This would be the third installment of the ECW Summer of 96 trilogy, three personal favorites of mine.

We start things off with Devon Storm, flanked by Damian Kane and Lady Alexandra (!) taking on Louie Spicolli. But, wait, Taz is screaming into the camera and calling out Sabu. Back to live action, Storm starts nicely with some dropkicks and a sommersault senton off the top to the floor onto Spicolli, but Louie gets up and cracks Devon a few times with a chair, targeting Storm's knee particularly. They go from the floor to the ring to the floor, with Storm turning the tides and using a chair on Louie to gain the advantage. Storm gets a two count following a springboard leg lariat. Spicolli counters a backdrop attempt with a simple kick to the face and then hits the Death Valley (Spicolli) Driver for the win. * After the match, Damian offers Louie Alexandra's "services" but he is also met with a Death Valley Driver. Twice.

The original F.B.I is in the ring, complete with Sal freaking Bellomo. "Pepper" goes out through the PA as Mikey Whipwreck makes his way to the ring to take on Little Guido. This would be a pre-cursor of sorts to an unbelievable series of tag matches these two would be involved in during the fall of 2000. Guido starts off early dazing Mikey, who eventually comes back with a duck-down, sending Guido to the floor. Mikey goes up top but Guido armdrags him off and holds on for an armbar. Mikey escapes with a Rocker Dropper and a clothesline to the floor. Mikey leaps onto both Guido and J.T. Smith on the floor, and then attempts a rana on Big Guido. The big man tosses him off, and he attempts it a second time, but lands right on the back of his head. Guido tosses Mikey back in and locks a short-arm scissors on. Mikey ducks a clothesline and responds with a crescent kick but misses a top-rope splash. Mikey counters a slam with a small package but Smith had the ref distracted. They trade offense for a few moments until Guido gets caught on the top rope and takes a botched frankensteiner. Mikey climbs up again and drops an elbow from the top for the pin. Both guys would see better days. *

Hey, Axl Rotten has black hair. He and newfound partner D-Von Dudley are taking on the babyface Dudley Brothers (Buh Buh and Big Dick) but not before ridiculing all the ECW Arena-regulars first. Buh Buh puts D-Von through a table and all four end up on the stage. Buh Buh dives off a speaker on the top stage onto both opponents on the bottom stage. Buh Buh and D-Von end up in the men's room before brawling back towards the ring where Buh Buh goes through a table. D-Von mistakenly hits Axl with a chair, and Buh Buh splashes onto him for the pin. On the brawl scale: * for Buh Buh's work.

Joel Gertner announces that the scheduled cat fight between Missy Hyatt and Lori Fullington will not occur thanks to Missy's broken arm. Missy and Sandman both cane Gertner. The Blue Meanie steps in, and they cane him too. Stevie Richards intervenes and brings up his sexual harrassment suit against Missy, and says he will drop the charges if she will denounce the Sandman. She does, and Sandman canes her also. Whatever.

Brian Lee charges the ring to face Terry Gordy in a Badstreet match. They go right at it and within moments are in the stands and eventually outside the Arena. They ram each other into walls and cars and stuff. Back towards the ring, Lee gets backdroped through a table. They slug it out in the ring for a while and Gordy eventually locks on the Asiatic Spike for the pin. On the brawl scale: **

Cut straight to Rob Van Dam and Doug Furnas facing off in the ring, and this singles match is on. Furnas literally tosses Van Dam around in the opening moments, but Van Dam hits some martial-arts-based offense also. Van Dam gets tossed to the outside, tries to get back in, and Furnas just shoulderblocks him off the apron onto about the third row. Furnas follows him out and they brawl into the bleachers, which Van Dam gets tossed off of. Furnas pounds on Van Dam and clotheslines him back over the guardrail. Furnas tries to suplex Van Dam back in, but RVD counters and Furnas goes through a table. Van Dam lays a chair over Furnas' face and legdrops onto it. Van Dam misses a spin kick and Furnas belly-to-belly suplexes Van Dam for two. He catches RVD in a powerslam for two also. Van Dam crotches Furnas on the top and hits a springboard side kick for two. Van Dam goes for a superplex but Furnas throws him off and clotheslines him from the top. Van Dam brings a chair in and cracks Furnas in the back of the head twice. He attempts a VanDaminator, but Furnas tosses the chair and Van Dam settles for a cross-bodyblock. Van Dam attempts a second cross-body but gets caught and tombstoned on one of the chairs for two. Both guys are weary, as Van Dam goes for a monkey flip onto the chair, but it gets countered with a Swinging Schwanz. Furnas slugs RVD with the chair a few times, but Van Dam seizes a momentary pause on the part of Furnas to hit a VanDaminator for the win. ***3/4. After the match, Van Dam breaks his "non-respecting" character and offers a handshake to Furnas, but gets laid out for his efforts. This would later lead to Van Dam asking former rival Sabu to be his partner, forming one of the best teams of the late 90s. Hot match.

