Rebooking ECW: ECW House Party 1997 (01/11/97)

Tonight, the Tag Team Champions are in the building for the fist Supercard of the new year to wreak havoc! Who will their victims be, as they look to reestablish exactly why they are the ECW Tag Team Champs? Also, speaking of havoc, Raven is scheduled to square off against Axl Rotten! Will Terry Funk crash Raven’s party and try to return last night’s favor, catching Raven off guard? All that and more… It is a party and you’re invited!

Extreme Championship Wrestling presents:

ECW House Party 1997 – 1/11/97 (Philadelphia, PA)

Three-Way Dance

Rob Van Dam Vs. Davey Morton Jericho Vs. Lance Storm

Singles Match

Chris Candido Vs. “Prime Time” Brian Lee

Tag Team Handicap Match

The bWo (“Hollywood” Nova, The Blue Meanie, & Stevie Richards) Vs. Mikey Whipwreck & Chris Van De Lay

Singles Match for the ECW Television Championship

Spike Dudley w/”Dr. Death” Steve Williams Vs. “The Franchise” Shane Douglas w/Francine

Singles Match

Taz w/Bill Alfonso Vs. Tommy Dreamer

Tornado Tag Team (Elimination Style) Match

The Eliminators (Perry Saturn & John Kronus) Vs. The Dudleys (D-Von & Buh-Buh Ray)

Singles Match for the ECW Heavyweight Championship

Raven Vs. Axl Rotten

The results were as follows:

1.Rob Van Dam was the last man standing in the three way dance against Lance Storm and Davey Morton Jericho. Eliminated first was Jericho after Van Dam hit a frog splash with a chair in hand. Lance Storm and RVD then put on an absolute classic, with some creative high spots and good mat wrestling. The fans accepted this opener warmly. (9:19)

2.Chris Candido defeated Brian Lee in a decent match with both men putting in an average effort in. No game changer here but still a solid effort on the part of both men with Candido going over. After the match, Lance Storm came out, congratulated his friend Chris Candido, and then walked with him to the back. (11:45)

3. Break: Reminder to continue to tune into ECW’s Hardcore TV in the weeks to come.

4. Mikey Whipwreck and Chris Van De Lay defeated The bWo, in an upset victory. Whipwreck and Van De Lay worked together very well and performed some pretty good tag moves. The end came when both Stevie and Nova were subdued outside of the ring by Mikey who had both men in a headlock as Van De Lay wrapped up things in the ring with The Blue Meanie. (8:47)

5. Recap of last night’s Hardcore TV events between Douglas, Spike, Candido, and Steve Williams.

6. Spike Dudley and Shane Douglas fought to a no-contest as both men were unable to continue after brawling all over the ECW arena. “Dr. Death” got involved here and there by taking weapons out of Douglas’ hands and blocked Francine from putting douglas’ foot on the ropes during a few pins. The ref was very lenient as usually with both party’s valets. Spike put up a good fight against Douglas, but for most of the time, Douglas was delivering the beating as expected. (16:04)

7. Taz defeated Tommy Dreamer in what many considered the best match of the night. Both men pulled out all the stops to make this match a memorable one. There was great and well-paced technical action throughout the match with both men trying to one up each other. No weapons were used by either men, but Alfonso did try and slide Taz a chair which he declined to use. Nothing but a clean wrestling match, earning both men a standing ovation. (19:25)

8. Break: Hype of collected thoughts from several wrestlers will be aired on the coming Hardcore TV episode.

9. The Eliminators defeated The Dudleys in a pretty well balanced tag team match. The tag champs performed some pretty devastating combos isolating Buh-Buh Ray. D-Von was unable to tag in for some time. When he did, he was able to clean house and gave Buh-Buh Ray an opportunity to grab a table and set it up on the outside of the ring. D-Von then lifted Perry Saturn in a powerbomb and headed towards the ropes to bomb Saturn out through the table. Before D-Von was able to release Saturn, John Kronus flipped the table over and out of the way, and Saturn was then able to hurricanrana  D-Von over the ropes and down to the floor. Then, all hell broke loose when the Pitbulls and The Ganstas stormed the ring. The Gangsta immediately began tearing at the Dudleys and The Pitbulls wen tafter the tag champs. After a brawl, Saturn returned to the ring and turned around to an angry Buh-Buh Ray Dudley who was running towards him. Saturn leapfrogged over Dudley and sent him off the ropes again. Kronus then hit the ring and The Eliminators were able to hit ‘Total Elimination’ on Buh-Buh. Perry Saturn got the pin while John Kronus prevented D-Von from getting back in the ring and breaking up the pin. The tag champs then rushed to the back with The Pitbulls hot on their trail and the remaining two teams continuing the fight in the ring. (15:32)

10. Recap of the Funk/Raven saga from Hardcore TV episodes thus far.

11. Axl Rotten entered for what was supposed to be a match for the ECW Heavyweight Championship and awaited Raven’s arrival. Raven’s theme played but he did not enter. Instead, Terry Funk came out and seemingly took Raven’s place instead. The fans were a little net out of shape, though they were glad to see Funk. The match got underway and it wasn’t long at all before weapons were introduced. Among the weapons taken from the crowd, there was a VCR as well as its remote which blew apart after coming in rough contact with Axl’s forehead courtesy of Terry Funk. After a good beating with using almost anything that wasn’t nailed down, these two seemed pretty spent. Funk slapped on a well-positioned toe hold and had Axl in some serious pain. Before Axl was able to tape, Raven once again jumped the rail and grabbed Funk in an Evenflow DDT position. He was unable to hit it though as Tommy Dreamer also jumped the rail and nailed Raven with a speed limit sign from the apron behind him. With Raven temporarily out of the way, Tommy got into the ring and hit the Dreamer Driver on Axl Rotten. He then draped Terry Funk’s arm over Rotten for Funk to get the victory. After the match was over, Funk and Dreamer exited before Raven could get a hold of either of them. (23:20)

12. A recap of the nights events are showed.