Note: This review was requested by Champion level member of Fightful Select, John Baez. See Select tiers for information how you can request reviewed content.
Opening Segment
- Paul Heyman kicks off the show and targets a lot of the WWE tropes, his old TNN TV deal and a lot more. He touts their new TV deal on SciFi.
- He thanks the fans and welcomes them to the rebirth of ECW. It's all so sad in retrospect knowing the optimism I had going in.
Tazz defeated Jerry "The King" Lawler
SQUASH
- In retrospect, it's genius how they extended the life of this squash match. Tazz was in no shape to wrestle, so Lawler slowly walked to the ring and slapped Styles.
- Styles jumps on Lawler's back and Tazz puts him in a Tazzmission and puts him to sleep.
- This would be Tazz's last match ever. He hadn't competed in four years prior.
- The look ins at Joey Styles at the booth were great.
Kurt Angle defeated Randy Orton
5.75/10
- So different to look back and see Randy Orton in the ECW setting.
- Kurt Angle's music had been adjusted to avoid "you suck" chants here, or else the crowd would have hammered that in, too.
- "Pussy" chants at Randy Orton, then "break his anke." There are some aggressive fans in this era. "Fuck you, Randy," "you got bitch slapped." Several minutes in, its just Kurt Angle outwrestling Orton.
- Angle gives Orton his head and just shucks out of it. Angle gets posted and "go fuck Cena" chants are directed at Orton.
- Angle goes through his signature moves, this is a really slow paced match, but it's 2006. Orton hits his backbreaker and has great heat.
- Angle rolls through a body press for 2, then eats a huge clothesline. Angle snags an ankle lock and wins.
- Tazz really pushes Angle as a good fit for ECW.
- This wasn't a great match, but the crowd was white hot for it.
FBI (w/ Big Guido) defeated Yoshihiro Taijri & Super Crazy
6.25/10
- I am a big fan of the Beastie Boys inspired theme for FBI, and them bringing back Big Guido. Huge "welcome back" chants for Super Crazy.
- Guido is a real shooter. Has UWFi experience.
- The short arm scissors slam spot from Super Crazy and his subsequent reaction is one of my favorite spots of this show. He hits a free fall sitout, too.
- As the FBI try to regroup, Crazy hits both with an Asai moonsault outside.
- Big Guido gets involved and takes out the babyfaces.
- Miscommunication from Crazy and Mamaluke, which fortunately doesn't end poorly. Crazy calls a flapjack, Mamaluke tries to take a back body drop.
- They make a reference to Nunzio's penis size and shoe size. He does a second rope dropkick to Crazy while he's in a Camel Clutch.
- Super Crazy applies a Tarantula, then helps take out Big Guido.
- A very cool dropkick flips Crazy out of the ring and into the crowd. FBI hit a double Fisherman's Buster on Tajiri for the win!
- The Big Show comes out to a smattering of a reaction. Did anyone ever get a reaction out of a crowd and change things quicker than this? He beats up everyone and Cobra Clutch murders Mamaluke. This was the perfect way to get him over for this crowd.
JBL
- Bradshaw comes out and gets a huge amount of heat and "you suck dick" chants.
- He calls the crowd fruit booties.
- JBL takes credit for making all of ECW's stars that mean anything, and laughs about Blue Meanie bleeding and cuh-rying.
- He announces he'll be moving to the commentary booth. He'd come back the next year and had about 115 matches left in him, but would wrap things up completely under three years later.
World Heavyweight Championship
Rey Mysterio (c) vs. Sabu - No Contest
6/10
- I was never a big fan of Sabu because he was hit or miss, but after seeing some of his 2005 TNA stuff, I'm excited to re-watch this.
- They have a chair duel, then Sabu hits Poetry in Motion. Sabu gets a little botchy right after.
- This crowd hates the 619, which Mysterio misses. He gets a chair thrown at his head, too.
- When Sabu is really hurt, you can tell, because he favors it at the expense of almost everything else.
- We get the dumbass hold the ropes while a guy does a move spot. I didn't like it then and don't like it now.
- Arabian Facebuster lands, but Rey does a senton plancha THROUGH A TABLE. Very cool spot.
- Sabu flies through the air with a leg lariat, then almost kills Rey with a triple jump moonsault that was more of a kneedrop. Rey is right back up shortly after. Kind of weird.
- Rey misses a chair senton and gets a chair RIGHT IN THE PENIS, then right in the head. The one on his shoulders.
- The match ends in a no contest after a psychotic springboard DDT through the table. To this day, one of the craziest spots I've ever seen.
