 |
|
Home
Wrestling
WWE
TNA
Tape Reviews
Other
Sports
Basketball
Football
Baseball
Hockey
International
Entertainment
Movies / TV
Music
Gaming
Technology
Books / Comics
" The Gravel Pit "
|
|
|
|
Wrestling
>
Tape Reviews
Today in Wrestling History (August 17)
Posted by Jared "JHawk" Hawkins on Aug 17, 2002, 13:31
|
|
Today in Wrestling History (August 17)
By Jared "JHawk" Hawkins
Home Grown Yankees: Thanks to three of my readers for providing with a list of home-grown New York Yankees, and the list apparently includes not only Shane Spencer and Derek Jeter, but also Orlando Hernandez, Ramiro Mandoza, Andy Pettite, Alfonso Soriano, Enrique Wilson, and Bernie Williams. Now, Soriano's debatable because he played in Japan before making the Yankees farm system. Wilson and Hernandez are technically true, but Enrique wasn't in a Yankee uniform until he'd already had stints with Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and Hernandez was only in the farm system a couple of months after defecting from Cuba. I would count Hernandez even considering that. Wilson I'm not so sure. Either way, still more names than I had realized, and thanks to everybody who had sent those along.
By the way, if you send me an e-mail and get a reply from a Hotmail account, I was having some problems with my e-mail earlier in the week and am having some of it forwarded to a Hotmail account. The usual address still applies for sending e-mail though.
Onto the business at hand: Tonight, we go back to August 17, 1997, and ECW's Hardcore Heaven pay-per-view.
The story so far: February 17: Jerry Lawler, disturbed by a fan in the front row carrying an ECW sign, rips the sign out of the fan's hand during a live broadcast of Monday Night Raw and challenges ECW to put up or shut up. ECW's own Paul Heyman calls Lawler and accepts the challenge.
February 24: One of my favorite Raws ever takes place, as ECW gets to put on three matches live on the USA Network while also hyping their first-ever pay-per-view event, Barely Legal. Among the highlights is Heyman and Lawler on commentary, as Lawler calls the Blue World Order a blatant ripoff, and Heyman asks what they're ripping off because he knows Lawler can't say it on the air. McMahon covers by saying "Not to be confused with...the clothing line of nWo." The night ends with Lawler taking some shots at Heyman while the ECW crew in attendance holds Paul E. back.
Over the next few weeks, things intensify, including a debate between Heyman and Lawler on Raw that turns into a "shoot". How worked it was is anybody's guess, but Heyman gets in the line of the night by saying "Your own sons won't even call themselves 'Lawler'.
May 12: Lawler brings in Rob Van Dam, who has assumed the moniker of "Mr. Monday Night", for some appearances on Raw, the first of which is against Matt Hardy.
June 7: Lawler and Jim Cornette invade the ECW Arena, and with the help of RVD, help to lay out the entire ECW locker room following Tommy Dreamer's match with Raven.
At this point, the working agreement with ECW and the WWF began to fall apart, and the first of WWF Home Video's Steve Austin videos is released with ECW footage. Not a problem, except Joey Styles' contract called for him to give permission for an outside source to use his image, as well as royalties for its use. A plan B is immediately drawn up, as a Lawler-Dreamer match for Hardcore Heaven has already been announced. That plan B was a working agreement between ECW and Lawler's Memphis-based USWA. The WWF and ECW work out a last-minute agreement, and the pay-per-view is advertised, albeit briefly, on Raw.
Without any further ado... Let's go back to the War Memorial in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Joey Styles is your host for the co-main event of ECW Hardcore Heaven.
The Pharaoh vs. Tommy F'N Dreamer (w/Beulah McGillicutty)
Before the match, Lawler cuts a lame promo where he claims all the WWF superstars want him to put Dreamer away with their finishing moves, and he makes sure to shill Ground Zero while he has a live mic.
