The show was scheduled to start at 8, but really started around 8:15. Why? They were only using one entrance to the Siegel center so the security guards could (no joke) pat us down. And not the local security, they were Paul E's big guys in black suits. I found my way to my seat eventually, pleasantly surprised at how close I was to the ring. I was directly across from the entranceway, about 5 rows back from the front row. Interestingly, the front row was 6 or 7 feet back from the guardrail. As soon as the music started though, people ran up to the rail. I managed to get a good spot along the rail.

The first match was a three-way tag team match. First out were the Dupps, with Puck acting as the mouthpiece. One of the Dupps (the one without the Superman tattoo) kept putting his hand to his ass, then holding it up for other people to smell. Nasty. Next out were Nova and Kid Cash. Finally, out came the team of Doring and Roadkill, along with whateverhernameis. She wasn't wearing much though, I can tell you that. Pretty standard match, for the most part though. The Dupps were eliminated first after a top rope splash from Nova. Cash didn't do much (I found out later that he had gotten dropped on his head early in the match and was kind of groggy) to help Nova though. Nova and Cash won the match though, and got a post-match beatdown from Doring and Roadkill for their trouble.

Next up was a matchup between Little Guido and Jerry Lynn. Guido, of course, was accompanied by the Fat Fuck. Standard "Where's my pizza?" chant for Guido, while Sal got all sorts of heat for just being a big fat fuck. Jerry and Guido had a nice technical match going on, until Guido thew Lynn outside, and Sal hit the avalanche spalsh on him. Lots of near falls here, and it was all kinds of exciting. The finish came after Lynn reversed a Sal powerbomb into a rana. Guido then went for the Tomikaze, but Lynn reversed him too, and hit the cradle piledriver for the win.

Next up was Lou E. Dangerously (to a "Sign Guy" chant) with a house phone(?) and CW Anderson. SG got the stick and talked about how he wasn't doing a "tribute" to Paul, he just hated him, and this was a way to get back. Mikey Whipwreck came out to face Anderson. Mikey and Anderson seemed to be on autopilot for most of this matchup, so it was a real slowdown from the previous match. Anderson hit a wicked sidekick and spinebuster on Mikey, which is about all I remember of the match, because a kid in front of me started going off about how mad he was that we were "touching" him. Whatever. Anderson got the win here, IIRC.

Next up was the match I was hoping to see, and a Three-Way Dance was annouced. First out was Ikuto Hidaka (aka BattleArts Guy), who now had blond hair. Next up was Jaun Marquez (I think) who got lots of jokes for not being able to afford a whole set of tights. Finally out came Super Calo. A nice little match ensued, but was cut short after about 5 minutes by none other than Sabu. Sabu gimped to the ring with his crutch, then beat up everyone there. Hidaka and Calo got put through a table RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, literally. I got a cool picture of Sabu in mid-air as he came off the top rope to put them through the table. Cool shit. The match was, of course, ruled a no-contest.

There was a delay of about 10 minutes as one of the lights stopped wrking for one reason or another. Just as I was about to go back to my seat, The lights went back down, and out came Da Baldies. This was my cue to go hit the merchandise stand. As I lined Heyman's pockets with gold (2 shirts, 3 tapes), I ran into Cash, who told me about being dropped on his head. I saw Francine, so I said "Why not?" and got a picture of her too. The real surprise was was Miss Congeniality came out from behind a corner to say hi to Francine. I was surprised anyway. There were 3 other people around, so no one else saw it, I'm guessing. I got a pic with her and Cham Pain (aka Puck Dupp) after I told Pain I was a fan of his work in OMEGA. One neat tidbit: I overheard him tell Miss Congeniality (I didn't want to seem like I knew her, so why call her Amy?) that he had gottena call from Chris Canyon (sp?) to ask him if he could use the Cham Pain name in WCW. Like I said, a neat tidbit. I eventually found my way back to my seat as Mike Awesome put one of the Baldies through a ringside table (after New Jack pasted somebody with a keyboard) to remain ECW Champion. Jeff Jones got on the mic to proclaim Awesome as the best giant in ECW, which brought on "Highway to Hell" and Spike Dudley. Spike hit Awesome with a quick Acid Drop then rolled out and left, as Awesome asked Jones "What happened?" Neat spot.

Simon Diamond came out to announce that his Dick wasn't here tonight. Which, he said, basically meant he was dickless. Out came Jazz, to whom Simon said "Didn't I just beat your ass on Pay Per View?" Jazz replied; "It looks like without your Dick, your nothing but a pussy." Simon said for her to go to her corner to he would start the match. As soon as she did, Simon, of course, jumped her. Quick match, with pretty much no offense from Jazz. Simon hit a fireman's carry into a reverse DDT for the win. Neato. REALLY short match though. It couldn't have been 4 or 5 minutes.

They did the intermission after that, and I ran into a guy I knew from VMI, so I talked to him for a while.

They ran the theme music again to start the show off once more. First out were Steve Corino and Jack Victory. Corino ran down Virginia, then talked about how he stands for all that's good in life and wrestling, as opposed to wrestlers and fans who stand for drug abuse, alchoolism, and pre-marital sex. Monster heat for Corino. Corino ran down Dusty Rhodes, then brought out a "true champion," Wildfire Tommy Rich! Rich proclaimed Corino as "one of the best men I know" and he ran down Dusty as well. Finally, out came Tommy Dreamer to confront them. Corino said the only reason Dreamer was a wrestler was that he's such a big mark that he named himnself after Tommy Rich and "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes. Tommy talked about how he did hardcore before it was cool, and that that's what the company was built on. Before long, Rich attacked Dreamer, and we had an impromptu match. Raven eventually ran out to help Dreamer get the win and retain the tag titles. Corino got on the mic afterwards to complain "WE NEVER GET A FAIR SHOT!" Funny stuff. It should be noted that Dusty never came out.

Next up was a tag match between the Impact Players (separate entrances) and Candido and Rhino. Everyone brought all of their friends for this one, if you know what I mean. Pretty standard match between these two teams. They eventually worked to a catfight spot, pleasing the hell out of the freaks behind me. I must admit, I liked it a bit too... ANYWAY, Sandman walked right by me to get up to a spot in the crowd so he could do his entrance. After pouring beer on a couple of fans, he finally got in the ring, caning the shit out of everyone. Sandman got decked by Justin though. Justin caned Storm (Storm was holding Sandman) by mistake, then Rhino speared Sandman through a table in the corner. Really neat ending.

Finally we got our main event. RVD vs Spike Dudley for the TV title. Spike offense consisted of lots of roll-ups, a few dropkicks and a couple of nice swinging rana's from the top-rope. RVD stalled a lot, hit a couple of moves of the guardrail into the crowd, stalled some more, and ran through a few of his spots. The finish came when Spike went for the Acid drop, but RVD threw him onto a pile of chairs that Fonzie had stacked in a corner. RVD then hopped up to the top and hit a 5 Star splash for the win.

All in all, a fun night. ECW comes back to Richmond May 5, so my b-day present will be front row tickets. Hell yeah.

Tom Cruz