ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997

This is my first ECW back catalogue report, this is the Hardcore Heaven 1997 PPV. Not a clue what happens on this PPV. Will be interesting to see what goes down.

Segment 1.

Joey Styles kicks the show off in the ring announcing some of the matches but gets interrupted by Ravishing Rick Rude!!! WTF!!! Joey Styles berates him for turning his back on ECW, gives him the microphone and then leaves. The Ravishing One then berates the crowd and demands they respect Chris Candido, who then makes his way to the ring.

Todd Gordon makes his way to the ring and tells Ravishing that he needs to leave the ringside area as he isn’t a real manager and that he has till the 10 count, so Rick Rude leaves.

The titles roll for ECW HARDCORE HEAVEN 1997.

Match # 1 ECW TV Title match

Chris Candido vs. Taz (c)

Don’t think I’ve seen that many Taz matches from his earlier ECW days so this should be cool, I also hear Candido wasn’t too bad either as a performer.

Match starts off pretty technical, always good to see that on an ECW show. I keep forgetting that ECW didn’t really have any rules within 3 minutes Taz hit a low blow and Candido had raked Taz’s eyes. Ha! Joey Styles reveals that Taz is only 29 at this PPV event, my god this is an old show isn’t it. Candido’s finisher is the “Blonde Bombshell” that according to Joey Styles is a top rope powerbomb, damn that seems like a pretty tough finisher to hit. I am also a huge fan of how every suplex Taz throws is renamed Taz-plex instead, a bit like every move Mike Awesome does gets the prefix “awesome” instead.

Candido puts Taz on the top turnbuckle, turns around like an idiot, Taz locks on the Taz-mission, takes down Candido and then forces the submission to retain the ECW TV title belt. That was actually quite a good match to open the show; I think you can feel from the crowd’s responses to this match that Taz was certainly destined to be the top guy of ECW. Looking forward to seeing Candido in future shows too.

Segment 2

We go to the announcers area and Joey Styles thanks everyone for buying the show (Idiot this is an old show), he then says that pre show the Insane Clown Posse were in the ring and leads to footage of RVD & Sabu kicking the crap out of them, was quite pointless.

Match # 2 - Spike Dudley vs.  Bam Bam Bigelow

I hear Spike was a hell of a worker in ECW, so guess I will see now won’t I. I know they were going for a giant killer kind of gimmick with Spike, they had him tackle all the really big buys like Bam Bam. This match was booked because Spike beat Bam Bam on TV the week before, so obviously Bam Bam wants some payback.

Can imagine Spike is going to take some nasty bumps in this match, a few minutes in and boy has he taken some nasty bumps, he has been thrown, dropped and bombed, it isn’t a pretty site, especially when he body press throws Spike into the crowd.

Bam Bam drags Spike from the crowd into the ring, hits him with a shoulder breaker / pile driver move, then heads to the top rope and flies off squashing poor Spike and gets the pin fall victory.

That was a SQUASH match, my god Bam Bam threw him round like a rag doll, Spike got very little offence in that match but was still quite cool (I know I’m sick). Not much to talk about here so onto the next bit.

Segment 3

We go back to the beat down of the Insane Clown Posse, with Sandman trying to get involved but he gets beaten up too for his troubles. Thank god for Sabu & RVD, I hate the Sandman.

Match # 3 - Rob Van Dam (With Bill Alfonso) vs. Al Snow

Ok, aside from Al Snow this should be good, I’m joking I’m sure it will be good, despite Al Snow doesn’t have HEAD yet. Nobody can decide who they want to cheer and boo in this match, looking about 60/40 to RVD being cheered more than booed.

Always been quite a fan of RVD anyway, really liked his early WWF work with the invasion angle and then again towards the end of his WWE run with the ECW brand. No wonder WWE hired both these guys, this is certainly more of a wrestling match then the 1^st two matches of the show, bit more of a story being told in this encounter. Back & forward offence, false finishes and some good wrestling in between J.

Rob Van Dam wins after hitting the Van Daminator and then pinning Al Snow for the 3 count.

Segment 4

Joey Styles says that they have a helicopter following the ambulance that Sandman has been taken to the hospital in. Lance Wright is in the chopper reporting, how rubbish is his reporting?

Turns out that Sandman has stolen the ambulance and is now driving it back to the arena.

We cut to Jerry Lawler in the back, he cuts a promo on Tommy Dreamer telling him that he is gonna kick his ass.

Segment 5

We cut to the ring, where the Dudley Family, Joel Gertner and Jenna Jameson are in the ring. Joel then introduces the remaining Dudley boyz.

Match # 4 – ECW Tag Team Championship Match

The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D’Von) vs. Pg-13 (No Clue i’m Sorry)

PG-13 cut a promo on the dudleyz, not too bad but I think these guys are going to get their asses whooped.

