David Hunter
Welcome to another installment of Hardcore TV as we’re almost halfway through the 1994 calendar!
We open to MIKEY WHIPWRECK winning the TV Title from Pitbull from last week’s episode. Mikey has a perfect loser/guy in way over his head character as Jay Sulli remarks his first opponent is none other than Kevin Sullivan. Poor Mikey.
TV Title: Mikey Whipwreck(C) vs. Kevin Sullivan Taped 5/13 and aired on 5/24 Hardcore TV
Overall Thoughts: A pretty typical Whipwreck match at this point as Sullivan kicks his ass including throwing chairs at his face in the crowd. Mikey takes a sick bump early off a clothesline off the guardrail, landing back first on the concrete floor. In a bit of an odd moment, the referee calls for the bell disqualifying Sullivan for kneeing him in the groin at 3:32. DUD rating but fun seeing Whipwreck ‘defend’ his TV Title especially against a name like Sullivan. It’s easy to see why the fans got behind Whipwreck’s lucky character who’s not ready for any of this and just gets his ass kicked all the time.
8 Man Tag: Shane Douglas & Mr. Hughes & Public Enemy vs. Tommy Dreamer & JT Smith & Bruise Brothers Taped 5/13 and aired on 5/24 Hardcore TV
Overall Thoughts: Public Enemy are the best. At the outset, they steal the wallet of the ring announcer. Gordon ejects Terry Funk from the match. Dreamer’s also wearing pants and suspenders and looking a little better outfit wise here. It’s a total brawl from the start of the match to no real surprise. Dreamer’s in the ring getting beat up including a shot from the ring bell off the top rope by Shane Douglas. We cut to Funk in the back basically shoving JT Smith out to the ring to even the odds, which is hilarious considering Funk beat up Smith a few months ago to start his heel turn but now apparently Funk turned back thanks to the Eaton/Sabu stuff. The referee ignores JT Smith as his knee had given out and calls for the bell after Shane Douglas locks in the Figure 4 Leglock at 5:56. * for a bout that was more story driven than anything especially at the end. After the match, JT Smith is pissed at the finish and DECKS the referee in a crazy moment!
We open the next episode with Sandman caning Tommy Cairo multiple times with the Singapore cane after the Cairo/Rebel match from 5/13. Props to a fan for holding up a ‘Cane Joey Styles’ sign, poor Joey what a heartless fan. I’m just glad Public Enemy aren’t beating him up anymore though. Sandman also put in a cigarette and smoked it as he laid in his last several shots and it’s clear this is where The “Sandman” character really came into his own. Neat seeing the transition and growing confidence too.
One thing ECW really excelled at were their video packages. We get a solid one looking at the ECW Champion, The Franchise Shane Douglas. Even just watching the clips and highlights it’s interesting to see how far ahead Shane was just in aura compared to most of his peers almost to a Bret Hart as WWF Champion way for comparison’s sake. There’s solid characters and talent in the company but Shane just has that IT factor and stands head and shoulders above the rest at this point in time.
Heyman cuts a promo and mentions Sabu has an opponent coming on June 24th… we cut and BANG, BANG IT’S CACTUS JACK HELL YES! Also interesting to note that they haven’t yet started their “Pulp Fiction” style interview montages so it’s very weird seeing everything done backstage or literally outside locales but aired coherently as opposed to the more well known inter cutting and such.
We’re starting to get into an early golden era for ECW as well as TOO COLD SCORPIO is in the back making his debut in the company too on the June 7th edition of Hardcore TV. “Ain’t no fakers, ain’t no shakers,” and he’s immediately calling out Shane Douglas. Crazy to think just four months earlier what the cast looked like and now we have: Pitbull debuting and running roughshod, Sandman coming into his definitive own as a character, the debuts of Cactus Jack and Too Cold Scorpio from WCW, Mikey Whipwreck as the TV Champion, and Public Enemy cementing themselves as one of the most entertaining acts on the roster. Cactus’ debut is so big he immediately makes the intro video.
Taz vs. The Sandman Taped 5/13 and aired on 06/07 Hardcore TV
Overall Thoughts: Taz gets introduced as the Tazmanian Suplex Machine here so he’s already gotten that aspect of his character down. It’d take a while for his “Brooklyn Thug” aspect to come to the fore front though. Fun seeing the height advantage Sandman has over Taz despite Taz’s physicality in the ring. This turns into a classic ECW style brawl as Taz delivers a pretty sick chairshot to Sandman’s head and later delivers a front suplex to Sandman on a table, which doesn’t break of course. Sandman hits a vertical suplex in the ring but Taz kills him with a lariat to the skull. Later in the match, Taz hits a flying clothesline(!) for a 2 count only. Taz catches Sandman on the top rope and hits a second rope Northern Lights release suplex for the win at 7:00. ** for a decent back and forth match. Taz hit some moves he normally doesn’t pull out and the pace picked up a bit about a quarter in. Kind of a template for how ECW would ‘structure’ its matches in terms of incorporating a hardcore element to normal matches. After the match, Pitbull ambushes and beats down Taz before Sandman chokes him with Pitbull’s spiked collar!
CACTUS! ON THE MIC! PROMO TIME! Even here, with the WCW Tag Title on his shoulder I believe, Cactus remarks, “Mrs. Foley’s baby boy is coming home (to Philadelphia)!” He also puts over how he didn’t know ECW existed and then he saw Sabu. A lot of what Foley would bring to Mankind’s character by 1997-1999 he already was incorporating into his Cactus Jack character managing to make it a amalgamation of Mick Foley and Cactus Jack as opposed to being ‘just’ a character/gimmick.
Public Enemy apparently are in Amarillo, Texas having stalked Funk to the set of a movie he’s acting in. It’s a great mix of clips of them wrestling and their antics including trying to adopt faux Texan accents and wearing cowboy hats in hilarious fashion. These guys are fantastic. At one point they lead a llama out of its pen (later driving off in a golf cart with it attached!) in a really random moment and vandalize a wall calling out Terry Funk. Only in ECW would they get away with stealing a llama.
Heyman cuts another of his fantastic promos mentioning how he has Sabu and the other companies don’t. Amazing how Heyman largely constructed ECW on the backbone of guys who would appear on WCW TV literally just 2 years prior. Heyman remarks he’d love to cost Ted Turner money, “I’d love to send Cactus Jack back to Ted Turner with his severed ear as the healthiest part of his entire freakin’ body!” Heyman also puts Cactus over that Sabu can never claim the undisputed title of being suicidal, homicidal, and crazy until he beats Cactus in the ring. Heyman ends it saying Cactus wants Sabu out of the way so Sabu won’t claim his job in WCW and Cactus can go back to Turner knowing he’ll have job security. Great, great stuff. I’d argue as good as Heyman has been with Brock Lesnar in WWE, this is the foundation and he’s merely doing what he was doing 11 years earlier, just on a bigger stage with a bigger audience.
