super Destroyers squash, just classic low rent wrestling stuff. A guy named Cosmic Commander shows up during the episode to really put over the low-rent feel. There’s a REALLY LONG Sandman video package of him posing and doing basic wrestling moves. Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka picks up “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert as a manager and kind of turns heel which is great fun, with Snuka relying on interference from Gilbert so he can beat Larry freaking Winters.
Until the summer, “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert vs. Terry Funk and eventually Gilbert’s Hot Stuff International stable with Paul E. Dangerously, Jimmy Snuka, Don Muraco and The Dark Patriot vs. Tod Gordon and the ECW is the focus. Gilbert is fine as a low rent Memphis heel, though I don’t think ECW was his finest work. Gilbert and Funk have some nice dueling promos that are mic’d very poorly on some of the early episodes, and there’s a sweet angle on Hardcore TV #3 where Eddie attacks Funk (who’s on commentary) from behind, then takes over on commentary and mocks Funk the whole show. Funk returns later in the show, attacks Eddie, and cuts an awesome promo on him.
Eddie still has his moments – he just seems kind of out of place with what ECW eventually became. During the summer he proclaims himself as The King of Philadelphia and films segments on the streets of Philly with Heyman where fans are only vaguely aware of who he is. He works an angle at a fair ground with former Eagles QB Ron Jaworski, which is a unique addition to the WWE Network. Loved him fucking with commentator/host Jay Sulli (more on him later) in the Control Room. He has a great line at one point calling the GWF the Gilbert Wrestling Federation and ECW Eddie Championship Wrestling. It would have been interesting to see how he worked in what ECW became, but it was not to be. As much as I dug the shtick, psychotic Sabu and Terry Funk and even Tazmaniac and Kevin Sullivan were far more compelling as main acts.
The best part of all of this is Terry Funk. Witness this legend do all he can to build up this nothing company. He’s on commentary on some of the earlier episodes, putting all the mediocre action over like it’s the Super J Cup. There’s a dirt awful tag match with Tony Stetson & Larry Winters squashing The Samoan Warrior & Chris Michaels that he makes sound like you’re watching Flair/Steamboat. He also interviews a lot of the wrestlers post-match, including a classic moment where he tries to reference The Jefferson’s and doesn’t know the song, at one point uttering, “Steppin from the East Side, you’re moving up?” He also calls The Sandman one of the premiere athletes in the world today, and subtly buries a Sandman title challenger (Kodiak Bear)’s strategy by explaining, “Maybe this guy’s got a strategy more than anyone I’ve ever known before.” The feud with Gilbert is some intense stuff, culminating with a Texas Chain Match that is only shown in clips on TV. He eventually transitions from friendly commentator guy to the psychotic grizzled bastard we know and love. He does some classic promos on Gilbert from his ranch where he attacks a dummy and runs over it with his tractor (Hardcore TV #6). He feuds with Hot Stuff International, and eventually JT Smith and Sabu. Whether he is cutting a crazy ass promo, brawling with Snuka and Sabu, throwing a dummy around, staring at a horse’s ass, or calmly describing match stipulations… it is all great, and it is the #1 reason to watch this run.
Paul E. Dangerously’s ECW debut is on Hardcore TV #5 and he cuts a typically great promo on the merger of the Dangerous Alliance and Hot Stuff International. There are a bunch of Paul. E Dangerously promos here that are pretty much all fantastic: crazy-ass Heyman hyping live shows, hyping wrestlers, playing the top heel manager. All good, psychotic stuff. Him talking about taking down ECW on Hardcore TV #6 is tremendous, and his on-screen takeover (as well as clear contempt for this being some seedy indy promotion) is pretty great to watch. “You think its an honor for us to be here? It’s a freaking embarrassment to work for 35 scumbags in a small-time gym in Pennsylvania.” Highlights here are him imitating Road Warrior Hawk on Hardcore TV #29, hyping Funk vs. Sabu on #34, and #35 where he talks about Terry Funk’s Christmas and starts speaking in Latin.
Early episodes of ECW TV are based around a tournament for the ECW TV Title, which was an alright way to give Jimmy Snuka something interesting to do. The matches aren’t great, though they have some fun moments… Eddie Gilbert doing a nice cheapshot out of a backdrop on JT Smith, Tommy Cairo forgetting to sell a piledriver vs. Jimmy Snuka, Johnny Hotbody being unable to take a bump over the top rope, a crap referee bump, a funny Eddie Gilbert bump and unnecessary bladejob vs. Glenn Osbourne, and a Glenn Osbourne/Johnny Hotbody match that is weirdly rock solid.
