Tape Reviews
RF Video Shoot Interview
By Brandon Truitt
Mar 23, 2004, 21:50

Ugh... You know it's a bad week when it's Tuesday and you wish it's Friday already.

All I'm really going to say is that I'm going to try and work on the Kenji Mutoh / Kaz Hayashi combo shoot. It looks to be interesting because Mutoh was the fucking MAN in WCW.


As always, you can feel free to Drop me an e-mail, read the archives, buy me stuff, or buy yourself stuff at Highspots.com.





RF Video Shoot Interview (4-27-2001)


Normally, I wouldn�t have reviewed this. However, the recent situation with RF Video and Ring Of Honor owner Rob Feinstein as well as the related transfer of ownership to Gabe Sapolski and Doug Gentry makes this something people would want to read.


How did Rob Feinstein get involved with ECW? Tod Gordon told him about it back when Gordon was running wrestling shows at bars in the Philadelphia area. They think the first show they went to was in April of 1993, shortly before ECW made the move to the ECW Arena, which is known as the Viking Hall in Philadelphia to non-fans.

How did Doug Gentry get involved with RF Video? He had gone to college with Rob at Temple and, when RF Video started expanding, Rob needed to hire new people and he was one of the ones hired.

Rob�s relationship with Tod Gordon- Gordon told Rob he was running a show at the ECW Arena and, when Rob asked if he could set up a table and sell tapes, Gordon agreed.

Gabe getting started with ECW- He was officially an ECW employee for 7 years until the company folded in early 2001, at which point he joined RF Video. He was going to Temple University when he heard about ECW starting up and asked Tod Gordon if he could write the ECW newsletter. Gordon agreed, which opened the door for him. He then worked out a deal with Sabu to start creating merchandise for him. When the ECW merchandise office opened in 1995, he got a job there because he�d been with the company so long. The office was originally located in Tod Gordon�s pawn shop. Stevie Richards also worked at the office.

The interview with Eddie Gilbert- Gabe called Eddie�s house every day and left messages about wanting to do an interview for the newsletter. Eventually, Eddie called him from Japan to do the interview but hung up when he heard that Gabe didn�t have questions prepared. Gabe didn�t think anything of it but, at the start of 1995, he talked to Tod Gordon and found out that Eddie had been fired.

Rob�s first meeting with Paul Heyman- He met him backstage shortly after Paul took over Eddie Gilbert�s job as booker.

Gabe�s interview with Paul Heyman- Rob told him to call Paul E at 1AM to set up the interview, which seemed unusual at the time but he later found out that a lot of people in the wrestling business work weird hours. Paul E told him to be at the arena for 2PM the next day for the interview but didn�t show up until after 6PM. They didn�t do the interview until 7:30PM and Paul never made eye contact during the interview, as he had his hat pulled down over his eyes.

Richard, Ramona, and Lucien Webb- They were investors in ECW who took over the merchandising office for a time. They were completely clueless about wrestling, were scumbags, and treated Gabe like crap so much that he quit shortly before an ECW Arena show. Richard and Ramona were married and had made their money by running trade schools and scamming the government. Once they got caught and lost all their money, one of their sons couldn�t take it anymore and killed himself. They were fired for a combination of incompetence and scamming.

Rob�s part in the company- He would duplicate tapes for ECW and send out the orders. However, he wasn�t getting paid by Richard and Ramona, which left him putting out a lot of cash and bringing in nothing, and there was a blame game between Paul E and the merchandising office over who should be paying Rob which was never really resolved. Rob left the company for a while.

Rob splitting from ECW- In the middle of 1995, ECW owed him a lot of money for doing their tapes but couldn�t get any money. He basically gave Paul an ultimatum to pay him and, when he didn�t get his money, left ECW for six months. There were a lot of claims by ECW that it was Rob�s fault the tapes weren�t getting shipped on time and so forth as well. It was later discovered that Richard and Ramona were taking orders and collecting money but not shipping the tapes, which hurt ECW�s credibility.

