ECW on TNN 3/10/2000

Written by: Bob Colling

Extreme Championship Wrestling presents ECW on TNN
Date: 3/10/2000
From: Philadelphia, PA

Matches:
1. Rhino defeated Spike Dudley to advance in the ECW Television Championship Tournament
2. Impact Players defeated Jado & Gedo
3. ECW World Champion Mike Awesome & Raven defeated ECW World Tag Team Champions Tommy Dreamer & Masato Tanaka to win the titles.

Angle Developments/Notes:
1. Joey Styles and Joel Gertner are standing in the ring to open the show. Styles notes that Living Dangerously is only forty eight hours away. Cyrus comes down to the ring after Gertner gets done with one of his sexual promos. Styles cuts Cyrus off and says that he has gotten to the point where he is willing to sacrifice his job because he doesn’t want to interview an asshole like Cyrus. At that point, Styles drops his microphone and along with Gertner they leave the ring. Cyrus remains in the ring as the fans chant for Rob Van Dam. Cyrus announces that tonight there will be a ECW TV Championship tournament with the finals taking place at the pay per view. Bill Alfonso comes out but doesn’t say anything as Cyrus announces that ECW on TNN has been canceled off television! He says that a shuffleboard show will replace ECW. Cyrus believes RVD is a coward, but then RVD’s music hits and he comes down to the ring on Scotty Anton’s shoulders! RVD calls Cyrus a prick and must not have any friends. RVD says that he has been in the gym despite his broken leg and will kick Cyrus’s ass if he doesn’t watch his mouth. RVD says that he can’t allow Cyrus to force them to do shitty house shows. RVD drops the belt on the canvas and Cyrus picks up the championship. RVD says he will be back to kick ass to regain the ECW Television Championship when he comes back from injury. Bill Alfonso looked to get in a fight with Cyrus but is gored by Rhino instead! RVD tries to get at Rhino with his crutch but is held back by Anton. Cyrus calls out the best wrestler that ECW has to wrestle Rhino in the ECW TV Tournament. The crowd appears to be disappointed when Spike Dudley comes out to answer the challenge.

2. Spike gets a few near falls on roll ups but Rhino is able to cut him off with a right hand. Rhino misses a gore and falls to the floor where Spike uses a chair. Back from a commercial, Rhino tosses Spike off the stage through a few tables! Dudley drop toe holds Rhino into the guard railing to stop the momentum change. Dudley nearly won following a top rope chair shot over Rhino’s head. Rhino comes back with a TKO but isn’t able to put Spike away. Spike manages to hit the Acid Drop on Rhino and does the same to Jack Victory but is gored by Rhino through a table before he could do it to Steve Corino. Rhino puts Spike away with a pile driver. Obviously having Spike answer the challenge was disappointing. The fans wanted Sandman, but you have to prevent that feud from blowing off on television in my mind. I still think Rhino needs to dominate when he wrestles smaller guys and not take so much offense.

3. Gedo is worked on early on by the Impact Players but fights back against Credible with right hands and chops. His offense doesn’t last long as the Impact Players continue to have their way with him. Gedo nails Storm with a big clothesline and tags in Jado who cleans house with clotheslines and strikes. Jado hit a top rope back suplex on Storm but Jason entered with a chair to save the pin. However, Jason is elbow dropped face first into the chair. Credible nails Jado with a kendo stick but Storm only gets a two count on a roll up! Jado hip tosses Credible through a table in the corner! Jado hit the Tiger Driver on Storm and Gedo hit a top rope frog splash for only a two count! Jado hits a middle rope power bomb on Storm but is still unable to get a victory! Jado is super kicked by Credible and the Impact Players hit a spike pile driver to win the match. That was a great tag team match, folks.

4. A pretty big main event this week. ECW World Champion Mike Awesome teams with Raven to take on ECW World Tag Team Champions Tommy Dreamer and Masato Tanaka. By the way, Francine is dressed like Raven now. Dreamer tries to get Awesome to tag out to Raven, but Raven refuses it until Awesome takes Dreamer down to the mat. That allows Raven to get a few cheap shots in but quickly tags back out. Awesome and Tanaka are the legal men. Tanaka hits a missile dropkick but Awesome counters a tornado DDT attempt with a sit out spine buster. Raven enters and whacks Tanaka over the head with a chair that has no effect. Dreamer enters after Raven is sent back first into a chair and steps on Raven’s groin until he is power bombed by Awesome! Awesome continues his attack on Dreamer with a springboard back elbow followed by a sit out power bomb. Raven has a microphone and begins to beat Dreamer up with it while mocking him. Dreamer low blows Raven but isn’t able to make the tag. Raven recovers to hit a running bulldog and sets up a table. Dreamer counters a drop toe hold and whacks Raven with a chair but Awesome hits Dreamer with the chair. Dreamer avoids a top rope big splash by Awesome, who crashes through a table as a result. Tanaka finally gets the hot tag and cleans house with several elbow strikes. The challengers set up two more tables in the ring. Raven prevents Dreamer from hitting a Death Valley Driver off the middle rope and drop toe holds him face first into the table! Awesome hits a top rope big splash but only gets a near fall. Awesome power bombs Dreamer through a table but is saved by Tanaka. Tanaka hits the roaring elbow on Raven but Awesome breaks up the count. Dreamer plants Raven with a DDT but Awesome stops the three count, though he seemed to be a tad late on the save. Awesome power bombs Dreamer through another table and Raven pins Dreamer while Awesome holds Tanaka to win the titles! A lot of hardcore spots here make the match enjoyable but they over did the near falls, I thought.

5. James Mitchell talks about RVD giving up the ECW Television Championship. He hypes up Mike Awesome as a double champion and thinks that Living Dangerously is going to be a head on collision. The show comes to an end with him laughing.

Final Thoughts:
I really liked the first tag team match involving the Impact Players. The more I see Storm and Credible working together the more I realize they need to be elevated up the card and probably need to be split up as a team so we can get some top feuds in singles action. I didn’t like the tag team title switch as it seems like they are playing hot potato with the belts now. I guess it advances Raven/Dreamer a little but I don’t have a lot of interest in it now that Francine is a heel. They really should have dragged it out a bit.

Also, the opening segment was nicely done. Obviously when RVD gets back he will feud with Rhino since that is the most logical thing to do.

Overall, I thought it was a solid show this week.

Thanks for reading.