Jimmy Snuka is around for a lot of this, and he is basically his whacked out self but a lot slower, and mostly just there to hit a Superfly splash. The run isn’t much but it’s still Jimmy fucking Snuka doing weird promos, wrestling in a high school gymnasium, and adding some credibility to the whole thing. In the early half of ’93 especially he’s pushed as a legend with backup hired by Eddie Gilbert and eventually Paul E. Dangerously. Like, Jimmy Snuka had a run where he was a heel with a goon squad in 1993, people. He complains about a hair pull vs. Tommy Cairo. Jimmy Snuka. JIMMY SNUKA!!!
Early Sandman is still rocking the surfer costume but stops being a surfer around August. Then he starts wearing black cause the 90s. He’s basically the ace of ECW in early 1993 and that is strange. Solid promos and brawls, but Sandman was just an angry guy at this point and not an angry drunk guy, so the fun rarely outweighed the crap wrestling. Bad matches with Jim Neidhart, Don Muraco, Ivan Koloff, and a lot of other guys. He and Rockin’ Rebel (who’s also around quite a bit and makes the feud for being such an over-the-top woman-beating prick) have quite the little feud though… the angle on Hardcore TV #3 where Rebel pulls Miss Peaches (Sandman’s wife)’s hair and hits Sandman over the head with a surfboard, leading to a big injury sell is damn good. He starts to feud with Jason and Mr. Hughes later in the year and it’s alright too – feuds and promos were generally OK, but man did the matches suck ass.
Hardcore TV #11 is a pretty good show with some interesting stuff, probably the highlight before Heyman takes over outside of some promos from Heyman himself. It’s got Jimmy Snuka vs. Road Warrior Hawk in a flippin’ gym, along with an awesome corner bump by Hawk and Eddie Gilbert throwing a fireball in his face. Chris Michaels joins the Suicide Blondes (more on them in a bit), there’s a recap of The Sandman/Peaches/Rockin’ Rebel feud which was pretty wild, and a fun angle with Gilbert having a tune-up match for his Texas Chain Match with Terry Funk against perennial jobber Herve Renesto while he has Snuka, Muraco and Dangerously in his corner. There’s a pretty damn fun Funk vs. Dark Patriot match too, which is basically a Funk showcase with some great punches and selling.
It gets a bit odd in the summer where it seems like they missed a TV taping so there’s a lot of time-killing with Gilbert remote segments and Jay Sulli hosting from the ECW Control Center.
Hardcore TV #18 is a nice digest of what was going on leading up to the Heyman Era: the Paul E. Dangerously debut, merger of Hot Stuff International and Dangerous Alliance, TV Title (to Snuka) and World Title (to Muraco) changes, Super Destroyers/Suicide Blondes and Sandman/Rockin’ Rebel feud recaps… lots of notable moments worth checking out. Jay Sulli hosts, but Eddie Gilbert is there most of the time making fun of him and talking shit about Missy Hyatt. Yanno. Cause wrestling.
Hardcore TV #19 is a wild episode – Tito Santana is revealed as Don Muraco’s next challenger for the ECW Heavyweight Title, a Muraco title defense squash against Metal Maniac where Muraco does not seem to give one single fuck, a Headhunters/Koloffs brawl, Gilbert making fun of Jay Sulli, an absolutely insane Abdullah the Butcher highlight package including a vicious studio fork attack, him eating a bug, and a bunch of other weird-ass stuff, ECW Tag Title tournament matches, and Stan Hansen choking out Tod Gordon, cutting a promo on Terry Funk, and battling Jimmy Snuka for the TV Title.
Hardcore TV #22 is like a weird middle ground between Gordon/Gilbert ECW and Gordon/Heyman … a lady gets pushed, a guy gets whipped, random guys from Japan show up, the crowd is a mix of kids and hardcores… and it’s all really crappily produced and has Jay Sulli still hosting.
