Background: In the continued war between WWF and ECW, Tommy Dreamer and his girlfriend Beulah McGuillicutty joined forces to take on the WWF Superstar wannabes Rob Van Dam and Bill Alfonso.
As Good as it Gets
Philadelphia, PA
September 20, 1997
Tommy Dreamer & Beulah McGuillicutty vs. Rob Van Dam & Bill Alfonso
A Cactus Clothesline from Tommy Dreamer immediately took himself and Rob Van Dam to the floor some they could brawl around ringside. In a not-so-smart attack, Dreamer jumped from the top trope to the floor to bash RVD in the head with a chair. Limping and winching in great pain was Tommy as he got up from jumping onto concrete from some ten feet in the air. Ignoring the pain, Dreamer unleashed a chair-based assault until “crooked” referee Jeff Jones took the chair away from Dreamer. Van Dam looked to take advantage of this argument breaking out between Dreamer and the referee when Tommy saw what was coming and ducked and caused RVD to kick the chair into Jones’ face. With the referee down, Sabu and RVD’s manager Bill Alfonso entered the ring to set up a double team dropkick con-chair-to. As if that wasn’t enough, Alfonso brought in a table so Van Dam and Sabu could Five Star Frog Splash and guillotine leg drop Dreamer through the table respectively. Van Dam opted to call it a night, but told Bill Alfonso to finish what he started by beating down Beulah.
Bill Alfonso loved the idea, shoving Beulah around before she gave him one free shot. Removing a baking sheet from underneath her t-shirt, McGuillicutty tricked Bill into punching the metal before she bashed him in the face with the cooking object. Alfonso got up, bleeding profusely. The fans were going wild, cheering in support of Beulah as she tossed her bloody opposition out of the ring. Taking a frying pan from some fan, McGuillicutty looked to cave Bill’s skull in. Alfonso recovered in time to stop the attack with a low blow. The fans rallied behind McGuillicutty as New Jack and Axl Rotten did the same at ringside. Using his whistle strap, Alfonso choked Beulah into a body slam. Blocking the suplex was Beulah before she landed a DDT … for a two count!
Missing a wild clothesline, Alfonso felt the power of McGuillicutty’s clothesline to a huge ovation. Taking a knife-edge chop saw Bill Alfonso fired off a chop of his own to drop Beulah in position for a moonsault. Beulah caught him climbing the ropes, putting Bill in the tree of woe for the big sliding dropkick! “E-C-W!” chants sounded out as Beulah did Tommy’s crucifixion pose.
Like Alfonso, Beulah wanted to execute a moonsault. Alfonso got up before she could dive, pulling her off the ropes for a power bomb attempt. But she had a counter: the Beulah-carana. Beulah quickly went for the pin, scoring an incredible victory for her team. The chants hadn’t died down in support of both Beulah and the company.
Winner: Tommy Dreamer & Beulah McGuillicutty (13:15)
Is It A Classic: The first half was a slaughtering of RVD until the numbers advantage (and common sense) got the better Tommy Dreamer. The second half is one of the most historic moments in ECW’s legacy. It’s not a technical masterpiece and won’t be heralded as one of the great bouts of all time from a technical perspective, but it was a genuine moment where you saw a man and woman on the same playing field battling like warriors until one was the victor. Something like that wasn’t close to being the norm and ECW went there.
