Torch Newsletter back issues from five years ago and ten years ago are republished at the Torch VIP website (www.pwtorch.com/members) every week featuring full reviews of Raw, Nitro, other TV shows, and PPVs, plus the Torch cover story, WWF Newswire, WCW Newswire, ECW Newswire, ETC Newswire, "Torch Talk" interviews, columns, and more. The following is an excerpt of that feature with a full review of WWF Raw from five years ago this week.

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Torch Newsletter Archive
By Jason Powell, Torch assistant editor
March 10, 2000 - ECW on TNN TV review
Originally published: Pro Wrestling Torch Weekly newsletter #594
Cover dated: March 18, 2000

ECW on TNN - 3/3 (1.3 rating)

(Taped Mar. 4 in Philadelphia, Pa.)... [Q1: 1.0]... Joey Styles and Joel Gertner introduced the show in the ring. Gertner introduced himself as Joel "After tonight's show in South Philly, I'll be banging Cyrus's mom silly" Gertner. Cyrus came to the ring. Styles stood up to Cyrus, telling him that he refused to interview him... The opening montage aired... Cyrus stood in the ring as the fans chanted, "RVD." Cyrus said he wants to start a TV Title tournament and demanded someone hand him the belt. Bill Alfonso came to the ring. Cyrus told Alfonso he was going to cancel the show unless he was given the belt. Rob Van Dam came to the ring on Scotty Riggs's shoulders... [C] RVD introduced Riggs as his best friend. RVD talked about how much ECW has grown over the years and said he has turned down several offers to leave. RVD said he wouldn't allow Cyrus to cancel the show so he dropped the TV belt to the ground. Cyrus reluctantly picked it up.

[Q2: 1.1]... RVD said he will return to beat whoever wins the tournament. Cyrus and Alfonso began arguing while RVD left the ring. Rhino ran in and speared Alfonso. RVD ran back into the ring and tried to hit Rhino, but Riggs stopped him. Rhino jumped on Riggs's back and swung at RVD... [C] Riggs helped RVD leave the ring as security restrained Rhino... (1) Rhino (w/Jack Victory, Steve Corino) beat Spike Dudley. Seven minutes of the match aired. Spike ran in and dominated the opening minutes. [C] After break, Rhino threw Spike off of the stage and through a table. Spike came up holding/selling his injured knee. Later, Rhino set up a chair in the corner of the ring and tried to powerbomb Spike through it. Spike reversed the move, hit an Acid Drop, but Steve Corino ran in and attacked the ref so he couldn't make the count. Spike beat up Corino, but was speared through the table by Rhino. Spike held his knee as Styles did a good job of getting the injury over. Rhino piledrove Spike and got the pin...

[Q3: 1.3]... The announcers introduced the Impact Players vs. Gedo & Jado match "from earlier tonight"... (2) The Impact Players (w/Dawn Marie, Jason) beat Gado & Jedo. Eight minutes of the match aired. The match was joined in progress, by which point the fans were totally into Gedo & Jado. A very good match which featured believable nearfalls and solid work by both teams. After several nearfalls, the Players hit a spike piledriver for the win... Gertner hyped upcoming events... [C]

[Q4: 1.2]... (3) Mike Awesome & Raven (w/Francine, Jeff Jones) beat Tommy Dreamer & Masato Tanaka to win the ECW Tag Titles. The match was joined in progress which really took away from it even though over ten minutes aired. For months, one of the major angles of the show has been the relationship between Raven and Dreamer. However, when Raven tagged in for the first time (at least on TV), there was no pop for their initial lock-up. Instead, Raven kicked Dreamer, who was lying on the mat, and received no heat. There was no build-up to the match. There was no explanation as to why Raven and Awesome teamed together. Francine, who turned heel with little fanfare, was a non-factor. She did wear a Raven t-shirt and had her hair teased making her look trashy. Part of the problem is that the fans don't care about Dreamer, who desperately needs to turn heel. Late in the match, Raven mocked Dreamer, who was lying on the mat, by saying: "Oh, my bad back. What do you have, rickets? Shingles? Get up!" The tail end of the match was a mess that featured the usual batch of tables in the ring. At one point, Raven executed a drop-toe-hold on Dreamer causing Dreamer to go face first through the end of the table in a scary spot. In the end, Awesome powerbombed Dreamer through a table in the corner which allowed Raven to score the pin... Backstage, James Vandenburg cut a good promo, playing his satanic narrator character and hyping the PPV... Good action, but a sloppy show... [JP]

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