EVENT REVIEW: ECW When World's Collide 1994

May 14, 1994

ECW Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

ECW When World's Collide was the first of two events to take place under that name in 1994. 

the name referred to a cross-promotion between Paul Heyman's ECW and World Championship Wrestling, with the two companies agreeing to exchange talent. 

Heyman wanted The Hollywood Blondes on his show but had to settle for Bobby Eaton and Arn Anderson, while the likes of Terry Funk and other ECW mainstays would find themselves on WCW programming.

Later, WCW apparently thought that "When World's Collide" was such a good name for a PPV that they used it for their presentation of AAA's first US PPV, a show that still stands up as one of this writer's favorite PPVs of all time. 

Unhappy with that, ECW sued WCW for copyright infringement, leading to an out-of-court settlement in which World Championship Wrestling once again agreed to supply Heyman's company with more talent.

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So, that's the background out of the way, but was the show any good?

Let's head to Philly to find out. 

Rockin’ Rebel (w/ Jason) vs. Tommy Dreamer

After the standard ECW TV intro, we went straight into our first match as Tommy Dreamer made his return from injury after his match with Jimmy Snuka back at The Night The Line Was Crossed.

For the time period, this wasn’t a bad opener.

OK, so it was a little bland, but it was short and inoffensive, ending when Dreamer caught his opponent with a Thesz Press for the three.

Your Winner: Tommy Dreamer

Post match, Rockin’ Rebel got into an argument with his manager, Jason, but the two patched things up and left together.

ECW Television Championship
ECW TV Champion Mikey Whipwreck vs. 911 (w/ Paul Heyman)

The story here was that Mikey Whipwreck was a perennial loser who couldn’t win a match to save his life but had fluked his way to a recent win over then-champion The Pitbull.

Tonight, he would make his first title defence against 911, a man who had regularly pulverised the champion on TV.

The match was hardly a match at all, but it was a cleverly done segment in its own right.

After the match began with Paul Heyman shouting at Whipwreck, the challenger pushed his opponent into the corner then choke slammed him twice.

He was about to do it a third time but instead chose to also grab the referee and chokeslam him too.

Naturally, the battered official called for the bell.

Your Winner via DQ and Still TV Champion: Mikey Whipwreck.

That was smart booking if you ask me. The Whipwreck flukey title reign continued while 911 looked impressive despite his limited in-ring ability.

Afterward, 911 posed with the Tv title before chokeslamming the referee while a distraught Joey Styles yelled “911 does not care about this official’s soul! Who is going to pray for the souls of 911 and Paul Heyman?”

Superfly Jimmy Snuka (w/ Hunter Q. Robins) vs. Kevin Sullivan (w/ Woman)

Kevin Sullivan made this one work and saved it from being a bad match. Instead, he took Snuka on a typical ECW brawl that was good enough to watch without being overly impressive.

Towards the finish, The Sandman came down and convinced Woman to leave with him. Of course, this being early ECW, the cameraman missed the whole thing so it was hard to tell what Sullivan was distracted by.

The distraction allowed Hunter Q. Robbins to trip him up and Snuka to pin him. 

Your Winner: Jimmy Snuka 

Up next, this:

Singapore Caning Match
The Sandman & Woman vs. Tommy Cairo & Peaches

Loser revives six lashes with a Singapore Cane

With the women hanging out on the apron for the majority of the match, The Sandman and Tommy Cairo fumbled their way around the ring in a fairly sloppy and uninspired match.

As they did so, announcer Joey Styles tried to sell us on the extreme and brutal nature of ECW, promising us that this was a company like no other professional wrestling promotion on Earth.

I know Joey was well-respected as an announcer and all that, but he made himself sound kind of stupid here.

How was anybody supposed to take him seriously when he was making ECW sound like the wildest promotion in town while watching Sandman bumble his way into a lacklustre clothesline.

Eventually, Cairo got the better of Sandman but Women dove in to save her man from being pinned and a cat fight with Peaches inevitably ensued.

As Cairo backed Woman into a corner, Peaches pounced on a prone Sandman and won the match.

Your Winners: Tommy Cairo & Peaches

Post match, Peaches exposed her estranged husband’s bare bum and proceeded to whack him with the cane but could only manage three lashes before Woman once again came to the rescue.

A wild brawl broke out until Sandman and Woman got the better of their opponents and absolutely obliterated them with the cane.

Honestly, the post match stuff was a thousand times more entertaining than the actual match.

The Pit Bull (w/ Jason) vs. The Tazmaniac

Prior to the match, 911 came out and chokeslammed the referee again, much to the delight of the ECW faithful.

The match then began with a wild and entertaining brawl around the arena before making it to the ring where The Pitbull began systematically wearing down his opponent.

It made for a decent -though hardly spectacular contest- that came to and when The Tazmaniac made a comeback and busted out a barrage of suplexes.

He even suplexed Jason over the ropes but this distraction allowed The Pit Bulk to take his opponent down and win this good-by-1994-ECW-standards contest.

Your Winner: The Pit Bull

Before the next match, The Franchise Shane Douglas informed us that his rival, Road Warrior Hawk had injured his knee and wouldn’t be getting involved tonight.

The ECW Champion then said something about Ric Flair, but loud music was playing so it was impossible to hear him because early-ECW’s production values were atrocious.

Handicap 4 vs. 3 Elimination Match
ECW World Heavyweight Champion The Franchise Shane Douglas, Mr: Hughes, and The Public Enemy (Flyboy Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) vs. J.T. Smith and The Bruise Brothers (Ron & Don Harris)

With Road Warrior Hawk no longer able to compete in this match, it became a handicap match.

The bout started slow but soon developed into a gripping contest.

The heels spent most of the time kicking J.T. Smith’s leg out of his leg but the valiant babyface refused to quit.

