Flashback Reviews: Hardcore Homecoming

Used to do this for the old site and I thought I should start doing it for this one. 

In 2001 Extreme Championship Wrestling closed. The shows underground fan base remanded loyal though and in 2004 the very successful Rise of Fall of ECW DVD sparked interest among fans that hadn't seen ECW the first time. Paul Heyman and Rob Van Dam began working the WWE to do a reunion show and in the summer of 2005 we got ECW One Night Stand. How ever one of ECW's most well know stars Shane Douglas who has long hated the WWE put on his own show two days before. That show Hardcore Homecoming was a success and even briefly launched a series of shows. Hardcore Homecoming was more in the spirt of the real ECW as it was a true Indy Show and even ran out of the Old ECW Arena. It featured reveal ECW mainstays like Shane Douglas, Raven, and Terry Funk that didn't appear on One Night Stand. But now over eight years later does it hold up well. Or was it just extreme nostalgia blindness?

We open with clips of fans talking about being the event. Joey Styles hypes the three main events of the show, Sabu vs Terry Funk vs Shane Douglas, Raven vs Sandman and Jerry Lynn vs Justin Credible. And and Joey sounds like he could care less about the big matches. I don't need him to be in full on "OH MY GOD!" mode right of the start but you could at least be excited for the main matchers. Next Terry Funk on why he picked to work this show over the WWE show. Terry admits at his age there is no way he could work two shows this close together. WWE offered him much more money than Hardcore Homecoming. Terry's message was clear this is real ECW this is real passion for this concept. This isn't just a just man looking for another quick buck. Funk does a great job here and his passion is so real. Hell just the Terry stuff should have been the open.

For our first in ring segment of the night  Bob Ortiz introducing ECW founder Tod Gordon. Tod talks and I have no idea what he is saying the audio is very unclear for the microphone he used. And this bothered me when I first bought this DVD. I get Hardcore Homecoming didn't have big money but you know plenty of Indy Shows have clear audio for in ring promos. It's pretty clear what Tod is saying its the old "Thank You. Your the reason we are back." And I get why they did it that night but edit it off the DVD. Now one smart move the people behind the DVD did was include pre tapped interviews from various people as they made there entrance.

Joey Styles and Cyrus make there entrance and we get a huge "Joey Joey Joey" chant from the ECW fans. Joey does a little speech and than get interrupted by Joel Gertner. Gertner cuts his typical promo you know the act if you ever saw him in ECW and the good news is the audio was good so you could hear the jokes. Finally Cyrus is handed the microphone and starts talking about how great it is to back and than goes heel on Gertner.This leads to a brawl between the two guys. And really that's a segment. Yeah I get the feud in at the end of ECW but its not like it was the greatest feud ever. Just have Joey and Joel start the show and have Cyrus manage someone.  Yeah the fans were hot but this was the kind of crowd that had extra strong Kool Aid.

CW Anderson and Simon Diamond vs Mikey Whipwreck and Chris Chetti- Styles reminds us all the Mikey has beat Steve Austin. Whipwreck and Diamond start us off. We actually some stuff people that haven't seen the real ECW might now expect. Like a "dazed" Anderson getting hit by Chetti stumbling over to Mikey to get punched and than stumble back over to Chetti. Styles points out that Anderson and Diamond had been a semi regular tag team over the years and why that was advantage. Whipwreck throws some of the worst worked punches I have ever seen it was that bad I had to point it out because it looks like he didn't even try to hide them. Whipwreck gets the win after hitting The Whipper Snapper on Diamond. Decent match but it really wasn't that super hot open you would hope on a show. Chetti hadn't wrestled in years and it showed. Whipwreck looked ok but not perfect but Styles said he looked as good as he did when he was world champion. Diamond and Anderson really carried the match and it's a shame TNA or WWE never gave CW a real serious look. 

The Blue Meanie vs Tracy Smothers with JT Smith - Smothers and Smith were doing there Full Blooded Italians gimmick. While in WWE FBI was just a gimmick they put on so they could have Italian Accents the joke in ECW was people like Smith (who is black) and Smothers (Who is from Nashville) along with Tommy Rich would fake being from Italy. JT talks to the fans but the audi again is tough to understand. Meanie had really slimmed down from his ECW and WWF days. Joey uses Meanie's weight loss as a chance to mock Jasmine St. Clair (Meanie's Ex Girlfriend). This was full on comedy yes ECW had comedy matches. Eventually we get a dance off between Meanie of Smother. Witch was actually a callback to something these guys had done back in ECW. Smothers being the spoil sport jumps Meanie while he is dancing. Smother wins after JT nails Meanie with a chain. As I said it was comedy and it was pretty funny at times. Both guys looked ok but you could tell both Smothers and Meanies best days were behind them

