ECW: Hardcore Heaven 1997

Hardcore Heaven
August 17th 1997

What I noticed most about watching this is that the way that they light the arena  and the way that they film it, which means that the action is often dark and you can't always make out what is going on makes it feel like a bootleg video. It makes it feel much more illicit and dangerous which really goes with the overall image that the promotion exudes. The crowd feeling close and rowdy, the way that you can hear them at all times, makes it feel like you're an insider in this secret club.

The event starts out with 2017 Hall of Fame inductee Ravishing Rick Rude interrupting the announcer to claim that Chris Candido would be the next champion. This just seems designed to get heat on Rude who must have turned heel at HeatWave earlier in the year which was an interim event since the last PPV.

ECW World Television Championship:
Taz (c) v Chris Candido

Taz is proper bad ass. He just stands in his corner with his arms folded for a good while at the start of the match which starts to anger Candido. What I noticed is that the commentator does a great job of helping sell this match, constantly mentioning the neck problems of both competitors and also explaining why certain moves are going to cause more damage to their opponent.

The ending to this is pretty cool with Candido signalling for the end by doing a slitting the throat taunt with Taz on the turnbuckle behind him doing the same thing before locking in a submission move. The match was a fairly solid opening match but didn't really have any high spots.

Rating: 6/10

After the match we are given a recap of earlier in the night when Rob Van Dam and his tag team partner Sabu took out the Insane Clown Posse. If I was a rock star, I'd totally want to use my fame to get on a wrestling show. That'd be the nuts. Later you see Sandman break it up, before being taken out himself and then later still, you see that ECW have stumped up for helicopter so that they can follow the ambulance that he was taken away in which he then commandeers.

Spike Dudley v Bam Bam Bigelow

Spike Dudley had amazingly got a victory over Bam Bam the previous weak and Bam Bam demanded a rematch. There's such a ridiculous size difference between these guys, even though Bam Bam is looking a lot lighter than I recall him looking in his WWF days, apparently the lightest he has been in his career. Impressively he manages a cartwheel while Dudley is out of the ring.

They do a great job of selling the fact that this is a big guy just beating the crap out of a smaller guy. Spike takes some bumps that really look painful. The highlight is when Bam Bam throws Spike from the ring into the crowd, which cuts him open and he really looks like he's out of it. He still hits two more big moves before claiming the victory. Dudley gets some genuine medical assistance to leave the ring.

The crowd spot alone makes this worth a watch, especially the reaction of the crowd.

Rating: 8/10

Rob Van Dam v Al Snow

This match doesn't seem to generate the excitement of the previous matches, and I think this is because the extremely likeable RVD is attempting to be a heel and Al Snow isn't really a crowd favourite. The storytelling element of this doesn't really add to the match which is largely technically sound - although with a few botched moves.

Rating: 6/10

ECW Tag Team Championship:
The Dudleys (c) v PG-13

For some reason that never really becomes apparent, porn star Jenna Jameson is in the ring with the Dudleys. I didn't really know how many Dudleys there were before. The ring is also full with them as well and that's not including Spike who got carried out of the ring earlier.

PG-13 are the USWA tag team champions, from Jerry Lawler's promotion. They come in insulting the Dudleys which actually gets heat on them and attempts to make the Dudleys the faces for the competition as the crowd are expected to stick with the ECW guys. However, this doesn't really work and the match itself actually falls a bit flat. I'm not sure if it's to do with the fact that these guys wouldn't have worked together before.

The nicest moment is when D-Von repeatedly accidentally attacks Buh Buh Ray because he has his back turned and thinks he's yanking his opponent's arm.

Rating: 5/10

Jerry "The King" Lawler v Tommy Dreamer

Lawler is still with the WWF and he uses this to generate heat by attempting to sell their upcoming PPV and namedropping the stars of the day and claiming that they'd all told them to hit their biggest moves on Tommy Dreamer.

Apparently the two organisations had a good working relationship at the time and they seem to be using it to promote both brands. As well as this there were other wrestlers who crossed over between the two companies.

Initially this looks like Dreamer is going to win in short time as he gives Lawler a good beating through the crowd, improvising with weapons given to him by the crowd. However, Lawler gets back into it. It's good that Lawler got to show a side of himself that you wouldn't see in the WWF, with a lot more aggression and ruthlessness.

Three times the lights go out for interference from Rick Rude, Jake the Snake and Sonny. When they go out for the third time, it's like FFS, just have a wrestling match. Lawler also needlessly attacks the ref. All of this really brings it down in my opinion.

Rating: 5/10

World Heavyweight Title:
Sabu (c) v Terry Funk v "The Franchise" Shane Douglas

The chaos and the destruction is obviously what kept the fans coming back to ECW and this match has plenty of it. I liked the ECW three way dances better than WWE's triple threat matches, simply because they are elimination which I think always seems a lot more natural in this sort of match.

Sabu is so insanely athletic and performs some awesome moves. He is looking good until The Sandman makes his way back to the arena and takes him out and Funk and Douglas pin Sabu together, meaning there will definitely be a new champion. Most of the locker room then loiter in the entrance way watching the end of the match up which I think is a nice touch.

Funk is due to retire towards the end of the year and wants to retire as champion and the crowd clearly want him to regain the title that he'd lost the previous week to Sabu in a barbed wire match but Douglas takes the victory to chants of "bullshit."

The Dudleys then attempt to recruit The Franchise but Bam Bam Bigelow and Candido - the other members of the Triple Threat aren't impressed and a mass brawl breaks out. It's really difficult to follow what is hapening.

Rating: 7/10

Overall

This card isn't quite as good as the first PPV. There is one match I loved, some solid matches and some which were poor. The first event had set a high bar, and they'd probably put their all into making it a success and perhaps it is no surprise that the quality dropped off slightly.

Rating: 6/10