Rob coming back to the company- Rob offered Paul a lump sum as a peace offering in order to get back to the company. He did it because ECW was a large chunk of his business at the time. Once Paul heard the amount Rob was going to pay him, he agreed to let him back in as soon as he got the check. The day Doug showed up to deliver the check, he was met by a guy in a leather jacket with flags on it. The guy introduced himself since it was his first night in the company, and his name was Rob Van Dam.

The first show Rob was back- Paul shook his hand then told him that it wasn�t a good idea to be hanging around in the back because he still had heat with some people. Rob ended up working his tape table all night. After a few more shows, he gradually eased himself back into the company but made sure not to step on anyone�s toes.

Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman�s falling out- Shortly before Tod left the company, Paul E kept calling Gabe and asking questions about Tod and how he was acting. It turns out that Tod was burned out at the time, which is believed to be because he was partying with the boys as well as running Carver W. Waterhouse (Tod�s family business) and ECW. The day before the mole story hit, Paul called Gabe and told him to get all his stuff out of the Carver building and that he wasn�t ever going back there. He speaks highly of Tod and says that he�s a great guy but just got burned out.

(The mole business- It�s alluded to here but not covered in depth. In short, Tod knew he was on the way out and called up Terry Taylor, then a talent relations guy in WCW, and started trying to negotiate a package deal to bring several ECW stars into WCW. Nothing ever came of it because they couldn�t come to terms on the amount of money to be paid and the stars who would jump, as some like Sabu were on the WCW shit-list for various reasons. It completely fell apart when Perry Saturn jumped to WCW, as he struck his own deal and set the market price for any ECW talent leaving for WCW.)

Where did the ECW office move to after that? The office moved to Gabe�s apartment in late 1997 and stayed there until the company folded in early 2001.

Gabe�s job in ECW- It started out as customer service then became handling all ECW tickets, working with merchandising and promotional material, etc. He was effectively one of Paul�s personal assistants. Paul would call him after every show and ask him about various aspects of the show, especially once Paul quit going to the shows late in the company�s life. Part of why he had that position was that Paul knew Gabe was friendly with everybody but wasn�t particularly close to anyone and didn�t have any motives in mind besides what was best for the company. He also owned the ECW program as part of a deal between himself, Paul, and Tod. In short, the person who had done the program quit and he started doing it but, since Paul and Tod couldn�t afford to pay him more than a small salary, they let him keep anything he made from selling the programs.

Doug Gentry in the ring- After the Philadelphia Flyers lost to the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Doug and Rob came up with the idea of having a wrestler named the Jersey Devil to capitalize on it. Paul talked with Doug and told him to buy a Devils jersey to use as a part of the gimmick. Doug went out and wrestled as the Jersey Devil that night, which wasn�t bad until 911 chokeslammed him several times. Everyone congratulated him afterwards and even Cactus Jack came by to tell him �Kid, you took AWESOME bumps tonight.�

Doug�s part in the Double Dog Collar match- While Raven was planning the upcoming double dog collar match between himself, Stevie Richards, and the Pitbulls, he came up with the idea of having Gabe and someone else dress up as crazed Raven fans and attack the Pitbulls during the third fall of the match.

Rob becoming Bill Alfonso�s personal videographer- During the middle of a show, Paul told him that he was going to get chokeslammed by 911 for being Fonzie�s videographer. Rob didn�t want to do it but was pressured into it. He got a concussion because 911 gave him a chokeslam then Eddy Guerrero hit him with a frogsplash.

Rob getting a concussion in Flagstaff- Two weeks after the show above, Doug showed up at the ECW show in Flagstaff without his Jersey Devil stuff. Since he didn�t have it and Paul had already planned an angle around it, Rob got put in that spot instead. Rob went out, got into an argument with Paul E, then 911 ripped off Rob�s neckbrace and chokeslammed him four times.

Gabe in the ring- He was offered the role of Malnutrition Dudley by Raven at one point but turned it down. He laughs about how things have changed, as he was really thing back thin but is noticeably chunky now.

Filming the arena shows- While watching a house show one night, Gabe asked Rob why he wasn�t taping it. Rob realized it was a good idea and pitched it to Paul E, who approved it.

