Legends of The Arena
Philadelphia, Pa. at The Arena (a/k/a ECW Arena)
Report by Dot Net reader Gene Novak

I had forgotten about the Legends of the Arena show until I saw it mentioned on your site. I had never been to an ECW event before, nor the tribute shows that followed so I decided to order my ticket on the phone and drove two hours down to the arena. When I arrived, there was a Q&A going on in the ring with the people who purchased VIP tickets. I had just purchased general so I sat outside until the door opened. Once inside I was amazed by how small the Arena really is considering the history that took place here. They had two nice screens on the walls though.

I did notice the banners up for the previous Hall of Famers and Public Enemy as well. I was sectioned in SouthWest row 1 seat 9. The seating was incredibly disorganized and there wasn't even 9 seats in row 1 and the chairs were labeled randomly, which confused a bunch of people. Balls and Axl came out to play up the crowd and did a quick kiss on the lips. Right before the show started the security guards moved everyone in my section down to another row because, as they put it, they really screwed up this section.

We were moved to west and I was in the second row. The opening graphic appeared on the screen, it was the old ECW intro from the mid '90s playing Thunderkiss. The opening sequence had replaced the letters extreme with legends, outside of that pretty identical. The show did appear to be recorded no doubt for a DVD release.

The show opened with Bob Artese preparing to call the opening contest when Joel Gertner interrupted him. Joel wasn't wearing his color or a bow tie but still had no shirt on. Joel did his bit and then he had our opening contest.

1. 2 Cold Scorpio defeated CW Anderson. Scorpio won this match with a moonsault, however the ref had counted two and CW raised his shoulder. The ref then called for the bell, obviously a screwup. After the batch Scorpio hit a moonsault legdrop. CW then stood up a few minutes later and the two shook hands. Strange but decent match.

2. Bilvs Weasley over The Muskateer. This match was weak and was obviously filler. The highlight was when New Jack's music hit. Muskateer looked for him and Weasley rolled him up. After the match Weasley called everyone stupid marks.

3. Chris Hamrick beat Crowbar. Crowbar ragged the crowd and talked about his numerous WCW titles. Crowbar called out Taz and claimed his opponent had fashioned his ring gear out of a hefty bag which resulted in some hefty, hefty, hefty, wimpy, wimpy, wimpy chants from some of the crowd. Decent spot match. Couple blown spots between both men. Hamrick won with a Tazmission on Crowbar.

4. Rhino defeated Jamie Dundee and Scotty Anton in Triple Threat. Scotty Anton looked terrible and I would never had recognized him if he wasn't doing the American Males clap. People in my section were questioning his use of illegal pharmaceuticals. Dundee ragged the crowd for a bit. At one point during the match Anton grabbed Rhino's hands and made him due the American Males clap. Rhino gored Dundee for the win. Anton then made Dundee do the clap. Why this was first fall instead of elimination is strange for ECW.

The Hall of Fame bit with Sandman and Gary Wolfe giving out the award to Sabu and Tod Gordon. Sandman ragged on Raven for arguing about his pay and Raven came to the ring and told him if you need him he'll be signing autographs. Sandman called out Fonzie to induct Sabu. Fonzie ragged Gordon for a bit and then hanged behind Sabu. At one point Sandman said pay no attention to the man behind the curtain to which someone said man behind the turban which Sandman liked. Gordon brought his family to the ring for the introduction. Sandman claimed that Sabu and him had never teamed and asked him if he would like to tonight. Nice bit.

5. Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten defeated Da Baldies. Violent match which ended with everyone bleeding. After the match both teams shook hands in ECW spirit. Axl gave his chair to a fan.

Intermission...

6. The BWO (Blue Meanie and Nova) defeated The FBI. This was a campy match although not as much as Meanie vs Tracey Smothers from Hardcore Homecoming. Sal E and Meanie had a dance off early on and Nova did the Hulk Up routine on Guido. After the match Nova announced he no longer does this fulltime and might not be back so he wanted one more dance off. Guido did the Meanie dance and all four hammed it up. Guido left on Sal E's shoulders still dancing.

Francine came out and was very pregnant. She thanked the fans for coming and talked out the passing of her father and sister of cancer and how her other sister beat cancer. Her family was up in the Eagle's Nest and the fans went with a "she's hardcore" chant. She announced a door price that the person with South Row 1 Seat 9 would introduce the next match. (I only remember because I was SouthWest Row 1 Seat 9).

The guy did a decent job introducing Al Snow. It was then mentioned that Shane Douglas couldn't make the show. Which resulted in non-complementary chants towards Douglas immediately. Al Snow blamed Head for Douglas not showing and played it up a bit. The lights went out and Jerry Lynn was in the ring. New F'n Show chants ensued. I could easily see him running from the back into the ring from my vantage point though.

7. Al Snow defeated Jerry Lynn. The match was decent but more campy with two ref bumps after a Snow Plow by Snow and a cradle piledriver by Lynn. Both Lynn and Snow did the Eddie Guerrero chair bit with both guys laying down when the ref turned around. Snow won when he hit Lynn
with Head.

8. Sabu (w/Fonzie) and Sandman defeated Raven (w/Chastity) and Justin Credible (w/Jason) with Terry Funk as special referee. Raven came out first with Chastity minus leather jacket. Funk came out next (odd order). Justin Credible came out with Jason next. Good to see Jason again. Next was Sabu with Fonzie. Sabu is totally bald now if you didn't know. Last by not least was the Sandman. Very cool seeing Sandman's entrance in the ECW Arena. The crowd was singing the song. Sandman brought a ladder to the ring with Funk through out. Funk said he doesn't care what these a!!holes do, it's ECW rules.

Raven grabbed the mic and claimed he should be home right now with his wife watching Golden Girls instead of here and if he doesn't take a cane shot in five minutes he's laying down and nobody's moving him. Funny stuff! Decent match with Raven DDT'ing someone who turned out to be Tyler Fullington. He said he turned on him years ago and this is retribution. Sandman's other kid who look like young Tyler crotch shotted Raven and DDTed him.

The match ended with Sabu using the Arabian Facebuster onto Credible who was laying face down on a table. Raven woke up from the DDT and asked if he missed Golden Girls. We were thanked for attending the show as the ECW music was playing throughout the arena. As people were leaving Raven was lying in the ring with his feet on the ropes just relaxing.

All and all a pretty good show. I'm glad I made the trip and to be able to see a real ECW show in the ECW Arena.

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