VIDEO: Shane Douglas talks Extreme Reunion disaster and future events
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... mgvVzwhqLoThis show was the live play of “The Wrestler.”
When Paul Heyman was packing his 1,000 screaming fans every few weeks into the ECW Arena, and never once attempting to
run shows in a bigger building in the market, he was building an aura. He never made money on it, well, except years later
when he got a nice salary and benefits from Vince McMahon.
Unlike WCW, which for a brief period of time was the biggest wrestling organization in the history of the industry and even to this
day probably had more genuine talent in one organization than any in history, it’s “ECW” that people chanted. In fact, ECW was
far bigger in memory than it ever was when it existed. To wit, the best selling ECW PPV was a nostalgia show that did triple
what the best original ECW PPV when it actually existed ever did. The best selling ECW DVD was years after the company
folded. And more than 11 years after the last ECW show at the ECW Arena, they had a show with the largest ECW crowd ever in
its home base of Philadelphia. And even when WWE remade the name and gave it national publicity, when people chanted the
letters or talked about ECW, nobody talked about the version with the most exposure that was on TV until only a few years ago.
Unfortunately, that was about the only thing positive about the Extreme Reunion show put together by Shane Douglas and Mr.
Mark Keenan (Cody Michaels) on 4/28 in Philadelphia. A sold out Pennsylvania National Guard Armory with 2,400 fans paying
$150,000 saw what financially was one of the great triumphs in independent wrestling in years.
But this wasn’t just supposed to be a bunch of people going back to their 15 year high school reunion, some bringing their
wives and remembering their days on the football field and doing their old school chants. This wasn’t trying to get the old fan
base back once, realizing it’s a nostalgia pop, and planning to do it again in five years when people are ready for it again. This
was people trying to start a new promotion opening with nostalgia and using it to create younger stars. That was going to be
difficult at best. And given the first show, it may be impossible.
The crowd was more than double the size of the 2005 Hardcore Homecoming show which came at a time when WWE was
also promoting its own ECW themed PPV. That show came about four years after the death of ECW, whereas this came 11
years later. It was an older crowd, as we were told it was almost all people who used to attend ECW shows in its heyday, many
of whom never came back for the other reunion shows. Very few kids and teenagers. As time went on, nostalgia made it be
remembered even fonder. But the guys were also six years older, and in the case of the hard-living ones, who treated their
bodies like dogs, that’s 60 years for you and me.
Before the show even started the disasters started. Sabu, scheduled to headline against Shane Douglas, didn’t come to the
convention before the show, and didn’t arrive at the arena. Sabu has been having real problems of late with him complaining
that his marriage had fallen apart among other things. When his hotel room was called and there was no answer and it was
getting late, they went to knock on his door. When nobody answered, reportedly Mustafa Saed of the Gangstas broke down the
door and they found Sabu passed out on the floor between the two beds. He was rushed to the hospital. There was a report
that at one point he was put in a medically induced coma, but that when he was taken out of it, he just wanted to get out of the
hospital. He checked himself out of the emergency room the next morning, called a cab, and told everyone who asked that he
was fine.
Justin Credible fell asleep or was passed out in the dressing room during the show. He was reportedly given $100 and told to
go home. He eventually left, but then came back, asked to be put on the show, but wasn’t. He then went from backstage into the
crowd so people I guess could see that he was there. At one point he almost walked through the curtain when Sandman was
doing his five minute ring entrance, and Douglas told people to stop him if he got near the curtain.
During the afternoon, we were told the place was a mess, with so many of the guys after the fan fest and before the show
getting loaded.
And the sad issues didn’t end when the show was done. Axl Rotten, whose face was hanging down, speech was bad and
could not close one eye due to an affliction he blamed on high blood pressure (it looked to people like he had Bell’s Palsy),
then fell asleep at the wheel the next day driving from Philadelphia back to Baltimore. He crashed his car, broke his sternum
and eight ribs, and at last report was hospitalized somewhere in Pennsylvania. In addition, in a separate incident, Damian
Farren, who was Douglas’ right-hand man at the show, fell asleep driving home five minutes from his home in Maryland. He
totaled his car, and suffered a broken neck vertebrae and was also still hospitalized at press time.
