[2000-08-12-ECW-St. Petersburg, FL] Michael Shane vs Psicosis

[soup23]

Good energetic opener here with Psicosis looking good and Michael Shane wanting to make a name for himself. I know the heel tactics of Shane are pretty shallow and dismissed but he did fine here and helped out the vibe of the match overall. It was refreshing to see Psicosis not go through the motions and work in his reckless highspots that the WCW crowd would remember. **1/2

[Migs]

Shane is VERY indy (although, to be fair, he's probably only like a year into the business at this point, right?) and it brought this down for me a bit. Psicosis was good here, though. Shane he didn't have a more extended run, although I'm sure Paul was not in the position to pay at the time.

[AstroBoy]

Shane acquitted himself well here. Maybe he was a little too concerned with constantly jawing to the crowd and he didn't have any offense really but he fit in fine. Psicosis executes his highspots well and they work enough of a simple story to make the crowd wait for his big moves. Fun house show match and a good outing from Shane.

 

**1/2

[GSR]

For someone who I’d guess the majority have never seen before, Michael Shane gets a strong heel reaction.  Both brush away dropkicks from the other leading to the ‘stand-off’ and as the fans give the pair a round of applause, Shane is up on the ropes letting them verbally have it.  As they start a “boring” chant to throw him off his game, he just flips them the double bird and returns to the job in the hand.  Huracanrana by Psicosis followed by a spinning heel kick sending Shane scurrying to the outside.  Plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor.  He rolls him back inside but as he comes off the top is caught by a dropkick to the solar plexus.  Belly to back suplex for a two.  Shane telegraphs the backdrop and Psicosis nails him with a dropkick of his own.  Top rope frankensteiner for a near fall.  Sit out face first superplex and the guillotine leg drop puts Shane away.

Fun little house show opener which probably explains why it was on the shorter side.  I enjoyed Shane’s heeling, although with the lacks nature of ECW you can get away with cursing at the fans, giving them the finger etc.  Shane looks like someone who could well have had a decent run in the company, the next generation so to say, if it hadn’t gone under at the start of 2001.