Rob, Gabe, and Doug travelling together- �Rob was the original Tom Green.� (Did Tom Green ever get picked up for soliciting a 14-year old boy? I think Rob�s topped Green with that one.) Everywhere they went, they did weird stuff. They ended up setting a fire in their hotel room the first time they stayed in one as well as having a little fun messing with some guys at a drive-thru (no, not in THAT way, ya freakin� pervs�) but it came back to bite them in the ass because the guys were indy workers and knew who they were.

What were the more interesting scenes Doug fan-cammed? Anything with the Dudley Boyz because it was always a near-riot. Every time the Dudleyz went on in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, there was always a riot.

The Mass Transit incident- Gabe taped the match and says that his cinematography is part of why it�s seen as being so brutal. He also says that the camera battery ran out 10 minutes after the match, so they almost didn�t catch the incident on tape. They talk about how they weren�t sure if they were going to be allowed to sell the show and Rob makes a smartass remark to the effect of �Now, with CZW , they do this on every show.� Feel the love. Back to the story, Rob talks about getting a call from Mass Transit�s father, which isn�t what you�d expect because the call was the father asking various questions about his son�s future in the business. They ended up sending a copy of that tape to the father, not realizing that the father was going to use it in a lawsuit against ECW.

The strangest thing they filmed- Sandman getting naked in the center of the ring at one show, as well as various boob shots.

Rob becoming Seven Eleven- When the Blue World Order (Stevie Richards as Big Stevie Cool, Blue Meanie as Da Blue Guy, and Nova as �Hollywood� Nova) gimmick started, Rob came up with the idea of becoming their Syxx (Sean Waltman, X-Pac, Syxx-Pac) and they let him run with it. Pretty much, he�d wear a long-hair wig, a bWo t-shirt, and run around with a camcorder acting like a dumbfuck (1 out of the 3 fits his every-day actions). The name kept changing from 3 � to 5 � to, finally, 7-11. Perry Saturn, Tommy Dreamer, and others taught him how to bump for the gimmick. He was scared about taking a 360 from John Kronus but fate intervened, as Stevie Richards got seriously hurt taking the Total Elimination from Kronus and Saturn, which prevented the bWo run-in from happening.

Was X-Pac cool with it? He�s talked with him several times since then and they were always cool, so he figures it must not have been a big deal. (I don�t think the question even came up in their shoot interview with him, although it was hard to get an answer on some things considering that X-Pac was rolling joints for Operation 4:20 just out of view on camera.)

Being with the ECW wrestlers at the RAW appearance at the Manhattan Center- A limo picked them and several other people up from Tommy Dreamer�s house. It was fun when they did it but he had been warned by Tommy Dreamer beforehand to be on his best behavior so that he didn�t screw up ECW�s deal with the WWF.

Why did he stop doing the 7-11 gimmick? He got phased out in favor of Thomas �Inchworm� Rodman. The gimmick had also run its course by then.

ECW�s show schedule- ECW started out running in Philadelphia and Florida. They used syndicated TV to expand to other big markets including Pittsburg, Boston, Chicago, and others.

Sabu breaking his neck- After Sabu broke his neck taking a Chris Benoit suplex, he was taken to the hospital. Shortly thereafter, the RF Video crew drove Chris Benoit to the hospital to check on him. When the doctors took a look at Sabu�s body and his x-rays, they started asking questions and getting weird looks on their faces. The questions concerned Sabu�s multiple scars from barbed-wire matches, a bullet in his neck leftover from a time he was shot in high school, etc.

Sabu and RF Video- Sabu always assumed that Feinstein was ripping him off even though they were working together to create Sabu t-shirts and Rob was selling Sabu compilation tapes. After Feinstein came up with the idea to make Rob Van Dam foam fingers, he got the idea approved by Paul Heyman then started making them. The first night he brought them to the arena, referee Pee Wee Moore saw them and told Sabu about them. Sabu came up all pissed off and asked if they had permission to be making the foam fingers, as he thought that they were just cashing in on Rob Van Dam with no permission. After Feinstein told him that he had Paul E�s permission (most likely in a completely smartass way), Sabu leaned over the table, grabbed RF by the neck, and threatened him. Some time later, RF went up to Sabu and Fonzie in the locker room and told him that he wasn�t ripping him off, he doesn�t know why Sabu hates him, etc. but to take up any problems with him. Sabu still didn�t want anything to do with him after that but Fonzie told him that he�d gained some respect from Sabu by doing that.

