#160 – Anarchy Rulz 1999
This week on the show, Dre and Black Cat discuss ECW Anarchy Rulz 1999. Please support the show and pick up our new SEASON 4 BOX SET including two unreleased episodes of reviews for the 1987 Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team tournament and the documentary “Heroes of World Class Wrestling” available on DVD or for direct download. Please support the Old School Wrestling Podcast by visiting oldschoolwrestlingpodcast.com where you can find links to all of our great products. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you…..at the matches!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:57:29 — 96.7MB)
Listening to the episode right now and when you mentioned Doppleganger Hogan, it brought back memories to the first ECW show I attended and a couple of other ones I’ve attended so I’ll try to be brief as possible with each one of them.
The first ECW show I attended happened to be the first ECW show held in Michigan. It was in a suburb of Detroit in what could generously be described as a dump of a town called Inkster. The fun started with a three hour drive down from my hometown to the Inkster Recreation Center. We get to the building and see one car and a Winnebago parked in the lot. My friend and I go into the center to buy tickets and the lady at the counter says to us that she literally knows nothing but no wrestling tickets and the guy that has them hasn’t shown up yet.
Dejected, we walk outside and are standing there for a few moments when a spindly sort in a NJPW satin jacket comes out. Sure enough, it’s referee John “Pee Wee” Moore. We ask him about the ticket situation, and he has the tickets in the trunk of his car and that he will sell us the 25 dollar seats for an even twenty.
Fumbling in my pocket for the money, he looks at me and says that if I don’t have the cash on hand he will gladly give me the tickets in exchange for some “Iranian Tobacco”. I tell him I have no such item and give him the cash. This transaction may be one of the many reasons why ECW eventually went bankrupt.
Now, we’ve got about six or seven hours before the show and are just standing by our car when Sabu pops out of the Winnebago. My friend starts to walk up to him and yells, “HEY SABU!” Sabu immediately gets a look on his face like I’ve never seen before and looks like he’s going to charge at us, prompting the both of us to get in the car and lock the doors.
Onto the show, it was a good enough show for their first effort complete with Chris Candido personally apologizing to me during intermission that they couldn’t put on a better show that night.
At one point, the infamous Hogan Doppleganger that seemed to appear at the Chicago and Detroit area shows walks in wearing a full Hollywood Hogan NWO outfit. He quietly sits down in the bleachers and within five minutes, the ECW faithful boo him out of the building. He said nothing, he did nothing…his presence alone in the winter of 1998 in an ECW crowd caused this. It is the only time I’ve ever seen a fan get booed out of the building.
Turns out, this Hogan impersonator is actually an ice cream man from the Detroit area who goes by the name Randy Hogan.
Another infamous moment in the time of going to ECW was the May 1999 TV taping that was held in Detroit. My friend got some free tickets to the taping gets us down there a good six hours before the show so John Finnegan can hand us the tickets.
Great, now we’ve got hours to kill in a less than stellar area of Detroit. Doing what most folks would do in that situation, we walk to the nearest record store…a place called Rufus’ Records.
It was like the “do you mind if we dance with your dates” scene from Animal House. I think the only thing that got us out of there alive is that my friend knew enough about Teddy Pendergrass to have a conversation long enough with the proprietor to get us out of there alive.
Onto the show. It was the taping the weekend of Owen Hart’s passing and the last match taped for TV was the Dudleys/ Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney match where they did the flaming thumbtack table spot.
During Gertner’s seemingly endless introduction, he goes to use the restroom. At some point while he was away from the seat, the match started and they start brawling up the stairs on the side of the entrance. I see my friend walking up, unaware of the danger that lurked just feet behind him. I yell to him “RUN” and he looks at me, looks behind. He starts moving a little bit faster and no more than a few seconds later one of the Dudleys WAFFLES either Balls or Axl with a chair in the spot he was standing.
They eventually brawl to our section maybe one or two rows in front of us with them almost knocking a small child over the rail.
But the weirdest thing of the night were the two people, in their mid forties or so that sat directly in front of us. They sat silent the whole night, not saying a word. Their only outburst was when the table was lit on fire, they let out a simple “oh my” and clapped like they were at an All Japan show.
Dave Scherer runs PWInsider
I lost a Swiss Army knife at the 1998 Wrestlepalooza in Marietta, GA. The security guy told me I could take it back to the car, but we were parked in Egypt and had just stood in line 45 minutes to get in. He told me if it was still in the bin when the show was over I could get it back, but somebody beat me to it.
Motörhead Play a Show in Vienna. They brought their own Roadie who checked the crowd at the entrance: Tall, black leather, Long hair, beard – impressive!!! He finds my Swiss Army knife in my leather jacket, asks: “What’s that?”. I: “Well, more a tolle than a weapon”. Roadie asks one of the local stuff: “You know him, is he OK?”, Local guy: “Yes”. Roadie lets me in – with the knive. Oh, the good old times… Peace!
Ooops! Not “tolle” – “tool”!
If ECW could of just hung on another year or two they could have filled the roster with all the indie guys the WWE used to ignore like Punk,El Generico,Chris Hero,Kevin Steen,Austin Aries etc.
Neat story involving my first ECW show was the first ECW’s show in Peoria at the civic center in one of the smaller vending rooms. Yes the security was heavy. Also it was heavy because of the Limp Bizkit show in the main arena which Steve Carino crashed.
Being 13 years old at the time, middle of the show I went to the guard rail to get high five/ boo the wrestlers. One of the matches on tap for the night was Rhino vs The Sandman. Now Sandman just returned a month before and now he was coming from the audience to ringside. He comes out from the back from a side door and he made his way through the audience to right where I was stand. He stood on a chair with one leg on the guard rail did his trademark drinking the beer and smashing on his head. I was right under him as the Budweiser spray of the crowd. I returned to my seat I smelled like a roughneck on pay day. My parents & my brother where SHOCKED to see me getting spray with booze. I didn’t care I had a big smile on my face.
Side not I got to meet the lovely Francine and her five grand chestesticles. I bought a $20 shirt just for her have her sign it.