Written By: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling presents ECW on TNN
Date: 9/10/1999
From: Queens, New York
A video showing the return of Raven is shown. Raven pinned Bubba Dudley to win the ECW World Tag Team Championships last week.
ECW on TNN opening video
Joey Styles and Joel Gertner are the hosts of the show.
Opening Contest: Super Crazy defeated Rhino: Rhino with a boot to the gut and hammers away on Crazy to start the match. Rhino catches Crazy as he attempted a springboard moonsault and connects with a sit down scoop slam for a near fall. Rhino chops Crazy in the corner and misses a splash in the corner. Crazy with a springboard missile dropkick and hits Rhino with a springboard spinning heel kick for a two count. Tilt a whirl scissors takedown by Crazy and Rhino heads to the floor. Crazy baseball slides Rhino over the guard railing into the crowd. Crazy springs off the middle rope and takes Rhino out with a moonsault! Rhino elevates Crazy up into the air and drops him midsection first and gets a two count. Rhino power slams Crazy as he comes off the ropes for another two count. Rhino runs into a double boot in the corner and Crazy plants Rhino with a tornado DDT. Crazy follows up with a springboard moonsault for a near fall. Crazy slams Rhino down and goes for the trisect moonsault but Rhino got his knees up on the first one. Rhino drives crazy down with a pump handle power slam for a near fall. Crazy reverses a power bomb with a hurricanrana to win the match! **½
After the match, Steve Corino gets in Rhino’s face as he isn’t happy but cowards in the corner. Rhino wants to shake Crazy’s hands but instead knocks Crazy down with a short arm clothesline. Rhino power bombs Crazy and celebrates with Steve Corino.
Commercials
Joey Styles and Joel Gertner hype up the Anarchy Rulz pay per view. The following match is a flashback to ECW Heatwave 1998.
Second Contest: Masatao Tanaka defeated Mike Awesome (Heatwave 1998): Awesome backs Tanaka into the corner and kicks Tanaka several times. Awesome comes off the middle rope with back elbow for a two count. They trade fight hands, and Awesome catches Tanaka in midair to connect with a overhead belly to belly suplex. Awesome is back dropped to the apron but knocks Tanaka down with a slingshot shoulder block. Awesome comes off the ropes with a splash but only gets a two count. Awesome clotheslines Tanaka over the top to the floor and dives over the top rope knocking Tanaka down with a suicide dive! Awesome heads to the top rope as Tanaka is back in the ring and connects with a clothesline for a near fall. Awesome charges the corner but misses a splash. Awesome recovers with a German suplex but Tanaka quickly gets to his feet. We go to a commercial break during the match. They are on the floor with dueling chairs. Tanaka is able to hit Awesome across the back and sends him into the guard railing. Awesome backdrops Tanaka into the first. Awesome goes into the ring and springboards off the top rope taking Tanaka out with a dive in the crowd! Back in the ring, Awesome nails Tanaka with a few chair shots that do not affect Tanaka. Awesome ducks a clothesline and smashes the chair over Tanaka’s head for a near fall! Awesome connects with the Awesome Bomb! Awesome rolls to the floor to set up a table. Awesome leaps off the top rope hitting Tanaka with a chair over the head. Awesome goes for the Awesome bomb but Tanaka gets out of it. Awesome clotheslines Tanaka and goes for another power bomb attempt but Tanaka gets out of it. Tanaka is able to lift Awesome up and power bombs Awesome over the top rope sending Awesome crashing through the table! Tanaka covers Awesome but Awesome is able to kick out. Tanaka knocks Awesome out with the roaring elbow but Awesome kicks out at two! Tanaka sets two chairs up in the corner and drives Awesome head first onto the chairs with a tornado DDT for the win. ***