Although this dragged at parts, it was mostly compelling.

The only real complaint was that the camera man once again missed an important moment as Douglas, Mr. Hughes, and The Bruise Brothers all started brawling on the outside.

The first we became aware of it was when the camera cut awkwardly to the four brawling in the stands as the referee counted them all out for a mass elimination.

Back in the ring, The Public Enemy continued their assault on Smith’s dodgy wheel, but the youngster caught each one with a quick roll-up and miraculously emerged as the sole survivor of the match.

Your Winner: J.T. Smith

Honestly, I’m surprised at how good that was, but not as surprised as Public Enemy were about losing.

Naturally, the two attacked Smith after the bell and left him down and out.

Sabu & Beautiful Bobby Eaton (w/ Paul E. Dangerousy and 911) vs. Terry Funk & Arn Anderson

Before the match could commence, Paul E. Dangerously took to the microphone to rile up the crowd and put his men over.

Terry Funk and Arn Anderson then made their way out and engaged in the best match of the night and the most enjoyable ECW match I’ve seen since I first started reviewing the company’s early shows.

In true extreme fashion, this was wild and out of control in the best possible sense.

At one point halfway through the match it was also pretty funny.

Arn Anderson called his former tag team partner Bobby Eaton into the ring to fight him, but Terry Funk ruined his partner’s plans by attacking Eaton on the outside. It was so typically Funk that I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Even funnier was Joey Styles listing Bobby Eaton’s credentials.

“And he was in the Midnight Express with Stan Lane who is now…well I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing, but he shouldn’t be doing it!”

I don’t know why but that was so funny and redeemed Styles from trying to convince us that the piss poor Singapore cane match was extreme wrestling at its finest.

Stan Lane was, of course, commentating for the WWF at the time.

Enough about him though, this was a hugely entertaining brawl which came to an end following an attack on Terry Funk by The Public Enemy.

Anderson saw off Rock and Grunge the way nu-metal would a few years later, only to turn on his partner and attack him with a chair.

Sabu then applied a half crab and this one was done.

Your Winner via submission: Sabu & Arn Anderson

Backstage after the match, Paul E. paid off Public Enemy for their run-in and then cut a brilliant promo questioning why on earth Terry Funk would want to get involved in a match with The Public Enemy.

Though this would have made more sense if we’d actually seen Funk challenging Flyboy and Johnny to a match against he and his brother, Heyman’s promo was absolutely incredible.

Offering a response, Terry Funk ended When Worlds Collide with a single, solemn line:

“Who are we? We’re the Funk Brothers.”

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/——-

Watching the evolution of ECW from their early 1993 shows onwards has been absolutely fascinating.

Those first few shows that I watched sucked, and while this one was hardly perfect, you can see the company get better and better with every show as they continue to morph into the game-changing extreme revolutionaries they would go down in history as.

The main event was awesome and the elimination match was better than anticipated, but there was also some boring stuff here like the Singapore cane match.

ECW still had a long way to go then, but they were clearly getting there.

Still, if you really must watch an event of this name, watch AAA/WCW When World’s Collide because not only was it far superior to this event, it was one of the greatest Pay Per Views of all time.

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Other ECW Reviews:

• ECW Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular
• ECW Ultra Clash 1993
• NWA Blood Fest 1993
• ECW The Night The Line Was Crossed 1994
• ECW November to Remember 1999
• WWE - ECW One Night Stand 2005

Other 1994 pro wrestling reviews:

• WWF Royal Rumble 1994
• ECW The Night The Line Was Crossed
• WWF Wrestlemania 10
• WWF King of the Ring 1994
• WCW Bash at the Beach 1994
• WWF Summerslam 1994
• WWF Survivor Series 1994
• AAA When Worlds Collide 

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter @RetroPWrestling.

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EVENT REVIEW: ECW - The Night The Line Was Crossed 1994

February 5, 1994

ECW Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Night The Line Was Crossed was Eastern Championship Wrestling's first major event of 1994 and a big step for the Philadelphia promotion as they began to firmly cement their legacy for violence, hardcore wrestling, and all things extreme. 

Throughout 1993, events such as the Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular had seen ECW presented as little more than another indie outfit in which both established, past-their-prime performers and up-and-coming superstars plied their trade. 

Tonight, however, the company let it be known that they meant business as they took the first bloody and brutal steps towards establishing themselves as one of The Big Three professional wrestling companies of the 1990s. 

Here's what went down on February 5th, 1994, a night that will forever live in ECW fans minds as the night the line was crossed. 

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The Night The Line Was Crossed

Tonight’s show opened with Todd Gordon sitting in front of a large map of the world and the oldest PC you’ve ever seen in your life.

Gordon informed us that Eastern Championship Wrestling had been accused of being the most violent, gory, extreme, and hardcore federation in America.

He neither confirmed nor denied these allegations, but simply said that what we were about to see was from February 4th, the night the line was well and truly crossed.

There you are then.

Wildman Sal Bellomo vs. The Ruffneck Mr. Hughes (w/ Jason)

I must admit, it was different seeing Mr. Hughes with somebody leading him into battle rather than Hughes being the man standing behind someone else.

The man in his corner had the uninspiring name of ‘Jason’ and wore a tuxedo jacket and bow tie. Combined with his hairdo, you got the feeling this might be what Paul Heyman might look like if he dressed as Brutus Beefcake for Halloween.

Anyway, this match was a big pile of nothing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two men do less in the ring and call it a match.

A few instances of running the ropes, a slow, lumbering punch or two, then interference from Jason to give Hughes the win.

Your Winner: Mr. Hughes.

That was crap.

Double Dog Collar Match
The Sandman & Tommy Cairo vs. The Pitbull & Rockin’ Rebel (w/ Jason)

This was a fun, albeit short match full of wild brawling.

