ECW Hardcore TV 1/11/1997

Written By: Bob Colling

Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 1/11/1997
From: Webster, MA

A video hyping up the return of Terry Funk at the 1996 November to Remember. Footage of Funk brawling with Douglas in the crowd and Brian Lee. Funk doing a moonsault onto everyone in the front row is also shown. Funk ended up pinning Brian Lee in the match. This Saturday night, Funk goes after the ECW World Championship for one more run.

Hardcore TV opening video, which stops soon and a video the Blue World Order starts up as they are “taking over.”

Joey Styles hypes up the show which will see Hollywood Nova facing Brian Lee. Styles will find out if Taz’s shoulder is really injured.

Opening Contest: Stevie Richards defeated Axl Rotten: Rotten drives Richards down with a reverse neck breaker and taunts the fans. Rotten stalks towards Blue Meanie on the floor. Rotten hammers away on Richards in the corner and chokes Richards for a few moments. Rotten and Richards exchange chops with Richards getting the upper hand with several right hands and adding insult to injury by humping Rotten’s face. Richards charges towards a corner with a chair but Rotten kicks the chair into Richards face. Forearm drop by Rotten and chokes Richards for several moments. Richards ducks a clothesline and low blows Rotten. Richards follows up with a head butt to Rotten’s groin but only gets a one count on the pin attempt. Rotten ducks a clothesline and low blows Richards, returning the favor. Rotten does the same spot that had just happened to him. Richards side slams Rotten but only gets a two count on the cover. Richards sets up for the super kick but Rotten blocks it and clotheslines Richards for a two count. Rotten plants Richards with a dominator power slam and covers but pulls Richards up at two. Richards gets out of another dominator and manages to super kick Rotten to pick up the win. *
After the match, the BWO celebrates their victory.

Joey Styles talks about Taz’s injured shoulder and if it is truly injured. Styles notes that this is all speculation. Styles says that Taz declined to wrestle in Webster and named Chris Candido his sub.

A video highlighting a brief clip of a D-Von/Bubba match. Joel Gertner insulted Pitbull #2. Tommy Dreamer wrestled ECW World Television Champion Shane Douglas. Beulah and Francine had a catfight. The Eliminators wrestled Bubba and Spike Dudley. Clips of the match are shown. The Eliminators ended up winning a hard fought match following the Total Elimination to Spike Dudley.

Joey Styles talks about Killer Kowlaski presenting the Eliminators with new ECW World Tag Team Championships.

Joel Gertner introduces Chris Candido for a promo on Louie Spicolli. Candido says that Spicolli got dumped from their tag team for political issues. Candido says Spicolli causes problems and says that Whipwreck couldn’t hold up in their tag team. Candido is going to make sure Spicolli pays for costing him his match with Rob Van Dam.

Footage from two weeks on Hardcore TV where the BWO attacked the Sandman and D-Von Dudley. Brian Lee eliminated the BWO from a battle royal.

Before the next match, Stevie Richards says he needs to talk to Lee. Richards says he and Lee are friends but mentions the King of the Hill battle royal two weeks ago. Richards tells Lee that Lee is apart of Raven’s Nest and that they are still friends despite what happened in the King of the Hill tournament. Richards offers Lee a spot in the BWO.

Second Contest: Brian Lee defeated Hollywood Nova: Lee backs Nova into the ropes and throws Nova across the ring. Lee knocks the BWO off the apron and choke slams Nova to win the match in under thirty seconds. DUD

Joey Styles introduces a video by Killer Kowlaski. Kowlaski gets cut off by Brian Lee who starts to choke Kowlaski and tells Terry Funk that he is a legend killer!

Backstage, ECW World Tag Team Champions the Eliminators cut a promo on Brian Lee for choking Killer Kowlaski. Saturn says this has been taken to a personal level and warns Lee and Candido.

In the ring, Raven says he is a better husband and father. That is why Sandman’s family left him. Raven wants his belt back. Sandman runs into the ring and trades right hands with Raven, eventually nailing Raven with the ECW World Championship. Sandman hammers away on Raven in the corner. Raven has been busted open. Raven low blows Sandman in the corner and manages to hit Sandman with the title. Raven drives Sandman face first into the title and demands a microphone. Raven rams Sandman down into the title a few more times while taunting him. Raven tosses Sandman into the crowd and they head towards the merchandize table where Raven slams Sandman onto the table. Raven proceeds to slam the table on top of Sandman as well. Raven drags Sandman into the hallways and they climb up a stairway. Raven sends Sandman into several doors and walls as they are at the balcony level of the arena. Raven tosses Sandman into the BWO locker-room. Raven shoves Richards into Meanie and Nova before leaving the room. Sandman returns to the balcony and is now wearing a BWO shirt. Raven tosses Sandman down the balcony a little way. Raven continues to punch and kick Sandman all over the arena. They finally heads towards the ringside area. Sandman sends Raven into the guard railing a couple of times. Back in the ring, Sandman punches Raven and they begin to trade rights and lefts. They trade blows on their knees with Sandman knocking Raven out and both men on the mat as the show comes to an end.

End of show

My Take: From a wrestling match standpoint, this episode really lacked any form of good wrestling. Rotten/Richards was pretty bland and Nova/Lee was just a squash to give Lee momentum, which is fine. So, their isn’t much to talk about in that regard.

I liked Lee choking Kowlaski. Lee is clearly a badass and this will give some reason behind a feud with the Eliminators over the tag team titles.

The brawl segment between Raven and Sandman went on way too long and from watching it on television didn’t really entertain me. I’m sure if I was in the crowd, that would have been a cool experience but the brawl seemed to really just drag on as they did the same stuff over and over again.

Way too much of the BWO on this episode. Just about every segment they were mentioned or shown. That is a effective way to burn out a gimmick. Hopefully they cutback on that.

Overall, a pretty bland episode. Not much was entertaining.

Thanks for reading.