I’ll be honest with you as I grow
older I look at back ECW shows and feel they really don’t stand up today, while
you do get shows with one or two stand out matches the overall cards don’t
deliver. ECW began having PPV’s in April of 1997 but on the 2nd
August 1998 in Dayton, Ohio they held arguably the best PPV they ever did in
the form of Heatwave 1998. The show pulled 4,400 fans to the arena and we get
Joey Styles (who actually gets chanted at the show opening) and then ECW World
champion Shane Douglas on commentary. No Shane came out with a brace on his arm
and had been injured for a while hence why he wouldn’t work the show. Shane
comes out with Francine who is basically just in a bra & panties. On a side
note the version of the World title Shane had on this show is one of my
favourite belts designs ever. They do a little back and forth, we get the old
ECW opening and the show is off.
Justin Credible w/ Nicole Bass, Jason
& Chastity vs. Jerry Lynn: Justin here apparently got the Raven
gimmick of having complete randoms come out with him. Bass looks like more of a
man than Justin here! I love Lynn but his gear looked awful here, never liked
his shiny looking gear but at least he has gear unlike Justin who’s in jean
shorts, maybe John Cena was influenced by him? Did you know that Justin is the
forgotten members of the Kliq, even members of the Kliq pretty much forget about
him as well. Match starts with Lynn getting the better and getting some near
falls, Jerry just looks great here and it’s amazing to think he’s just as good
now as back then. Lynn goes for a tilt-a-whirl but Justin floats over and hits
a snap reverse DDT to get the advantage. Styles brings up Justin’s past and how
fans pick on him aka Aldo Montoya. Jason holds a chair in front of Lynn in the
corner and Justin knees it and follows it with a pull out Powerbomb onto the
chair. This was my problem with ECW, was the chair needed there. We get Jason
attacking behind the ref’s back, why do that when you just used a chair? You’re
not getting DQ’d. Justin hits a really nice Black Hole Slam after doing the
Flair spot. Jerry starts coming back and a series of reversals leads to a sit
out Powerbomb. Lynn does a Frankensteiner of the top rope through a table on
the outside in a crazy looking spot. Lynn takes out Jason, Bass and Chastity
all 3 spots getting pops. Lynn sets Justin on the ropes but it’s reversed into
a second rope tombstone for the win. I don’t care who you are I would not let
anyone do that spot. A pretty good opener here, these two always had good
matches and this helped make Justin a legit wrestler and Jerry looked great as
well. I’ll also add that one match in and Styles & Shane are a great team,
I miss commentators who put the attention on the match and not themselves.
Lance Storm vs. Chris Candido w/ Tammy
Lynn Sytch: We
get a video recapping the history here, they were tag champs but Storm turned
on Chris after losing the titles. Storm has said that he was meant to be the
face in this feud but I have no clue how as he came off as the heel from the
get go. Tammy debuts here to a nice pop, but this audience is mostly males.
Chris here is in phenomenal shape here, he also has head gear on to protect his
ear so he does the Rick Steiner pose. Chris attempts a leap frog but Storm hits
a spinning heel kick in mid-air in a nice spot. The headgear comes off really
early in the match. Chris hits a top rope crossbody to the floor to get the
heat. Storm attempts a hurracanrana but Chris hits a running Liger bomb. A very
nice hanging vertical suplex where Chris even gives a thumbs up. Storm would
get little bits of offence here and there but Chris would cut him off before he
could really start anything. Storm hits a suplex off the apron to the floor,
this leads to a baseball slide and a springboard plancha to the front row.
Storm attempts a springboard but is caught in a powerslam. Chris gets his own
powder to the face in a comedy spot. Lots of random spots here which see Tammy’s
dress come undone and then a top rope Powerbomb leads to Candido winning. A
good match here which kind of came undone with the randomness at the end. One
thing I’ve noticed is how overused the powerbomb is at this time, this is our
second match and we’ve had about 7. The next match won’t help matter. Before
the next match we see a backstage incident from earlier with the Dudleys &
Jack Victory beating up New Jack. This is followed by a promo by RVD, Sabu and
Alfonso. This reminded me how annoying the camera work was during promos, they
would just come in and out and shaking constantly.
Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka: Awesome runs up
the ropes and hits a back elbow early, you forgot how agile Mike was for his
size. He hits a slingshot shoulder block, its all Awesome to start this match.
Mike hits an Undertaker style plancha and follows that with a top rope
clothesline when they get back in. Mike hits a German suplex but Tanaka rolls
through and then hits a snap powerslam. We have the long ramp that’s ring level,
Tanaka runs the entire length and hits Mike with a chair, I would love to see
that ramp come back. Mike does a springboard plancha into the crowd on Tanaka,
which leads to the usual Hulk Hogan insult that we get during an Awesome match.
Mike calls out for a Awesome Bomb and Style asks “Did he say high to his mother?”.
Mike hits a Superfly splash, which he was banned from doing in WWE, one of the
many things he couldn’t do. Mike proceeds to kills Tanaka with 3 chair shots
and the chair is destroyed. We get a running release powerbomb, seriously so
many powerbombs on one show. Mike jumps of the top rope and hits a chair shot
to the head and the tries for a running powerbomb over the top rope and this
leads to the 2 fighting over it. Tanaka hits the powerbomb over the top through
the table but Mike barely hits it, he got no length in that throw and was
folded up badly, I understand why he did it as Mike did it all the time to
Tanaka but he was the wrong guy to do it as he really couldn’t throw Mike far.
Tanaka hits the Roaring Elbow for a near fall this is followed by a Tornado DDT
on chairs for the win. These 2 always had great matches I thought and this was
another one, Tanaka got so little offence and came off as a major survivor.
Just passing Shane puts over them both and mentions he’s back in the ring
November 1st why did he get to keep the World title when injured for
so long? We get a backstage interview with Taz, the FTW champ this leads to
Shane putting over his belt and try to move their feud forward. This is
followed by a great promo by the Dudley Boys hyping up the main event.
Rob Van Dam & Sabu (c) w/Bill
Alfonso vs. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki for the ECW Tag Titles: The only title
match on the show. You may recognise Jinsei as Hakushi from WWE, he would have
a short run which involved a fantastic match with Bret Hart at the first In
Your House and then very little from him. The challengers come out to Hayabusa’s
theme which is one of my favourite themes ever. This would be Hayabusa’s only
US exposure which is surprising to me when you look at how good he was. RVD was
also the TV champion at the time, to be honest at this time I think ECW had the
best overall belts design followed by WCW and then WWE. RVD and Hayabusa start
this off after a long period of nothing which dragged. For someone who didn’t
talk Sabu sure can’t shut up. We get a “You F’ed up” chant earlier, to be
honest they are really awkward in the ring together. Shane isn’t talking much
and Styles is putting over that he’s talking notes, making this match
important. Hayabusa barely hits a twisting kick. Jinsei hits a great looking
Vader bomb which got lots of height. RVD misses an enzugiri but lands on his
feet and hits a kick to the face, that was impressive. Jinsei does the prayer
rope walk going over two sets of ropes, the fans are impressed with Jinsei. The
fans pop when Sabu is tagged, he really comes off as an angry wild man with his
offence. Sabu hits the Arabian press on Hayabusa, the fans love everything Sabu
does. The champs get hit by an Asai moonsault by Hayabusa. Sabu hits a Triple
Jump plancha into the crowd on everyone. RVD hits his spinning kick on the
railing. My DVD then cuts some of the match out for some reason, this is the
actual DVD of the show as well. We come back to see a powerbomb on RVD and
Hayabusa hits a 450 splash. Jinsei hits his crazy version of a Dragon screw on
RVD. We get a top rope Van Daminator on Hayabusa. Match ends with the challengers laying on one
table and the champs both hit a top rope leg drop for the win. Honestly while
this was good I think it’s a little over-rated in history, I just don’t think
anyone really clicked here and the only real good worker was Jinsei it seemed.
Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow-Falls Count
Anywhere: We
get a recap of the feud showing Bigelow & Taz going through the ring and
really showing the Taz & Shane feud starting. Bigelow comes out to “Welcome
to the Jungle” now that is overused in wrestling and it’s annoying. Taz was the
FTW champ here, that short lived title didn’t mean much at all. Within seconds
we see a powerbomb by Bigelow. Taz hits a Samoan drop and follows with a Mafia
kick on Bigelow that sent him off the entrance ramp. Taz attempts a crossbody
off the ramp but is caught by Bigelow. They start fighting through the crowd. Bigelow
just throws a guard rail at Taz. The Taz mission is countered by a jaw breaker
just like that, ECW spent years building that move up as unbreakable and
Bigelow breaks it so easily. As great as it must be to be there live Falls
Count Anywhere matches can be extremely confusing for fans watching. We get
another powerbomb, I think this is messing with me now. Taz gets thrown face
first into a slated table. The broken table is set up again and Bigelow is
T-Boned through it. Bigelow picks up Taz on the ramp but it’s countered into a DDT
that goes through the ramp. You kind of knew something like this would happen
as they would have to outdo the ring spot from the previous PPV but it didn’t
help that the ramp was taken apart by them coming out showing it was rigged.
Bigelow gets out, Taz locks in the Taz-Mission and apparently taps out when he
was reaching for the ropes leading to Taz winning. I wasn’t too impressed with
this match, it was really one spot and a confusing finish to keep Bigelow
strong. Shane goes crazy and leaves the commentary team.
The Dudley Boys (Bubba, D-Von & Big
Dick) w/Joel Gertner, Sign Guy Dudley & Jeff Jones vs. Tommy Dreamer,
Sandman & Spike Dudley-Dudleyville Street Fight: How this differs
from any other ECW match I don’t know. We get the infamously long intro for the
Dudley’s with the only good part being Joel Gartner’s promo. True story I
actually left my DVD running went and made a coffee while this promo ran as I
knew I didn’t miss much. The faces all come in with ladders. You get the
feeling that Sandman didn’t know what to do to kill time during his entrance
because we just HAVE to listen to the whole of Enter Sandman. They put Big Dick
over as a monster but watching this I’ve noticed he’s not taller or bigger than
anyone, I’d say Bubba was the biggest in this match. Dreamer and D-Von start.
We get Dreamers ‘I’m obviously talking to you’ Neckbreaker of the ropes. Spike
and Bubba are then in, Bubba eventually hits the Bubba Bomb making our
Powerbomb count go into the 30’s I think. Spike can sure sell a beating and
Bubba can give him one, this is a good pairing that would last for years.
Things break done into a brawl when Big Dick and Sandman go to the outside.
Sandman hits the “Frankensander” as Joey calls it. Spike climbs a massive
ladder and jumps to the outside onto the Dudley’s, a very trustful spot to say
the least. Bubba hits a senton of the rope on a ladder to Dreamer, that must be
one of the only times he’s hit that move. Spike gets the Acid Drop but it’s
broken up. I think everyone is bleeding apart from Bubba. The Dudley’s and Joel
are put in Trees of Woe and the face & the ref hit dropkicks on chairs to
them, I wonder if the refs ever got big heads in ECW as they got lots of spots
like this. Spike tries for a Bulldog on Big Dick but is thrown to the outside
throw a table. So much action going on its hard to note it all. Bubba is DDT’d
on a Ladder for the finish. After Jack Victory comes in and this leads to New
Jack coming out, we get tons of weapons and we leave with the faces posing. A
good brawl here but I don’t know if I would have closed the show with it but
having said that I don’t know what you would have ended it with.
Overall: This is still
one of the best ECW shows I’ve ever seen. I cannot put over how good Styles
& Shane were calling this, I miss this kind of commentating. Not only did
they call the action but they were fun to listen to and they put over the
stories. When it came to the in ring work it was overall very good, this was a
great example of what ECW was at its height. Honestly the only downfall was the
Taz/Bigelow match in my view but even that wasn’t too bad. This show is really
worth going out and checking if you’ve not seen it before.
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