The show started about 30 minutes late, and opened with a video package paying tribute to all the former ECW stars who had
passed away, which is a staggeringly large list. The only name omitted was that of Chris Benoit, for obvious reasons.
Then the show started with Douglas cutting a promo. But the audio was out, which led to the first “bullshit” chant of the night.
1. The Dramatics, two masked guys, beat Ruckus & Blk Jeez. They tried but since they weren’t authentic ECW, the crowd turned
on them. The problem is Douglas and Keenan were looking to expose new talent and build a promotion, but this crowd only
wanted guys they knew.
2. A guy named Cordova came out to wrestle Bu Ku Dao. The crowd immediately chanted, “fuck you both.” Luke Hawx, who had
been doing promos challenging Douglas on the Internet regarding the show, came out and told the guys to leave. Hawx did
some anti-ECW stuff and challenged Douglas. Fans chanted for New Jack to make the save. The funny thing is Douglas was
standing in the crowd while this was going on. Cordova then attacked Hawx and ran him off. In hindsight, people were telling
me how ridiculous this was that a nobody ran him off when he was there to be programmed for Douglas. Even though he was
the face running off the heel, the crowd heavily booed Cordova.
Joel Gertner, the first authentic ECW star to come out, got a monstrous reaction.
3. The FBI of Little Guido & Tony Mamaluke beat the BWO of Stevie Richards & Blue Meanie. Tracy Smothers was advertised but
no-showed and gave word at the last minute he was retired. Tommy Rich wasn’t advertised as he took a booking in Orlando.
No Hollywood Nova as Mike Bucci decided against coming back. Thomas Rodman, a spoof on Dennis, who was in the BWO
briefly when Rodman was doing the NWO, came out with Richards & Meanie. What was notable is that Richards, Mamaluke
and Guido were the only guys on the show who looked in good shape. Comedy match saw Guido and Meanie doing thumb
wrestling. Luke Hawx came back out and tripped Richards, and Mamaluke rolled up Richards. After the match, Richards
superkicked Rodman and teased turning on Meanie, but instead it was a swerve and he didn’t turn.
4. C.W. Anderson beat Al Snow with a spinebuster. Snow was doing the gimmick with the mannequin head. Snow, a TNA
agent, was not in good shape. The crowd hated the match but they tried to do a wrestling match, with Anderson working a hold,
and the crowd not wanting to see it. There was a ref bump and Snow did the Snowplow, and when the ref came in, Anderson
kicked out. Snow went to use “Head,” but the ref took it away and Anderson hit the spinebuster for the pin. Snow blamed “Head”
for losing and started dropping elbows and beating “Head” up all over the ring, ending with a superplex.
5. Axl Rotten beat Balls Mahoney. A weapons brawl. Mahoney bled from the head and arm but Rotten killed him with chair shots
right to the head. In 2012, but then again, it’s Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney, and a DDT on a chair for the pin. The two hugged
after the match and the crowd chanted “ECW” and sang Mahoney’s theme.
Angel Medina or Da Baldies tag team (with guys like H.C. Loc, Tony DeVito and Big Vito among others, none of who were there,
DeVito in particular has a heart issue and can’t wrestle any longer) came out and talked about a bunch of the old ECW stars,
both those there and not there. He said Da Baldies were the best team in ECW history and that they were there to the end with
checks bouncing. The crowd were responding to this with, “Shut the fuck up.” The Gangstas reunite came out and went to
destroy him when Ruckus and Blk Jeez attacked New Jack. The crowd hated the idea of unknown guys to them laying out New
Jack when they wanted the New Jack destruction show. I get why they did this, the idea you have the young guys lay out the
stars to get over, and Heyman’s booking was always based on that. But this was an old crowd that came to see old Paul
McCartney sing Beatles songs and not a night of new material. Fans were booing and chanting “refund.” Blk Jeez had
something thrown at him when he was leaving and went after the fan, but security broke it up. After the show, someone noted to
us that, “Who would have thought New Jack would be the single most responsible person on the entire roster?”
6. Gary Wolfe (Pitbull I) beat Raven by pinning some guy in Raven’s flock. Raven’s new flock included a guy dressed like La
Parka, a Jersey Shore wannabe and a crippled guy who they called Cripple H. Wolfe grabbed the mic and said Pitbull II
(Anthony Durante, who died years ago of a drug overdose) was watching from above for him to beat the shit out of Raven.