Beyond this stuff, there’s a whole lot of straight trash. So many crap-ass brawls and matches. Tony Stetson, Larry Winters, Johnny Hotbody, Tommy Cairo, Glenn Osbourne, The Super Destroyers, Rockin’ Rebel… all of these guys do some okay rope-running and to be fair Rebel is a pretty sweet heel (and throws a mean dropkick), but a lot of their stuff feels like you’re watching either a fake bar fight or wrestling trainees running drills. There are some hilariously bad matches here, especially any time the Tag Titles are on the line. Hardcore TV #9 has an impressively shit match between Sal Bellomo and Super Destroyer #1 where nobody leaves their feet, the every strike sucks and everything is just sloppy and ugly as fuck. A lot of this can be fun in a curious wrestling nerd way but there’s not much else to it.
The Super Destroyers are around through the August TV, and are basically a shittier less scary Authors of Pain. They’re heels for a bit then turn face and start talking and its’ real bad. “Listen, you…” and “What do you gotta say for yourself?” are things that are said by a big fella in a black tanktop and mask. The big midcard feud before Heyman says “ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT” is The Super Destroyers and old WWF enhancement guy (and guy who can build boats out of magazine scraps) Salvatore Ballome feuding with early ECW manager Hunter Q. Robbins III and his Suicide Blondes, who all have Sir in front of their name – Christopher Candido, Jonathan Hotbody, and Richard Michaels (who changed his name from Chris Michaels, because of Candido I guess). Oh and Hotbody’s hair is brown but he calls himself a blonde – DON’T YOU GET IT!? Jay Sulli makes sure you do. It’s all fine, goofy independent grappling.
Robbins is a solid annoying heel manager – at one point he knocks a fan’s hat off and gets pushed, which is really all you can ask for from your managers. Hardcore TV #14 has a pretty amazing promo with a couple of kids turning heel on Hunter Q. Robbins III for the Super Destroyers, which is probably the best thing the Destroyers did. The Destroyers break-up on Hardcore TV #21 and #22 and it leads nowhere and Candido leaves for SMW around August/September and they have a Tag Titles Tournament on Hardcore TV #19 through #22 that isn’t much. Sal Bellomo is around a shocking amount. He inexplicably challenges Sylvester Stallone on Hardcore TV #10. His promos are insane, not sure if they’re any good. The matches are garbage. Rockin’ Rebel injures him on Hardcore TV #24 is at least interesting and they sell it HARD, complete with censoring the image of Sal’s face, a phone call to his doctor, and a plea for fans to send Sal Get Well cards.
Not to completely discredit all those fellas either – Larry Winters and Tony Stetson have like the third biggest feud in the company at one point and their match on Hardcore TV #13 actually leads to a wild pull-apart brawl if you’re into a guy in zubaz pants and a tanktop doing that kind of thing. Hotbody has a fine match with Osbourne that is mentioned below. JT Smith and Tommy Cairo vs. The Canadian Wolfman & Max Thrasher from Hardcore TV #8 isn’t much but there’s something to Cairo and Smith throwing big fat Wolfman around. The Sandman & Winters vs. Rebel & Stetson on Hardcore TV #12 is a perfectly fine dirtbag indy match. Cairo and Hotbody go LONG on #23 and it’s every bit of *3/4.
But Larry Winters also takes like 10 tries to go over the top rope in a Battle Royal. Johnny Hotbody at one point drops an elbow from the apron to the floor on Tommy Cairo where Cairo looks legit pissed, and also almost kills Cairo with a superplex on Hardcore TV #5. I think one of the Super Destroyers forgets how to do a neckbreaker too. Some fun to that sure, but there’s a lot of wrestling out there to watch. Let’s just say more stinkers than gems. Average star rating of this run might be *1/2.
Until the summer, ECW relies a lot on Tod Gordon (owner) and Jay Sulli (commentator) to hype up shows and angles, and it makes it a damn miracle when Paul E. takes over the duties as hype man and Joey Styles takes over the duties of commentator. Jay Sulli as commentator, host and hype man is just fascinatingly bad. I hope he was a nice guy, but on-screen he comes off as an 8-year-old in a 30-year-old man’s body trying to host a show, like when Nickelodeon would have kids do bumpers between shows for them back in the day but in no way adorable. When JT Smith and Dark Patriot go off a balcony in a big time moment, Jay Sulli somehow manages to sound like he’s fake marking out. On Hardcore TV #16, there is a Sandman/Hotbody match where Jay Sulli says “incredible, fans” at least four times. When it comes to pitching UltraClash, Jay Sulli gets the dates wrong. When Terry Funk cuts an epic promo, Jay Sulli awkwardly goes “WOWWWW THAT WAS GREAT, TOD GORDON!” then continues, “We’ll be … right back … next week for some more Eastern Championship Wrestling” as Gordon pats him on the back. It’s all so stilted and trash.
