ECW Barely Legal 1997 (1997)

Best movie ever!

Absolutely brilliant

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

1st Match: The Eliminators vs The Dudley Boys, ECW World Tag Team Championships. This is a squash match that is basically a bunch of spots in a row, granted, all the matches on here are spotfests. I of course am not going to watch this expecting a lot of technical prowess, I'm watching this for the spots. The Eliminators dominate the whole match, and the crowd loves the Dudleys getting destroyed for 6 straight minutes. An entertaining start to the show. Rating: 3/52nd Match: Rob Van Dam vs Lance Storm. This is a good match, I've been waiting to see Rob in a match for so long. This is also the first Lance Storm match I've ever seen, so it's a good start for me. The matches on here have a few blown spots, and there are some pretty weak chair shots here, but a good back and forth match that hits hard. Rating: 3.5/53rd Match: The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada and Masato Yakushiji vs bWo Japan. Another entertaining match that is just wall to wall spots. I have no idea who any of these guys are, but it's really fun to see these guys just fly all over the place. Rating: 3.5/54th Match: Pitbull #2 vs Shane Douglas, ECW World TV Championship. Oh hey, it's Dean Douglas, remember him? All joking aside, this match drags on forever. The story going into it is alright, Pitbull 2 wants to avenge his injured tag partner, and while there's nothing technically wrong with the match, it goes way too long. After the match, Rick Rude and Brian Lee ambush Shane and get a huge pop. Rating: 3/55th Match: Sabu vs Taz. Billed as "The Grudge Match of the Century", which given how hard these guys hit each other, I'm inclined to believe. They go into the crowd, through tables, crazy spots, ECW in a nutshell basically. I wish I could say more about these matches, but they are all literally just spots. Even though guys are getting hit with some insane moves, they practically no-sell them and move onto the next spot. Tazmission gets the win, and Sabu gets suplexed into another lifetime, I remember that. After the match, Taz shakes Sabu's hand, which sets up an ambush from Sabu and RVD, Fonzie then joins them and leaves Taz beaten at ringside. A surprising finish, and a good way to set up some more hatred for Fonzie. Rating: 4.5/56th Match: Stevie Richards vs Terry Funk vs The Sandman, Three-Way Dance. The winner of this gets a shot at Raven's belt later on, and by "later on", I mean immediately after this. Tommy Dreamer is on commentary, but he's not very good at it. He's here to support Funk though, so it's OK. Funk does a moonsault off a ladder, he's 53, that's impressive, even though he misses. Another nice brawl, with Funk getting the underdog win. Rating: 4.5/57th Match: Terry Funk vs Raven, ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Raven is out immediately, and beats Funk all over the place. Raven says he's gonna end Funk's career right in front of Tommy, which provokes Dreamer into saving the day. Funk gets the sympathy win, and while it didn't last long, it was a feel good end to the show. Rating: 3/5Final Rating: 7 out of 10. ECW got off on the right foot here. All the matches revolve around sick spots, a hot crowd, and brutality. ECW takes no prisoners, welcome to the Age of Extreme!

ECW presented Barely Legal on April 13, 1997 from the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The first match if for the ECW Tag Team Championship, Bubba Ra & D-Von defend the titles against The Eliminators. It was a very fast paced match with a very fast start to it. The Eliminators get the win in the end.Next is Lance Strom, who was supposed to face Chris Candido, facing Rob Van Dam. It was a 5 star match, with innovative moves by Rob Van Dam.We move on to a Six Man Tag Team Match that was a very fast paced and very extreme match. This match had a ton of great wrestling in it.ECW Television Championship Match is next, Shane Douglas vs. Pitbull #1. It was a boring 18 minute match, that had some hot points in it.Next is my personal favorite, Taz vs. Sabu! This was the show stealer for sure. Taz has really toned down now, he used to be a tough guy back in the day. Sabu was innovative in his match as always and of course it delivered.Next is Terry Funk vs. Sandman vs. Stevie Richards. This was a bigger show stealer. It had many extreme points and kept the fans busy throughout the entire brawl.Next Terry Funk gets his ECW World Heavweight Championship Match against then champion Raven. It seemed that Raven dominated the match and Funk had some time in there as well. It really built the audience up to the point where Funk won the Title, thus ending a classic pay per view.

ECW's first PPV became a decent PPV, one of my personal favourite matches was The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, & Masato Yakushiji VS Taka Michinoku, Mens Teioh, & Dick Togo. Could of been a little better, but was a good match.RVD/Lance Storm was a good match, both men worked the match pretty well, RVD cut a short promo after the match. The 3-way dance between Stevie Richards/Funk/Sandman was a very good one. It's a shame now in the WWE that Stevie hasn't been given much of a chance to show what he has to offer.After a few failed gimmicks in the WWE, I think Stevie should move on to the indies, he was great in ECW, and would be great to see him working like he did in his ECW days.I enjoyed the Raven/Funk match for the ECW World Heavyweight Title, I would of liked to have seen it go a little longer, but it was a fairly decent match. The Tag Team match was a fairly good one, I am a big fan of John Kronous, his work in ECW was fairly good, as was Perry Saturn, the Dudley Boyz was good as always, they always knew how to work a crowd, their promos were great in ECW. They really knew how to create some heat between them and the fans.Gertner always made the PPVs interesting as well, with his quotes, I find him a better heel then Jerry "The King" Lawler.

WOW, What a PPV to kick off the great wrestling company that was ECW. It kicked off with the ECW titles being defended by the Dudley Boyz against The Eliminators. A great match showing some innovative moves. The next math pits RVS against Lance Storm, a fairly good match apart from the odd blown spot and some weak chair shots. These two have come along way since then. Next is an awesome japanese six-man tag match. Has to be seen to be believed, this match features Taka Mitchinoku who later wrestled in WWF/WWE. Now for the worst match of the night, Pitbull #2 Vs Shane Douglass. way too long and slow. Then a good match between Taz & Sabu. The the main event, terry funk Vs sandman Vs stevie richards. An elimination match where the winner faces Raven for the ECW title, Very bloody and brutal, some surprises as well. A great first ECW PPV, a deffinate must see. I give it 8.5/10