ECW Hardcore TV 6/24/1998

Written by: Bob Colling

Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 6/24/1998
From: Philadelphia. PA (northeast Philly, not ECW Arena)

Matches:
1.)Sabu defeated Ulf Herman
2.)ECW Television Champion Rob Van Dam defeated Kronus
3.)ECW World Tag Team Champions Lance Storm & Chris Candido defeated Chris Chetti & Mikey Whipwreck to retain the titles
4.)The Sandman fought Bubba Dudley to a no contest

Angle Developments/Notes
1. Tommy Dreamer has come out to the ring to cut a promo to open the show this week. Dreamer wants a piece of one of the Dudley Boys right now. He is obviously pissed about what has been going on recently. D-Von Dudley comes out and isn’t wearing his normal ring gear. D-Von slides into the ring and Dreamer pummels D-Von with right hands. Bubba, Big Dick and Jack Victory come out and Dreamer is met with a 3-D! New Jack, Spike, Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten run down and save Dreamer from a further beating.

2. Blue Meanie is having a dance with the referee until Tracy Smothers dropkicks him. The referee shoves Tommy Rich. The referee nails Smothers and Guido with a double clothesline. Nova takes both men out on the floor with a suicide dive! Rich bulldogs Nova off the apron and onto the guard railing. We are getting highlights of the show. Jamie Dundee got nailed with vicious chair shots from Balls and Axl. Taz took care of a few jobbers and a referee. Taz cut a promo and called out Bam-Bam Bigelow, who came down to the ring. Taz takes Bigelow down and they brawl to the floor quickly. That’s all we see of that.

3. Backstage, Rob Van Dam, Sabu and Bill Alfonso are cutting a promo. RVD says he is the ECW Television Championship and says he and Sabu will win the tag titles on Saturday. RVD thinks Lance Storm is boring and that he won’t last. RVD is trying to get Alfonso laid by Francine, too. Sabu is fed up with RVD’s humor.

4. I had no idea who Ulf Herman was but he is a big guy who has a good look to him. Ulf is working over Sabu in the opening moments of the match. Sabu leaps off a table on the floor to take Herman out with a clothesline. This is being heavily clipped. Sabu takes Ulf out with a triple jump dive in the crowd! Sabu tried for another one but Ulf kicked Sabu and hit a top rope clothesline. Herman hit a pump handle slam but Sabu kicks out. Sabu hit a springboard hurricanrana off the top. Sabu also hit an Arabian Press but only got a near fall. Sabu does hit the triple jump splash to put Ulf through the table on the floor. Sabu hits a slingshot leg drop with a chair and locks in the camel clutch to win the match. NR. (For what was shown, that didn’t seem like an awful match. Herman seemed to be a guy who could work well with ECW, too.)

5. Kronus kicks RVD on the side of the head and drops the champ with a spinning heel kick to get a near fall in the opening moments of the match. Kronus hits a cartwheel elbow in the corner and got a two count with a Fame-Asser. Kronus gets a near fall with a Rock Bottom. Kronus loves to use WWF finishing moves. Kronus powerbombs RVD and hit a somersault leg drop followed by a spinning senton off the middle rope. RVD is knocked to the floor after a spin kick. RVD springboards off the railing to moonsault Kronus on the floor! RVD leaps off the apron to hit a corkscrew leg drop across the railing and hit a frog splash off the top! That’s not the finish, though. Kronus catches a chair and whacks RVD over the head. However, RVD spin kicks the chair into Kronus’s face and wins the match. (NR. Yeah, it was clipped again. Kronus has a good offense set and these two appeared to put together a good match for the crowd.)

6. Candido and Chetti started the tag title match trading chops with one another. Chetti hits a hurricanrana and knocks Candido to the floor. Storm gets involved but is met with a dropkick. Whipwreck and Storm go at it with Whipwreck being met with a clothesline. Whipwreck and Candido are now in the ring with Candido working over Mikey. Whipwreck hits the Whippersnapper but Storm breaks up the cover! Francine holds Whipwreck’s boot but Candido is backdropped to the floor. Storm comes off the top with a missile dropkick. Candido misses top rope diving head butt and Chetti gets tagged in. Chetti works over Candido and nearly wins with a snap power slam. Chetti gets a two count after a swinging neck breaker as well. Chetti leaps off the middle rope with a spin kick but Candido kicks out. Candido avoids a double springboard moonsault. Storm leaps off the top with a clothesline. The champs hit a dangerous powerbomb/leg drop that looked botched. The champs retain. (**1/4. A decent match here.)

7. Chris Candido and Lance Storm cut a promo. Candido goes nuts and says that they are trying to get along. Storm tells RVD and Sabu were wrong to think he was just going to hand over the title.

8. Backstage, Joel Gertner and the Dudley Boys get ready to cut a promo. Gertner is talking when the lights go out. When they come back on, Dreamer is seen attacking everyone. Dreamer slammed one of the Dudley’s knee into a locker and it’s bleeding big time. This is a big deal it looks like. Oh, New Jack was there and so was Sandman.

9. Bubba rips on Beulah prior to his match with Sandman calling her a slut. Bubba opens the match with a clothesline on Sandman. Bubba misses a chair shot and is met with a series of kendo stick shots. Bubba continues his offense with another clothesline. Bubba nails Sandman over the head with the kendo stick. They brawl on the floor where Sandman sends Bubba into the guard railing and slams Bubba on the concrete floor. Sandman slams a table across Bubba’s back as well. Bubba sends Sandman flipping into the guard railing. A fan attacks Bubba and that causes security to intervene and the Dudley family comes out. Paul Heyman has come out as well. Wait a second.. it’s Beulah’s brother! They let the brother get in on the action. Spike and Tommy Dreamer come out and the locker room clears out for this. They just brawl to close the show.

Final Thoughts:
In my opinion, the feud involving Dreamer and the Dudley Boys is by far the best program going right now. I say that only because the Taz/Bigelow feud has lost a lot of steam for me. An average episode this week as it wasn’t good until the ending, really.

Thanks for reading.