After five or six minutes of a fairly good match, Tommy Cairo dove on The Pitbull with The Sandman assisting by grabbing Pitbull’s legs.

That was enough to get the fall.

It’s a shame this will one didn’t last longer because I was just getting into it.

Your Winners: The Sandman & Tommy Cairo

Post-match, Rockin’ Rebel hung Sandman over the top rope by the chain before he and Pitbull did a number on Tommy Cairo.

No Rules Match
The Public Enemy (Flyboy Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) vs. The Bruise Brothers (Ron & Don Harris)

Coming to us by way of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, The Bruise Brothers entered into a chaotic, arena-wild brawl with The Public Enemy which looked to be even more wild and chaotic than the previous match.

I say ‘looked to be,’ because this was one example of how ECW’s low budget presentation could really hurt them.

The show seemed to be shot from a single camera which meant it was impossible to follow everything. Add some very low lighting, and keeping track of this match was hard going.

From what you could see, however, this looked to be an excellent brawl that finally ended up back in the ring where Johnny Grunge leveled one of their opponents with 2x4.

He and Rocco Rock then piled on for the three count.

Your Winners: The Public Enemy

Up next, this:

Tommy Dreamer vs. “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka (w/ Hunter Q. Robins III)

You know, the idea of a heel Jimmy Snuka appeals to me, but my goodness were his matches terrible.

On all of the Eastern Championship Wrestling shows I’ve reviewed so far, Snuka’s matches were  always one of -if not the- worst things on the show, and this was hardly an exception.

He and Tommy Dreamer spent the first third of the match stalling and playing to the crowd. I suppose that was fun for them but it was boring as heck to watch.

The second third saw Snuka beat down Dreamer in like 30 seconds, only for the plucky rookie to kick out of the Superfly Splash.

Then, in the final third, Snuka hit another splash and pinned him.

The ending was interesting as Joey Styles played up the idea that nobody ever kicked out of Superfly’s finisher, but the match itself was just dull.

Your Winner: Jimmy Snuka

Post match, Snuka beat up the official then attacked Dreamer some more.

Dreamer then sold the beat down like he’d been run over by a train while Sal Bellomo came in to ensure Snuka couldn’t do any more damage.

Kevin Sullivan & The Tazmaniac (w/ Woman) vs. The Original Sheik & Pat Tanaka

The Original Sheik was such a wild and out-of-control force that he tipped the entrance curtain over on his way out and destroyed started throwing things around wildly.

This distracted everyone enough that Pat Tanaka was able to sneak into the ring and attack The Tazmaniac. 

Tanaka was wearing street clothes tonight, probably because he couldn’t be bothered.

What followed from here was really two different matches. Sheik and Kevin Sullivan brawled through the crowd and got into a fight by the barricades while in the ring, Tazmaniac spent the entire match sitting on Tanaka’s back in a half Boston Crab.

To be fair, it wasn’t terrible, but having already seen two wild tag team brawls; this just didn’t add anything new.

At least not until the finish. Sheik broke away from Sullivan to throw a fireball in the ring at Tazmaniac, allowing Tanaka to score the victory.

The whole thing was over in about four minutes.

Your Winners: The Original Sheik & Pat Tanaka. 

Afterwards, Sheik and Sullivan continued to brawl while Woman tended to the scorched and singed Tazmaniac in the ring.

J.T Smith vs. Awesome Mike Awesome

Yes, Mike Awesome was Awesome Mike Awesome here as he made his first appearance at a major ECW event.

Big Mike did look impressive here, getting over with the crowd as he destroyed J.T Smith in what looked to be a short squash match until Smith scored a quick victory with a roll up, his only offensive move of the entire match.

Your Winner: J.T Smith

Post match, Awesome vented his frustrations by taking out the referee with two powerbombs.

He then climbed to the top rope, ready to pounce on the poor, battered official. Instead, the top turnbuckle snapped and Awesome fell flat on his face in an ugly botch.

Ouch.

Three Way Dance for the Eastern Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship
ECW Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk vs. Shane Douglas (w/ Sherri Martel) vs. Sabu (w/ Paul E. Dangerously)

Never in my life did I imagine that I’d willingly watch an hour-long Shane Douglas match, let alone actually enjoy it.

The entertainment started before any of the combatants even locked up as Paul E. Dangerously ran out and clocked Sherri Martel from behind with his ever-present cell phone.

It was such a cowardly-d*ck move and was so unexpected that you couldn’t help but be entertained by it.

From there, this three way dance started with just Douglas and Sabu as Joey Styles explained that in order for either man to win, they would first have to beat the other before dethroning Terry Funk for the title.

This got a little confusing as it was then explained that if neither man scored the victory in the first 15 minutes, Funk would come out anyway to make it a three way. That bit was clear, but it was never fully explained whether elimination rules still applied once the Funker got involved.

As both men duked it out, Styles also gave us the backstory to the match, reminding us that Sabu -in only his second match for the company- had upset Douglas for the title at NWA Bloodfest ‘93 before losing it to Funk.

Predictably, neither man scored the pin in the first 15, leading to the arrival of the ECW champion.

If you were immediately expecting the promised three-way though, you’d be dissapointed.

In the ensuing chaos, Sabu just kind of disappeared, meaning Douglas had essentially swapped opponents.

Later, the Homicidal Maniac returned sporting a bandage on his knee, with Styles telling us that he’d been injured.

The three-way then commenced and led to the most comical spot in the match:

Funk left the ring and worked his way through the crowd to Joey’s announce table.

There, he took to the microphone and practically begged Douglas and Sabu to come out and fight him in the crowd.

His opponents ignored him completely and instead went into a rest hold in the middle of the ring.

