[2000-07-21-ECW-Decatur, IL] Christian York & Joey Matthews vs Tony Mamaluke & Little Guido

[soup23]

Perfectly fine but a bit generic tag action. Matthews/York do have some flash that makes them an exciting team in the lineage of the Hardy’s and Mamaluke/Guido are able to ground them and bring some semblance of a story by working them over. The match didn’t get a lot of time to develop with a FIP segment until we go straight into the finish. Mamaluke picks up the win with an interesting looking inverted DDT. **1/2

[AstroBoy]

Matthews is a polished enough worker here and makes a good FIP while firing off some attempted comebacks that Guido cuts off. Big Sal kills Matthews with a splash into the guardrail that looked painful to take. Guido especially here is great at controlling the pace and leading things along while being a great shit talker and showing some charisma. York has a pretty vanilla hot tag and gets distracted allowing Mamaluke to put him away with a sort of cutthroat inverted DDT.

 

**1/2

[Migs]

Digging into this version of the FBI's run is one thing I'm very excited to do in the back half of 2000. They're already working pretty nicely together here (I liked the double team Russian legsweep off the top and the armbar off the sunset flip) and Guido leading the FIP sequence is a really good role for the character he's developed by this point. I liked the DDT reversal spot they used for the finish as well. Nothing spectacular but a fun 8 minutes.

[GSR]

Big Sal a big favourite in Decatur, IL for some reason.  The opening exchanges between York and Mamaluke are a bit scrappy but things improve when it’s Guido and Matthews.  Guido takes to the floor after a headscissors, but Joey is right on him, throwing him straight back inside.  As he leaps to the middle turnbuckle Guido clobbers him from behind; that brings in Mamaluke and the FBI with a double Russian leg sweep off the middle for a two.  Mamaluke holds onto the snap suplex and hits a Northern Lights for another close fall.  After a shotgun dropkick by Guido, Mike Kehner is late to start his count as he’s trying to get Christian York out of the ring and back on the apron.  That doesn’t sit well with Guido who is in his face, grabbing him by the shirt and telling him to concentrate on his job.  Still frustrated he throws Matthews to the outside where Big Sal squashes him up against the guard rail.  Back in the ring York is looking for the tag but Guido mocks him, grabbing Joey by the hand and swinging it just out of his partner’s reach while yelling at him to “make the tag”.  The two trade chops before Guido drops him with a discus lariat.  Mamaluke’s lack of size sees him struggling on the sunset flip, fortunately the blind tag had already been made and Guido with a flying Fujiwara arm bar take down.  Matthews gets a foot over the ropes but Guido uses a full four and a half of the five seconds to keep the pressure applied.  Joey is finally able to make the tag after a double clothesline, although the match soon breaks down with all four men going at it.  York and Guido take the fight to the floor, meanwhile inside Mamaluke counters the inverted suplex and gets the three after a combination reverse DDT/Russian leg sweep.

Christian York didn’t look good at all here, the opening section with him was sloppy and he even screwed up a powerslam in the first move after the hot tag.  Fortunately he wasn’t in much as Matthews played the FIP role and did the bulk of the work for his team.  The match just kind of meandered along for me although there were some nice double team spots from the FBI such as the middle rope Russian leg sweep and the flying Fujiwara arm bar.