Production seems to either find him funny or just not like him at all – he gets a toilet flush soundbite while hyping UltraClash, and for one taping he was “vacationing in the South of France” according to the credits. Dangerously seems to have some contempt at least, at one point flipping out when he calls a belly-to-belly suplex wrong. On Hardcore TV #19 Eddie Gilbert says he can go outside and find a better commentator than Sulli, and he legit just brings in a guy off the street! On Hardcore TV #22 he does the same but with a dog! There’s a video package on Hardcore TV #25 to hype a Mixed Gender Battle Royal with ladies of ECW Woman, Angel and Tigra in bikinis along with Sulli eating french fries and making cat sounds. There are HOURS of Jay Sulli on the Network and like two Gino Hernandez matches. Sulli is fun to watch in retrospect, but sad to imagine when you think of the boys in the back relying on his sales pitch to pop a house. What was the story?? Was he Tod Gordon’s brother-in-law or something? These are the things that keep me up at night.
The show gets SO much better when it’s crazy-ass Paul Heyman and eventually Joey Styles hyping shows and not straight-laced Tod Gordon or straight backwards Jay Sulli.
Should I mention Stevie Wonderful now? OK, I did.
Though Heyman gets a lot of the credit for ECW, Tod Gordon was onto something in the early 90s. He was catering to hardcore fans a lot in the early ECW run before Heyman’s influence really took hold, with Terry Funk, Stan Hansen, and Abdullah the Butcher coming in for spots, references to Dave Meltzer and Wade Keller, as well as appearances from guys from W*ING (Mauro Ranallo Voice: FROM JAPAN). He brought in a lot of acts that I’d assume were draws to an extent, but were more than anything draws for the “hardcore wrestling fan” that gets referenced a lot on these shows. He was playing to a completely different crowd than WWF and WCW and creating buzz for his little promotion in Philadelphia as Vince McMahon had essentially wiped out the territory system.
Once UltraClash happens in mid-September, the Paul Heyman vision has arrived. The “Heyman is a genius” trope gets thrown around so much today that it almost means nothing, but Paul Heyman is genius. He gets that reputation for ECW’s big run from 95-999, but I have never been more impressed with him than I was watching this run of tape from 1993. All the use of Snuka, Funk, Sabu/Sandman/Dreamer/Taz – even if it wasn’t great (and sometimes it was) , it meant something. And it makes a lot of these 1993 episodes of crappy ECW TV actually memorable. There are so many little extra touches that make this stuff compelling, and there was a lot of playing with wrestling TV convention: opening the show with a wild brawl, a 9-1-1 call from the director of the show after a backstage beatdown, references to commercial (like Heyman screaming to cut when his boy Eddie Gilbert missed a move, cliffhangers, police press conferences, censoring the screen when Rebel injures Sal Bellomo, and most importantly hosts talking to the viewer like, “We’re in this together.”
At the end of Hardcore TV #36, there’s an awesome moment after a Mr. Hughes vs. Chad Austin match devolves into a brawl with the whole roster that continues even when the power goes out. As the power returns, two fans are flipping out that the very chair they sat on and had been used to hit someone in the head. It’s a pretty astounding thing to watch and in some weird way encapsulates everything that was awesome about ECW and the growth of hardcore wrestling in the 90s.
They also put over stuff hard – there’s a LOOOOOONG press conference by Tod Gordon for UltraClash that seems oddly important. When JT Smith and The Dark Patriot both dive off a balcony for the first time, you bet your ass they replay that five-hundred times. Big live events are hyped repeatedly and usually have a show of clips dedicated to hyping them up in front of them (i.e. Hardcore TV #31 for November to Remember), then after they happen they show clips or stills from the matches and have a “We can’t believe you missed this!” attitude about it. Malia Hosaka has a promo about being the “first woman wrestler to bleed on U.S. soil” and I just realized that may have been a sly reference to having a period. They were VERY good at hyping up all the shows whether it’s from hard sell promos or having matches and angles that logically lead to something you’re hyped for. The matches. especially the TV matches, can suck – they’re strange and interesting, and sometimes that can be better.
