Hostile City Showdown (1996)

Hostile City Showdown (1996) was the third Hostile City Showdown professional wrestling supercard event produced by Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). It that took place on April 20, 1996 in the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Hostile City Showdown (1996)
The ECW Arena.
Promotion	Extreme Championship Wrestling
Date	April 20, 1996
City	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Venue	ECW Arena
Attendance	1,075
Event chronology
← Previous Massacre on Queens Boulevard Next → A Matter of Respect
Hostile City Showdown chronology
← Previous 1995 Next → 1997

Although not airing on pay-per-view, in July 2019 the event was added to the WWE Network, in the ECW pay-per-view section.[1]

Event

Preliminary matches

The show opened with a brawl between The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) and The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa Saed). In the opening match, El Puerto Ricano took on Super Nova. The match ended in a no contest after Eliminators interfered and attacked both men and then Gangstas attacked them and both teams brawled with each other. Several wrestlers came in to prevent both teams from preventing. The Full Blooded Italians (J.T. Smith and Little Guido) cut a promo on Eliminators and Gangstas, which was interrupted by D-Von Dudley, who attacked Guido with a steel chair and chased Smith to the backstage. The Bad Crew then attacked Ricano until Hack Meyers made the save by attacking the team.

Next, The Pitbulls (Pitbull #1 and Pitbull #2) took on The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley). The match ended in a no contest after both teams began brawling around the Eagle's Nest and then D-Von hit the referee with a chair and Pitbulls executed an aided superbomb to the referee.

Next, Taz took on Devon Storm. Taz knocked Storm out of the ring with a belly-to-belly Tazplex and Storm was counted out as a result. After the match, Taz applied a Tazmission to Storm to choke him out unconscious.

Next, Axl Rotten took on Little Guido. JT Smith interfered multiple times on Guido's behalf but Rotten still managed to hit an inverted powerbomb for the win.

Later, The Sandman and 2 Cold Scorpio took on The Bruise Brothers (Don Bruise and Ron Bruise). Scorpio delivered a moonsault to a standing Bruise Brother for the win.

Next, Tommy Dreamer took on Brian Lee. Bruise Brothers interfered in the match, allowing Lee to place a cinder block in Dreamer's groin and nail a steel chair in the block for the win.

In the penultimate match, Sabu took on Rob Van Dam. Sabu hit RVD with a chair and executed a triple jump moonsault for the win. After the match, Sabu extended a handshake to RVD but RVD refused to shake his hands and walked away.

Main event match

Raven defended the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against Shane Douglas in the main event. Before the match, Douglas revealed to Tommy Dreamer that his girlfriend, Beulah McGillicutty, was not pregnant as she had claimed and was in fact cheating with him. After Dreamer demanded to know who Beulah was cheating on him with, Douglas' valet, Kimona Wanalaya, revealed it was her and then kissed Beulah. Dreamer then declared, "I'll take 'em both, I'm hardcore!" and kissed both Beulah and Kimona. Near the end of the match, Douglas applied a figure four leglock on Raven until Stevie Richards distracted the referee, allowing Bruise Brothers to attack Douglas and Raven hit Douglas with a loaded boot to retain the title. After the match, Douglas cut a promo on his obsession about the World Heavyweight Championship, leading to 2 Cold Scorpio coming out and objecting to Douglas' obsession about the World Heavyweight Championship but ignoring the ECW World Television Championship and then as Scorpio was leaving, Douglas turned into a villain by attacked Scorpio and nailed a belly-to-belly suplex and a piledriver to Scorpio on the title belt and Sandman tried to make the rescue but Douglas delivered him a second belly-to-belly suplex.

Reception

Hostile City Showdown received mixed reviews from the critics. Shinobi of Wrestling Recaps rated it 8 out of 10, considering it " a really cool ECW show", adding that the show had "historical moments with RVD & Sabu’s first match", the controversial lesbian angle between Beulah McGillicutty and Kimona Wanalaya. He further added "The highlight for sure was the surprisingly good Raven/Douglas title match. The Eliminators vs Gangstas feud got pretty awesome with this show as well." Due to the highly sexual angles on the show, he considered it to be "one of those ECW shows that gives you a good idea of where the Attitude Era came from. A few stinker matches keeps the overall score down, but really the storyline progression, interesting characters, and compelling rivalries made this another really fun, interesting ECW show."[2]

Wrestling 20 Years Ago staff rated it 5 out of 10, appreciating the first match of Rob Van Dam and Sabu and Taz's squash match while considering the rest of the event to be "frustrating".[3]

Aftermath

Main article: A Matter of Respect (1996)

Several matches at Hostile City Showdown would result in the beginning of new rivalries and continuation of several rivalries heading into the next major event A Matter of Respect. Shane Douglas' assault on 2 Cold Scorpio led to a match between the two for the World Television Championship, where Douglas defeated Scorpio for the title. Rob Van Dam's disrespect to Sabu led to a rematch between the two at A Matter of Respect, where RVD defeated Sabu to even the score and then Sabu walked out after the match refusing to shake hands with RVD. The rivalry between Axl Rotten and Full Blooded Italians continued as Rotten and Hack Meyers took on FBI in a tag team match at A Matter of Respect, which FBI won. The feud between Brian Lee and Tommy Dreamer and The Eliminators and The Gangstas continued as Dreamer and Gangstas defeated Lee and Eliminators in a six-man tag team match.[4]

Controversy

The kiss between Beulah and Kimona at Hostile City Showdown aired on the April 30 episode of Hardcore TV, which led to numerous networks, including MSG and Sunshine Network, dropping the series on the basis that ECW had violated their content standards.[5][6]

Results

No.	Results	Stipulations	Times[7]
1	El Puerto Ricano fought Super Nova to a no contest	Singles match	2:07
2	Mikey Whipwreck defeated Billy Black	Singles match	7:09
3	The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) (with Big Dick Dudley, Chubby Dudley, Sign Guy Dudley and Dances with Dudley) fought The Pitbulls (Pitbull #1 and Pitbull #2) (with Francine) to a no contest	Tag team match	9:00
4	Taz (with Bill Alfonso) defeated Devon Storm by count out	Singles match	4:51
5	Axl Rotten defeated Little Guido (with J.T. Smith)	Singles match	6:21
6	2 Cold Scorpio and The Sandman (with Missy Hyatt) defeated The Bruise Brothers (Don Bruise and Ron Bruise)	Tag team match	8:25
7	Brian Lee defeated Tommy Dreamer	Singles match	6:49
8	Sabu defeated Rob Van Dam	Singles match	18:57
9	Raven (c) (with Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie) defeated Shane Douglas (with Kimona Wanalaya)	Singles match for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship	16:40
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

References

1. Coulson, Steve (2019-07-15). "ECW Supershows Officially Added To WWE Network Archives As July's Classic Content – Links Included". WWE Network News. Retrieved 2019-07-15.
2. "ECW Hostile City Showdown 1996 4/20/1996". Wrestling Recaps. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
3. "ECW HOSTILE CITY SHOWDOWN 1996 REVIEW". Wrestling 20 Years Ago. July 7, 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
4. Arnold Furious (12 August 2018). "ECW A Matter Of Respect 1996 5/11/1996". Wrestling Recaps.
5. Thom Loverro (22 May 2007). The Rise & Fall of ECW: Extreme Championship Wrestling. Simon & Schuster. pp. 148–149. ISBN 978-1-4165-1312-4.
6. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. July 2004.
7. "ECW Hostile City Showdown 1996 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net. Retrieved 8 November 2018.