Rebooking ECW: Resurgence (07/17/97)

With Extreme Championship Wrestling Heatwave 1997 only two days away, what effect will “Ravishing” Rick Rude’s client, the returning Sandman, have on our ECW Heavyweight Champion? And as tensions between Saturn and Taz boil over, what will ECW officials schedule for Heatwave to resolve this conflict? Will The Gangstas be blindsided again by the ECW Tag Team Champions before they challenge them in two days time? All these questions and more will be answered! Now your grab as seat, the venue is filling up fast here in Hackensack, New Jersey!

1. Opening segment: The Sandman and Rick Rude stand in the ring, both in suits. The Sandman stands smoking and holding his Singapore cane as Rude holds a mic and his briefcase. “What I’d like to have right now, is for all you fat, ugly, New Jersey jackoffs to listen real close to what real men have to say! Sandman and I have one simple goal as it comes to the ECW Heavyweight Championship. You see, as his manager and representative, I have secured The Sandman a spot in World Championship Wrestling. His name is already signed on the dotted line, for some serious, serious money. Guaranteed money! All we need now is, to fulfill the one contractual stipulation. That being, that The Sandman come as the rightful holder of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship!” As the crowd worked itself up with boos, Sandman asked for the mic. He finished his smoke, and began. “What Mr. Ravished Rick Rude here is trying to say, for all you morons that don’t know what this all means is, me and him are going to hand deliver that ECW title to that maniacal genius Eric Bischoff, so he can take a big, steaming sh** on it live on tv! Because that’s exactly what we think of that belt, you fans, and the fat guy with the ponytail in the back!” Paul E. came through the curtain with a microphone and cut Sandman and Rude off. “Security, get these as****** outta’ here. I don’t want to see either of you pieces of garbage until Heatwave!” The crowd exploded with cheers of “Get the f*** out!” as security took Rude and Sandman.

2. The Prime Time Killers defeated The Pitbulls in a tag team match after Kronus kicked Pitbull #2 below the belt twice. As soon as the bell rang to end the match, The Gangstas ran down to the ring. The Prime Time Killers attempted to make a swift exit before The Gangstas could get their hands on them, however, The Pitbulls stopped them and aided The Gangstas in beating down the ECW Tag Team Champs! Revenge was sweet and both teams celebrated and followed the cowardly tag team champions to the back as they continued to try and escape. 

3. Commercial break + Heatwave 1997 information.

4. ECW Television Championship segment: Todd Gordon and Paul E. Dangerously were shown sitting at a table, with Saturn on one side and Taz and Bill Alfonso on the other. The two locked eyes with each other and didn’t break the gaze once. Dangerously announced to the viewing audience, “Fans of ECW, the two men sitting face to face before myself and Mr. Todd Gordon will find themselves pit against one another in another submission match in just forty-eight hours from this very night! However, this time around, there will be no time limit for the match. Also, against tradition, submissions can be earned anywhere in, or outside of, the building. ECW doesn’t care if we have to declare a champion in the middle of the mean streets of Queens on that hot night… The man who submits his opponent will be declared the winner. From that point forward, the winner of this Sudden Death Submission match will be crowned and recognized by ECW as the indisputable Extreme Championship Wrestling Television Champion!” Todd Gordon wished both men luck, Team Taz and Saturn stood from the table and walked off camera in opposite directions!

5. Commercial Break.

6. Lance Storm with Mike Awesome ringside defeated Chris Chetti in a sweep of a match after Chetti tapped out to a single leg Boston crab.

7. Triple Threat Segment: Storm and Awesome called out their fellow Triple Threat member, Bam Bam Bigelow, several times following Storm’s singles match, yet Bigelow never appeared. A video cut into the feed of Bigelow knocked out in a back hallway with a sign taped on his chest. As the camera got closer, the viewing audience was able to read, “Triple Threat, you ain’t seen nothing yet! See you boys at Heatwave…”

8. Commercial break + Hype Central information.

9. PG-187 defeated Davey Morton Jericho in a hard-fought singles match. Jericho has yet to win a televised match in Extreme Championship Wrestling and refused a handshake from PG-187 following the match.

10. Sabu and Bill Alfonso Interview: With Sabu in the shadows, Alfonso yelled into the camera. “Sandman, you and “Ravishing” Rick were walked out of this arena tonight by security! You two need to remember that, because after your match with my man Sabu at Heatwave, you’re going to be carted out on a stretcher baby! No walking, carrying. And if you two WCW rejects really think you’re going to be taking the ECW Heavyweight Championship away from it’s rightful owner, you guys got another thing coming! The only thing you two are going to be leaving Heatwave with, is a couple broken bones and a couple of chairs wrapped around your head! Complements of the suicidal, genocidal, ECW Champ!”

11. Sabu and Rob Van Dam defeated Danny Doring and Roadkill. Before the match, Doring proclaimed that the restart of his winning streak would now take place in the tag team ranks of ECW, starting tonight! He stated that despite his loss to Saturn, he plans on taking his team of himself and Roadkill all the way to tag team gold! Sabu and Van Dam took the fight to the two men yet Doring and Roadkill gave the man quite a good fight as a decent team. Sabu and Van Dam used a couple of chairs and Sabu hit an Arabian Facebuster from one corner as Van Dam landed a Frogsplash from the opposite one on their downed opponents for the finish!