ECW Hardcore TV 6/28/1997

Written by: Bob Colling

Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 6/28/1997
From: Waltham, MA

Matches:
1.) Dudley Boys defeated ECW Tag Team Champion Kronus in a handicap match to win the titles
2.) Shane Douglas, Bam-Bam Bigelow & Chris Candido defeated Balls Mahoney & The Pitbulls
3.) Tommy Dreamer defeated Louie Spicolli in an I Quit match

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) ECW Tag Team Champions the Eliminators make their way down to the ring to confront the Dudley Boys to start the show. Kronus will be defending the tag titles on his own since Saturn had a knee surgery recently to repair his ACL. Saturn breaks his crutch over Big Dick’s head!

2.) Prior to the tag team title match, Joel Gertner has a restraining order given to Saturn claiming that Saturn had been stalking them even with a bad knee. Saturn is pissed off about this and Todd Gordon has to convince Saturn to get out of the ring to save the show from being stopped.

3.) Dudley Boys hammer away on Kronus at the start of the match. Kronus gets worked over in the corner for a few moments. Bubba drives Kronus down with a tilt a whirl slam and D-Von hit a big splash for a near fall. Bubba tosses Kronus to the floor and Kronus continues to be worked over by the challengers. Kronus gets hit with a chair and shockingly is busted wide open. Dudley Boys smell blood and they clobber Kronus on the floor before bringing him back into the ring. Kronus ducks a double clothesline and hits a double ace crusher to give him some momentum. Kronus slams Bubba and heads to the top rope. Kronus hits a twisting splash onto Bubba. Kronus slams D-Von and again goes to the top managing to hit the 450 splash! Kronus can’t go for the cover. Kronus tells Big Dick to bring it on and manages to avoid a choke slam with a kick. Kronus misses a handspring elbow in the corner. Dudley Boys proceed to hit the 3D for the victory. (**. It’s a great effort by Kronus and an enjoyable match. It’s a little weird that the Dudley’s would need help to win the match. Did Kronus really need protection here? I don’t think so.)

4.) Shane Douglas cuts a promo before the six man tag match. He said when Brian Lee took the money that Rick Rude offered he went out and got the biggest badass in Bam-Bam Bigelow.

5.) Candido and Pitbull #2 kick off the six man tag match. #2 shoulder blocks Candido and tosses him into the corner delivering several strikes. Candido comes out of the corner and is met with a backdrop from #2. #1 tags in and kicks Candido but an eye rake stops his momentum. Candido takes #1 over with a snap suplex. #1 runs into a boot from Candido. Candido goes to the top rope and is caught in midair. #1 tosses Candido with an overhead belly to belly suplex. Mahoney tags in and hammers away on Candido. Mahoney avoids a leapfrog by low blowing Candido. Candido low blows Mahoney and tags in Bigelow. Bigelow comes off the ropes and pummels Mahoney with forearm shots. Mahoney boots Bigelow in the corner and continues to hammer away on Bigelow with right hands. Bigelow plants Mahoney with a DDT followed by a falling headbutt for a two count. Douglas gets tagged in and punches Mahoney several times. Mahoney comes back with right hands but Douglas backdrops Mahoney out of the corner. Douglas takes Mahoney over with a rolling neck snap. Candido tags in and works over Mahoney with right hands in the corner. Candido puts Mahoney on the top turnbuckle taking Mahoney down to the mat with a hurricanrana for a near fall. Candido heads to the top rope and gets caught with a power slam by Mahoney in midair! #2 tags in but Candido stops him with a right hand. Douglas tags back in and works over #2 with a few strikes against the ropes. Douglas takes #2 down to the mat but misses an elbow drop. #2 press slams Douglas and does the same to Candido. Bigelow gets in the ring but #2 gets chop blocked by Candido from behind. Bigelow stomps away on #2. Douglas comes off the middle rope to splash #2 on the back. Douglas continues to work over #2 in the corner with right hands.