Main Event: ECW Television Champion Rob Van Dam fought Jerry Lynn to a No Contest: They trade punches in the middle of the ring to start the match. RVD with a atomic drop and they trade more right hands. Lynn goes for a drop kick but RVD avoids it and misses a leg drop. Lynn with a cross body off the middle rope but RVD gets up quickly and they are able to avoid several moves leading to a standoff. RVD plays to the crowd on the middle rope and is dropkicked to the floor by Lynn! Lynn with a baseball slide sending RVD into the guard railing. Lynn clotheslines RVD into the crowd and climbs to the top turnbuckle. Lynn leaps off and dives onto RVD in the crowd! Back from a commercial, RVD sends Lynn over the railing into the crowd. RVD has a chair but the chair is thrown at Lynn who nails RVD with the chair after catching it. RVD drops Lynn throat first across the guard railing and leaps off the railing to take Lynn out with a somersault plancha! RVD has a chair as he enters the ring and places it on top of Lynn. RVD connects with a slingshot leg drop on the apron! RVD heads to the top rope and connects with a side kick for a two count. RVD puts Lynn on the top turnbuckle and nails Lynn with a kick. Lynn fights back and drives RVD down with a sunset flip power bomb onto a chair for a near fall! Lynn grabs Alfonso and avoids a chair shot from him. Lynn turns around and has a chair dropkicked into his face by RVD! RVD takes his time going for the cover and only gets a two count for doing so. RVD with the rolling thunder onto Lynn who had a chair on top of him. RVD goes for the cover but Lynn is able to get his foot on the bottom rope! RVD goes for a monkey flip but Lynn lands on his feet and dropkicks the chair into RVD’s face for a two count. Lynn works on RVD in the corner with boots and is able to plant RVD with a tornado DDT onto the chair! Lynn goes for the cover but RVD kicks out at two! Lynn goes for the cradle pile driver but RVD goes out of it and they trade a series of rollups, which each man getting several near falls. Double clothesline sees both men go down as the fans are chanting ECW! Lance Storm and Justin Credible run down to the ring and attack both Lynn and RVD. Storm connected with the cradle pile driver on Lynn while Credible hit the That’s Incredible on RVD! ***¼
After the match, Lance Storm grabs a microphone and says they are closing the show because they are the Impact Players of ECW. Credible with his catchphrase to end the segment.
A video showing all the damage the Impact Players have done in ECW lately. They have taken out Shane Douglas, Sid Vicious, Jerry Lynn, Tommy Dreamer, Dudley Boys, Sabu, and RVD can now be added to the list.
Joey Styles says that next week it will be Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn for the ECW Television Championship with their being a winner.
Joey Styles also hypes up the feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven. Now, they are tag team champions! Styles closes the show by saying that next week Raven will be speaking out!
End of show
My Take: I thought Crazy/Rhino put on a pretty good match. Rhino looked pretty good as he starts to break away from just being a jobber in ECW. Even in defeat he is making out to look pretty beastly. These two would have several more matches during their ECW run, as you will read throughout these recaps.
They showed a good match to hype up Masato Tanaka going into his match with Taz at the pay per view. Some people may not like showing past pay per view matches, but if it makes sense to show them I am in favor of it. The match wasn’t shown in its entirety but for what was shown it was a good match.
Lynn/RVD was a good contest as they usually are. For some reason though I just wasn’t looking forward to it. It goes back to their segment the previous week where I thought they did a poor job trying to continue the feud. The finish with the Impact Players was interesting for two reasons. The first being that ECW always claimed they were better than WCW/WWF and that they would always have winners to their matches (Styles said the same thing hyping up the rematch). However, they ended up doing a lame finish like WCW and WWF did all the time back in 1999. Anyway, the Impact Players were clearly top heels in ECW at this time as they were taking everyone out and getting a huge push. I don’t mind that at all. Storm can carry the team in the ring while Credible can get heat for just being himself.
Overall, in terms of wrestling it was a pretty good show. Zero interviews which seems pretty odd. I enjoy wrestling but television shows need actual interviews and all that to introduce characters and angles. Showing matches doesn’t get the job done completely. Still, a good show for ECW.
Thanks for reading.