It's been ages since I watched any ECW. This is partly due to getting distracted by all the current WWE content, partly due to getting a new job which means I am travelling more and partly due to getting married and spending a lot of time planning a wedding.
It turns out that since I'd last watched any ECW, the WWE Network had added some more ECW content, so I decided to go back to the oldest PPV available, which is Hardcore Heaven 1995, two years before the last content I watched. I'm pleased to note that the Network automatically displays a warning about what you are going to see not being appropriate for all viewers. It gives me hope that this might be classic Eee Cee Dub.
Hardcore Heaven
July 1st 1995
This event has minimal build up, promo packages or anything of the like. Mostly, it just cuts straight from one match to another which gives it a bit of a jolty feel.
The Dudley Brothers v The Pitbulls
The crowd chant "boring" during this match and you can't really blame them. As a show opener, it doesn't really liven the crowd. The Pitballs are accompanied by the new tag team champions - Raven and Stevie Richards who provide the most exciting moment of the match when Raven takes Richards and his girlfriend out to the back after Stevie kisses a woman in the crowd. This distracts one of the Pitbulls as he thinks his partner is getting the pinfall, however the ref is also distracted, allowing a Dudley to break it up and roll his partner onto the prone Pitbull for the victory. This doesn't feature any of who I know as the classic Dudleys (D-Von, Bubba Ray, Spike) and doesn't really feature any excitement, either. At least not until after the fight when the Pitbulls vow to get Richards and Raven.
Rating: 2/10
Don E Allen & Dino Sendoff v Chad Austin & The Broad Street Bully
Some big dude called 911 marches into the ring shortly into this match and just starts beating up absolutely everyone in the ring. The crowd love this, and he is accompanied by Paul E. which doesn't make a lot of sense as to why the owner of the company would just interrupt a match to allow someone to beat up everyone else. The match seems to end in a no contest. The commentator had been saying how bad the match was before the interruption. I'm a little confused all in all. It was still better than the opening match though, mainly due to Paul E. just grabbing a mic and screaming "Welcome to E C Fucking W, Austin"
Rating: 3/10
Big Val Pucchio v Hack Meyers
This match takes a while to get underway. There is a suggestion from Big Val that Meyers should attempt to body slam the 510 pounds Pucchio. The crowd really get into this and the atmosphere seems awesome. This is the first match that seems to have got the event really going. The wrestling itself isn't great, with some of the punches and kicks clearly not connecting but this doesn't seem to bother the fans and there isn't a moment of silence throughout the whole match. This is a very one sided match, with Pucchio completely in control, however he missed an elbow drop when Meyers rolls out of the way, Meyers arm rolls back onto Pucchio and the ref counts what seems to be a very quick 3 count to give Meyers a comical victory.
Rating: 4/10
Taz v 2 Cold Scorpio
This is the first match to feature some decent wrestling and is a reasonably well structured match. Both of these guys are decent wrestlers and hit some good moves in a fairly even contest. Scorpio hits a tombstone piledriver and then a double knee moonsault on Taz - two moves that would basically be finishers in the WWF at the time - but Taz jumps straight up after this, hits a suplex and pins Scorpio. The believability of the product is leaving a little bit to be desired with this finish.
Bill Alfonso gets up and says that the match should be restarted as Scorpio's leg was on the ropes (which the referee didn't see). Paul E gets upset but promises that no wrestler will touch Alfonso before pointing out that he isn't a wrestler and that he's going to kick Alfonso's "fucking ass". The crowd starts to get excited but Scorpio with a chair and Alfonso with a cheap shot knock out Taz and Heyman before Alfonso does a 3 count as Scorpio pins Taz. I'm not sure who officially won this match.
Rating: 6/10
Shane Douglas comes out to do a promo but I'm not entirely sure what he's getting at.The mich is a bit distorted. He says he's off to WWF, and it appears he went there shortly after. I'm not sure why ECW would give him this much time to announce his departure, as this promo seems to last maybe 20 minutes. It doesn't seem to really serve much purpose until Sandman comes in to break it up when it looks like Douglas is going to attack Woman (the future Nancy Benoit) and then Douglas says that he will fight Sandman later in the PPV. This really dragged on for far too long.
ECW Tag Team Championship:
Raven & Stevie Richards (c) v Tommy Dreamer & Luna
A substantial portion of the early part of this matchup involves Luna using a testicular claw on Stevie Richards. She does hit a few good wrestling moves on him whilst Dreamer takes care of Raven outside the ring using various weaponry. Luna is about to win but then another woman comes and throws flour in her eyes which allows Richards to get the victory. The match is the best yet, content wise but it also doesn't flow too well as a story due to the fact that two fights are going on all the time, and one of them is almost out of view.