Pee Wee Moore- �He�s a big stooge and he�s an idiot.�

Other wrestlers they�ve been threatened by- One night while everyone was joking around, RF made a comment about Tommy Dreamer �needing a bra for his big tits� and Paul Heyman told him to expect a receipt later for saying that. During the main event that night, Bam Bam Bigelow and Tazz brawled throughout the building and trashed his tape table during the match. They also got their asses kicked by Bubba Ray Dudley during a show once. Gabe almost got beaten up by the Harris Twins due to a breach of locker room etiquette, as he�d never talked to them before like he should have and they weren�t interested in having house show matches of them getting jobbed out circulating around. They were just about to beat the shit out of him when Paul Heyman saw what was going on, pulled the Harris Twins aside, and straightened everything out.

Referee Jim Molineaux- RF �jokes� that Molineaux used to come over at three AM looking for sex. He then also says that the reason Molineaux didn�t like him was that he made more in a week than Molineaux made in a year. �And he�s a stooge.�

Promoting a show for ECW- They promoted a show in Bristol, Pennsylvania, for ECW. Because they were the promoters, they didn�t have to pay a fee to fan-cam the matches or sell their merchandise and they were able to get Al Snow booked on the show. They�d wanted Snow in ECW because he�d had great matches everywhere but was virtually unknown at the time. Snow wrestled Tazz in his ECW debut and Raven was on-hand backstage because he was just about to enter the company. (By Raven�s own admission, he just started showing up because he was high while getting all of his start-date information from Paul Heyman and decided to show up immediately rather than call back and say �Could you repeat everything you just said? I didn�t write it down and was too high to remember it.�) They also did a high school show a few months later, which had matches such as Cactus Jack and Raven in a weapons tag-team match. Gabe walked into the locker room while Raven and Cactus were coming up with ideas and Cactus decided that he wanted to use Gabe as a weapon in the match. That didn�t end up happening because they didn�t find Gabe when they started brawling through the crowd.

Al Snow- When Snow got booked on an ECW show because of RF Video, Paul Heyman wasn�t happy to be using him and wanted Tazz to squash him in three minutes. Tazz knew Snow and didn�t want to squash him, so they had a competitive match and RF feels that got him his gig in the WWF. (I dispute this a bit� Jim Cornette had known Snow for years and brought him into Smokey Mountain around this time, then probably got the WWF to talk about a contract with him when SMW went bust. Snow going into SMW was not acknowledge in any way to be a result of his ECW appearances.)

RF Video helping get international talent booked in ECW- In 1998, the ECW shows had stagnated so Doug Gentry and Gabe started discussing guys to bring in, which included Tajiri and others. Sabu flipped out when he saw Tajiri and the other guys because he�d been bringing in talent from FMW before that, but they�d just had a problem with FMW because Chris Candido, Sunny, and Bam Bam Bigelow had no-showed an FMW pay per view and Sabu had to fly himself out on his own dime to work the PPV in order to save face over the New Jersey Clique screwing him over. The RF Video crew was also instrumental in annoying Victor Quinones to death until they could finally get Masato Tanaka to return to ECW after almost a year-long absence. (IIRC, Mike Awesome and Tanaka worked a match against each other on Heatwave 1998 and didn�t appear again for the company until Anarchy Rulz 1999, when they kicked Tazz out of ECW then wrestled for the ECW title.)

Super Crazy- They didn�t know anything about him before they picked him up at the airport. All Victor Quinones would tell them was that he was a small Mexican guy with a lot of blade-marks on his forehead. When they met him, he was VERY loud, much like his in-ring persona.

Tajiri and Super Crazy feuding- ECW billed it as an international feud between the two but they�d never wrestled each other before entering the company.