We next get a montage of the various ECW stars that have passed away. Johnny Grugne and Gary "Pitbull" Wolfe come out. Tammy Sytch comes out alone. This segment was confused. First you have Tammy coming out dancing around. After Grunge gave a speech where he was getting choked up we got jokes about Tammy breasts. Gary Wolfe didn't' even get a chance to talk. Finally Danny Doring and Roadkill came out to interrupt and of course they go full on heel and the fans were chanting for New Jack to interrupt this segment. And because the audio sucked at time Joey had to keep talking over to explain what was going on. Eventually Doring and Roadkill jump Wolfe and Grunge. Tammy ran to back and brought back 911 who made the save. I get this was a show where you wanted to get everyone you could on the show but Doring and Roadkill would been better in a real match. And to end the segment 911 tried to pick Tammy up and fell over causing Joey to do that fake laugh you hear WWE announcers do to try and convince you it was really funny. ANd than it ends with 911, Tammy, Gary, and Johnny praying  what a confused mess of a segment. 

Kid Kash vs 2 Cold Scorpio - These two had zero history with each other in ECW hell I don't think Kash was even a regular when Scorpio departed. It was clear promoter Shane Douglas just saw two high flyers and figured they could have a good match. And I say that's a good move you already had plenty of "reborn" feuds and not everyone could live up to what they were back in the day these two could still and and steal the show. This match was defiantly a step above the first two. We saw that nice mix of athletic technical wrestling. Exchanging arm locks as the flipped about. Two the men were also very starting out slow doing actual wrestling before any big flying spot or big haymaker brawling. This also became our first match to head to outside. Kash hit the first big spot of the night as he flipped off the entrance stage into the crowd onto Scorpio. Scorpio still looked great and broke many of his trademark spots. And how else could this match end 2 Cold wins after the 450. Very good match. Often ECW would claim they were just hardcore but also featured the best technical and highflying wrestling and this match was in that vain. Kash had just left TNA at this time and had been putting on good matches and it was a great effort by Scorpio who was a regular in NOAH at this time.

 As I  said they had pre tapped segment with a wrestler talking about ECW and being back and the fans etc. So we have Axel Rotten talking before the segment starts so anyone that maybe didn't know the results of the show knew Axl was next. Except Joey Styles on commentary acted like it was a shock when he came out in the next segment.

Kronus made his way out solo. The plan had been to been to reunited Kronus with Perry Saturn and reform the Eliminators but an injury to Saturn canceled those plans instead Joey said Krounus would fight a handicapped match with "What ever team shows up." ANd of court out comes Axl Rotten and Ian Rotten came and Joey acts shocked. Apparently this wasn't a match just the Rottens trying to beat up Kronus until New Jack ran out to make this save. You know how a lot of people just viewed Hardcore wrestling as a bunch of guys that couldn't work or get over so they broke stuff over each other. Yeah this segment lived up to that in every way. It was nothing but guys breaking stuff over each other heads. Not helping the fact each guys looked like they had put on 50 pounds each. Don't get me wrong I get this was a draw for ECW you had to have a match like this or the fans would be pissed off. But that doesn't mean I have to find it good. I like a good hardcore match but I l want that is well worked where the spots make sense. If you don enjoy matches like this to bad you will miss a because it seemed like the editor always managed to cut back just after something had taken place. If New Jack and Ian did a spot the camera was on Kronus and Axl or vice versa. I get that happens on live broadcasts but this was a tapped event and they had two cameras your telling me the guy couldn't' have done a better job the this. Eventually security pushed a giant scaffold out allowing New Jack to splash onto Ian who and on a table. To cap off the shit fest they let New Jack talk and well if you have heard New Jack talk you know why that sucks. If you hardcore wresting like Mad Man Pondo or Necro Butcher you will enjoy this but as I have made clear I hate this kind of stuff.

Jerry Lynn vs Justin Credible with Jason Knight- These two did have a long history and besides RVD Justing was Lynn's biggest ECW feud as the two had a 21 match series when the debuted and Lynn beat Credible for the ECW world title. This was also Lynn's first match in a year since he injured his shoulder in a match for TNA. If Jerry was rusty he didn't show it. It always amazed me how this could keep working as well as he did as he reached him mid forties. I always felt bad for Credible who was a very good worker that never got his due in the bigger leagues. WWE always used his as a jobber he never really caught on in TNA and WCW never hired him. I know the guy had some issues at time but it just feels like a lot of wasted talent. There referee in this match was really bad for example he asked Credible if he wanted to quit even though Credible was in control of the match his voice was always kind grating. At another point he got i the way as Credible was going for a spot. Jason became my hero when he finally took the bad referee out. This led to a run in by Jazz to take out Jason. Lynn picked up the win after a cradle tombstone pile driver. To end the best match of the night. It what you would expect a great ECW Jerry Lynn match to be. Lots of flying and awesome hardcore spots and just great wrestling.