Raven, very heavy, although he’s got a thyroid issue from damage done so a lot of that is out of his control, did a unique
interview. He was talking about how pathetic ECW Reunions were, and ripped on how bad ECW now is. All Raven’s guys
attacked Wolfe while Raven told the fans how pathetic they were for still living in the past. Sandman’s music then played. He
looked wasted and terrible but the crowd loved it since singing his song was one of the things they wanted out of the show.
They played the whole song as he’s still drinking in the crowd and Wolfe is getting destroyed for five minutes. Sandman caned
everyone and Wolfe pinned one of the flock members. Raven left without doing anything and said how this was all pathetic and
he needed a new flock. Apparently he had a shoulder injury and couldn’t wrestle, so this was what they made of it, but Raven rebooked
it on the fly. Sandman then caned the hell out of Cripple H and he and Wolfe drank beer together. Sandman caning a
guy who appeared to legitimately be crippled, as a babyface move, was cringe worthy even to this audience. The crowd started
turning bad on the show at this point, with “This show sucks” chants, mad because Raven didn’t work.
7. Jerry Lynn pinned Devon Storm in the best match on the show. Crowd started chanting “Save the show, Jerry.” Lynn was
really over as people were begging for a decent match by this point. Highlight was Lynn doing a huracanrana off the top rope
sending Storm on a guard rail between the ring and barricade. Lynn suplexed Storm on a chair and gave him a cradle piledriver
for the pin. Crowd was chanting “That was awesome,” but we were told it was good, not great, but stood out from everything
else on the show. Lynn told the crowd that they were the ones who were awesome, thanked them for supporting him, and told
them he was retiring at the end of the year. They started chanting, “No, No, No” at that one and did the “You still got it” chant.
Lynn said he’s been wrestling for 24 years and you have to listen to your body. He said he was first told several years ago it was
time to retire but he didn’t listen then. He put the crowd over again and got a standing ovation leaving.
8. Shane Douglas beat 2 Cold Scorpio. It was 11 p.m. and people started chanting to end the show. Douglas, who worked in a
shirt, had gained a lot of weight and could barely move, and was showered with chants of “Go back to Target,” “Refund,” “Fuck
you Shane,” and “Eat a salad.” I’d have never expected that at a reunion show. Hard to know what happened. At the 2005 show,
which everyone raved about, I saw the tape and the matches weren’t anything special, but the crowd made it a great show
anyway.
This time, years later, everyone older, and twice as many people there, and you’d think they would cut guys slack, but
they completely turned on most of the show.
Douglas said that unlike the jackasses who lie to their fans, he’s going to shoot,
and said Sabu was found unresponsive in his hotel room and how ECW never gave their fans bullshit stories.
He said he was rushed to the hospital and they don’t know anything more. He talked about the Triple Threat era (he, Bam Bam Bigelow and
Chris Candido, he being the only one still alive). Then he brought up the night he threw down the NWA world title belt and
created the ECW world title in 1993, and mentioned his opponent in the tournament final was Too Cold Scorpio. He challenged
Scorpio to come out and sub for Sabu. Scorpio came out with Bill Alfonso (originally booked to be Sabu’s manager). The crowd
hated the match, chanting all kinds of negative things including “Just retire” (more at Douglas than Scorpio). A masked man
came out and threw the ref into the post. Douglas seemed to know the guy, and pointed at him to attack Scorpio. But instead he
attacked Douglas, and then unmasked, revealing Kevin Sullivan (who had not been advertised). Sullivan was in ECW during the
early days but was never really thought of as an ECW guy since he was booking in WCW during the Monday Night Wars.
Scorpio did a splash off the top but Douglas kicked out. Scorpio did the tumbleweed, a full flip into a legdrop for a near fall and
Douglas kicked out again. Crowd really turned on that, chanting “Fuck you Shane.” Then another masked man ran in,
unmasked as Tod Gordon and hugged Scorpio. This distracted Scorpio so Douglas won with a sunset flip. Crowd was furious
when it was over. They announced a return date for 6/30 in the same building. People were furious leaving, but even if it was a
great show and they were happy, there’s a reason that after your 15th year reunion, you don’t have another one two months
later.
**************************************************************
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
