Rebooking ECW: Hardcore Heaven 1997 (08/17/1997)

Tonight, deep in the state of Florida, Extreme Championship Wrestling reaches Hardcore Heaven! In The Sandman’s last contracted match in the company, will he leave with the ECW Heavyweight Championship in the main event? How will the disadvantaged Franchise Players stack up against the stacked Triple Threat in a handicap match? When Saturn and “The Human Suplex Machine” lock horns again, who will come out on top? All that and more will be decided tonight!

Extreme Championship Wrestling presents:

ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997 – 08/17/97 (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)

MATCH CARD:

Singles Match 

Danny Doring Vs. PG-187

Falls Count Anywhere Singles Match

AJ Fatal Vs. Mikey Whipwreck

Singles Match for the ECW Television Championship

Saturn (c) Vs. “The Human Suplex Machine” Taz

Special Attraction Singles Match

Rob Van Dam Vs. ? ? ?

Three Way Tag Team Match for the ECW Tag Team Championship

The Gangstas (New Jack & Mustafa Saed) (c) Vs. The Prime Time Killers (Kronus & “Prime Time” Brian Lee) Vs. The Pitbulls (Pitbull #1 & Pitbull #2)

Three-on-Two Handicap Grudge Match

The Triple Threat (Bam Bam Bigelow, Lance Storm, & Mike Awesome) Vs. The Franchise Players (“The Franchise” Shane Douglas & “No Gimmicks Needed” Chris Candido)

Singles Match for the ECW Heavyweight Championship

The Sandman (c) Vs. Sabu

The results were as follows:

• Opening Segment: Joey Styles welcomed us to the show in front of a hot crowd. He was shortly cut off by “Ravishing” Rick Rude and The Sandman. Rude announced that the contract in his briefcase will be signed live here tonight, just as soon as The Sandman retains the ECW Heavyweight Championship. Fans were worked into a frenzy, even a couple fans rushing the ring before being stopped by security. The two agitators exited the ring quickly to prep for their main event victory.

• “Anything But Boring” Danny Doring made his way down to the ring to say his peace to a waiting PG-187 backstage. In the middle of his rant, PG-187 ran down to the ring to kick things off. Doring’s losing streak compared to PG-187’s winning streak was a bone of contention for Doring, so he was able to fire up and get back into the fight for this one. In a solid opener, Danny Doring was able to steal a pin over PG-187 by using the bottom rope for leverage. Without giving PG time to exact his revenge, Doring dipped out of the ring toward the back. (7:47)

• Mikey Whipwreck and AJ Fatal stood nose-to-nose before the bell rang. Whipwreck slapped his opponent hard to kick things off and then it was off and running. Fatal worked hard against his mentor, but Whipwreck pulled out all the stops, keeping Fatal working from underneath. As the action came to the backstage area, the lockers of the locker room came into play as both men met them several times each. Eventually, a win was gained in the parking lot when Mikey Whipwreck pinned Fatal on top of a car. (13:13)

• Saturn made his way to the ring, hood up and deadly serious. Bill Alfonso led Team Taz to the ring, with “The Human Suplex Machine” following closely behind. The air was tense in the area as the two fought a stalemate of a match. These bitter rivals knew each other so well at this point, that they both had each other’s number. At one moment, Saturn was forced to throw Team Taz around the ring when they got involved and Bill Alfonso even took a nasty bump off the apron through the timekeeper’s table! In a surprisingly quick finish, Taz locked on his Tazmission and Saturn fell unconscious. This forced the official to stop the match and award the ECW Television Championship to Taz! (6:33)

• Rob Van Dam came out to address his displeasure with the fact that he was reduced to having a singles match with an unannounced opponent tonight on pay-per-view. Asking to music guy to cut to the chase, he demanded his opponent come out and take his loss quickly, because the spa back at the hotel was calling his name. Much to the shock of the live crowd, Al Snow made his entrance and debut in ECW! To much fanfare, the Snowman went to work on RVD who was completely caught off guard. After introducing Head, Snow took the win home over RVD and the crowd exploded! (11:56)

• The Gangstas were able to retain their championships in this human demolition derby of a match between the three teams. New Jack took out Pitbull #2 after driving him off the top of the arena bleachers while he was stuffed in a shopping cart. (14:02)

• The Triple Threat made their way to the ring, with Lance Storm heading his group in for what he planned as an easy victory over their rival stable. Shane Douglas and Chris Candido, dressed in jeans and tee shirts, met their opponents in the ring and prepped for the match. Once tag format was established, Douglas started things off with Bigelow and it was an all-out brawl. The former friends did significant damage to each other in the opening minutes of the match and after tagging out, Candido was up against Storm next. After several minutes, Awesome jumped in and a two-on-one scenario ensued in the ring while Douglas was busy with Bigelow on the outside. Out of nowhere, an injured Chris Chetti made his way to the ring to help his partner any way he could. While holding the leg of Mike Awesome, Candido put Lance Storm away for a three count. After the bell, Bam Bam Bigelow shoved Douglas away and went after Chris Chetti who hightailed it to the back. Douglas jumped into the ring and he and Candido put away Mike Awesome while Storm was still down. The Franchise Players stood tall briefly before heading backstage to most likely save Chetti from Bam Bam. (12:38)

• In the main event, The Sandman entered and prepared to mail this one in as his last performance in front of an ECW crowd. Sabu entered without Bill Alfonso due to his bump earlier and paced in his corner. After a battle that Sabu controlled, “Ravishing” Rick Rude shoved Sabu off the top rope causing Sabu to crash to the concrete floor in a heap. Rude went over and followed up his attack with a Rude Awakening. He then rolled Sabu into the ring allowing Sandman to get the cheap, screwed victory to retain the ECW Heavyweight Championship! (8:44)

• After the match, The Sandman and Rick Rude celebrated by cracking open the briefcase to reveal the ‘big money contract’. As The Sandman placed his pen to the paper he was spun around and dropped on his neck by “Ravishing” Rick Rude! The crowd erupted in protest as Rude got on a mic and explained his actions. Rude yelled to the Sandman that the only name going on that paper was his, because he was going to take the ECW Heavyweight Championship to WCW himself! He used Sandman as a tool to keep the championship, because he was the weaker opponent for him than Sabu. He was formally announcing his plan to challenge The Sandman for the ECW Heavyweight Championship right now! Paul E. Dangerously and Todd Gordon stormed to the ring in protest but as Sandman recovered, he nailed both of them with his kendo stick and went to work on Rude himself! Before a match could be conducted, Rude stole the championship and ran through the crowd and out of the arena!

• Closing segment: After Rude disappeared with the ECW Heavyweight Championship, The Sandman threw another caning down on Gordon and Dangerously, ripped his suit jacket and dress shirt in half, and went out into the crowd to chase Rude down as the pay-per-view came to a close.