- "LISTEN! NO THEY CAN'T FIGHT ANYMORE! IT'S OVER"-- Commission guy. Haha. Crowd doesn't like it.
- A lot of stuff that didn't make sense and botches, but a great crowd and cool stuff makes up for it.
Edge, Mick Foley & Lita defeated Beulah, Tommy Dreamer & Terry Funk
6/10
- Shout outs to Firefox for losing my original notes on this match.
- Foley trolls the crowd about selling out MSG and praises Stephanie McMahon's ECW influence.
- Edge comes out and says the fans are gonna beat off to Lita. Lita calls Dreamer the "Innovator of Silence," which is hilarious for all the wrong reasons. Her promo is terrible.
- Beulah is with Dreamer and Funk, calls Lita a slut and wants a six-person match.
- A brawl breaks out that the women aren't involved in.
- Edge gets hiptossed into the ladder, then Funk helicopters it (the ladder), then gets pushed off the ladder with his head slapping the mat.
- This is getting pretty brutal. Edge and Foley suplex a barbed wire board on Funk. Funk turns the tides and makes them eat barbed wire next.
- Foley gets slammed into the board REALLY hard. Gross.
- Socko on Beulah, but Dreamer comes to the aid. I have to say, the Socko Spear from Foley and Edge was a cool finish and it lands on Dreamer.
- Terry Funk re-emerges with a barbed wire 2x4 and cleans house. He sets it on fire and beats Foley with it. Foley goes through the board. Funk is soon to follow.
- Edge is being choked by Dreamer, but Lita saves him and a catfight breaks out. Dreamer does a Dreamer Driver away from the hard cam and poses. He is appropriately attacked by Edge.
- Spear on Beulah as Edge humps her for the win.
- This match does not match my tastes.
Balls Mahoney defeated Masato Tanaka
4/10
- I forgot all about this. For good reason.
- Balls Mahoney hits a powerslam early, Tanaka screws up a pescada.
- Another chair duel, Mahoney kills Tanaka with a cringeworthy violent chair shot.
- This wasn't a match.
Enter Sandman
- I really think Eugene could have been a good upper midcard heel following the Eugene thing, but it never worked out.
- He plays this crowd like a fiddle and reads a poem.
- Sandman comes out and beats the shit out of him with a cane. Sandman had his new music and a great sense of anger in his entrance.
WWE/ECW Championship
Rob Van Dam defeated John Cena (c) to become ECW/WWE Champion
6.75/10
- Cena tries to throw his shirt in the crowd and it keeps getting thrown back. Fantastic moment.
- Styles appropriately calls what Cena does a cradle suplex.
- The crowd chants "same old shit" at Cena after his signature spots. Cena responds with an axehandle from the top to the outside, which gets "you still suck" chants.
- RVD hits a moonsault press off the apron, but goes back to the well too many times on the rail and is pushed into the crowd.
- RVD skateboards a chair into Cena's face and gets Rolling Thunder. Raven told me RVD always kills people with it.
- Cena recovers to catapult RVD into a chair in the corner. You can guess how the crowd reacts to the Five Knuckle Shuffle. A Tornado Bomb doesn't do Cena any favors with the crowd either.
- Cena applies an STFU, and won't let it go. He punches the ref when questioned.
- Nick Patrick is out, but he gets punched after Edge spears Cena through a table. Edge goes through it more, though. "Thank you Edge" from the crowd.
- Five Star Frog Splash from RVD but the ref is down. Paul Heyman comes out -- apparently with the power to count a pin -- and does so.
- RVD is the new champ. He exits through the crowd as Big Show hits the ring. Not sure why that happened exactly, but it did. He helps RVD celebrate. Makes a little more sense now.
- ECW stars, including Fonzie hit the ring.
You can see our full Retro Review podcast on ECW One Night Stand 2006, WWF Backlash 1999, WCW Great American Bash 1996, WWF Summerslam 1992, ECW Hardcore Heaven 1995, TNA Unbreakable 2005 and WWF Summerslam 2000 at FightfulSelect.com for only $5 a month!
10- Perfect, 9- MOTY Territory, 8- Excellent, 7- Great, 6- Good, 5- Average to above average, 4- Slightly below average, 3 or below: Poor
Each match starts at a 5 and slides up and down based on entertainment, execution, time, environment, reaction and stakes. The ratings are in no way an indication of a "star rating," which is a completely different system. A standard, non-offensive "TV match" lands at a 5.The gap between 5.75-6 is generally the largest, with anything reaching 6 being recommended viewing.
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