ECW House Party 1996

Date: January 5, 1996  

Location: The ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

Announcer: Joey Styles

The Setup

This was the Public Enemy’s farewell match after word had gotten out that they were headed to WCW. It was billed as a celebration of Public Enemy, as Paul chose not to bury them on the way out since they were so beloved. Konan, on the other hand, was on his way to WCW after a short stint here, and the crowd absolutely hated him for it. 

The Business 

The arena was sold out, and from what I’ve heard, eight hundred may have been a generous number at this point, considering the capacity. Wikipedia lists 1,150. 

I’m sure they also sold a shit ton of home videos that got to customers very late. 

Results

They opened with an angle where Taz was in the ring with Bill Alfonso and kept getting pissed at Joey Styles. 911 arrived for the rescue, and they had a stare-down before people came out and separated them. Both men were good here, and Taz was strong on the mic, coming across as a badass asshole. They faced off again, which led to the Eliminators emerging, attacking 911, and setting up the next match. Good opening segment. 

911 & Rey Mysterio def. The Eliminators in 6:49. The match was rough when 911 had to do things like sell, as shocking as that might sound, but it was also a ton of fun when Rey was involved. That’s probably true on both ends since Rey would fly and move around the ring in a way no one else was in North America, but also took a couple of Eliminators’ powerbombs that looked fucking sick. The reason why Rey’s offense worked at this time, even against big, thick motherfuckers like the Eliminators, is because he wasn’t just a small guy; he came off like THE small guy. All of his offense was so fast, and he was doing shit as no one else did in a way they couldn’t do it. Rey hit an absolutely gorgeous moknsault to the floor on both Eliminators. The Eliminators accepted Rey’s challenge to a chicken fight, and Rey won with a rana on Saturn while he sat on 911’s shoulders. **1/2 

Rob Van Dam def. Axl Rotten in 6:11. It’s early Rob, so you know there’s going to be some wasted movement, but overall, he was doing that less in this era, so this turned out to be pretty good. Axl was a good base for all his stuff, with the story being that Axl didn’t take him seriously early because of his martial arts (and we fight in ECW, dammit), then he ended up losing. **1/4

Taz def. Hack Myers in 3:41. Taz cut a promo before the match that was expletive-filled and got megaheat. Then, he beat the shit out of Hack, but in the unique “shoot style” he was bringing to the character. The crowd absolutely hated Alfonso and Taz. Good stuff. NR for a squash, but it was effective. 

TV Title Match: 2 Cold Scorpio def. Mikey Whipwreck (c) in 16:48. This was an extremely well-told story that played off their last match from Holiday Hell. Scorpio was back to bullying Mikey and getting his shit in until he could win with the 450, but since Mikey wasn’t getting the win this time, he got a lot more in and had a few believable near falls. Scorpio is the ultimate jock asshole in this role. Just the way he walks around the ring, he looks like he’s looking for someone’s girlfriend to fuck in the crowd (which may have been a shoot). Mikey hit a plancha from the top to the first row in an incredible fucking spot. Raven hit the ring and looked like he was about to help Mikey, but DDT’d him instead, thus advancing the Cacfus and Raven storyline. Scorpio won after the Drop the Bomb (somersault legdrop) to regain the TV title. Man, this checked so many boxes between the match itself and the storytelling, but I’m also a huge mark for 1996 Scorp. ***3/4

ECW World Title Match: Sandman (c) def. Konan in 14:01: The crowd hated Konan because he had already won the WCW US title and was obviously out, although Styles never mentions why the crowd hates him so much, only that it’s happening. The psychology of Konan trying to outwrestle Sandman made sense. Still, it obviously also led to some truly fucking comedic moments, like a Konan heel trip coming out of something on the mat. Just the pace was whipping poor Hak’s drunken ass. When it settled down into a brawl, Sandman could walk around and breathe again. It got a lot better by that point, with both men bleeding a ton. They beat the shit out of each other with a Singapore cane until Konan was counted out, laying a bloody mess on the canvas. You can criticize this finish for being a cop-out, but I also thought it worked in this situation. This ended up better than it had any right to be. **1/2

Sabu def. Stevie Richards in 14:31. Sabu wasn’t necessarily blowing a lot of spots, but he was a little off for a lot of spots, but I guess that’s par for the course.  They hit a ton of spots and big moves, as this was when they were trying to make Stevie a credible wrestler, and this match helped. Sabu put himself through a table when Stevie moved to show he was down for the cause. Stevie got a couple of nearfalls with a small package and a superkick that the fans bought. Paul E came out and got the fans passionately behind Sabu, until he won with an Arabian facebuster. This worked. ***

Public Enemy def. The Gangstas in 13:41: The fans chanted “You’ll be back at Public Enemy” because this was before Heyman conditioned their fans to hate guys who dared to feed themselves or their families. I had the broken table count at four here (which may have been the under), and a lot of walking around the arena brawling, including New Jack hitting a splash from the top of the Eagle’s Nest. Some of the brawling felt repetitive from what we’d already seen on the show, but all the broken lumber and memorable spots like that helped: Rocco ended up pinning Mustafa with the Drive By, much to the crowd’s surprise and delight. **1/4 

The show closed with Rocco cutting an emotional promo to the fans and dancing one last time. This was all well done, and a thank you to their audience as much as PE. 

Recommendation 

Thumbs up. This isn’t a great show, but it’s a good one. Scorp and Mikey stole the show, and Sabu-Stevie told a good story. Nothing on the show was bad, and the fans appreciated being sent home happy. This is worth checking out.