Things seem very different after Bloodfest 93 in October for Hardcore TV #26 #29- Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, The Tazmaniac, The Public Enemy and Jason have debuted and are getting pushes, Shane Douglas has arrived and is headed to the top, the lighting is darker and ring ropes have changed, and ECW is just starting to feel like a bigger deal, whether it’s from their own self-promotion or because things were just getting interesting. Hardcore TV #24 has Joey Styles’ debut, while Hardcore TV #26 has Sabu’s debut (as well as his opponent’s, Taz) and #28 has Dreamer’s – #31 has both, as it’s a clip show to promote November to Remember both guys are already in top matches.
The Sabu debut (on Hardcore #26) and push is my everything. Example A of punk rock professional wrestling mixed with classic beautiful professional wrestling. Sabu debuts by being carried to the ring tied up Hannibal Lecter-style with a stretcher, a straitjacket, and a muzzle. Then he has a match with the Tazmaniac, who is Taz basically doing Bamm-Bamm Rubble cosplay, that makes you go “that was cool” and “what the fuck was that” at the same time. He is unleashed from the straitjacket and takes it right to Taz, eventually doing a bunch of crazy backflips into nothing, and they brawl all around the crowd and it’s fucking wild. And then Sabu isn’t allowed on TV the next week (though they make sure to stress that he WILL be at live events), takes on Paul E. Dangerously as his manager, feuds with Terry Funk, has a bunch of nutty brawls and does backflips into tables, and is eventually projected to the Heavyweight Title picture immediately (he has both the World and TV Title belts by December) and becomes THE compelling reason to check out ECW. A lot has gone on with Sabu, and this early stuff is still some of the most interesting. The two matches with Taz (from Hardcore #26 and Hardcore #34) are SO good and SO wild (and discussed below) – Godzilla vs. Mothra type shit. The match with Funk on Hardcore TV #38 is pretty great as well.
Along with Sabu, the debut of Tommy Dreamer is here. Fuck the whole “I worked hard” shtick this guy does – this piece of shit was pushed from the start. He has a debut promo and the TV main event on Hardcore TV #28, kicks out of the Superfly splash a few months later in 1994 on Hardcore TV #43. Heyman does a lot for him, and it’s interesting to watch in retrospect, as the positioning was beautiful: cookie cutter nice guy in parachute pants and suspenders gives his best in front of a hardcore crowd.
Tazmaniac hangs out a bit and is a part of the Dreamer and Sabu debuts, and tags with Kevin Sullivan later in the year, but he gets more important next year.
There are a bunch of early Public Enemy squashes and promos, and they’re all pretty terrible and annoying, which I guess was the point. Nothing really gets figured out with them until 1994, though they did seem pretty fresh and exciting at the time. Them going to jail and the build to the Body Count match on Hardcore TV #33 – 36 is pretty great. And Rocco Rock moves his lips with the cue cards as Johnny Grunge cuts a promo. That’s all I got.
Shane Douglas is here doing his thing and pushed pretty big, with Sherri as his valet and solid promos and angles with Paul E. He doesn’t really click for me in the ring as a heel … the intentions with the shtick are alright, but the execution seems off. Nothing seems legit and it’s not goofy enough to at least be fun. The angle with him being welcomed into and leaving the New Dangerous Alliance on Hardcore TV #20 is pretty solid. His nickname is “Fabulous” for a bit which goes away fast. He gets announced as ECW Heavyweight Champ on Hardcore TV #23 when Tito disappears, and works Sabu, Sandman, Dreamer… but doesn’t seem to really do anything until 1994 when he starts feuding with Funk.
You’re also got Bad Breed suplexing a bunch of people (and Chad Austin bumping to the floor off an Oklahoma Stampede setup). They have a brief run as Terry Funk’s hired hands before becoming a regular tag team in 1994 and then taping their fists with glass and punching each other a bunch in 1995.
Jason the Sexiest Man on Earth is the weirdest treat of this run. What a perfect little shit of a manager. He’s a guy who always wears a suit jacket (no undershirt) obsessed with two things: looking at the camera, and finding out how you like his suit. The introduction of him is really impressive as they put him over big as not only an annoying but a dangerous manager – check the angle with him, Mr. Hughes, Sandman and Peaches on Hardcore TV #34. He brings in scary monsters (Mr. Hughes, The Pit Bull) and even throws a few decent kicks. And Joey Styles just being DISGUSTED with him is great too.