Dreamer enters the ring and immediately goes after Lawler, who runs but suckers Tommy as they reenter the ring. Dreamer wastes no time sending Lawler out to the floor, and let the mindless brawl commence. One shot on the floor busts Lawler open. Dreamer uses a hamburger on Lawler. Yes, a hamburger. The whole "Burger King" thing. Innovative, huh? The brawl moves into the crowd, and with ECW's shoddy production values, you either see nothing but the crowd or the wrestler's faces, and little if any "action". They finally get back to ringside, but that's just so they can brawl in another area of the crowd. They're back at ringside, and Dreamer finally sends Lawler into the ring. Dreamer grabs a fan's chair and takes it to the top rope, but Lawler shakes the ropes, and down goes Dreamer. Lawler uses Dreamer's chair to his advantage, driving Dreamer face-first into it several times. Lawler with punches to send Dreamer back outside. Yay. Exciting. Lawler uses a chair on Dreamer, then straddles Dreamer onto the guardrail. See a pattern forming here yet? Lawler wraps a belt around his hand and hits Dreamer with the buckle. Most people actually grab it by the buckle, which means it's just a punch with leather. One of those wrestling things that makes you go "What the hell?" Lawler chokes Dreamer with the belt, then ties him to the bottom turnbuckle with it. Lawler stomps away at Dreamer until Dreamer gets free, and there's the piledriver. Nobody ever gets out of a Jerry Lawler piledr--OH MY GOD HOW DID HE DO THAT HE'S SO AWESOME! Oh, sorry. Dreamer out at 2. Lawler punches away at Dreamer in the corner, then he soaks in the "ECW" chants. Lawler rips off Dreamer's EC F'N W shirt, then wipes his pits and ass with it. He's hardcore! He's hardcore! More punches, but Dreamer begins to no-sell them. Dreamer takes off what's left of his shirt, then starts pounding away at Lawler. Lawler staggers, down goes the strap...but he falls face-first to the canvas. Dreamer stands over Lawler with arms spread, then stuffs the shirt into Lawler's mouth, but a low blow stifles Dreamer's momentum. And a series of knees to the crotch by Lawler. Lawler sets up a DDT, but Dreamer pushes Lawler into the corner...and the referee. Lawler DDTs the ref, just in case he's not actuallu unconscious. Lawler goes for a Memphis crotch into the ringpost job, but Dreamer sends Lawler face-first into the post. Dreamer goes for his own post shot, but down go the lights (tm ECW). When they go up, there's Rick Rude, doing double duty with both ECW and the WWF at the time, leveling Dreamer with a garbage can. Advantage: Lawler. Lawler brings Dreamer into the ring and covers for 2. Lawler stomps the referee for a slow count. Dreamer gets whipped in, but stops short and sets Lawler up for a piledriver...but out go the lights. And when they return, Jake Roberts levels Dreamer with a short clothesline and, with the crowd's prodding, a DDT. Roberts stares at a camera and cuts a mini-promo. "Your God...He giveth, and He taketh away. My God? He giveth, and he ain't got the balls to do nothing." Lawler, who feuded with Roberts a year earlier, asks for a handshake, but Roberts hits him with a short clothesline just for the hell of it and storms off. Well, they're trying for continuity, I'll give them that. Lawler ends up falling on top of Dreamer as a result of it and gets 2. Lawler finds another chair. He measures Tommy, throws some punches, then goes for a slam, but Dreamer floats behind, sets up a DDT, and AGAIN the lights go out. When they come back up, Sunny is in the ring, and she "sprays Tommy in the eyes" with hair spray (that misses by at least a foot). Beulah jumps into the ring, takes Sunny down, and we have a CATFIGHT! CATFIIIIIIIIIGHT! Lawler grabs Beulah. Dreamer gets to his feet and goes after Lawler, but Lawler uses Beulah as a shield. Beulah low blows Lawler. Dreamer with the testicular claw, followed by a DDT for the pin at 18:55. Holy shit, this is bad even by some other recapper's ECW standards. All brawl, no substance, with too many run-ins, too much useless booking (Why was Jake Roberts even there? Who controls the damn lights anyway?). Some decent psychology saves this from being complete Wrestlecrap. *
Aftermath: Prior to the InVasion last summer, this was the extent of the ECW-WWF feud, although ECW still used Doug Furnas, Phil Lafon, and Rob Van Dam as "WWF invaders" for most of the next six months, and occasionally you'd see WWF guys that weren't being used spending time in ECW rather than going down to a developmental territory. Probably the only time the WWF ever acknowledged ECW directly in the next four years was when Tazz had a cup of coffee with the ECW World Title following Mike Awesome's defection to WCW.
Next up...well, I'm not entirely sure because what I want to do might overwork me next weekend. Something though.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
