The Pitbulls squash from Return of the Funker airs.
The Sandman, Terry Funk, and Woman cut a backstage promo. Woman says that she hates Jack’s guts and while she once turned to the Sandman for help, she now turns to Funk. Funk says that Jack’s son Dewey has no brains and that Jack will never be as good as he is. He adds that Shane Douglas is allying with a nobody.
ECW Champion Shane Douglas recounts how his father once saw potential in Jack when they were training to be wrestlers. Jack, wearing a bandage around his head, tells Douglas that few believed in him when he started wrestling but since Douglas did, he will be happy to team with him. Jack tells Funk that he will put him out of professional wrestling forever.
Tommy Dreamer warns Jack that he cannot trust Douglas because Douglas betrayed him for Woman in 1993 when they were tag team partners. Dreamer says he was honored to have Funk as a mentor and Funk must have had his reasons for slapping him in the ECW Arena. He pivots toward Raven and says that he will not let this issue distract him for their match at the new ECW Arena show. Dreamer says Raven sold his soul when he wrestled for the WWF and WCW while Dreamer has never forgotten his roots.
The Douglas-Tully Blanchard ECW title match at Double Tables is shown. Although Blanchard attacked Douglas after the bell to get some heat back, ECW does not show that. They do not show it on the VHS release of Double Tables either.
The Public Enemy are camping out on the street like they are homeless. Johnny Grunge tells Chris Benoit that the Enemy has tried to leave the hood but ends up having to return to it. He talks of crying when Rocco Rock had to go to the emergency room and that bodes ill for Benoit and Dean Malenko. Footage from the last ECW Arena show airs where the Enemy appeared and Rock was in a wheelchair and got beat up by Benoit and Malenko. To end the segment, the camera goes back to the Enemy’s homeless camp where the Enemy say they have unfinished business with Sabu and the Tazmaniac too. They vow to get a contract signed for a three-way dance between the teams next week.
The Last Word: Since Shane Douglas and Tully Blanchard wrestled several days before this show it seems curious that ECW did not get footage of that match and use it. The promo segments for the Shane Douglas/Cactus Jack-Sandman/Terry Funk feud were weak, but the Dreamer historical adds a good twist to the feud concerning whether Jack can trust Douglas. The buildup to a three-way dance between the Public Enemy, Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko, and Sabu & the Tazmaniac is great, with Paul Heyman disguising Benoit and Malenko’s weakness on the mic by having them decimate the other two teams at big shows.
Backstage News*: Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer believes that the expanded number of pay-per-view offerings by the WWF and WCW is going to hurt ECW’s ability to get into that market since fans will not have the disposable income necessary to buy the shows of three promotions. Pay-per-view providers may also be against giving an untested product a pay-per-view timeslot, reinforced by the rise of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
*A Comfort Inn by the Philadelphia airport that was traditionally a headquarters for the promotion when it did local house shows is no longer allowing ECW wrestlers to stay there after some disturbances.
*The promotion is planning to return to Florida is early May, with shows scheduled for May 5 and May 7. ECW is also going to do joint shows with American Commonwealth Wrestling in March and April.
*Backstage news provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for March 20.
Up Next: ECW Hardcore TV for March 14!
