ECW recap heading into February 1997
Jan 30, 2016 20:22:26 GMT
Post by Chitohausen on Jan 30, 2016 20:22:26 GMT
ECW UPDATE:
* 1996 saw the Dudley family arrive in ECW. Originally fan favourites, except D-Von, the “black sheep” of the family, the Dudleys were extremely popular. However, things changed, and Bubba Ray turned heel in January ’97, joining forces with D-Von as a tag team. With the other members of the family, like Big Dick Dudley and Dances with Dudley siding with Bubba Ray and D-Von as well, this left little Spike Dudley as the lone babyface in the family. This made Spike a target of Bubba Ray and D-Von, who have vowed to either show Spike the error of his ways, or run him out of wrestling completely!
As January neared it’s end, the Dudleys started insulting one of the greatest tag teams ECW had ever seen, the Public Enemy. At one point, they came out on TV dressed as Rock and Grunge, and saying that the reason they refused to come back to ECW is because they’re scared to death of the Dudleys! At a show at the ECW Arena on January 30, Bubba Ray and D-Von were involved in a match with Sabu and Rob Van Dam to determine the top contenders to the Eliminators’ ECW Tag titles. Suddenly, “Here Comes the Hotstepper” began to play over the PA system, and Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge returned to the ECW and attacked D-Von and Bubba Ray! Sabu and RVD just stood back and watched the two teams brawl, then picked up the win after Rock put D-Von through a table with a somersault splash off the top rope, and RVD simply walked over and covered D-Von for the win. As we move into February, Public Enemy have returned to ECW, and have asked Commissioner Tod Gordon to give them a match with the Dudleys!
* Going all the way back to the spring of 1995, Taz has held a grudge against Sabu for no-showing the 3-way Dance that was supposed to see the two of them take on Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko and the Public Enemy for the ECW Tag Team titles. Since then, Taz has become angrier and angrier, embarking on what Joey Styles has termed the “Path of Rage”. Taz has destroyed everyone that ECW has put in front of him. Taz has choked out not only opponents, but also referees, security personnel and even Commissioner Tod Gordon, with the Tazmission. At one point in 1996, Taz even dragged a fan, who was wearing a Sabu t-shirt, out of his front row seat! Taz was about to lock the fan in the Tazmission, but the entire ECW locker room came out and put a stop to that.
Taz has been calling Sabu out ever since, but Sabu, who just recently returned to ECW, has yet to answer the challenge, which has only served to piss Taz off even more!
* After defeating the Sandman for the ECW World title in December of ’95, Raven has held the title ever since, turning back every challenge that he’s faced. Raven came to ECW for the purpose of destroying his childhood friend Tommy Dreamer, and winning the title hasn’t taken away from that goal. Raven spent most of ’96 defending the title against Dreamer. The Sandman was looking to regain the title from Raven, and has joined forces with Dreamer. Raven had help from his lackey, Stevie Richards, against Dreamer and Sandman, but Richards has started to remove himself from the association with Raven, instead spending more and more time with the Blue Meanie and Goldust, and have dubbed themselves the “Blue World Order”, though nobody is quite sure what that’s a reference to. In any event, the BWO has gone on to become increasingly popular with the fans, causing a bigger rift between Raven and Richards. Raven brought in Kimona Wanalaya to keep an eye on Beulah, who had turned on Raven earlier and joined up with Dreamer. Eventually Kimona turned on Raven as well, and Dreamer found himself with two gorgeous valets!
Originally Sandman’s involvement in the feud was entirely centered around his wanting to regain the ECW title, but the feud took a strange twist in late ’96, as Raven got Sandman’s wife, Lori, and his young son, Tyler, to turn on Sandman, and join him. This took a toll on the Sandman, and nearly broke the former champion’s spirit and at one point he even talked about possibly retiring from the ring, but with the help of Dreamer and Terry Funk, Sandman was able to continue on in the battle against Raven.
As January ’97 came to an end, Raven brought in the Faces of Fear, Meng and the Barbarian, from WCW to help him destroy Dreamer, Sandman and Funk.
* Late in 1996, two members of the world-famous Four Horsemen, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, found their way to the land of Extreme, and made it known that they were setting their sights on the ECW World Tag Team titles.
* Chris Candido and Chris Kanyon, two of the top young wrestlers in the world today, started teaming up occasionally in the later part of 1996. They enjoyed plenty of success as a team, and have now started teaming up more regularly, to the point where they were ranked #5 in the ECW Tag Team Rankings for January 1997. With Kanyon’s innovative offence, and Candido’s ability to get under the skin of fans, they’ve found themselves receiving almost as many cheers as boos from the ECW fans.
Working on it now.