The more they ignored him, the more Funk called him out until eventually giving up and rejoining the fight.

I don’t know why, but that was hilarious.

Later, after more action, Bad Breed came out and began attacking Shane, though not without receiving a couple of chair shots courtesy of Sabu.

The match continued all the way up to an hour-long draw, and while it wasn’t the greatest technical spectacle in the world, it sure was a very entertaining hour of wrestling.

Time Limit Draw

Post match, Funk and Sabu had to be helped from the ring while Douglas left on his own power, all while the crowds gave the three men a standing ovation.

The Post-Show Media Conference

The Night The Line Was Crossed ended with Joey Styles pretending to host a media conference even though it was very obvious there was no one else in the room besides himself and ECW’s own camera crew.

First, Styles interviewed a very emotional Terry Funk, who put Douglas and Sabu over but was far less complimentary towards WCW and WWF.

The Funker was ECW all the way and was passionate about delivering hardcore wrestling for the hardcore fans.

Up next, Paul E. Dangerously came out with Sabu being restrained by his handlers.

Dangerously simply put his man over and claimed that he had been robbed of the title before making way for Douglas.

Calm, cool, and collected despite visibility seething underneath, The Franchise insisted that he should be the true ECW champion as he was the only man to leave the ringside area on his own two feet.

This brought Funk back for an intense confrontation which led to a predictable brawl that was broken up by most of the ECW roster.

I won’t lie to you, those post-match interviews were the most compelling thing on the whole show.

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The fact that the “media conference” was the most enjoyable aspect of the event doesn’t mean that the rest of ECW The Night The Line Was Crossed sucked.

It really didn’t.

By now, the company had truly embraced the renegade, hardcore style that would see them establish themselves as one of American pro wrestling’s big three.

And while none of the matches were classics and there was a lot of crap on here too (looking at you, Superfly), that hour-long main event and the utterly captivating post-match interviews made it well worth a watch.

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Other ECW Reviews:

• ECW Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular
• ECW Ultra Clash 1993
• NWA Blood Fest 1993
• ECW November to Remember 1999
• WWE - ECW One Night Stand 2005

Other 1994 pro wrestling reviews:

• WWF Royal Rumble 1994
• WWF Wrestlemania 10
• WWF King of the Ring 1994
• WCW Bash at the Beach 1994
• WWF Summerslam 1994
• WWF Survivor Series 1994
• AAA When Worlds Collide 

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook or Twitter @RetroPWrestling.

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EVENT REVIEW: ECW - NWA Bloodfest '93

October 1 and October 2, 1993

ECW Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

NWA Bloodfest ‘93 was a two-night event promoted by Eastern Championship wrestling a short while after their last event Ultraclash '93.

Unlike other ECW events from around this time, Bloodfest isn’t featured on the WWE Network, though I did manage to find a one-hour version on YouTube which features most -but not all- of the matches from night 2 of the event.

If I ever come across Night 1 of the event (or if any of you can tell me where to check it out), then I will of course, review that too.

For now though, let’s dive in and check this one out.

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Welcome to Bloodfest

We opened tonight’s event with a short introductory video featuring highlights of tonight’s stars before heading right down to ringside for our opening contest.

Eastern Championship Wrestling Tag Team Championship
ECW Tag Team Champions Johnny Hotbody and Tony Stetson (w/ Hunter Q. Robbins III) vs. The Sandman & J.T Smith (w/ Terry Funk)

Something tells me this show might be a chore to watch if this match is anything to go by.

It really wasn’t much of anything.

After a few minutes of decent but uninspiring action, Terry Funk got involved, leading to a disqualification in about 5 minutes.

Your Winners via Disqualification and still ECW Tag Team Champions: Johnny Hotbody & Tony Stetson

Moving on..

The Tazzmaniac & Tommy Dreamer

Here we had the ECW debut of Tommy Dreamer as he took on The Tazzmaniac (Tazz), a man who himself had only debuted the previous evening against fellow newcomer Sabu.

Dreamer’s debut is well known as an early example of Paul Heyman’s booking prowess, having the future hardcore legend lose the match but gain the fan’s respect after putting on a solid show against Tazzmaniac.

That certainly happened, but it wasn’t as though Tommy completely got his ass whooped here. He held his own against a man who still had long hair, worn a loin cloth and pretended like he was an actual savage from the island of Tasmania.

It was a decent match. Not great by any stretch, but competently performed and reasonably entertaining.

Your Winner: The Tazzmaniac

Post match, the usually belligerent ECW crowd gave Dreamer

Eastern Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship
ECW Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas (w/ Sherri Martel) vs. J.T Smith (w/ Terry Funk)

And so we have our second appearance from J.T Smith. According to Wikipedia, both of his matches happened on night 2.

That seems odd, but there you go.

There wasn’t much to this match. Going into it, the story was that Smith had an injured knee, so Shane Douglas wasted no time going right after it.

Within the space of 4 minutes (at least as it was presented here) Douglas wore down Smith to the point that Terry Funk had to throw in the towel.

Your Winner and Still ECW Champion: Shane Douglas

Post match, Funk turned on Smith, beating him up with his boot then tossing him to the outside and dumping a chair on him.

It was the most entertaining thing that had happened in the first 20 minutes of this show.

Yesterday’s Trash

Prior to the next match, Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge threw some garbage in the trash which allowed them to deliver the very original and very clever line:

“Diamond, Tanaka, we’re going to take you out like yesterday’s trash!”

Right on.

Badd Company (Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka) vs. Public Enemy (Flyboy Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge)

Finally, we got a match this fan could really sink his teeth into.

Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka were excellent and Public Enemy didn’t exactly phone it in either.

Their combined efforts gave us a compelling match which proved to be the best thing on the show up to this point.

After a very strong contest, Badd Company picked up the win following a miscommunication between Rock and Grunge.

