With a night to myself, I decided to revisit some of the ECW events that I have on DVD, before selling them on. First on the list was Heat Wave 2000, the final time that ECW would run this particular event, before closing in April of the following year. The event emanated from the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, which is now owned by an Evangelical church, which is ironic, given the nature of some of this show.
You can find the full card in the other review here and to be honest, I don't strongly disagree with user amanwhorocks and his match by match assessment. Instead I'll talk about some of the bits of the show that struck me. Firstly, even in the indie world today, you'd never even consider using the sort of slurs used on this show. What Cyrus calls Joel Gertner in the opening segment has long moved from amusing to genuinely shocking. Similarly, but more specific, unprotected headshots with a steel chair have fortunately been almost entirely done away with. Despite it being 21 years later, two of the performers, Johnny Swinger and Rhyno are still performing regularly today, with Tommy Dreamer also but less frequently still getting in the ring.
Three of the performers on the show are no longer with us, Balls Mahoney, New Jack and Bobby Eaton, who appears in a recap package, to explain the match between Diamond/Swinger and CW Anderson and Doring/Roadkill and Kid Kash. Speaking of, can you imagine if Kid Kash was just starting today? What a star he'd be. Steve Corino.... The best bleeder that wrestling has ever seen, better than Flair in that regard.
The show also has the debut of the Van Terminator, RVD's new tier two finishing move, and before the main event there is a real, but thwarted, "invasion" from the XPW wrestlers, a local organisation who put on similar style shows as ECW in the Los Angeles area.
Truth be told, this isn't the best show ECW did. I know it was the nature of the company, but the fact that so many of the matches became 'hardcore' doesn't really help for the overall balance of the show. I'd have preferred a little more technical wrestling and a moment or two of comedy, to make the hardcore moments stand out more. I did still enjoy it overall though, so many great performers in their prime, and though I didn't think any were outstanding, with the exception of the Balls squash at the beginning, none of them were disappointing.
You can find the full card in the other review here and to be honest, I don't strongly disagree with user amanwhorocks and his match by match assessment. Instead I'll talk about some of the bits of the show that struck me. Firstly, even in the indie world today, you'd never even consider using the sort of slurs used on this show. What Cyrus calls Joel Gertner in the opening segment has long moved from amusing to genuinely shocking. Similarly, but more specific, unprotected headshots with a steel chair have fortunately been almost entirely done away with. Despite it being 21 years later, two of the performers, Johnny Swinger and Rhyno are still performing regularly today, with Tommy Dreamer also but less frequently still getting in the ring.
Three of the performers on the show are no longer with us, Balls Mahoney, New Jack and Bobby Eaton, who appears in a recap package, to explain the match between Diamond/Swinger and CW Anderson and Doring/Roadkill and Kid Kash. Speaking of, can you imagine if Kid Kash was just starting today? What a star he'd be. Steve Corino.... The best bleeder that wrestling has ever seen, better than Flair in that regard.
The show also has the debut of the Van Terminator, RVD's new tier two finishing move, and before the main event there is a real, but thwarted, "invasion" from the XPW wrestlers, a local organisation who put on similar style shows as ECW in the Los Angeles area.
Truth be told, this isn't the best show ECW did. I know it was the nature of the company, but the fact that so many of the matches became 'hardcore' doesn't really help for the overall balance of the show. I'd have preferred a little more technical wrestling and a moment or two of comedy, to make the hardcore moments stand out more. I did still enjoy it overall though, so many great performers in their prime, and though I didn't think any were outstanding, with the exception of the Balls squash at the beginning, none of them were disappointing.