There’s also fucking Matty in the House. He’s this hopped up hype guy who probably works at both a nightclub and a radio station, who introduces video packages or promotes upcoming matches. In 1993 Philadelphia, maybe he played real good. But watching it now it’s just insane. Only these words can do him justice: I’M SORRY… I’M SORRY… I’M NOT SORRY!!! He’s all over the latter half of the year TV. You can look him up on LinkedIn now and find he’s a fairly successful restaurateur.
I feel like I have to mention JT Smith, the original Tommy Dreamer. He gets beat up a lot – gets pushed off a balcony, has an injured leg for seemingly forever, Terry Funk wants to kick his ass for no apparent reason… and of course he goes on to take a legendary bump against Mike Awesome the next year. None of it’s great but I feel like nobody mentions JT Smith anymore. I mean there’s a show on the WWE Network (Hardcore TV #17) where half of it is recapping a JT Smith feud. The man feuded with Terry Funk in October 1993. Wake up, people! He’s kind of a bad wrestler and has a way about doing moonsaults where his knee lands directly on the guy’s face (Hardcore TV #12), but give it up for this man.
One of the craziest most awesome things on this run and really the WWE Network in general is a confrontation in a hotel lobby between Sherri Martel and Madusa, on Hardcore TV #30. They sit down in a hotel lobby with a pretty bad lighting setup and Madusa tries to have a civil conversation challenging Sherri to a match. When Sherri doesn’t seem open to it, she asks why she hates her since they’re both wrestlers, and not women who “think a backslide is a casting couch position.” Then Sherri gets the mic and talks a bunch of shit, at one point saying that they both fucked Greg Valentine. I swear to god this is on the WWE Network. Sherri storms off and Madusa screams at her in front of a bunch of people, saying she couldn’t make it in Japan, and then everybody starts swearing. Just an awesome, intense segment – the Women’s Revolution was real in a hotel lobby in Philadelphia in November 1993.
How about all the random cameos?
DON MURACO!! is around from April to October and is actually a big focus, holding the ECW Heavyweight Title for the summer. Him mailing it in the ring is a real treat, as is him doing an 80s-style cocaine promo with a bad audio system. Him and Snuka squashing two guys named The Hell Riders as the commentators try to figure out which one is which (Hardcore TV #4) is great fun. Hardcore TV #8 has an EPIC squash of Ernesto Benefico where he doesn’t put any effort in trying to do actual wrestling moves and at one point grabs Heyman’s phone to order Domino’s. Oddly enough he seems fired up to work Tommy Cairo on Hardcore TV #12.
Tito Santana’s around for two shows, and the promo of him being revealed as Muraco’s mystery opponent on Hardcore TV #19 is pretty neat. Their match on Hardcore TV #20 has Muraco working an armbar for like 5 of its’ 8 minutes… total WWF stuff, but a really sad match. Ol’ Tito wins the title, teams with Stan Hansen against Muraco and Shane Douglas on Hardcore TV #21, and has vacated the strap by #23
Eddie Gilbert’s brother Doug, starring as The Dark Patriot! He’s around quite a bit until Eddie leaves. For a guy that wasn’t that great he had a lot of good moments in spite of him… does the big balcony dive on Hardcore TV #12 (though he hesitates and just kind of falls), has a pretty awesome promo on #12 (that Heyman does), a neat match with Terry Funk, and participates in a Tag Title Tournament Match with him and Eddie against Tommy Cairo and JT Smith where Sherri does a run-in and Dangerously interferes that’s overbooked fun. There’s also the Tag Title Tournament Finals on Hardcore TV #22 where The Sandman makes a comeback and Patriot forgets to bump over the top for a clothesline, so he just walks away and gingerly stumbles to the outside.
Guy who broke Bruno’s neck, Japanese wrestling legend, and recent WWE Hall of Famer Stan Hansen shows up for a TV taping (#19, #21, #22) and UltraClash and every bit is pretty awesome. Amazing that he had the Kobashi match in this timeframe too. Awesome promos any time he has a mic, amazing squash of Twisted Steel and Sex Appeal on Hardcore TV #22 where he just destroys them and chokes one with a bullrope. Hansen and Tito vs. Muraco and Douglas is not only a decent microcosm of where ECW was pre-Sabu, but it leads to a ring rope breaking off of Hansen’s hot tag. Imagine being so fired up you break the ring.