Your Winners: Badd Company

And on we go.

Rockin’ Rebel vs. Chris Michaels

We joined this match in progress and it wasn’t really anything.

Rockin’ Rebel beat up on Chris Michaels for a bit, then beat up the referee too and got disqualified.

Your Winner via disqualification: Chris Michaels

Post-match, Rebel went to attack Michaels with a chair, but his arch-rival Big Sal Belomo charged the ring and saw him off.

Bad Breed (Axl & Ian Rotten) vs. Chad Austin & Don E. Allen

This was essentially a squash match, with Axl Rotten & Ian Rotten demolishing their opponents in rapid order.

It wasn’t terrible or anything, but it was very obvious (especially given Joey Styles commentary), that this was intended as nothing more than TV filler to help Bad Breed get over.

Your Winners: Bad Breed

Up next, more Public Enemy.

Don Muraco & Superfly Jimmy Snuka vs. Badd Company (Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka)

Everywhere you look online, this is listed as Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco beating Public Enemy by forefeit, but that’s not actually what happened.

Badd Company came out second, looking like they were gearing to fight Snuka & Muraco, only to be blindsided by Public Enemy. As Rock & Grunge attacked, Joey Styles yelled:

“We haven’t seen Public Enemy since they lost to Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka!”

So like, ten minutes ago then Joey?

Anyway, Bad Breed then came out and attacked Public Enemy and the announcer declared the match a forefeit.

Your Winners via forefeit: Don Muraco & Jimmy Snuka.

What a waste of time that was. It was good news for Snuka & Muraco though, and probably the easiest pay check they ever made.

Afterwards, Styles confirmed that Badd Company really were supposed to be the intended opponents.

Eastern Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship
ECW Heavyweight champion Shane Douglas (w/ Sherri Martel) vs. Sabu (w/ Paul E. Dangerously)

This was supposed to be Douglas vs. Sandman but the latter had been incapacitated backstage, so Sabu was wheeled out chained to what looked like a sack truck.

Wikipedia says this match lasted nigh on 13 minutes so this version must have been severely edited because it was over in less than 3.

Sabu got attacked by Douglas but then slammed him and landed a moonsault to capture the title.

Your Winner and New ECW Heavyweight Champion: Sabu

Post-match, the new champion was dragged, thrashing and lashing away, to the back.

Superfly Jimmy Snuka vs. Chad Austin

Snuka destroyed Austin in no time at all then hit him with a slingshot suplex and pinned him with an arrogant ‘one foot over the chest’ cover.

The sling shot suplex looked good. The rest of this match did not.

Your Winner: Jimmy Snuka

And finally...

Steel Cage Match
Badd Company (Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka) vs. The Public Enemy (Flyboy Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge)

This match went from the entrances straight to Bad Breed running in and a whole bunch of chairs being swung about.

It looked like a good brawl, but by this point I have to admit, I’d completely switched off.

Public Enemy won by escaping the cage.

Your Winners: Public Enemy

Thank goodness that’s over

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If anyone out there has a copy of night one of this event that they’d like to send me, I’d be glad to review for the sake of completion, but if it’s anything like Night 2, I dare say I won’t enjoy it much.

By the time this hour-long presentation was half way through, it had become very apparent that what NWA Bloodfest really was, was a two-night TV taping with matches shot in no particular order to be played on ECW TV.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, the fact that we only saw abridged versions of mediocre matches did not make for an entertaining hour of pro wrestling viewing.

The first Badd Company/Public Enemy match was enjoyable, but nothing else here was up to much.

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Other ECW Reviews:

• ECW Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular
• ECW Ultra Clash 1993
• ECW November to Remember 1999
• WWE - ECW One Night Stand 2005

Other 1993 Event Reviews:

• WWF Royal Rumble 1993 
• WWF Wrestlemania 9
• SMW Bluegrass Brawl 1993 
• WWF Wrestlemania - The Album Review
• WWF King of the Ring 1993 - Preshow report
• WWF King of the Ring 1993
• ECW Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular 
• WWF Summerslam 1993 
• SMW Fire on the Mountain 1993
• ECW Ultra Clash 1993
• WWF Survivor Series 1993
• SMW - Thanksgiving Thunder 

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook or Twitter @RetroPWrestling.

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EVENT REVIEW: ECW Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular 1993

June 19, 1993

ECW Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

ECW Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular was the first major event promoted by ECW and was a long, long way from the kind of PPV events the company would be putting out just five-six years later.

Back in 1993, there was no way of telling that this little-promotion-that-could would eventually establish itself as one of the "Big Three," offering a viable option for those who preferred a more extreme alternative to WCW and the WWF.

OK, so may be some people - like Paul Heyman, for example - wanted it to happen, but to watch Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular you'd be forgiven for dismissing ECW as nothing more than another low-rent indie promotion with nothing much going on.

Still, that's not what we're going to today. Rather than dismiss ECW, we're going to head down to Philadelphia and see what went down at the company's first big super show.

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Welcome to the Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular 

We began tonight’s show outside the ECW arena where Todd Gordon and Jay Sulli stood around hyping up a small group of middle-aged men who were apparently die-hard ECW fans.

Gordon hyped one of tonight’s big matches before calling the ECW Super Summer Sizzler 93 ‘the hottest show in independent history.’

With that, we got our opening video package, a typically early ‘90s amateur-hour affair featuring early ECW stars like Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco as well as people this writer had no idea had ever appeared for the company like British Bulldog and Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart.

We then went straight to the action with Sulli being joined on commentary by the one and only Paul E. Dangerously.

Eastern Championship Wrestling Television Championship
ECW Television Champion ‘Superfly’ Jimmy Snuka vs. J.T Smith

Superfly was a heel here and aligned with Paul E.

