by Mike Johnson @ 3:30:00 PM on 4/18/2005


Add former ECW World Tag Team champion Balls Mahoney and former ECW TV champion JT Smith to the 6/12 ECW One Night Stand PPV. Both have come to agreements to appear at the PPV event.

Mahoney, who held the ECW tag straps with both Masato Tanaka and Spike Dudley, still regularly works Northeastern independents.

Smith, who has been retired since 1997 with the exception of a few appearances here and there, is a former ECW TV champion (having defeated Taz) and was a major underdog babyface during the early days of ECW including a win over Mike Awesome at the Night the Line was Crossed. After turning heel and "believing he was Italian" (Smith is African-American), Smith became the genesis for the "Full Blooded Italians" gimmick which later resurfaced in WWE.

Talent Under WWE Contract Available for PPV:

Chris Benoit
Simon Dean (aka Nova in ECW)
Tommy Dreamer
Spike Dudley
The Dudley Boyz
Eddie Guerrero
Paul Heyman
Chris Jericho
Lita (aka Miss Congeniality in ECW)
Dean Malenko
Dawn Marie
Joey Matthews
Rey Mysterio
Rhyno (still under 90 day no compete at time of PPV)
Nunzio (aka Little Guido in ECW)
Psicosis
Steven Richards
Al Snow
Lance Storm
Johnny Swinger
Yoshihiro Tajiri
Tazz
Rob Van Dam
Chilly Willy (released but available for show)


Of course, there's also Mick Foley and Steve Austin, although neither are currently signed to WWE wrestler deals.

Outside Talent Contacted & Announced and/or Expected to Appear:

Terry Funk
Axl Rotten
Balls Mahoney
Bill Alfonso
Jason
JT Smith
Justin Credible
Masato Tanaka
Referee John Finnegan
Referee Mike Kehner
Referee Jim Molineaux
Sabu
The Sandman
Tony Mamaluke
Tracy Smothers


Additional Talent Contacted but not Confirmed:

Joey Styles

Talent Contacted via TNA, but Not Expected to Appear:

Raven
Shane Douglas
Kid Kash (note: Kash was released by TNA today)
Jerry Lynn


The event takes place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. (Manhattan Center, I beliebve)

With all the talk of the ECW dvd and the Owen Hart final match, I thought of a truly tasteless and improper title for an Owen dvd. (I am so going to hell for this one.)



Mods if that is too tacky or tastless please delete but there has been worse around here.

Yeah like Eric68 posted, looks to be at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC, which is a freaking small place to hold a ppv. It's also a freaking crazy, rowdy place.

I think they fired Rhyno so it'd be weird to bring him back in time for the show, but he is [was] the last ECW champ.

(And let's get Dean Malenko back in the ring, please)

This list seems too big to have each guy have a match, especially if you have to promote matches with guys that don't work for them. I think theyre gonna back out and have a battle royal and matches having only wwe guys win.

I had not heard Hardcore Homecoming would be available on dvd. It's technically an indie show so I don't know who would be producing it.

that doesn't = bundle. At DDD, they have the PPV up for 13 bucks and the Collectors Edition up for 18.88. I don't think the Rise and Fall DVD would be 5 bucks added on. So I wonder what it will be.

It's a pretty safe bet this will be on dvd. There's always someone to produce the dvd, a local indie did a double shot weekend and both were on dvd in less than a week.

hmm...I was going to order the PPV alone but now that the CE seems to have something else I don't know what to do!

Update: Here's a thought. Maybe it's the PPV and the main documentary of RAFO ECW. So basically it won't be both discs from the RAFO ECW.

They moved up the release to 6/28 to try and beat the release of Douglas show on dvd. That's only 2 weeks away so if you preorder it from a good store it's possible to get it in 10 days. The ECW CE is still listed as the original 7/12 date but only a couple stores have it listed and no details are available. I decided to preorder since it's not that far away, but I'll be pissed if anything at all is censored. (including the anti-WWE chants)

Well the PPV itself was censored left and right. Or was it just my provider that had it on a 7 second delay or something? The crowd wasn't censored, but the promos certainly were! That was my only disappointment with it.

The promos were censored...

I think, just from watching Heat, that they originally intended to censor some of the crowd's chants but they realized very quickly on Heat, the crowd won't let up and you miss what the commentators are saying by censoring the crowd chants.

I wonder how many letters will be sent into Spike TV for airing, "Shut the fuck up!" & "You suck dick!" at 7pm on TV-14 show???

IMO, this was the best show since the last ECW show... The WWE will never be able to top it.

It was blast to watch and a fun jolt of nostalgia, but from an in ring perspective, lets get real.
There was nothing that even approached the quality of Angle/Michaels from Wrestlemania.
Hats off to Awesome and Tanaka for killing themselves though.
If they do these on a yearly basis, I'd have no qualms at all.

-Paul Jacobi-

I've read nothing but positive reviews on the PPV last night. I didn't get the show since I just get them on DVD, but it seems like this is another must own. Personally, I wasn't that impressed (aside from the Taz/Angle deal) with the angles they shot on Smackdown & Raw...but after the show last night many are thinking this could be the start of another hot period.

At Hardcore Homecoming they were scheduled to start selling a documentary on ECW. Did anyone pick this up? Any reviews?

Angle/Michaels was a great match, but One Night Stand was a way better ppv than Wrestlemania 21. ONS was the first ppv in a long time to get me excited about watching wrestling again. I have no idea how WWE is going to top this.

The DVD of this show is going to be must buy for me. Hopefully it will include the Roadkill promo that they cut away from last night.

Exactly.

The only way the WWE can top this is if they let Paul Heyman have more involvement.

It is impossible to pinpoint a turnaround moment when it is happening. Only with some time gone by to give perspective does one realize that a "moment" happened.

While I loved the birth of "Austin 3:16" I in no way said to myself "this is a turning point!"

Maybe 15 months from now we'll be able to look back on ONS as a turning point, but not one night later.

True. Austin 3:16 started in '97, and wrestling didn't get huge until spring of '98.

Speaking of Austin, when is he going to get a big DVD set.

I would love for that to happen, but it won't. Vince will keep Hayman around though, so he doesn't go somewhere like TNA or another startup.

IMO, WWE will not be able to top last night's show because of one word... EMOTION.

WWE's performers don't have any... Last night the guys came out, worked their asses of and left everything they had in the ring. And the fans know that... Just like they know when WWE puts on a half-hearted effort...