Road Warrior Hawk shows up for a TV taping or two too – he takes a fireball from Eddie Gilbert on Hardcore TV #9 and his big return on #16 is awesome. Has a fun Handicap squash on Hardcore TV #10 too. And the promos – always good promos.
Jim Neidhart does the cameo thing too though it’s much less notable. A Sandman/Neidhart match where Neidhart feigns a knee injury sure is something, and that’s about all I can say. Everyone they brought in for a bit worked Sandman except Stan Hansen, which is the match 1993 Sandman needed – what a turd of a wrestler.
WCW’s Russian Bear and former WWWF Champ Ivan Koloff comes in with his “nephew” Vladimir Koloff for a little run, who’s trying to be Nikita and is not good at it. Ivan looks old and skinny but still cuts a great, WTBS 6:05 type promo. Motherfucker whips a chain around and the people chant USA at him – such an old pro. Ivan and Vladimir have basically a WTBS 6:05 squash match in their debut on Hardcore TV #13 where they don’t let a guy tag his partner and work his arm into submission. Ivan and Sandman working the mat on #14 sure is something. He works Sandman in a singles and tag and it’s not very good. Wild brawl with The Headhunters on #19 too.
Guys from Japanese hardcore promotion W*ING show up for a TV taping. That I can write the following sentence is fun: Mr. Danger and Miguel Perez Jr. saved Super Destroyer #2 from a Super Destroyer #1, Headhunters and Freddy Krueger beatdown. Just savor that one for the names alone. The Headhunters have a pretty sweet little run, with a great match with Mr. Danger and Perez and a pretty awesome minute-long brawl with the Koloffs. The crowd goes nuts for both teams just taking it to each other before the bell, and they kind of just choke each other for a couple minutes before a double DQ because Ivan pushes the ref (I dunno). The brawl continues and Ivan and one of the Headhunters choking each other with a chain is a GREAT shot.
Masayoshi Motegi of Super J Cup Round 1 fame is on the god damned WWE Network. Watching JT Smith try to work an early 90s Japanese junior heavyweight match with him in a Pennsylvania high school gymnasium is wild stuff – not good, but wild. You’ve got prehistoric smart marks flipping out for crappy armbars and younger folks chanting USA.
Kevin Sullivan comes around Bloodfeast and though some of the wrestling is pretty rough he has a decent run with Woman his manager. He does an awesome squash of Keith Sheara on Hardcore TV #33… just keeps coming at him with weapons and moves and ends it in 30 seconds, then Woman puts a bandana over his eyes to control him. He also does promos from a beach about shoot fights with Woman in a bikini at his side and it is so pro wrestling.
Sometimes WWF star Mr. Hughes debuts at November to Remember and has an awesome run for the last couple months of the year, laying fools out and cutting awesome promos… the one where he coerces Joey Styles into hyping him up on Hardcore TV #31 is crazy good.
There’s other weird campy shit scattered around like Hunter Q. Robbins III bringing THE LUMBERJACK for like one match and jobbers like The Canadian Wolfman and Stormin’ Mike Norman.
PHILADELPHIA SPORTS REFERENCES!!!
As the year winds down, Holiday Hell happens and the crowd is becoming an unruly bunch of savages… chanting Sandman Sucks as he makes a babyface run-in, We Want Blood during Sabu/Funk. The Sabu/Funk match (discussed below) on Hardcore TV #38, the last of the year, is pretty insane and a nice view into what ECW was about to become.
There are also constant reminders that this was a professional wrestling organization in 1993, not just because they shill tapes and $10 t-shirts but because you have Sulli and Stevie Wonderful making cat sounds at a Tigra and Peaches brawl, Heyman hyping the Tito Santana and Stan Hansen team as a “Texan and a Mexican” and repeating the phrase an uncomfortable amount of times, Heyman straight-up calling Miss Peaches’ a tramp, women just used as props, and The Rockin’ Rebel in general. Now that I think of it wrestling has always been stuck in 1993.
All in all – there is a lot of crap, but also some classic promos, interesting moments that eventually became historical, Terry Funk and Sabu being amazing, a few great matches, and some real campy shit. It’s also a fascinating peak into the early years of this wacky promotion.