Apparently, his gimmick was that he didn’t give a sh*t. Either that or he just didn’t actually care and was only there to pick up a paycheque.

The match wasn’t awful or anything but you really just got the impression that Snuka was simply going through the motions until he could hit the Superfly Splash and get out of there.

That happened in about six minutes, ending a pretty ‘blah’ match.

Your Winner and Still TV Champion: Jimmy Snuka.

Moving quickly on...

First Blood Rules
Larry Winters vs. Tony “Hitman” Stetson

Things got a little better with this next match. Not great, but better.

The action wasn’t particularly special, but both Larry Winters and Tony Stetson concentrated on attacking each other’s foreheads and actually trying to make their opponent bleed right from the word go. Honestly, that’s a far better approach than many first blood matches where the two wrestlers compete in a relatively normal match and drawing blood seems like a an afterthought.

With that working in its favor then, it’s disappointing that the finish to this match was kind of dumb.

Rockin’ Rebel got involved, distracting the referee so that Stetson could pull a chain out of his pants and blast his rival with it to win the match.

Sure, that would have been a standard finish in a regular match, but it had already been announced that there were no rules besides making your opponent bleed, so why bother with the distraction?

Your Winner: Tony Stetson

Post match, Stetson and Rebel beat up on poor old Larry Winters until Winters battled back and sent them packing.

Cat Fight Humiliation Match
Miss Peaches vs. Terrible Tigra

‘Cat fight humiliation match’ - well, at least ECW were honest and didn’t try to pass this off as any kind of genuine athletic competition because it certainly wasn’t.

Miss Peaches was Sandman’s wife and Terrible Tigra had been getting involved in Sandman’s matches which was a good enough reason for the two to roll around on the mat tugging at each other’s clothes in a bout that had no clearly defined way to win.

The way to win wasn’t by removing an item of your opponents' clothes because Tigra did that to Peaches in about sixty seconds and the match continued.

It could have been by regular pinfall or submission but since neither lady even attempted a cover, that’s probably not it either.

After another minute or so of nondescript rolling around, Tigra tried to leave only to be blocked at the isle by the debuting Angel, who was being presented here as a mystery woman.

Angel ordered Tigra back to the ring to roll around again for another minute before simply letting her leave. At that point, the referee called for the bell and awarded the match to Peaches.

Your Winner Via Goodness Knows What: Miss Peaches

Post-match, Peaches went to cut a promo but Rockin’ Rebel and Tony Stetson chased her off then ganged up on Angel and ripped her top off, exposing her boobage to the audience. Seriously, can you imagine any show today where two men could overpower a woman and rip her clothes off and it being allowed to air?

I’m sure there are people for whom this kind of stuff constitutes entertainment, but this fan is certainly not one of them.

Anyway, Larry Winters eventually came to the rescue and Angel’s dignity was preserved with a beach towel.

Eastern Championship Wrestling TV Championship
WCW TV Champion Superfly Jimmy Snuka (w/ Paul E. Dangerously) vs. Iron Man Tommy Cairo

With Paul E. now accompanying his man to ringside, Terry Funk joined Sulli on commentary.

This was the better of Jimmy Snuka’s two title defences on the show, but only because challenger Tommy Cairo turned up ready to go and worked his butt off.

Snuka still seemed like he didn’t want to do much of anything, so his opponent bounced around for a while before losing in the most feeble way possible.

Paul E. tripped up Cairo and Snuka pinned him with one foot barely grazing the middle rope.

Apparently, Cairo was so weak that he couldn’t kick out and the match was over.

Your Winner and Still ECW TV Champion: Jimmy Snuka

After the bell, Cairo hi-fived the fans while Terry Funk put over his main event match with ‘Hot Stuff’ Eddie Gilbert and the ring announcer put over the ECW Hotline.

Remember that?

Philly Street Fight
The Sandman vs. Rockin’ Rebel

After his awful double-murder suicide killing his wife and then himself in 2018, Rockin’ Rebel now recives the Krispin Wah treatment on WWE Network which captions this match only as ‘Sandman Competes in a Philly Street Fight.

Much as I do with Benoit matches on this blog, the best way I can think to approach this is to focus purely on the quality of the match out of respect for their opponent and leave my own personal feelings about the crimes committed out of the equation.

The match was easily the most entertaining thing on the show so far but to be honest, given the lacklustre quality of this event that’s not the huge compliment it might first seem.

The Sandman wasn’t yet fully ‘The Sandman’ as fans would later get to know him as. Instead, he was somewhere between the beer-swilling hardcore icon and the surfer dude he had started his career as.

Whatever his gimmick was, Sandman wasn’t a great wrestler here but could swing a chair around with the best of them and did so with gusto until another mystery woman (Tammy Sytch) entered the ring and sprayed him in the eyes with something.

That allowed Rebel to get the win via roll-up.

Your Winner: Rockin’ Rebel

Afterwards, Tony Stetson (who had put in a cameo in the match) helped Tammy to the back but thankfully saw no reason to rip her clothes off.

Dark Patriot II (w/ Paul E. Dangerously) vs. Dick Murdoch

Prior to the bell, Paul E. announced that the original Dark Patriot was in Japan and thus he had recruited the originally named Dark Patriot II to take his place.

Dick Murdoch didn’t care. He was here to make his ECW debut and was only interested in kicking some butt.

He did that pretty effectively in an inoffensive but largely bland match that was typical of your average low-rung indie show.

Like I say, it wasn’t awful or anything, just not that entertaining.

Murdoch won with a roll-up.

Your Winner: Dick Murdoch

Ready for some more?