Raven With The Musketeer and Blue Meanie vs Sandman- I find it strange that earlier in the night they had Meanie as the underdog face and now was a lackey heel. This was before Raven's health went down hill and he was having some great matches in TNA and I believe he was the NWA champion at this point. Well Sandman was Sandman and well Lou Thez he was not. The company had an issue as they wanted to show the best part of Sandman's gimmick his entrance but couldn't use the song Enter Sandman son instead they edited over generic music as Sandman's interview played. I get why wanted to do it but it kind of killed the effect of the entrance. Raven heeled up the fans and again the audio made it tough to understand. Raven had the Musketeer start the match for him witch resulted in the first ever sword fight in wrestling history.Eventually the actual match go started. This was a brawl with lots of weapon spots and it being Raven plenty of run ins. The finish came when Don E Allen attacked the Sandman only for Mikey Whipwreck to run out and save Sandman and than five seconds later betray him. Where is the logic in that finish? I mean Styles tried to sell it as Raven had done it again but Sandman was already in trouble when Mikey showed up. Match was decent but only if you know what you are getting I don't go into Sandman matches expecting classics.

Terry Funk came out for a promo to get the fact the main event would be a barbwire rope match. For once the audio was decent. I get why the did it during live show but it really wasn't needed since the DVD box set up it was a barbwire match. We also get video of several people (not just Funk, Sabu, and Douglas) talking about the Night The Line Was Crossed. The 3 way match that was seen as the first true classic in ECW history. Funk talked about how it was one of the most memorable matches in his forty year career. And it was another nice touch having people like Gabe Sabolsky and Kid Kash put the match over just made it seem bigger. They also have Sabu and Funk talk about there barbwire match and the damage it did to both men.

Shane Douglas with Francine vs Terry Funk with Tammy Sytch vs Sabu will Bill Alphonso Barbwire  Rope match- I been hard on Shane Douglas a lot over the years and I stand by what I have said but I will give the guy credit he's a very talented in ring wrestler and promo man. At this point Shane's in ring career was pretty much over he was working as an interviewer/agent for TNA and while has wrestled since he's a shell of his former self. Sabu was still active as a wrestler for TNA at this point I even think just retiring some serious health issues. Well Terry Funk was Terry Funk he was 61 but than again he was Terry Funk I'm convinced the guy won't' stop until he drop dead in the ring and even than he will want to have one more match. Obviously you would be an idiot to expect a repeat of that match from 93 hell it wasn't possible for them to match the PPV match they had in 97 that most people forget about. But this match just didn't work. Funk and Douglas were shot and seemed like they were in slow motion. Its clear they added the barbwire to try and make up for what the guys had lost as they got older but at one point it just turned the match into throw guy into wire grind guy into wire match at time. I'll compare it to a cage match yes you have spots where guys are tossed into the cage there head is rammed into the cage or the cheese grater on the cage but if they over do that is starts to get boring. There was also some dumb booking to cover some issues. Micke Foley was supposed to be the referee but was late so to explain why Foley could show up and be the referee Doulas had to KO the two other referees. Now the fans did pop when the unadvertised Foley showed up. The fans also booed Foley for using Mr. Socko and chanted fuck the sock but popped when Foley but barbwire on the sock showing WWE isn't the only ones with sheep. Douglas the first one eliminated. The finish also had to be done on the fly as Funk went for a moonsault off a ladder it broke and appeared to injure him. Sabu won with the arabian face buster. The match had it moments but I can't say it ever got going. 

After this event attempts were made to turn Hardcore Homecoming into a regular company they ran one more show but ticket sales were poor and the company shut down. Of course by now you know WWE brought ECW back as a third brand that was replaced by NXT after a few years. TNA also did a ECW themed shows and EV2 stable that well just didn't work. Douglas returned to promoting ECW styles shows in 2012 with Extreme Reunion/Rising witch has put some truly awful shows as by this point the ECW name needs to just say dead. But what about Hardcore Homecoming does it stand up years later?

When it first happened this event was heavily parsed but now years the show is far from great. The audio problems for anything int he ring really hurt it and at times the audio just drops out entirely. None of the matches are truly awful even the hardcore "Fight" I understand why it's on there but none of the matches are great at best the top out at good and a number of them go a little to long. They did try to have a nice variety though so I credit them on that. Joey Styles commentary is hit and miss. At times Joey makes some good points but well this is Joey Styles so your going to get "OH MY GOD!" and other habits he has. It doesn't help he went out of his way to over hype how everyone was still in great shape. So yeah it's a decent event but nothing you need to out of your way to go see.