[2000-09-23-ECWA] Russ & Charlies Haas & Kevin Kelly vs Ty Street & Cheetah Master (Handicap)

[soup23]

Kevin Kelly is teaming with the Haas Bros here. They are a good heel tag team with all sorts of misdirection spots and dominating the faces especially Ty Street. The comeuppance for Kevin Kelly running his mouth happens in the finale as Street gets some revenge and ends up lifting Kelly’s shirt up to chop him. Just as it looks like they will have the match and titles won, Kelly throws a fireball in Street’s face and rolls him up for the win. A perfectly good match and it is interesting to see Kelly in this role as he was an announcer everywhere else throughout his career. *** (6.1)

[AstroBoy]

Haas brothers look like big timers and Kelly shines as a sneaky opportunistic manager.

 

Great cutoff spots including Kelly trying to land a chop then getting reversed and scurrying to the corner for Russ to save him with a clothesline. The fireball was a legit crazy surprise here and a fitting end to a surprisingly good match.

 

***

[Tim Evans]

Cheetah master. Always great to see the PWI legend. Are the Hass brothers under WWF contract during this? They worked pretty well as heels here and Kevin Kelly was hilarious trolling hat guy. Ty Street looks like hardcore holly and is in most of the match. The finish stunned me but was good.

[GSR]

What else would you expect Cheetah Master to come out to?  It had to be ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ didn’t it!  The world’s most annoying fan, ‘Hat Guy’, is visible in the front row, making himself known and exchanging verbals with Kevin Kelly.  There’s no waiting for the bell here and this one is already underway.  As Cheetah and Charlie go at it out on the floor, Street with a flying headscissors on Russ.  Cheetah makes an early beeline for Kelly, but gets levelled by Charlie who is lay in wait for him.  Pescado by Street, however Charlie then slingshots Russ from inside the ring out onto Cheetah and he.  After a frantic start the action settles down.  There is something so WWF about Kevin Kelly in his ‘Just Bring It’ T-shirt.  Street and Cheetah pick up a couple of near falls, firstly by Street hip tossing his partner onto Russ and then Cheetah providing the assist on the legdrop.  Russ reverses the Irish whip and Charlie with a knee to the back of Street from the apron.  Some great double team work from the brothers here as they work over Street’s arm.  Finally Kelly wants in and after pair of knife edge chops in the corner he’s Whoooing and dancing like he’s Ric Flair in there.  Those have minimal effect mind and Street quickly switches positions with him.  Before he is able to lay anything on him though Kelly ducks out the way and scampers back to his corner.  There’s plenty of double and even triple teaming going on behind the referee’s back by the Haas team.  Street flattens Charlie with a flying lariat and then dropkicks Russ in the back as they come a cropper on one of those double team moves.  Tag to Cheetah who unloads on the brothers while Kelly drops down off the apron and out of reach just in case he fancied coming for him.  Double axe handle by Russ and Charlie then wipes him out with a clothesline.  Boston crab/camel clutch combination.  Street is in to try and make the save, however he’s cut off by the referee.  Kelly is so good as this chicken shit heel.  Cheetah counters the banana split with a suplex, but the ref misses seeing the tag, distracted by Kelly.  He lets it go anyway and Street with a pair of clotheslines for the brothers.  As he sets Russ for a butterfly suplex, Charlie clubs him from behind.  Street avoids the flip splash and as an unaware Charlie celebrates, takes it in turns to spike them with tornado DDTs.  There’s only one man left and Street lies on the mat to tempt Kelly in.  That works, although Kelly finally gets his comeuppance as Street pulls his shirt up over his head and blisters him with chops, while at the same time Cheetah wipes out the brothers with a plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor.  Fuck Kelly throws fire at Street and covers him for the win!  Bloody hell, wasn’t expecting that at all.  The Haas’ put the boots to Cheetah, attack the referee and a bunch of run ins follow, including someone who looks like Zandig but clearly isn’t.

Was this the first match Kevin Kelly ever wrestled?  It’s certainly the first time I can remember seeing him wrestle and he was a revelation in the chicken shit manager role.  The Haas brothers were really good again, and on the back of that Jersey All Pro match against Da Hit Squad do feel like the future of tag team wrestling.  It looks like this was a highly enjoyable card from ECWA based on the three matches we watched from it.