Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 5/20/1998
From: Queens, NY
Matches:
1.)Jerry Lynn defeated Justin Credible
2.)Sabu defeated Danny Doring
3.)ECW World Tag Team Champion Chris Candido defeated Jamie Dundee
4.)ECW Television Champion Rob Van Dam fought Mikey Whipwreck to a no contest
Angle Developments/Notes
1. Taz comes to the ring as Joey Styles is hyping up the crowd. Styles is not excited about this and is praying to himself. Taz says no one wants to admit it that he is the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. He says he destroyed their hero, Shane Douglas. I had no idea Douglas was the babyface. Taz says there is no way a guy from Pittsburgh can beat a man from Brooklyn. Taz reveals his own championship and names it the FTW World Championship. Taz calls out Douglas for a title vs. title match! Bam-Bam Bigelow comes out instead. Bigelow tells Taz that he isn’t a champion. Bigelow reminds Taz that he put him through the ring! Bigelow tells Taz that he will have to go through him to get to Douglas in the future. Taz wants Bigelow to be his first victim. Several referees come in but Bigelow press slams one into the crowd! They proceed to brawl in the ring with the fans going nuts for this!
2. Credible is getting really good heat from the Queens crowd. Lynn takes Credible down and delivers a series of right hands. Credible is knocked off the apron and lands on the guard railing. Lynn baseball slides Credible into the crowd and Lynn hits a somersault dive off the apron! Lynn hits a front suplex back in the ring and hits a top rope leg drop for a near fall. Justin stops Jerry with a reverse DDT. Credible gets a chair and drop toe holds Lynn face first onto the chair for a two count. Justin hits a sit down powerbomb out of the corner for a near fall. Credible clotheslines and scoop slams Lynn. Lynn kicks a chair into Justin’s face and hits a running bulldog onto the steel chair for a near fall. Lynn misses a running attack and goes over the top to the floor where Jason attacks Lynn. Credible hits a swinging DDT but can’t keep Lynn down. Lynn counters a suplex with a DDT but the referee gets distracted. Jason shoves Lynn off the top and Credible tries for the That’s Incredible but Lynn counters and hits one of his own for the win! (**1/2. A decent little match here that gives Lynn a good win over a rising heel in the company. Lynn hasn’t gotten the big following he would end up getting, yet. I can imagine we will see these two wrestle more on the show.)
3. Backstage, Bill Alfonso and Sabu are talking. Alfonso says that Sabu is leaving with gold on June 6th in Philadelphia.
4. Sabu also just so happens to be competing in singles action against Danny Doring. Doring never had a chance against Sabu who is all sorts of angry. Sabu ends up putting Doring on a table on the floor and hits the triple jump elbow drop to put Doring through the table. Sabu also hit a springboard Arabian face buster. Sabu wins with the camel clutch.
5. ECW World Champion Shane Douglas joins us via satellite. Douglas says it’s a crock of shit that Taz would claim to be the heavyweight champion. Shane puts over Candido and Bigelow being in the group. Douglas promises to be in Philadelphia and says he will show why he is still the ECW World Champion.
6. Candido is working on Dundee as the match is joined in progress. Candido is able to put Dundee away with a top rope diving head butt.
7. RVD hits a double under hook face buster and a spin kick as the main event this week is joined in progress. Whipwreck walks right into a standing dropkick as Mikey struggles to get any momentum going in his favor. Mikey sends RVD into the guard railing with a side Russian leg sweep. Whipwreck leaps over the top to take RVD out with an odd looking dive. RVD puts a stop to the offense by dropping Mikey face first across the apron. Mikey is sent hard back first into the guard railing. RVD kicks a chair into Whipwreck’s face as he was crotched on the railing and the challenger falls into the crowd. RVD soon hit the frog splash off the top but declined to cover Whipwreck. RVD puts the camel clutch on Mikey just like Sabu, but Mikey gets to the ropes. RVD spin kicks Whipwreck off the top to the floor. RVD hits a spinning kick off the apron onto Mikey who was over the railing. There has been a table set up on the floor. Whipwreck bulldogs RVD onto a chair as he tries to fight back. Alfonso grabs Mikey’s foot and allows RVD to kick a chair into Mikey’s face on the apron. RVD decides to do Sabu’s triple jump but Sabu came out and prevented him from doing so. Sabu decides to hit the move himself! RVD kicks Sabu off the apron and hit a slingshot cross body! Chris Candido comes out and hammers away on RVD. They beat over RVD until Lance Storm runs out to try and help out. The locker room empties to break up the brawl. Sabu and RVD brawl with each other to end the show. (**. Nothing special of a match, but the aftermath between RVD and Sabu was good.)
Final Thoughts:
The opening the show was really good and thought it set the tone for the show very well. The show dipped after the opening match and didn’t have any segments of substance. Thus, I give the episode an average rating this week.
Thanks for reading.