Rebooking ECW: ECW Crossing The Line Again (02/01/97)

It is brash. It is raw. It is over-the-top, as Extreme Championship Wrestling Crosses The Line Again tonight! In action is ECW’s Television Champion, “The Franchise” Shane Douglas, “The Human Suplex Machine” Taz, Tommy Dreamer, Terry Funk and The ECW Heavyweight Champion himself, Raven, just to name a few. The card is stacked from top to bottom and the ECW wrestlers are ready. One one question remains, are YOU ready to Cross The Line… Again?

Extreme Championship Wrestling presents:

ECW Crossing The Line Again 1997 – 02/01/97 (Philadelphia, PA)

Three-Way Dance

Mikey Whipwreck Vs. Rob Van Dam Vs. Little Guido

Singles Match 

New Jack Vs. Axel Rotten

Dog Collar Match

Perry Saturn w/John Kronus Vs. Pitbull #2 w/Pitbull #1

Tag Team Match

Roadkill & Spike Dudkey Vs. “Hollywood” Nova & The Blue Meanie w/Stevie Richards

Singles Match for the ECW Television Championship

“The Franchise” Shane Douglas w/Francine Vs. Lance Storm w/Chris Candido

Singles Match 

“Dr. Death” Steve Williams Vs. “Prime Time” Brian Lee

‘Best of Three Falls’ Tag Team Match

Raven & Taz Vs. Tommy Dreamer & Terry Funk

 

The results were as follows:

1. Mikey Whipwreck defeated Little Guido and Rob Van Dam in a pretty one-sided battle with the better friends of Whipwreck and RVD beating on Little Guido. After eliminating him after a few minutes of punishment, RVD and Whipwreck gave each other some real, friendly competition. The rest of the match stayed pretty mat-based with Mikey frequently one-upping Van Dam. RVD finally resorted to hitting Whipwreck with a Van-Terminator and a follow-up Frogsplash to ensure the victory. RVD wasted a little too much time with taunting however, thus giving Mikey a few seconds to get to his senses. As RVD went for the pin, Mikey had been playing possum and caught Van Dam sleeping for a quick, shocking, stolen victory. (14:09)

2. Axel Rotten defeated New Jack in what was perhaps the most violent ECW contest in recent history. Nowhere in the arena was safe for either wrestler, as they beat each other senseless all over the venue. At one point, New Jack pulled a box cutter from his pocket and repeatedly jammed it into  Rotten’s forehead. Rotten would later fire back with dumping out a bag of broken glass and pile-driving the top of New Jack’s head into it. The match ended with a sitout powerbomb from the top rope through a shard-filled table. (15:00)

3. Pitbull #2 defeated Perry Saturn after choking him out with the chain that connected the two men together. It was a physically brutal match, with both men quite obviously feeling the effects of the unforgiving steel chain and leather collars. (16:14)

4. Calming the crowd down a bit after all the excitement of the previous matches, “Hollywood” Nova and The Blue Meanie w/Stevie Richards were able to put the team of Roadkill and Spike Dudley away. Very early on, Spike was seemingly seriously hurt and taken away from ringside. With Spike gone, both Meanie and Nova were able to double-team Roadkill. Though, here and there, Roadkill was able to make some impressive comebacks. In the end, the numbers game proved to be too much, as all three members of the bWo piled on top of  the man to pick up the pin. Spike then returned to ringside with a barbed-wire bat to chase away the members of the bWo to make the save, thus preventing the bWo from doing any further damage. (14:56)

5. “The Franchise” Shane Douglas defeated Lance Storm in a well-fought title bout on the part of both competitors. Douglas used every dirty trick in the book, even pulling Storm’s tights to gain the pin. After the match had ended, Candido jumped up to the apron to argue with official over the tights being used and Douglas sucker-punched Candido right off the apron and sent him crashing to the floor. Douglas seemed to be on his way out after him when Lance got to his feet and pushed Douglas away. The two stared off before Douglas angrily stormed away, even pushing Francine out of his way in frustration. (16:32)

6. “Dr. Death” Steve Williams defeated “Prime Time” Brian Lee in a pretty fierce battle, while both men obviously wanting to make a statement with a possible victory. Both men fought hard and the match definitely helped set the tone for the main event. This was an aggressive, statement-making match with “Dr. Death” Steve Williams coming out dominant and victorious. (10:45)

7. Tommy Dreamer and Terry Funk defeated Taz and Raven in two out of the three falls held for the main event. The first fall came for Taz as he was able to make Tommy tap while Raven had been subduing Funk. With one fall under their belt, Taz and Raven may have been a bit over confident as Tommy picked up a quick pin on Raven for the next fall coming shortly after the first. Caught off guard and angered Raven and Taz fired back pretty well, beating on their opponents. Ultimately it would be Dreamer and Funk who would outlast the other team as Dreamer tangled with Taz and Funk was able to get Raven down for a three count. There was plenty of hardcore moment spread out nicely throughout all three bouts and the crowd seemed to thoroughly enjoy each separate round. Angry and upset with the loss, Raven immediately grabbed his belt from ringside and fled. The crowd cheered Tommy and Terry as they celebrated their victory and the suppression of Raven… for now. (22:17)

8. A brief recap of the night’s events is played and viewers are reminded of ECW’s upcoming fan event extravaganza, Cyberslam 1997 coming up at the end of the month.