Taz is out next to take on Tommy Dreamer, and he vows that this will be a *wrestling* match and not a typical Dreamer brawl. Taz immediately tosses Dreamer to the floor and into the guardrail repeatedly, thus breaking his word. My mother always said "Never trust an orange midget." Back in the ring, Dreamer and Taz chain-wrestle a little and Dreamer hits a nice snap suplex. Taz locks on a rear chinlock and then hits a T-Bone Tazplex. Northern Lights Tazplex and a nice bow-and-arrow follows. Taz continues to toss Dreamer from buckle to buckle. Team Taz drapes Dreamer across the guardrail and Taz beats on him with a chair. Dreamer picks up his own chair and takes over back in the ring, while favoring his taped up and "injured" ribs. Dreamer dives off the top onto Team Taz after countering a Taz suplex attempt. Dreamer props up a table on the apron and dropkicks it into Team Taz, but turns around and takes a german Tazplex. Taz grabs a chair to finish off Dreamer, but the ref won't allow it, so Taz Head-and-Arm Tazplexes Pee Wee Moore. Taz props the table up in the corner and then belly-to-bellys Dreamer through it. Dreamer blocks a Hard-Way Tazplex with a low kick and goes for a DDT, which Taz counters with a Northern Lights Tazplex. Taz locks on the Tazmission as Fonzie tosses Beulah around. Gordy tries to make the save, but the Eliminators hit him with Total Elimination. Brian Lee locks the Asiatic Spike on Gordy. Half the undercard tires to make the save, but The Elims, Lee, and Taz leave them all laying. Taz just calmly walks off in a non-finish (well, everyone was down) to an otherwise hot match. ***

The Sandman is in the ring for a scheduled double dog collar match alone, as apparently Pitbull II is injured. Raven and The Franchise enter, and Sandman canes everyone but Raven. Raven catches him off guard with a DDT and they begin double-teaming. They beat on Sandman for several minutes until Pitbull storms the ring with a neckbrace. Pitbull is a big, sluggish, no-selling house of fire. Raven piledrives Pitbull on his supposedly injured neck but Sandman makes the save. Raven calls for the Meanisault, but Sandman moves. Douglas and Pitbull are going at it in the ring as Sandman and Raven are on the floor. Pitbull leg lariats Douglas in the ring for two. Pitbull works on the neck and then chokeslams Douglas for the hell of it. Pitbull goes down and Raven and Douglas Superbomb Sandman for two. Pitbull II locks on a full nelson on Douglas but Raven breaks it up and goes for the loaded boot, but PB II gets the boot and knocks Raven out with it for the pinfall. Sloppy, even on the brawl scale: *1/2

Main event time, as the Eliminators battle the Gangstas inside a cage. There are four masked men, one in each corner, and each has a weapon, which can be called for by any of the four participants at any given time. Saturn goes out to meet New Jack and the fight is on. Into the crowd they go, as New Jack and Mustafa get the upperhand early. Saturn scales the top of the cage and dives out onto all three others, taking all four men down. Now the Elims are in control, with Kronus and Mustafa in the ring and Saturn battling New Jack on the floor. They head towards the ring where Saturn comes off the top again and catches New Jack with a clothesline. Saturn gets tossed into the cage head first by Mustafa. Saturn hits a Saturnbomb and goes to the top of the cage yet again, splashing onto Mustafa. New Jack gets a trashcan from one of the masked men and tosses it right at Saturn. Cookie sheets and forks have been thrown into the mix also and all four guys are busted open. Saturn drops a big elbow from the top of the cage onto New Jack. He goes up yet again but gets a trashcan thrown at him. New Jack dives off the top with a keyboard but Saturn drop kicks him in the face. Kronus ends up with the keyboard and nails Mustafa with it. Kronus is gushing blood as they continue to formlessly pound on each other until one of the masked men climbs the cage and nails New Jack with a guitar. He unmasks to reveal The Franchise and Saturn drops a knee on New Jack, but only gets two. Saturn finally goes to the well too many times, and New Jack tosses a garbage can at him, knocking him off the top of the cage to the floor and through a table. The Gangstas hit the diving chairshot on Kronus to take it home. On the brawl scale, too much stalling, but Saturn and Kronus hit a couple of nice little spots. **

Final analysis: A fun and bloody show. Van Dam and Furnas is quite good and Taz/Dreamer is a hot match. The top two tag matches are both kind of sloppy brawls but the undercard up to that point is all pretty good even with no real standout matches.