Six-Man Tag Challenge
Wildman Sal Bellomo, Super Destroyer #1, and Stevie Wonderful vs. Hunter Q Robins III & ECW Tag Team Champions The Suicide Blondes (Sir Jonathan Hotbody & Sir Richard Michaels)

Joey Styles made his ECW debut here, joining Sulli on commentary and playing a heel which was interesting and fun.

Speaking of fun, that’s exactly what this match was, at least compared to the bland bag of meh that the rest of this show had been.

Played partly for laughs and partly as a straight match, this still came across as the kind of thing you’d only find on an indie show, but since that’s exactly what this was, I can hardly complain.

After some decent action, Wildman Sal Bellomo splashed the crap out of Richard Michaels to earn the win.

Your Winners: Sal Bellomo, Super Destroyer, and Stevie Wonderful.

Finally, with just shy of 25 minutes left on the clock, it was time for our main event.

Joey Styles left the announce booth to be replaced by Todd Gordon, delighting nobody but Gordon himself.

King of Philadelphia Texas Chain Match Massacre
Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert vs. Terry Funk

This was your standard ‘touch four corners’ strap match using a chain instead of a strap with the winner claiming the title of ‘King of Philadelphia.’

Though it certainly wasn’t a technical classic, it was a compelling and bloody brawl that captured the attention and held it from start to finish.

Both men busted each other open as they brawled in the ring, around the ring, and later up in the crowd.

At one point, referee John Finnegan got squashed in the corner and was replaced by Kevin Christian.

At first, this seemed like a random and pointless move but later it proved to be important to the finish.

Terry Funk touched all four corners only to discover that Christian had been distracted by Paul E. and didn’t see it.

As Funk argued with the official, Gilbert waffled him with a chair, hit him with a piledriver and then touched all four corners to win the match, and the crown.

Your Winner and King of Philadelphia: Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert

Afterwards, Paul E. Dangerously revealed that he and Kevin Christian had been in cahoots the whole time. He also cut an excitable promo but the quality of this video is so poor that it’s impossible to make out what he said.

Finally, things ended with Todd Gordon firing Christian, who pushed the boss man down and wandered off arm in arm with Dangerously while Gilbert got sent packing by Funk.

The Funkster then placed the King of Philadelphia crown atop Gordon’s head as the ECW Super Summer Sizzler 1993 event came to a close.

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If all you had to go off was this one event, you’d never in a million years be able to guess that ECW would become one of the hottest wrestling promotions in the world.

The Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular came off as a low-rent indie show filled with mediocre performances, a gang rape spot and only the occasional flash of genuine entertainment.

Things would get better -much better- over the course of ECW’s existence, but their first major event wasn’t much to get excited about.

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Other ECW Reviews:

• ECW November to Remember 1999
• WWE - ECW One Night Stand 2005

Other 1993 Event Reviews:

• WWF Royal Rumble 1993 
• WWF Wrestlemania 9
• SMW Bluegrass Brawl 1993 
• WWF Wrestlemania - The Album Review
• WWF King of the Ring 1993 - Preshow report
• WWF King of the Ring 1993
• WWF Summerslam 1993 
• SMW Fire on the Mountain 1993
• WWF Survivor Series 1993
• SMW - Thanksgiving Thunder 

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook or Twitter @RetroPWrestling.

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GAME REVIEW: Legends of Wrestling - PlayStation 2 (2001)

Confession time: I've been meaning to write this review of Legends of Wrestling for at least three years, if not more. 

I picked up a second-hand copy of the game back in 2016, sold on the excitement of being able to play a game featuring a huge collection of wrestling heroes from multiple decades and promotions. I mean seriously, how cool is that, right?

It turns out, not very.

After spending a good, solid weekend playing characters such as Hulk Hogan, Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, Terry Funk and Ricky Steamboat I came away feeling so disappointed that I couldn't face playing it again -let alone writing about it- for years afterwards.

That's a shame too, because this really could have been one of the greatest games of all time.

Released in the wake of World Championship Wrestling's demise and featuring a roster of stars who weren't signed to the WWE at the time (Jerry Lawler gave his likeness to the game during his time away from the company in mid-2001), the game's premise is flawless:

Harkening back to the territory days, you go around the various pro wrestling hotbeds competing as -and against- some of the most recognizable names from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 00s. All this is presented in a unique visual style that really does look like the game is going to be a whole lot of fun.

Then you press the start button and...well...see for yourself.

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First Impressions 

Turn on Legends of Wrestling and you'll see why I originally thought this was going to be one of the best wrestling games ever.

A music-hall version of Rookie by BoySetsFire kicks crackles over an old radio as polaroids of wrestling greats float onto a table where a championship title glistens. It's all sepia tones and nostalgic vibes until...Until the batteries on the radio die and the real Rookie kicks in, a raucous post-hardcore track that slams every bit as hard as the moves you see the game's stars performing in all their full-color, high-octane glory.

From there, you're taken to rich, colorful menus which, though basic, do continue to tease you that you're in for a good time.

Roster 

Again, it's the cast of characters that really makes Legends of Wrestling so appealing. Not only is there a lot of them, but there's also a wrestler (or wrestlers) to suit the tastes of just about every wrestling fan.

Prefer the larger-than-life superstars of the 80s and 90s? Then along with Hogan and Hart, you've got The Road Warriors, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, and Superstar Billy Graham. 

Prefer classic technical wrestlers and high-flyers? Do as I did and spend most of your time playing as Brian Pillman, Dynamite Kid, or Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat.

Want to go back to the territory days? You've got the entire Von Erich family to play with, Terry and Dory Funk Jr, The Rock 'n' Roll Express and yes, the King of Memphis himself, Jerry Lawler.

Prefer the modern superstars (or at least modern as it was in 2001?) Rob Van Damn and Sabu are there for you.

Elsewhere, there's a veritable who's who of recognizable names from wrestling's past, with everyone from Iron Sheik and Ivan Koloff to Ted Dibiase, Tito Santana, and Rick Martel. 

