Written by: Bob Colling
Extreme Championship Wrestling presents Hardcore TV
Date: 8/2/1997
From: Various Locations
Matches:
1.) Sabu defeated Bill Wiles
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Rick Rude has turned on Tommy Dreamer and Sandman aligning himself with Jerry Lawler, Sabu ad Rob Van Dam. Rude tossed a chair into the ring and allowed them to be triple teamed. Terry Funk came down to ringside, but Rude backed away. Shane Douglas and Chris Candido rundown and attack Funk from behind. Funk fights them off with strikes and sends them into the cage face first. Bam-Bam Bigelow has come out as well to beat on Funk on the aisle way. The fans want Taz, but Taz doesn’t come out. Funk has his bloody ear raked against the cage by Bigelow and Douglas. ECW wrestlers are trying to get into the ring, but they are stopped each time by Lawler, Sabu or Rob Van Dam. Dreamer has been handcuffed to the cage and Lawler beats on Dreamer’s groin. Sandman has been handcuffed to the cage, as well. Funk continues to be destroyed on the floor. Sabu and RVD kick chairs into their faces. Taz makes his way out and tosses Candido over the railing into the crowd. Taz gets into the cage since Candido had unlocked it. Lawler is unaware of Taz being there. Lawler doesn’t backdown and jabs Taz several times. Taz doesn’t budge much. Lawler hits a back suplex, but Taz pops right up and locks the Taz Mission on Lawler! Bigelow gets in the cage with Candido. They work over Taz with stomps. Taz will not let go. Candido beats on Taz with the chair. Taz refuses to let go. Lawler gets pulled out of the ring and helped to the backstage area. Taz has been laid out at this point as Candido leaps off the top rope to hit a diving headbutt to the ribs. The Triple Threat stand tall and pose while everyone is laid out. Bigelow has dumped a lot of beer onto Taz. Douglas whacks Taz over the back with a steel chair. Candido locks the Taz Mission on Taz! That was a very effective segment.
2.) Rick Rude cuts a promo in Buffalo, NY. The crowd is giving him some decent heat to keep him from talking. The Triple Threat makes there way down to the ring to continue the segment. Douglas says he could have had Rick Rude as an enemy, but chose to have him as a friend instead. Douglas suggests that he gave Rude Francine for one night to allow the partnership. Francine notes that everyone calls her a whore anyway and the trick is on all the fans. Rude doesn’t realize where the hard camera is at, so Bigelow had to direct him on his pose.
3.) Backstage, Tommy Dreamer was helped by wrestlers when Taz came in and told Dreamer that he’ll be his partner.
4.) Rob Van Dam was originally supposed to wrestle Bill Wiles, but since the show airs on the weekend RVD didn’t feel like he should wrestle. So, Sabu took his place and completely destroyed Wiles. Sabu hits a nice springboard hurricanrana out of the corner. Sabu hit a springboard dive into the crowd to take Wiles out. RVD leg drops Wiles over the railing. Sabu smashes Wiles with a chair on the apron. Wiles is placed onto a table at ringside and Sabu hits a leg drop, but the table doesn’t break. Sabu leaps over the top rope for another leg drop and the table collapses. Sabu wins with a camel clutch and RVD dropkicks a chair into Wiles face.
5.) Various highlights from the Buffalo show are shown. Mikey Whipwreck competed against Barry Hardy in singles action and won the match following a hurricanrana. There was a six man tag between the Triple Threat and the team of Chetti, Spike and Nova. They don’t show the complete match as we also see footage of a Kronus vs. Spicolli match. Kronus won the match following a 450 splash. Tommy Dreamer had a confrontation with RVD and Sabu and was beaten down. Taz makes his way out and the crowd erupts. We see a brawl outside the building between Mahoney and Bubba Dudley. Mahoney whacks Bubba with a chair in the ring and could have won the match if the referee was paying attention. Dudley’s win the tag match following a 3D to Axl Rotten. Mahoney smashes Big Dick Dudley with two chair shots. Dudley’s 3D Mahoney onto the steel chair. Bubba splashes the chair onto Mahoney, too. New Jack makes his way out and tosses weapons into the ring to make the save.
6.) Rob Van Dam can’t stand ECW and says that Sabu is wrestling Sandman at Hardcore Heaven and he’s worried about Sabu. RVD knows that Sabu is going to win. RVD says that Sandman isn’t an athlete and insults Sandman’s look and apologizes to Alfonso, who has the same kind of look and issues. RVD tells Sandman to not bring his booze and get his ass kicked. RVD has a message for anyone who wrestles him and promises to give a good word on Monday nights.
7.) Sandman is drinking a beer and smashes it over his head.
8.) Chris Candido is backstage and says he’s a serious guy. Candido has been on a million pay per views. Candido says it wasn’t him it was another creation. Candido will be on PPV for the first time as himself. He brags about choking Taz out on TV with his own move. It was only business and not personal. Candido puts Taz over as being a great athlete, but isn’t as good as him. Candido says he can choke Taz once and will do it again. Candido believes his choked Taz out all on his own. Candido thinks that Taz is scared to sign a contract. Candido opens a locker and sees a contract written in Taz’s name… but it’s in blood. That scares Candido.
9.) Taz is leaving the arena and says he signed Candido’s death warrant in his blood. Taz thinks it’s time to taste Candido’s blood.
10.) New Jack cuts a promo saying that he can’t be put down and he’s on a mission to get the tag titles at Hardcore Heaven. Jack has gotten up from everything and he’s attacked by the Dudley’s! The Eliminators are standing there and don’t help out. Well, Saturn uses his crutch on Bubba and now they are involved. Saturn breaks a glass over Big Dick’s head and digs the glass into his eye, it appears.
Final Thoughts:
A very good episode to establish the matches that needed to be given proper hype for Hardcore Heaven 1997. ECW builds their PPVs very well.
Thanks for reading.