Rob bringing Dusty Rhodes into ECW- They were doing a shoot interview with him in Georgia and RF played intermediary between Dusty and Paul E, which got Dusty to go to an ECW show to see Paul E. and set the table for the angles Dusty was involved in.

Plans that fell through- Vader was supposed to come in but didn�t. Blitzkrieg was also supposed to come in but went to WCW instead. Chyna used to go to the Boston shows trying to get a job (this was before her WWF debut at In Your House: Final Four in early 1997) but was never hired. Ricky �The Dragon� Steamboat was supposed to work a show in the Carolinas but it fell through.

How did Paul change over the years? �Besides putting on weight and losing his hair?� He learned how to show his emotions less as well as learning various aspects of the company through trial and error.

Paul�s speech before Barely Legal 1997- Paul�s speeches are unbelievable and the atmosphere that night was incredible. Gabe also counters arguments saying that Pay Per View was the downfall of ECW by saying that all the wrestlers in the company would have left for the WWF or WCW if they didn�t go on Pay Per View.

Paranoia before the show- Paul thought that someone would sabotage the show and was VERY paranoid. He was telling people for months beforehand to be suspicious of any possible scams that people would pull on them and to make sure that nothing they did could jeopardize the show.

The most stressful part of the show- This part was captured on film in Beyond The Mat, as it was when Sandman and Terry Funk were going too long in their match and they were in danger of losing their satellite time by going too long. Raven stayed cool throughout the whole thing and got beaten by Terry Funk in short order to end the show.

The angle with Limp Bizkit- They knew that Limp Bizkit was going to be performing in another part of the same building, so RF explored the arena until he found where they were, then brought Gabe back there. The band�s management gave everyone involved press passes. Steve Corino and Jack Victory then had their infamous run-in at the concert which ended up on MTV News.

What other celebrities did they meet? Method Man, Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, porn actor Tom Byron, the Kids In The Hall, Joe C and Kid Rock, etc.

What event put ECW on the mat? �The Night The Line Was Crossed.�

JT Smith- The nicest guy they�ve ever met anywhere. He�s the top salesman for his company now.

What happened the night that XPW caused a disturbance at the ECW PPV in California? Gabe takes a second to say that part of his job was to sit at home and watch the PPVs in order to call Paul and tell him if the volume was too low or the lighting was bad, etc. There had been rumors floating around in the days before the show that XPW was going to do something, and the Blue Meanie�s girlfriend, Jasmine St. Claire, pointed them out to everyone because she used to work with them. They were sitting ringside at the show. After the XPW guys got kicked out of the arena, the shit hit the fan. The bad thing was that the brawl between ECW and XPW guys outside the arena drew the entire crowd outside to watch it, which really took away from the Tommy Dreamer vs. Justin Credible match for the ECW title. (Justin won, BTW.)

Initial impressions of ECW on TNN- They thought it would make everyone a lot of money. They realized after a couple of months on TNN that things weren�t going to work which was, coincidentally, around the same time that Raven returned to the company in 1999. Raven had done his own personal analysis of ECW on TNN and had decided that TNN was a crap network, that they weren�t supporting ECW, that ECW was tied to TNN despite that and had to pay for the rights to get crapped on, etc. and knew that it was going to seriously hurt the company. It didn�t help that the company was booking bigger buildings for TV because the promoters would give out a lot of comped tickets to fill the building, which meant the number of paid tickets for a show slowly declined in each successive visit because people didn�t want to pay if they knew they could get free tickets. Also, they weren�t able to advertise properly, so people who were interested in the shows either did not go or only went because they�d read about it the night before on the Internet.

When did they realize that ECW was dying? They didn�t want to believe it but they started seeing the signs when the number of shows being run each month dropped in late 2000.

Why did ECW fail? It was a downward spiral caused by not having the money to draw fans to make money. TNN was also a problem and Paul Heyman is suing them at the moment. RF also blames some of the office staff but doesn�t name names.

Paul Heyman in the company- He stopped coming to the shows in late 1999 or early 2000. Between TV production on the TNN show and the syndicated Hardcore show as well as business concerns surrounding the company, he was being stretched too thin and was totally stressed.

