Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 3/4/1998
From: Asbury Park, NJ
Matches:
1.) Sabu defeated the Sandman in a Dueling Cans Match
Angle Developments/Notes:
1. We see footage from Cyberslam ’98 where Tommy Dreamer was beaten up by Rob Van Dam and Justin Credible. RVD ripped Dreamer open by using barbed wire. Credible hit Dreamer with a trash can with the barbed wire wrapped around Dreamer’s face. Beulah entered the ring only for Credible to plant her with the That’s Incredible. They competed at Living Dangerously and Dreamer won after Beulah swerved Credible. Also, Mikey Whipwreck returned to ECW and hit the Whippersnapper on Nicole Bass. Credible whacked Mikey with his own crutch.
2. The match between Sandman and Sabu was aired during the Living Dangerously pay per view. Sabu opens the bout by whacking Sandman several times with a kendo stick. Sandman drops Sabu throat first across the top rope. Wait, that was Rob Van Dam the whole time. Sabu really enters the ring and along with RVD works over Sandman. Bill Alfonso lets RVD leave the ring since he has a big match later on at the pay per view. Sabu continues to nail Sandman with the kendo stick. Sandman is tossed over the top onto the ramp way and Sabu hits a double springboard dive to take Sandman out. Sabu leaps off the ramp to take Sandman out again on the floor. Sabu tosses Sandman into the guard railing. Sabu sets a table up on the floor on the guard railing. Sabu puts Sandman on top of the table and heads to the top rope. Sabu splashes Sandman through the table! Sabu covers Sandman but can’t keep him down long enough. Sabu leg drops a chair onto Sandman’s face! Sabu comes off the top but misses a somersault leg drop. They head to the outside again. Sabu blocks a suplex on the ramp and hits a snap suplex of his own. Sabu connects with a triple jump moonsault on the ramp! Sandman recovers first but Sabu cuts him off. Sabu is tossed into a table and the referee is knocked out. Sandman slams a table on top of Sabu. Sandman gets a second table and sets it up on the ramp. RVD comes back out and nails Sandman with a leaping side kick. Sandman gets up in the ring and RVD connects with a leaping side kick. RVD frog splashes a chair onto Sandman! Sandman is put on a table and is driven through the table thanks to Sabu and RVD leaping off the top and crashing through the table. Sabu covers Sandman in the ring to win the match. (**1/4. A decent brawl for what it was. Sabu did some nice spots while Sandman seemingly just took the beating for most of the match.)
3. Paul Heyman shared some comments saying that Chris Candido and Lance Storm will be forced to defend the ECW World Tag Team Championships no matter how much they hate each other.
4. The Triple Threat are standing by to cut a promo. The Triple Threat holds all the gold. Douglas apologizes to Taz for thinking that the ECW Television Championship is more important than the ECW World Championship. Douglas was going to tell Taz that the belt meant the same to the ECW World Championship but Taz lost it. Shane says that this company was built for a stupid gimmick for Al Snow. The company was made to make Shane Douglas a star. Douglas can’t stop thinking about whether or not he is better than Snow. Shane issues a challenge to Al Snow to prove who the better man is.
Final Thoughts:
An okay episode this week, but it mainly told us what happened at Living Dangerously. There wasn’t anything all that new going on here so it’s a skippable show.
Thanks for reading.