Rating: 6/10
Taipei Death Match:
Ian Rotten v Axl Rotten
Next up, Bill Alfonso is called out to the ring by the commissioner and told that as he's the guy who wants to enforce all the rules, he is being allowed to referee a match with no rules, the Taipei Death Match that is coming up. The commentator is keen that "a stray punch might catch Alfonso right in the mush." He seems to be a rules stickler and this has been used for storyline purposes previously.
The two brothers come out for their match, basically dressed alike and with weaponry attached to their fists. At no point is he format of the match explained, other than that there are no rules. Ian gets slightly cut open from the first punch and Alfonso checks him out and attempts to stop the match due to a lack of vision.
At this point Gangsters and Public Enemy come into the arena fighting each other but security stop them from fighting. I'm not sure why as ECW seems to be so chaotic that they don't care who fights whom. Alfonso demands they are ejected from the building, and he also leaves as well.
The Commissioner, noting that Alfonso has left the building, gets on the mic and restarts the match.
Despite the fact that someone in the crowd has "Axl vs Ian Feud of the year" on a sign, the match isn't much of a spectacle. A lot of it consists of one brother towering above the other, punching them in the face or attempting to cut open their face with their gloves. It picks up a little bit when they start to use a few more moves and thumbtacks are brought into the ring, the crowd chant "Thumbtacks!" Ian is body dropped onto them before Axl hits a leg drop and gets the pinfall.
Both of the Rottens are covered in blood, which would be cool except that the way they were cut open was quite dull.
Rating: 4/10
The feed then inexplicably cuts back to Raven and Richards fighting Dreamer and Luna again. I have no idea what has happened to get us here. The Pitbulls then run in and Richards wants a superbomb. I have no idea where in the continuity of the PPV this actually sits. The Pitbulls attack Richards and Raven as they had promised earlier. The Dudleys then run in and attack the Pitbulls. This seems like a reason for a bit of chaotic violence but doesn't fit the flow of the event.
ECW Championship:
Sandman (c) v Cactus Jack
The levels of confusion have risen again, as Shane Douglas said he was going to fight Sandman tonight so I was expecting him to come out after Sandman had entered. However, I was excited to watch Foley in an ECW match. He comes to the ring with barbed wire wrapped around his wrist and forearm, and Sandman comes in with two Singapore canes. You know that this match is going to be violent before it even starts.
Sandman leaping over the top rope to attack Cactus on the floor with the cane is pretty impressive. The Sandman also wraps barbed wire around his belly in order to hurt Cactus when he attacks him. It's slightly silly as they're both wearing t-shirts and surely it will hurt them both as much but nevermind, this is ECW. Whilst I've been complaining about the product not making sense, it's fine for the characters to be crazy and not rational.
The Franchise shows up and drops an elbow on the prone referee before hitting a piledriver on Sandman. He grabs the mic and taunts Sandman before also attacking Cactus Jack before throwing the prone Sandman onto the prone Jack which gets him the victory.
Douglas says "ECW kiss my ass goodbye," before the commissioner reverses the decision and gets into a war of words with Douglas who tells him he'll stay if the commissioner gets on his knees and asks him to stay. He commissioner looks like he's going to do so before telling Douglas he is "fucking fired." Douglas takes his anger out on the commissioner and any referees or wrestlers that happen to get in the way until 911 gets in the ring and chokeslams Douglas.
Rating: 6/10
Public Enemy v The Gangsters
Public Enemy get on the mic and give a warning that anyone who doesn't like blood and guts should leave the building. They don't disappoint. There is a somersault from the commentary area through a table as well as several other uses of tables, use of a large number of unconventional weapons, a whole tonne of blood... and also a decent amount of actual wrestling. This was easily the best match of the night.
Public Enemy get the win and celebrate in the ring with the crowd waving their hands in the air for a good while, with a whole bunch of fans getting into the ring to celebrate with them.
Rating: 8/10
Overall
As an event, it didn't really flow and it didn't always make sense. Perhaps it would have meant more to me if I'd be watching ECW TV, although I would still like to think that a product should be easy enough to follow on an intermittent basis. If you watch the current WWE output, pretty much every feud is explained before bouts on PPVs. The action was reasonable in most of the matches, although the quality improved substantially as the event went on.
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