The last ECW shows at Pine Bluff, Arkansas- Everyone knew down deep that it was the end but didn�t want to believe it.


Favorite road stories-

Sandman- Very smart guy but he gets a bad rap because he does a lot of weird stuff.

Shane Douglas- He used to pretend to doze off while driving and start drifting off the road to scare the shit out of everyone else in the car.

Masato Tanaka- He got his tooth, complete with the root, knocked out at a show then went to Waffle House and ate a t-bone steak. Doug thinks that makes him totally inhuman and I�ll agree with him.


RF at the baseball game in Chicago- They were stuck in Chicago for a Saturday because they had shows on Thursday and Friday and most airlines require you to stay over on a Saturday. Tommy Dreamer ended up getting a luxury box at Cominsky Park for the White Sox game and all the ECW guys went. They had all-access tickets because of it and went off exploring the stadium. Gabe and Rob ended up around the dugouts and decided to have a little fun, which involved Rob wearing Bubba teeth, dancing on top of a dugout, then getting taken away by security.

Denny�s- The worst place to EVER go to eat because it takes 90 minutes just to get a glass of water. (No, they�re not exaggerating either. That�s why Denny�s is dying out in favor of IHOP and Waffle House in my area.)

Airport story- One time, the entire ECW locker room was coming through the airport and RF spotted a woman with a Ricky Morton mullet haircut. Rob ended up doing a jump and a roll in order to make the hot tag for her.

Favorite matches in ECW- The last Dreamer-Raven match, the main event at The Night The Line Was Crossed, the 8-man at Wrestlepalooza 2000, The Pitbulls vs. Raven and Stevie Richards, Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero, etc.

Favorite angles- Jerry Lawler and Jim Cornette coming in, the Sandman blinding angle, etc.

Wrestlers who only had brief appearances in the company that could have been big assets- Steve Austin, who was only there for a few months before leaving for the WWF. Kurt Angle, who was going to do something with the company but it didn�t end up happening due to the crucifixion angle. Chris Benoit, because he left for WCW.

The high point when they were with ECW- October of 1998, when ECW had the best month of business in the history of the company. The Hammerstein Ballroom shows in late 2000 were great as well.

Favorite ECW guys- Tommy Dreamer without a doubt. Very nice guy, very hard worker, could have used his power in the company to his advantage but, instead, chose to put over guys like RVD, the Dudleyz, Lance Storm, Justin Credible, CW Anderson, and others.

Raven- Cool guy who taught them a lot, but he also has a very dickish side of himself. Used to call up the ECW office to tell Stevie Richards to pick up his laundry (Stevie was a paid assistant to Raven because of Raven�s full-time drug habit) or tell Gabe �Make sure Feinstein sends me my tapes� whenever he talked to him. Would analyze everyone�s matches and tell them what they needed to do and what they needed to stop doing in order to get over. The strangest story anyone has to tell would be the night Gabe hung out with Raven in a Philadelphia nightclub and heard a 30-minute dissertation about the Mr. Wrestling II heel turn. While Raven was talking, he�d be getting hit on by all kinds of hot girls and he would say �Shut the fuck up� I�m talking about Mr. Wrestling II�s heel turn�.

The Eliminators- Perry Saturn and John Kronus were total opposites. One night, one of Gabe�s friends working an ECW show opened his wrestling bag to discover a HUGE bag of weed in it, which turned out to be Kronus�s. Kronus would forget what his bag looked like, so he�d find one that he thought was his and put his stuff in it. Perry Saturn �could be a cool guy but was really an asshole.� He would intimidate anyone he thought he could and abused the power that Paul Heyman gave him.

Cactus Jack- �A genius.� Very cool guy. Next to Paul Heyman, the smartest guy they�ve met in the business.

Chris Candido and Sunny- They were never really close with them. They also say that Sunny should be one of the top women in the business today but the demons both of them had killed that.

Rob Van Dam- He has a reputation for being cocky but that�s not really true� he wouldn�t go up and talk to people but he was more than willing to talk to people if they came up to talk with him.

Jerry Lynn- Very nice guy.