#2 sends Douglas into the corner and drops Douglas throat first across the top rope. #2 plants Douglas with a power bomb for a two count. Mahoney tags in and throat thrusts Douglas. Mahoney continues with an elbow drop for a two count on Douglas. #2 tags in and works over Douglas with strikes. #2 plants Douglas with a power slam for a near fall. Bigelow shoves #2 but #2 controls Douglas with a bear hug. Francine gets in the ring and tries to help Douglas. Rick Rude sprays his mouth and groin with mouth spray. Rude comes down to ringside and proceeds to kiss Francine on the floor. Francine appears to faint on the floor. Candido takes #2 over with a sunset flip for a near fall. #2 clotheslines Douglas and Candido. Bigelow enters and runs over #2 with his body. Bigelow stomps on #2 in the corner. Bigelow side slams #2 and Candido comes in to work over #2 in the corner with stomps. Douglas dropkicks #2 in the corner. Douglas rams #2 into Bigelow’s head and delivers an atomic drop on #2. Bigelow tags in and clotheslines #2. Bigelow comes off the ropes with a diving head butt for a two count. Bigelow works over #2 in the corner with strikes. #1 gets in the ring and punches Bigelow but the referee gets distracted allowing a triple team. #2 takes Douglas over with a snap suplex. #1 gets tagged in and he grabs Douglas by the hair. #1 cleans house on the Triple Threat with right hands. All six men are in the ring brawling as you’d usually expect. #1 tosses Bigelow to the floor and hammers away on Douglas before hitting a backdrop and clotheslines.

#1 power slams Douglas for a two count as Candido broke up the pin. Mahoney tosses Candido to the floor and they brawl. Bigelow has a steel chair and whacks #1 with it. Bigelow gets power bombed off the top by #1 which got a near fall as Douglas broke up the cover. Douglas hits #1 with a chain around his fist and Bigelow manages to get the three count. (*1/2. The match felt like it dragged along and didn’t need to go this long. I’m surprised they had Pitbull #1 take the pin when they could have easily used Balls Mahoney in that role. There wasn’t much going on here and just felt like they used it to kill time.)

6.) Jerry Lawler cuts a promo clearly from a WWF studio. Lawler is hyping up an upcoming ECW show at the ECW Arena. Lawler cracks some bingo halls jokes. Lawler says that RVD and Sabu are the only true athletes in the company. Lawler says he figured out Paul Heyman a long time ago. Lawler says Heyman is using him to draw a crowd. Lawler says he came, he saw and he conquered at Wrestlepalooza. Lawler says being at the ECW Arena once is more than enough for him. He’s not going to be at the ECW Arena this weekend. Lawler isn’t going to help Heyman get a crowd.

7.) Tommy Dreamer was attacked by Rob Van Dam and Sabu prior to his I Quit match against Louie Spicolli. RVD and Sabu hit a rolling thunder splash and Sabu hit a lg drop.

8.) Spicolli works over Dreamer with right hands and stomps demanding that Dreamer quit but Dreamer isn’t going to give in. Spicolli continues to stomp on Dreamer and delivers a low blow with a headbutt. Louie chokes Dreamer over the bottom rope but Dreamer refuses to say that he quits. Spicolli baseball slides Dreamer off the apron to the floor. Spicolli slams a broken table onto Dreamer’s knee. Spicolli puts the broken table in the corner and tosses Dreamer through it. Dreamer isn’t going to give up. Spicolli jabs the metal piece of the table into Tommy’s throat. Spicolli plants Dreamer with a spine buster. Spicolli chokes Dreamer with the metal leg but Dreamer isn’t going to quit. Spicolli heads to the top rope but is met with an atomic drop. Dreamer has a pair of pliers and puts it on Louie’s groin! Louie is forced to quit! (*. There really wasn’t much going on here as Spicolli didn’t hit any power moves. The finish was more comical to me than hardcore or anything.)

9.) To close the show, Sandman comes out to the ring and saves Tommy Dreamer from a beating by RVD and Sabu. Sandman spits beer in Sabu’s face to end the program.

Final Thoughts:
I’d say it was a subpar episode for Hardcore TV this week. The major angle was the tag title switch, which is perfectly fine with me. Dudley Boys are becoming one of the top heel acts and should do well with their second reign. The six man tag just took too long and kind of killed me for the rest of the show. I’ve been disappointed with how they have presented Spicolli in his feud with Dreamer, too.

Thanks for reading.