The show starts with Mike Awesome defending the ECW World title against Steve Corino's "rookie monster" Rhino. We see some highlights from Rhino's ECW run, which I assume are supposed to prove he's worthy of a title shot. Judge Jeff Jones leads Awesome to the ring, and off we go. The champ lands an early clothesline and a back elbow via a run up the turnbuckles. Rhino gets dumped to the outside, and Awesome greets him with a missile-like dive over the top rope to the floor. Awesome tosses Rhino back in and lands a top rope clothesline for a 2 count. Awesome teases a powerbomb of Rhino from inside the ring through a table at ringside, but Rhino counters with a backdrop and a nice spinebuster. Rhino then lands a top rope headbutt for a 2 count. Awesome is able to shake off further offense from Rhino,. leading to a German suplex and a nasty looking powerbomb from inside the ring through the aforementioned ringside table. After being rolled back into the ring, Rhino takes a top rope splash from the champ. No new champ on this night as Awesome retains the title in a short, solid match.

Coming next, more on the Raven/Dreamer fight... and hey, isn't that Tammy Lynn Sytch?

Insert 2 consecutive November To Remember ads here. Yep, ECW does look bush league when this happens.

Courtesy of the 1wrestling.com Extreme Replay, we see Awesome sending Rhino through the ringside table again. Somewhere, Dave Scherer is smirking.

Back to the ring as Sal E. Graziano faces Spike Dudley....that is, after Joel fits plugs for the house shows, merchandise, magazine, and website in. After some clips of Spike's victims (good way to show Spike beating the likes of Curtis Hughes, Buh Buh Ray Dudley, and Viscera aka Mabel), we join the match in progress. Spike is already hitting the Acid Drop on Sal, but before he can get the 3 count, in comes Sal's cohort Little Guido. Guido takes over on Spike as we head to a break.

Back from the break, it appears that Guido has made this a handicap match. Huh? Spike and Guido trade rollups for 2 counts, and Spike takes over with a neckbreaker and a nice tope onto Guido outside the ring. Guido recovers and sends Spike to the guardrail, where he is met with a Sal splash. Spike is tossed back in and is met by a middle rope Fameasser from Guido for a 2 count. Guido locks on an armbar submission hold, then hits the Tomikaze for a 2 count. Guido sets up Spike for a Sal splash, but Spike moves and hits Guido with the Acid Drop, walking up Sal in the corner on the way down. Spike then hits an Acid Drop on Sal, with Sal landing over the prone Guido. Spike covers both men and gets the win in an entertaining match, but you have to wonder if Guido is ever going to get a win on TV.

Coming later...more on the Dreamer/Raven situation, and another Tammy tease, this time involving a bikini with less material than one of my socks.

Back from the break, Joey informs us that Dreamer has told Raven not to interfere in any of his future matches. (Random Francine shot shown here, which works for me.) Joey also lets us know that Dreamer will face Yoshihiro Tajiri later in the show, as well as the return of Tammy Lynn Sytch on next week's broadcast. Joel also hints of a controversial story on the ECW website regarding Tammy.

We return from commercial to a video of Rob Van Dam highlights set to Kilgore's cover of Pantera's "Walk". See Van Dam kick ass on the likes of Bam Bam Bigelow, Al Snow, 2 Cold Scorpio, Mikey Whipwreck, Doug Furnas, Buh Buh Ray Dudley, and Hayabusa in letterbox format! Joey gets RVD's "longest current singles reign" over, followed by Joel getting ECW's "longest streak of plugs at one time" gimmick over.