Shane Douglas- Very smart guy but he had trouble knowing when to shut up. Gabe was the messenger when Paul fired Shane, as Paul wanted to know if he could count on Shane to show up the next night for a Pay Per View and, when Shane refused to talk to him, Paul had Gabe deliver the message.

Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner- Assholes.

Joey Styles- By the end of ECW, he needed to change his style up. The team of Joey and Cyrus The Virus worked on commentary, but Joey and Joel Gertner didn�t work. Joey and Joel as a team spent more time putting themselves over instead of the guys in the match.

Justin Credible- He�ll ask everyone�s opinions of his matches so that he can improve in the ring. Gabe feels that Justin was too nice a guy in real life to really get over as a great heel. He had the best matches of any ECW champ in history in their opinion.

Rhyno- Very quiet guy. Complete opposite of his in-ring persona. He almost set the ECW record for �Most money spent at a Waffle House after a show�, which is held by El Masko. (Masko had $22 worth of food and Rhyno had $19 worth, which is a lot of cheap greasy-spoon diner food)

Axl Rotten- Funny guy. He�s made some mistakes in his professional life that have bitten him in the ass. Gabe feels that Axl never got pushed because he was too selfish in his matches.

Steve Corino- Awesome guy.

Bill Alfonso- Great guy, he always checked on them to make sure they�d made enough money at the end of the night.

Al Snow- Hilarious guy. Big practical joker and a guy you do NOT want to get into a real fight with. They�re really glad he is as successful as he is in the business today because he�s a great guy.

Missy Hyatt- RF starts talking about how Missy is one of the biggest sluts in the business, which starts me laughing my ass off. (Something tells me Rob doesn�t have first-hand experience or, if he does, he didn�t enjoy it much.) Rob also says �I�d never let her blow me�, which sets off another laughing fit. (Rob� at least SOME of her parts are younger than 14.)

Dawn Marie and Simon Diamond- Simon�s always been cool but RF insists that Dawn is a bitch because she told Gorgeous George (Randy Savage�s ex-girlfriend) that RF makes a bunch of money off of the wrestlers and to either refuse to do a shoot interview or ask for a lot of money.

Cyrus- Hilarious guy. One of the best commentators ever.

Mike Awesome- Doug says he was cool when he was in ECW briefly in 1998. RF�s opinion is that Awesome was the worst ECW champion in history and totally buries him. (Guess that explains why Awesome did his shoot with Highspots Video instead.)

Judge Jeff Jones- Tremendously fake guy. Used to be up Raven�s ass and Mike Awesome�s ass. (Sucking up, not anything else.) They wonder why no one really accepted the cover story of why Jones is out of wrestling. (The real story is supposed to be that Jones slipped something in someone�s drink and they had a violently bad reaction to it.)

Dusty Rhodes- Cool guy. Like a huge kid. RF brings another laugh when he says "I want to go on record right now and say 'I want to marry his daughter.'"



THANK GOD the interview part is over� now onto behind-the-scenes footage from ECW


We get a backstage tour of the ECW arena that I don't give a shit about.


Matches-


Broad Street Bully vs. Jersey Devil- This is Doug's cheap-heat gimmick given to him by Paul Heyman and Tod Gordon. Shitty hocky-style brawl which Doug (Jersey Devil) wins, then "Frankenstein" hits and 911 kills him with a set of chokeslams.

Promo- Bill Alfonso and his personal videographer Rob Feinstein come out, bitch out Paul Heyman, then 911 kicks RF's ass.


Thoughts- There was some stuff in here, with the content being mainly brought by Gabe since he was Paul Heyman's assistant. Rob himself brought very little if anything positive to this tape and proved himself to be a vindictive asshole in several cases. On top of that, the interview portion of this tape lasted 3 hours and 30 minutes, which is absurdly long considering the relative lack of quality input by Doug and Rob.

If this had been a Gabe shoot, especially since Gabe's now running Ring of Honor, this would have been worth watching. Considering that this pre-dates Ring Of Honor and includes deadwood Doug and the annoying asshole Rob, don't waste your time.

Strong recommendation to avoid.

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