The Dudley Boyz win after hitting the 3-D on the PG-13 guy wearing red shorts :-? To retain their tag team championships. Good match, lots of back and forth between the two teams, some nice double teams from both sides and plenty of interference from the Dudley family with Jenna Jameson to help the Dudley Boyz in the defence of their titles. Quite fun to see some old school Dudley Boyz, such a good tag team and they didn’t need to pull out the tables to put this one away.

Segment 6

Back to the choppa, where we are still following the commandeered ambulance that the Sandman is driving, I imagine he will get back to the show during the ECW title match.

Back to the ring we have Jerry Lawler in the ring; he cuts a promo on the people watching the show and plugs the upcoming WWF GROUND ZERO PPV event, funny stuff from the King, repeats the same stuff he said on camera earlier in the show.

Match # 5 Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Tommy Dreamer (With Beulah)

This is a unique contest if anything, didn’t realise the WWF involvement with ECW was so soon into their PPV history. Beulah is one fine young lady I may note. This is Tommy Dreamers PPV debut according to Joey Styles too. I imagine this match will be a little bit more violent in comparison to the previous tag team title match, can’t imagine Jerry Lawler doing too well in this match.

I can say that Lawler isn’t liked by the ECW crowd, they are all over him from the second he appeared in the ring, and Dreamer is certainly the crowd favourite for this match.

The lights go out during the match, when they come back on Rick Rude is clobbering Dreamer with a trash can, throws him back into the ring but Lawler only gets a 2 count. The lights go out again shortly after and when they come back on we have Jake “The Snake” Roberts in the ring and he clotheslines Dreamer and then DDTs him before. Jerry Lawler goes to shake the hands of Jake but gets a clothesline for his troubles before Jake leaves. Shortly after the lights go out again!!!! My god! This time its Sunny who sprays Tommy in the face with something but Beulah gets in the ring and they catfight for a bit.

Beulah hits a low blow on the King after he tries to piledrive her, Dreamer then hits the DDT to get the pinfall victory over Jerry Lawler.

Segment 7

Back to Joey Styles, he introduces the main event the ECW world title match.

Then back to the choppa for the ambulance chase. The Sandman seems to have finally found his way back to the arena. What a loser.

Match # 6 ECW World Title Match Three Way Dance

Sabu (c)(With Bill Alfonso) vs. Terry Funk & Shane Douglas (With Francine)

This match is a rematch from 1994, which went to a 1 hour time limit draw. Not really a fan of any of these guys, I guess if I was to be it would be “The Franchise” Shane Douglas, he is more of a wrestler than the other two and isn’t known for his use of weapons or blood soaked matches.

Francine tries to pay Terry Funk to leave but to no avail, rather funny bit as he slaps the cash out of her hands. I keep forgetting the 3 WAY DANCE matches are of course elimination, two men need to be eliminated to end the match. With Funk being the only face in this match I am going to assume that Douglas will be eliminated first leading to a one on one with Sabu & Funk. I also expect to see some of the Sandman in this match, with arriving back at the arena after suffering an assault from Sabu & RVD earlier.

Im surprised no one just smashed Bill Alfonso in the face, his constant blowing of that fucking whistle is just the most god damn annoying thing this show has produced. Todd Gordon comes out and attacks Bill Alfonso, however Shane Douglas interferes and puts him on a table for Sabu to jump onto. However Funk attacks Douglas and puts Alfonso on the same table just as Sabu dives onto it crushing both Gordon and Alfonso.

Sandman hits the ring and attacks Sabu, then security come and drag Sandman out of the building as Funk & Douglas cover Sabu removing him from the match by pinfall elimination. Sabu then gets up, hits the ropes and dives onto the Sandman and security on the outside the ring, they both then get dragged out of the arena. As Francine & Douglas set Funk up to get put through a table Dory Funk Jr enters and attacks Douglas then chases Francine from the ringside area.

After a series of exchanges Shane Douglas hits his Belly to Belly Suplex to pin Terry Funk to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.

Francine and Douglas celebrate by whipping Funk with the belt and beating him down. Joel Gertner enters the ring along with the Dudley Boyz, he asks Douglas to join forces with the Dudley Boyz and ditch his current partners “The Triple Threat”, who then of course make their way to the ring and this turns into a brawl as the Dudley Boyz beat up half the ECW roster as the “Triple Threat” leave in the confusion. The Dudleys being the only people left in the ring closes the show.

Oh and incase you don’t know the Triple Threat is Shane Douglas, Chris Candido & Bam Bam Bigelow. I didn’t know so its more relevant to me I guess. Well thats the end of the 2^nd ever ECW PPV event, wasn’t a bad show actually, its a bit shit that these shows were all before my time with regards to watching wrestling as I didn’t start till 2000. Quite looking forward to seeing some more of them as I hope you are excited to read about them.

Follow me on twitter @bigboss010, SOSgames @siteofshite and my good friend Jim @KingJimmeh

I’ve been Big Boss, see you next time and I’m out! PEACE!