Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 10/2/1998
From: Philadelphia, PA
Matches:
1.) Tommy Dreamer, New Jack & Kronus defeated the FBI
2.) Spike Dudley defeated 911
3.) ECW World Champion Shane Douglas, Bam-Bam Bigelow & Chris Candio fought ECW World Tag Team Champions Rob Van Dam, Sabu and FTW Champion Taz to a no contest.
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Breaking news, Mike Awesome has been severely injured. He will be out of action for at least one year due to tearing his ACL in a match against Balls Mahoney. The injury happened in a match against Balls Mahoney and announced his semi-retirement.
2.) Tommy Rogers hits an electric chair slam on Smothers to open the match and followed up with a swinging neck breaker. Rogers dropkicks Smothers to the floor and sends Tracy into the guard railing. Smothers fights back in the ring with a front kick for a two count. Smothers drops Rogers with a back fist. Guido and Chetti are now in the match with Chetti cleaning house with strikes and a power slam on Guido. Chetti hits a top rope heel kick on Smothers for a two count. Chetti hits a springboard clothesline on both men sending the FBI to the floor. Rogers and Chetti hit a Rocket Launcher to the floor! Tommy Rich enters to hit Rogers and Chetti with a flag. JT Smith runs into the ring and attacks his former partners. Smith delivers a clothesline to Guido and Smothers before playing to the crowd. Big Sal is sent into all three FBI in the corner. Chetti hits a springboard onto Guido and gets a victory, but I can’t comment on if it’s the finish or not. (NR. It was a good segment, but as a match I can’t rate it since it was clipped heavily.)
3.) Bill Alfonso is in the ring with Rob Van Dam and Sabu to cut a promo on the Triple Threat. Alfonso has a new championship called the FTW Championship and gives it to Taz. Taz wants to know how much he wants for it, but Alfonso says all he wants is Taz to form the new Triple Threat with RVD and Sabu. Taz wants to shake hands with Sabu to make it official. Taz leaves the ring to play mind games with Sabu.
4.) Footage of Tommy Dreamer being attacked by Jack Victory and Rod Price is shown until the lights went out and Sandman’s music hit. The crowd went nuts, but it was Justin Credible. Dreamer is busted wide open as Credible whacks Dreamer several times with a kendo stick and delivers several shots over the back. Credible stood over Dreamer to end the segment.
5.) After a commercial, Dreamer comes walking out bleeding heavily with his head wrapped up and clothes stained with blood. Dreamer wants a Philadelphia street fight against the trio and has New Jack and Kronus as his partners.
6.) New Jack tosses weapons into the ring to knock Victory off his feet. As you’d expect, the good guys are destroying the heels with weapons. Kronus and Dreamer go to the top and hit big splashes on Credible and Price. Credible gets control and went for a dropkick but Dreamer blocked it with a boot. Kronus makes out with Nicole Bass and low blows her. Credible whacks Kronus over the head with a kendo stick to get control. Dreamer hits a side Russian leg sweep on Credible and has the kendo stick. Tommy gets some payback with a shot over the head but Victory gets a strike in on Dreamer. New Jack is waiting on the top rope with a guitar and smashes that over Rod Price’s head to get the three count. (*. It was just a garbage brawl match.)
7.) Bilvis Wiles is in the ring and tries to sweep the ring but the broom breaks. Wiles gets a microphone and insults the crowd. Bilvis has been sweeping the ring for three years and is pissed that the crowd rips on him every time. He thinks he can beat up anyone in the building. Here comes 911 to make his return to ECW and choke slams Wiles. Jeff Jones enters the ring and is associated with 911, I guess. Jones offers an open challenge to anyone in the back. Spike Dudley accepts the offer and counters a choke slam with an eye rake. Spike low blows 911 and hits the Acid Drop to get a three count. That effectively kills 911 in all of 10 seconds.
8.) Backstage, Lance Storm is with Dawn Marie to cut a promo. Storm puts over his ability and says the fans were shocked to see his talent and puts over his promo ability as well. Storm says he is the greatest and most honest ring announcer ever. He will be at the October 9th show and has a surprise for everyone. We see footage from earlier in the night of Storm doing his own rung announcing that the fans crap on.
9.) Masato Tanaka aligns himself with RVD and Sabu to take on the Triple Threat. Douglas and Van Dam start off with Douglas clotheslining RVD to the floor where they continue to trade right hands. RVD rams Douglas head first onto the apron and runs the ropes but Candido pulls the ropes and takes Van Dam out with a cross body. Sabu dives onto Douglas as Bigelow goes at it with Tanaka. Tanaka decks Bigelow with a roaring elbow as Van Dam and Sabu enter to attack Bigelow. All six men are in the ring going at it until the Dudley Boys come down and attack the good guys. Dudley Boys plant Tanaka with the 3D! RVD and Sabu are being destroyed by five heels. Candido spikes RVD with a piledriver. Douglas power bombs RVD and hits a belly to belly suplex on Mikey Whipwreck. Nova and Blue Meanie try to make the save but they get thrown out.
Finally, Taz makes his way down to the ring and cleans house to save Van Dam and Sabu. Taz wants a piece of Shane Douglas who is scared to death of Taz. Douglas attacks from behind but Taz ducks a clothesline to hit a t-bone suplex and Douglas rolls to the floor. Taz, Sabu and Van Dam stand tall in the ring and pose with their championships to end the program. Taz and Sabu embrace to a huge ovation.
Final Thoughts:
Well, there wasn’t much of anything for in-ring wrestling this week. It was mainly focused on angles, which is fine. I was hoping the main event would actually be a match, but it was a decent outcome anyway.
Thanks for reading.