The show opened with a brawl between The Eliminators and The Gangstas. In the opening match, El Puerto Ricano took on Super Nova. The match ended in a no contest after Eliminators interfered and attacked both men and then Gangstas attacked them and both teams brawled with each other. Several wrestlers came in to prevent both teams from preventing. The Full Blooded Italians cut a promo on Eliminators and Gangstas, which was interrupted by D-Von Dudley, who attacked Guido with a steel chair and chased Smith to the backstage. The Bad Crew then attacked Ricano until Hack Meyers made the save by attacking the team. Next, The Pitbulls took on The Dudley Boyz. The match ended in a no contest after both teams began brawling around the Eagle's Nest and then D-Von hit the referee with a chair and Pitbulls executed an aided superbomb to the referee. Next, Taz took on Devon Storm. Taz knocked Storm out of the ring with a belly-to-belly Tazplex and Storm was counted out as a result. After the match, Taz applied a Tazmission to Storm to choke him out unconscious. Next, Axl Rotten took on Little Guido. JT Smith interfered multiple times on Guido's behalf but Rotten still managed to hit an inverted powerbombfor the win. Later, The Sandman and 2 Cold Scorpio took on The Bruise Brothers. Scorpio delivered a moonsault to a standing Bruise Brother for the win. Next, Tommy Dreamer took on Brian Lee. Bruise Brothers interfered in the match, allowing Lee to place a cinder block in Dreamer's groin and nail a steel chair in the block for the win. In the penultimate match, Sabu took on Rob Van Dam. Sabu hit RVD with a chair and executed a triple jump moonsault for the win. After the match, Sabu extended a handshake to RVD but RVD refused to shake his hands and walked away.
Main event match
defended the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against Shane Douglas in the main event. Before the match, Douglas revealed to Tommy Dreamer that his girlfriend, Beulah McGillicutty, was not pregnant as she had claimed and was in fact cheating with him. After Dreamer demanded to know who Beulah was cheating on him with, Douglas' valet, Kimona Wanalaya, revealed it was her and then kissed Beulah. Dreamer then declared, "I'll take 'em both, I'm hardcore!" and kissed both Beulah and Kimona. Near the end of the match, Douglas applied a figure four leglock on Raven until Stevie Richards distracted the referee, allowing Bruise Brothers to attack Douglas and Raven hit Douglas with a loaded boot to retain the title. After the match, Douglas cut a promo on his obsession about the World Heavyweight Championship, leading to 2 Cold Scorpio coming out and objecting to Douglas' obsession about the World Heavyweight Championship but ignoring the ECW World Television Championship and then as Scorpio was leaving, Douglas turned into a villain by attacked Scorpio and nailed a belly-to-belly suplex and a piledriver to Scorpio on the title belt and Sandman tried to make the rescue but Douglas delivered him a second belly-to-belly suplex.
Reception
Hostile City Showdown received mixed reviews from the critics. Shinobi of Wrestling Recaps rated it 8 out of 10, considering it " a really cool ECW show", adding that the show had "historical moments with RVD & Sabu’s first match", the controversial lesbianangle between Beulah McGillicutty and Kimona Wanalaya. He further added "The highlight for sure was the surprisingly good Raven/Douglas title match. The Eliminators vs Gangstas feud got pretty awesome with this show as well." Due to the highly sexual angles on the show, he considered it to be "one of those ECW shows that gives you a good idea of where the Attitude Era came from. A few stinker matches keeps the overall score down, but really the storyline progression, interesting characters, and compelling rivalries made this another really fun, interesting ECW show." Wrestling 20 Years Ago staff rated it 5 out of 10, appreciating the first match of Rob Van Dam and Sabu and Taz's squash match while considering the rest of the event to be "frustrating".
Aftermath
Several matches at Hostile City Showdown would result in the beginning of new rivalries and continuation of several rivalries heading into the next major event A Matter of Respect. Shane Douglas' assault on 2 Cold Scorpio led to a match between the two for the World Television Championship, where Douglas defeated Scorpio for the title. Rob Van Dam's disrespect to Sabu led to a rematch between the two at A Matter of Respect, where RVD defeated Sabu to even the score and then Sabu walked out after the match refusing to shake hands with RVD. The rivalry between Axl Rotten and Full Blooded Italians continued as Rotten and Hack Meyers took on FBI in a tag team match at A Matter of Respect, which FBI won. The feud between Brian Lee and Tommy Dreamer and The Eliminators and The Gangstas continued as Dreamer and Gangstas defeated Lee and Eliminators in a six-man tag team match.
Controversy
The kiss between Beulah and Kimona at Hostile City Showdown aired on the April 30 episode of Hardcore TV, which led to numerous networks, including MSG and Sunshine Network, dropping the series on the basis that ECW had violated their content standards.