All in all, there's a roster of 40 playable characters (including managers like Captain Lou Albano and Jimmy Hart), though some you have to unlock by playing tournaments and 'career' mode, more of which later.

Legends of Wrestling Create-a-Wrestler Mode 

Since the late 1990s, Create-a-Wrestler has become commonplace in pro wrestling games. Unfortunately, this is where this particular game starts to slowly fall apart.

Though it's not necessarily bad, it's certainly far from good. 

On the positive side, there are are plenty of attire options and recorded wrestler nicknames (announced during the ring introductions) that will help you create genuine wrestlers missing from the game like Ric Flair and Rowdy Roddy Piper. 

On the downside, however, there isn't an awful lot of flexibility in terms of what you can actually

customize, and even if you spend hours on this, your created wrestler is still going to look pretty crappy compared to the ones officially in the game.

Case in point, here's my created character, a pink-haired, green-bearded, zebra-print wearing, flamboyant pimp-like character that I called Voodoo Cowboy simply because the game gives "Cowboy" as one of the recorded entrance names you can use.

Again, it's OK, but plenty of other games do this kind of thing far, far better.

Match Types 

Back in the day, there was a rumour floating around that Legends of Wrestling was going to feature barbed wire and scaffold matches.

Sadly, neither of those materialized, and what we're left with is a pretty limited match selection. 

As well as the obligatory singles and tag team options, you're can also choose either a three-way or four-way dance.

That's it. 

No special gimmick matches, no novelties, just standard one-fall-to-a-finish bouts with your choice of two to four competitors.

Arena Choices 

To make up for the lack of match options, the game does at least offer multiple arena choices. 

In career and tournament modes, these are selected at random, but for exhibition matches you can pick your own.

Most of these arenas are styled to represent different territories (Mid-West, South-East etc), though at least one (FABER Gymnasium) has a decidely ECW feel to it -at least in terms of the logo- while the Iguana Hotel & Casino brings back haunting nightmares of the Heroes of Wrestling PPV.

It's a nice touch, admitteldy, but it doesn't exactly make or break your gaming experience.

Game Play

And right about here is where Legends of Wrestling completely falls apart. 

Make no mistake about it, this is just not a fun game to play. 

Sure, there's an impressive selection of moves and, when you pull them off, the animation makes them look just as impressive, but actually pulling them off is a frustrating experience.

Sometimes, you'll press a button and nothing happens, or it happens after a pause. Add up enough pauses and this becomes a slow, cumbersome game to play. Sometimes you'll hit a strike and your opponent doesn't even finch. Othertimes your opponent will throw an uppercut that goes nowhere near you and yet you fall down anyway.

Sometimes going to the top rope works and sometimes it doesn't. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this. You can put your wrestler in one position and press the right controls and he goes up and hits a move. Other times, you can put him in exactly the same position and hit exactly the same moves and he just stands there like a goof.

With so much going for it otherwise, this frankly piss-poor gameplay really lets the whole thing down in dramatic fashion.

Career Mode and Tournaments 

If you get bored of playing in exhibition mode (and you will, pretty quickly), you can always try your luck at the career mode.

This sees you going from territory to territory competing in matches until you reach maximum popularity in that area. In between each match, your manager will give you some advice, and then it's on to another match. Once maximum popularity is hit, you simply go on to another territory and repeat the whole process.

If the game play was decent, this might be a decent way to get a lot of life out of a fun game, but since it's such a chore to play, career mode gets very tiresome very quickly. 

If you want to unlock all of the hidden characters then this is the only way to do it but, honestly, I really don't think it's worth it.

Elsewhere, there's a tournament mode, but again, this is just another way to give you something different to look at in between endless, repetitive singles matches.

A big thumbs down on this part.

Graphics and Appearance 

On this plus side, this is a cool looking game in its own way. Eschewing the realism of the WWF-branded games that were out around this time, Legends of Wrestling takes a cartoony approach with wrestlers looking more like over-the-top comic book characters than real human beings.

A lot of people said that the wrestlers look a lot like action figures and the more I look at it, the more I have to agree. In particular, they look a lot like those old rubber WCW figures you used to get back in the day.

While this does produce some funny results (King Kong Bundy, for example, looks how you'd imagine Bundy would look if he ate Yokozuna) it creates a fun aesthetic which, as I said at the beginning, lures you into the false sense of security that you're actually going to have a good time playing this game.

Sound and Commentary 

Unlike most wrestling games, this one has no commentary track even though I'm sure Akklaim could have roped in one or two notable names to yell out various soundbites.

Meanwhile, most of the music is Generic Stock Rock Music Track #1 - #150. Honestly, it's not very interesting and I only mention it here to follow the same formula as the rest of our Retro Pro Wrestling video game reviews.

Final Impressions 

If you've read this far, then you no doubt know my take on this game:

It isn't very good. 

However, the worst part about it isn't that it isn't good, it's that it had so much promise and yet failed to deliver on such a spectacular scale that it's almost heartbreaking.

The nostalgia trip works really well as a game concept. The fun, cartoony, action-figure-style graphics work really well too, but the lousy, frustrating gameplay, repetitiveness, and overall half-assed approach make Legends of Wrestling a total letdown.

Amazingly, two more games in this series were produced, Legends of Wrestling II and Showdown: Legends of Wrestling. 

After this experience, I'm vary wary to give even one a go.

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Thanks for reading. For more reviews of retro pro wrestling games, shows, and more, follow RPW on Twitter or like the Facebook page here.

More WWE Wrestling games from Retro Pro Wrestling. 

• WWF Smackdown! Just Bring It 
• WWF Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth
• WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain
• WCW Mayhem
• WCW Backstage Assault 

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