Written By: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling presents ECW on TNN
Date: 9/3/1999
From: Queens, New York
The show opens with ECW World Heavyweight Champion Taz making his way down to the ring to defend the title against Tajiri.
Opening Contest: Taz defeated Tajiri to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship: Taz with a big clothesline to start the contest. Taz with a couple of right hands but Tajiri comes back with a handspring back elbow. Tajiri follows up with a series of kicks after spitting on the champion. Tajiri goes for the Tarantula but Taz blocks it and drives Tajiri down with a double leg slam. Taz works on Tajiri with several stomps in the corner but runs into a kick from Tajiri. Taz is able to take Tajiri down with a arm trapped overhead belly to belly suplex. They begin to trade overhand chops and Taz blocks a front kick with a high cradle overhead suplex ! Taz grabs a lifeless Tajiri and delivers several stiff cross face shots. Tajiri low blows Taz and kicks Taz twice in the face and comes off the ropes with a dropkick for a near fall! Tajiri kicks away on Tazz in the corner and misses two kicks. Taz locks in the Taz Mission and Tajiri quickly taps out! **
Opening Video
Joey Styles is standing in the ring as the fans chant ECW. Styles welcomes everyone to the show. The fans actually chant for TNN. Styles gets cut off by Joel Gertner who says that it is Styles honor to be standing in front of him. Gertner reveals he is the new ECW on TNN color commentator. Gertner says that he is just like a rubric cube as the more you play with it, the harder it gets. Styles introduces their guest this week, Jerry Lynn! Lynn didn’t come out to waste anyone time by cutting a promo like they do on Monday’s. So, Lynn proceeds to cut a promo. Lynn puts ECW over being better than WWF and WCW. Lynn wants to give the fans the best match in wrestling today. Lynn calls out ECW World Television Champion Rob Van Dam and wants to face him for the belt in Queens! Bill Alfonso comes out and gives Lynn a lot of credit. Alfonso says that Lynn will not get another title shot against RVD. Lynn attacks Alfonso until RVD runs down and brawls with Lynn. Several referees come down to break up the fight.
Commercials
Joel Gertner reveals that he has the scoop for next weeks show. Next week, Rob Van Dam will defend the ECW World Television Championship against Jerry Lynn!
Second Contest: Dudley Boys defeated Balls Mahoney/Spike Dudley to win the ECW World Tag Team Championships: Back from another commercial, all four men start the contest by brawling in the ring. The champions have the early advantage sending the Dudley’s the floor. Balls press slams Spike over the top onto the Dudley’s on the floor! Spike and Bubba officially start the match where Bubba misses a splash in the corner and is met with a bulldog by Spike. Bubba quickly comes back with a Bubba Bomb. On the floor Bubba has Spike on his shoulders and drops Spike throat first across the guard railing. In the ring, D-Von is beating down Balls. Dudley’s control the champions for a few moments. Spike low blows Bubba as he goes to the middle rope. Spike attempts a hurricanrana but Bubba blocks it by power bombing Spike off the middle rope! Back from commercial, Spike connects with the Acid Drop on Bubba, and Balls drops D-Von with the Nut Cracker Suite but aren’t able to get the win. Spike goes for another Acid Drop but Balls sends Spike over the top crashing through a table! Balls whacks D-Von and Bubba with a steel chair and heads to the floor to get a table. Balls opens a bad full of thumbtacks and dumps them on the table. Balls sets Bubba up for a power bomb but D-Von whacks Balls with a chair. Bubba manages to power bomb Balls through the table! D-Von covers but Spike is able to break up the pin. Spike quickly suffers the 3-D and Bubba pins Spike to win the titles! **½
After the match, Joey Styles believes that the Dudley Boys will be going to the WWF with the tag team titles!
Commercials
Joey Styles and Joel Gertner talk about the situation with the Dudley Boys leaving for the WWF with the tag team titles. Styles isn’t happy that the Dudley’s won the titles.
