Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 7/12/1997
From: Philadelphia, PA & Belmar, NJ
Matches:
1.) ECW Television Champio Taz defeated Louie Spicolli to retain the title
2.) PG-13 (JC Ice & Wolfie D) defeated Spike Dudley & Mikey Whipwreck
3.) Lance Storm defeated Tracy Smothers
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Jerry Lawler cut a promo saying that he is ECW. Lawler says that he is “Exposing Crappy Wrestlers” and says that guys like Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman are awful wrestlers. Lawler mentions that he and Jim Cornette left Sandman and Dreamer laying in the ring. Lawler recalls hitting Dreamer in the groin with a kendo stick. There’s a knock at the door during the promo, but Lawler doesn’t stop the promo. Lawler says that Sandman better drink a lot of beer so that he doesn’t feel what he does to him.
2.) Taz and Spicolli competed in New Jersey at an outdoor venue. Spicolli does the “too sweet” hand gesture in the face of Taz. That prompts Taz to tell Louie that he’ll choke Louie out in a minute or he’ll be champion. Louie suggests it be 45-seconds. Taz counters with 30-seconds. Louie agrees and hammers away on Taz before the bell. Louie hits Taz with the ECW TV Championship several times. Spicolli attempts the Death Valley Driver but Raz counters with the Taz Mission and forces Louie to submit in 27-seconds. After the match, Taz says that was “sweet” to mock the New World Order.
3.) ECW Television Champion Taz cuts a promo about a match he had with John Kronus at the ECW Arena, which he won. He puts over Kronus and the match they had. However, Taz says him winning wasn’t enough for the fans. Instead, the fans were talking about Jerry Lawler and his association with Rob Van Dam and Sabu. Taz doesn’t care about it and is tired to wondering which one of his co-workers is going to jump ship to the WWF. Taz turns the camera to Paul E. Dangerously, who acts confused. Taz tells Vince McMahon that he’s a jerk and the biggest asshole in the business today. Taz has choked out Sabu twice and finishes off with his catchphrases.
4.) Wolfie and Spike kick off the tag match with Wolfie backing Spike into a corner delivering a right hand. Wolfie works over Spike with strikes over the back to keep control. Wolfie scoop slams Spike and taunts the crowd. Spike counters a scoop slam with a rollup for a two count. Spike rolls Wolife up for a near fall and keeps Wolfie down with an arm drag. The match is clipped as we cut to Mikey hitting a somersault dive over the top to take out PG-13 when Spike had gotten caught. Mikey grabbed Ice by the groin to lift him into the air and drop him to the mat. Ice grabs a microphone and talks in a high pitch voice. That was great. Wolfie accidentally elbow drops Ice a few times and Ice accidentally elbow drops Wolfie for a comedy spot. They argue on the floor shoving each other. Wolfie accidentally punches Ice in the ring and Whipwreck kept control of Wolfie’s arm. Spike dropkicks Wolfie’s while he’s seated to keep control of the match. Spike monkey flips Wolfie out of the corner for a near fall. Ice drops Spike throat first across the top rope while the referee was distracted. PG-13 hit an atomic drop/clothesline combo on Spike. Wolfie sends Spike face first into the middle turnbuckle with a hurricanrana. All four men are in the ring with Mikey and Spike hammering away. Wolfie sends Spike to the floor and drops Mikey with an electric chair slam. Ice goes to the top with a hubcap but accidentally hits Wolfie. Whipwreck hits both men with the hubcap. Mikey is held by someone under the ring as Spike hit a double cross body and fights off PG-13. Spike is met with a low blow from Wolfie. Wolfie hits gut wrench slam followed by an elbow drop. Wolfie hits a tilt a whirl slam having Ice land onto Spike for the win. After the match, it was Jason under the ring and Mikey hits him with a chair. Jason is sent to the floor from the ring with a double dropkick. Jason is pissed not eh floor but happy to have cost Mikey the match. (NR. I can’t rate the match since it was clipped, but for what they showed, it had a purpose and the stuff with PG-13 was actually rather entertaining. The return of Jason doesn’t interest me much, really.)
5.) Joey Styles is not happy about Jason being back saying that Jason gives him hives. Joey is freaking out about Jason returning.
6.) Smothers and Storm lockup with Storm backing Smothers into a corner before cleanly breaking away but the FBI complain of a hair pull anyway. Smothers takes Storm down with a fireman’s carry and dances for the crowd. Smothers arm drags Storm and proceeds to do some jumping jacks. Storm arm drags Smothers a few times and Smothers bails to the floor. Storm takes Smothers out with a springboard clothesline as this match is clipped, too. Storm baseball slides through Guido’s legs on the apron and takes out Tommy Rich. Smothers baseball slides Storm into the guard railing and gets crotched over the railing. Guido scoop slams Storm onto a few chairs in the front row. Smothers nails Storm with a heel kick for a two count. Storm trades forearms with Smothers before dropping Tracy with a right hand. Storm comes off the top with a dropkick for a near fall. Storm continues with a handspring splash and a northern lights suplex for a two count. Storm comes off the top to dive onto Tommy Rich and Little Guido on the floor! Storm heads to the top rope and misses a flying cross body. Smothers nearly wins with a rollup. Storm almost steals the match with a rollup but is met with a clothesline after the two count. Smothers works over Storm but Storm springboards off the top to hit a back elbow for the win. (NR. Considering it was clipped, I again can’t give a rating. However, Storm looked good here and seemed to get over with the crowd in a face role, which he struggled with doing later on in his career.)
7.) Beulah cuts a promo regarding the injury to Tommy Dreamer. She has witnessed Tommy suffer a lot of different injuries throughout his career. She lists all the things she has seen Dreamer do. Dreamer has done so much and hasn’t ever bat an eye at them. However, this time is different. She was there with Tommy while he was screaming in agony. She sees the pain that Dreamer goes through everyday. She doesn’t want him to come back, but she knows he will. Beulah tells Jerry Lawler that payback is a total bitch. In ECW they live by one rule… an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Lawler is going to be in a lot of pain.
8.) Footage of Taz at the ECW Arena demanding a fan take off his shirt. It appears o be a younger fan, maybe a teenager. The fan eventually tosses the shirt to Taz in the ring. We’ve been seeing Tommy Dreamer in an ambulance as well. Taz puts the WWF t-shirt on a chair and sets the shirt on fire.
Final Thoughts:
There weren’t any big matches or angle developments on the show, but it was still a decent episode. It’s evident that we’ll get a Dreamer/Lawler showdown at some point. Lance Storm was sharp in his debut and could be a major player for ECW.
Thanks for reading.