Below are some quick reviews of the few actually good matches here. Early ECW TV wasn’t really about good matches though – it’s about things like Terry Funk, “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert on the WWE Network, Paul E. Dangerously promos, the beginning of Sabu/Taz/Sandman/Dreamer, the Madusa/Sherri confrontation, and fucking Matty in the House.
You can find detailed matchlists and recommendations (denoted by #) on the ECW page.
ECW TV Title Tournament – Round 1: Glenn Osbourne vs. Johnny Hotbody (Hardcore TV 4/13/93) – Early 90s independent wrestling!!! Bright pink tights, Warrior facepaint, rope-running, chain wrestling, stalling and a few big moves by Hotbody (German suplex, suplex on the concrete, apron dive to the floor), ref bump. And it’s before ECW Arena happened, so it’s in a high school gymnasium. Weirdly a fun match. Plus Osbourne cuts a great terrible Warrior promo after the match complete with a Howard Dean Scream. A regular ** is an ECW TV ***1/2.
“Jazzy” JT Smith vs. The Dark Patriot w/ “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert (Hardcore TV 6/22/93 and 8/3/93) – This isn’t much of a match but it’s definitely worth checking out, as these two do one of the first ECW balcony dives. The start is ugly, as Smith does a shit headscissors takeover and one of his classic garbage moonsaults where his knees land full force on Patriot. Nice enough viciousness by Patriot, and Paul E.’s promo introducing him on the 6/22/93 version of this adds to the presentation. They brawl in the crowd for a bit, go up to the commentary area/balcony, and Patriot straight throws JT Smith all the way down to the floor. THEN Patriot jumps onto JT from the balcony, though at the last second he seems to regret agreeing to it and he just kind of falls. Jay Sulli is shit at hyping what’s going on, but it’s a pretty wild moment… like the first season of Parks & Rec in an ECW setting, where they know what they want to do but haven’t quite figured out how to do it.
“Mr. Danger” Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Miguel Perez Jr. vs. The Headhunters (8/31/93) – This is basically a W*ING offer match and the crowd flips their shit for fat ass The Headhunters taking superplexes and hitting moonsaults and Miguel Perez flying and bleeding all over the place. Crowd chants “five more minutes” when it’s over. Feels like Paul E. watched this match and went, “Yeah. That’s what we’ll do.”
Sabu vs. The Tazmaniac (Hardcore TV 10/5/93) – This is one of those matches you can show a newbie to show just how weird and awesome wrestling can be. It’s a very ugly masterpiece. Once Sabu gets let loose from the straitjacket he just demolishes Taz and immediately does a backflip to the outside that misses Taz by a mile. Then they go to a commercial and when they come back, Sabu is throwing chairs around while fans run away and rock music plays. I mean the first 5 minutes of this are insane. Most of this is a crowd brawl, but it’s a brawl that feels chaotic and like someone could really be badly hurt at any point. Tables are broken. Taz bites Sabu. Just the best.
Steel Cage Match – ECW TV Title: Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka [c] vs. Terry Funk (Hardcore TV 10/5/93) – This isn’t amazing or anything, but it’s a solid realistic-looking match by two vets. Classic Funk selling in a steel cage with the Superfly. Funk at one point headbutts Snuka like 10 times in a row and it does not end well for him, and him crawling out of the cage is great stuff.
ECW Heavyweight Title: Sabu [c] w/ Paul E. Dangerously and 911 vs. The Tazmaniac w/ Tony Rumble (11/30/93) – Sabu has to be one of the only wrestlers who is truly botch-proof as anytime he flubs it just adds to the chaos. At one point in this match he loses his balance on a springboard and Taz can’t catch him so they both fall and all I could think was, “That was cool as fuck.” This match not only has Sabu’s crazy shit but also Taz’s crazy suplexes and Sabu bumping huge for them, a return from commercial with Sabu doing a somersault plancha onto Taz, Sabu doing a leg lariat into nothing in the corner, a Sabu plancha into nothing, and Taz catching a Stinger splash into a belly-to-belly (and Sabu getting right up from it because fuck you). Chaotic perfection.
No DQ Match – ECW Heavyweight Title: Sabu [c] w/ Paul E. Dangerously vs. Terry Funk w/ Bad Breed (12/28/93) – Totally insane match… clipped a bit on TV but this has got wild dives, a ref table bump, Funk doing his shtick, interference, a power outage. At one point Funk takes a bump into a table draped over the rope so the table BREAKS OVER THE TOP ROPE and Funk goes flying with it.