Next, we join the dark match at the Anarchy Rulz PPV, which saw Danny Doring and Roadkill with Miss Congeniality facing C.W. Anderson and Wild Bill Whiles. Immediately, I'm thinking "squash" before noticing that ECW has yet to broadcast a show that had every match come from the same place. Match starts nicely, with Bill armdragging Roadkill, only to receive a powerslam in return. Both men tag to their partners, and Doring lands a nice head scissors counter to C.W.'s tilt-a-whirl. Doring follows with a Japanese armdrag, and Roadkill follows with a dirt road slam ala the Boss Man's finisher. After Roadkill splashes both opponents in the corner, Doring hits a bareback (pseudo-Stunner). Doring attempts to follow up, but C.W. catches Doring with a nice spinebuster and a single arm DDT. Bill follows with a rolling neck snap, but Doring recovers and hits a G Spot sweep (front Russian leg sweep) on C.W. before tagging in Roadkill. Bill and C.W. receive side slams from the chicken plucker, but Bill recovers and hits a tilt-a-whirl powerslam on Doring. Bill then whips Roadkill into a nice C.W. superkick. Doring recovers and hits a "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" double arm DDT on C.W., follows with an inverted DDT on Bill, then sets up Bill for a top rope splash for Roadkill for the pin and the win. Joey pushes the talents of all four men, insinuating that this may lead to a series of tag matches between the teams.

Tommy Dreamer and the busty Francine head to the ring...I think Francine has a thong on!

Insert Hardcore Hotline ad (Who's stroking Miss Kitty? 20 guys fired from WCW...who's going to the Extreme?) and November To Remember ad here.

We return to see Tajiri and Steve Corino arguing at ringside only to be met by a Dreamer baseball slide. Jack Victory gets out of his wheelchair to help his cohorts, only to taste some punishment from Dreamer as well. Dreamer crotches Tajiri on the guardrail, smashes a drink in his face, then tosses Tajiri back into the ring. Dreamer is obviously in pain from 2 herniated discs in his legit injured back. Tajiri gets some offense going by hitting a handspring elbow off of the ropes. Dreamer is able to keep Tajiri off balance, hitting a slingshot splash from the apron onto Tajiri. Dreamer then does a Great Muta imitation and heads up top for a moonsault...yeah, right. Tajiri crotches Dreamer, then ties up Dreamer to the tree of woe, only to miss with a sliding kick to Dreamer's face and hit the post crotch first. Dreamer then does the "tree of woe" bit correctly, adding a chair to the mix via Francine. Both men brawl near the apron, only for Tajiri to hit a kick that sends Dreamer from the apron, off a ringside table that doesn't break, and to the floor. Tajiri lands a few of his lethal kicks while on the outside, then sets up Tommy for the tarantula, only for Dreamer to hit a low blow and set Tajiri up for the tarantula himself. Steve Corino takes a cheap shot at Dreamer to break up the hold, and while Dreamer is busy with Corino at ringside, Tajiri hits a baseball slide onto Dreamer. Tajiri tries to send Dreamer into the guardrail, but Dreamer reverses and sends Tajiri into the front row, starting the mandatory crowd brawling. They brawl into a penalty box (the arena doubles as the home of a minor league hockey team), and as Tajiri attempts to jump off of the boards, Dreamer introduces a plastic chair to Tajiri's head. As Dreamer hams it up with the crowd, Tajiri starts bleeding...how did that get there? Dreamer mocks Muta again by sending Tajiri back to ringside, taking a fan's beer, and spraying the "yellow mist" onto Tajiri. Dreamer tosses Tajiri back into the ring, but Tajiri is able to stop Dreamer's offense with a nasty looking kick. A face down Dreamer is taking punishment from Tajiri, but when Tajiri pulls up Dreamer to set him up for a final kick, Dreamer ducks and grabs Tajiri, hitting him with the Spicolli driver. Steve Corino enters the ring to break up the count, but Francine jumps in, leading to a whip into the ropes, a counter, and an eventual Pedigree by Francine. I told you she was wearing a thong! While the ref is distracted with Corino and Francine, Raven jumps in and DDTs...DREAMER? Tajiri hits a drop kick to Dreamer's face and gets the pinfall. The show ends with the camera getting a closeup of a bloody but victorious Tajiri.

Overall, this has to rank as the most balanced ECW broadcast on TNN to date. The whole show had entertaining matches, not to mention advancing the Dreamer/Raven angle. While the tag team match and the Spike Dudley push may have seemed like too much midcard at once, the matches they put on were entertaining, which is something WCW could only wish from their midcard talent.

Until next week, I've got my freeze frame on that Sytch bikini...