A music video airs highlighting mainly Lance Storm and Dawn Marie.
The Dudley’s appear in the crowd and Styles doesn’t know what is going to happen.
Commercials
The new ECW World Tag Team Champions Dudley Boys and Sign Guy are standing in the ring. Bubba talks about men becoming heroes in ECW. However, in the WWF heroes become legends! Bubba continues by saying that legends become Gods! “If God were a heel, he would be the Dudley Boys!” Bubba calls the fans typical white trash from Queens. Bubba puts over Stamford, Connecticut as the real place for wrestling. Bubba says they are going to ruin ECW. They are going to suck the blood and guts out of ECW. Bubba says they are going to do something they should’ve done a long time ago. The fans begin to chant for Sabu! Bubba calls out Tommy Dreamer to come out to the ring. Bubba wants Dreamer to defend ECW. Tommy Dreamer appears but is being held back by Paul Heyman. Francine also appears and Bubba says that another two dollar whore has shown up! Bubba threatens to throw the titles down on national television. Bubba brings up Beulah and says that he and D-Von used to sneak into her hospital room and showed her the real meaning of a “double team”. Dreamer begins to pace around as Heyman tries to talk to him.
Main Event: Tommy Dreamer/Raven defeated Dudley Boys to win the ECW World Tag Team Championships: Dreamer storms the ring and is beaten down by the Dudley’s. Dreamer with a double side Russian leg sweep and gets a near fall on Bubba. Dreamer grabs D-Von by the groin and does the same to Bubba. Francine tosses a ladder into the ring. Dreamer jumps onto the elevated ladder and it hit’s the Dudley’s right in the face. Francine hits Sign Guy with a sign on the floor. Dreamer sends Bubba back first into the ladder in the corner. D-Von is sent into Bubba and Bubba drops down onto the groin of D-Von! Bubba comes back by sending Dreamer into the ladder and drives Dreamer down with a side back suplex. Bubba throws the ladder out of the ring as Dreamer is just laying in the ring. Bubba whips Dreamer with the tag team title belts. Sign Guy tries to stop the champions but to no avail. Dreamer counters the 3-D by dropping D-Von with a DDT. Then all of a sudden.. RAVEN comes out nowhere and plants Bubba with the Evenflow DDT! Raven and Dreamer cover the champions to win the belts! **
After the match, Raven hands Dreamer one of the tag team titles and poses for the crowd. Raven gets a loud “Welcome Back” chant. Raven leaves the ring and exits through the crowd.
End of show
My Take: This was a very enjoyable show, and one that I would have started the series off with. The opening contest with Taz/Tajiri was a competitive match and was able to make the champion look good. Defiantly good to have fresh material on the show instead of showing a match from a recent pay per view.
I didn’t like the Jerry Lynn/Rob Van Dam segment. Lynn pretty much just did the usual cheap heat to get the fan going by saying ECW was better than the Monday night companies. Something that Styles had said before Lynn came out. Lynn/RVD always have good matches, but to have them wrestle excessively could ruin the feud for me.
As you can tell or perhaps already know, this was the last ECW show for the Dudley’s as they were going to the WWF. Their match with Balls/Spike was the usual hardcore fight that they would have at around this time. It was a enjoyable encounter and I think a lot of people were surprised to see the Dudley’s actually win the match.
Bubba did a great job at getting the fans to hate him and I thought his promo insulting Tommy Dreamer was done fantastically. The match was decent for the most part. A great surprise with Raven returning to ECW as the crowd went nuts for that. If anything, they were expecting the return of Sabu. So, this one didn’t seem a like a realistic idea. However, Raven left WCW when Eric Bischoff allowed anyone to walk out the company if they weren’t happy. Thus, Raven left and came back to ECW!
Overall, a better show than last week. A show that had matches/segments happening at the same venue is always a good thing. With Raven coming back, I am interested to see where things go next week.
Thanks for reading.