ECW Living Dangerously (March 1998)

With ECW’s popularity growing rapidly by the end of 1997, and a shaky pay per view deal in place for the next year, ECW introduced a new event for the spring of 1998: Living Dangerously – their fourth true pay per view effort. The event was more-or-less another of the standard sporadic ECW supercards that the promotion used to hold in the ECW Arena for their local fan base, with this one used mostly to push the Shane Douglas v Al Snow feud for the next pay per view – though it ended up becoming etched in the minds of ECW fans for something else entirely.

From Asbury Park, New Jersey; Your Host is Joey Styles.


Opening Match: The FBI v Jerry Lynn and Chris Chetti: Little Guido starts with Chetti, and tries to overpower him, but gets caught with a spinheel kick for two. Chetti with an armbar, so Guido bails to Tracy Smothers. He gets hooked into an armbar as well, but has an easier time with Lynn - unloading chops. Lynn throws a sunset flip for two, and a springboard bodypress gets two - triggering a four-way brawl, with the faces dropkicking the FBI to the floor. Lynn follows with a flying bodypress to take them both out, and inside Chetti hits a slingshot clothesline to take down the FBI. Manager Tommy Rich gets involved to turn the tide, and the FBI cut the ring in half on Chris - making good use of quick tags. He catches Smothers with a gorgeous springboard leg lariat to turn the tide, and gets the tag off to Lynn so start a house of fire - but he gets overwhelmed with the double-teaming, and Chetti heads back over. Rich tries to get involved again, but ends up bashing Smothers, and getting pinned by Lynn at 8:18. Decent, well paced stuff - a good choice to open. * ¼

Doug Furnas v Masato Tanaka: This is Tanaka's ECW debut. Furnas tries to keep him back with the threat of roundhouse kicks, but Tanaka throws a shoulderblock, and unloads his own kick to the neck. Dropkick puts Doug in the corner, but Tanaka misses a blind charge, and gets powerslammed. Furnas with a series of kicks, and another dropkick to set up a kick. Lightning kicks end with Tanaka catching him with a corkscrew legsweep, and he hooks a leglock to try and diffuse the kick machine. Figure four, but Furnas makes the ropes, so Tanaka just starts bashing the knee instead. Lariat gets two, and a sloppy tornado DDT for two. Death Valley Driver gets two, but they botch a criss cross, and transition into a sloppy powerbomb from Furnas. Release German suplex gets Doug two, and a rana for two - as Furnas' manager Lance Wright tells him to let off, and kill him proper (in an angle to 'impress Vince McMahon into letting them into the WWF'). He tries, but of course, Tanaka catches him coming off of the ropes, and gets the pin at 5:45. Sloppy, sloppy stuff. ½*

Rob Van Dam v 2 Cold Scorpio: Both guys fight over an armbar to start, as the crowd gets increasingly anxious for them to start throwing highspots. Instead, they keep trading off on the mat - Scorpio getting the better of several sequences, and Van Dam bailing to the floor to regroup each time. Bridge reversal sequence right out of Cirque du Soleil (it was over choreographed to the point where it looked phony), and RVD bails to the floor again. Scorpio finally follows this time - whipping him into the rail, as the fans break out an 'ECW!' chant. This doesn't really deserve one (nothing notable really happened), but it seems they wanted to encourage the direction they were headed - especially compared to their 'wrestling' sequences. They trade shots on the floor, and RVD hits a slingshot legdrop on the way back in. Spinheel kick and a flying version get two, so RVD tries a rolling splash - getting two. Scorpio throws a pair of roundhouse kicks to try and come back, but RVD sweeps him to the mat, and drops a leg for two. Blind charge misses, however (no surprise there - he stopped to do a somersault on the way), and Scorpio hits a nice powerbomb as the crowd actively tells him to start flying around. Somersault legdrop, and a slingshot somersault splash get two. Leaping legdrop, and a side suplex leave Van Dam folded up like Chong’s accordion, so he follows with a flying splash for two. Well executed flying moonsault gets two, and he tries a rana off of the top - by Van Dam tosses him off. Five-Star Frogsplash, but Scorpio retains the momentum, and hits a 2^nd rope somersault legdrop for two. Stinger Splash misses, allowing RVD a springboard heel kick, and a split-legged moonsault for two. Criss cross ends with Van Dam hitting a rana, and Scorpio bails to the floor - Rob following to post him. Van Dam dropkicks a chair into his face out there, and they brawl on the elevated ramp way - Scorpio piledriving him. The referee goes down on the way in, but Van Dam still tries a 360 splash - only to have Scorpio roll out of the way. Powerbomb, and 2 Cold hits his own version of the 360 - but there's no referee. That draws Sabu out to clobber him with an Arabian Facebuster for a dramatic two count. Cue Sandman to chase Sabu to the back, as Scorpio tries to finish - but gets caught with a gorgeous modified victory roll for the pin at 22:08. Far too long, with the audience understandably expecting a spotfest, but instead getting a much slower paced (they took ages between spots) bout - leading to them getting more vocal in their disapproval my the minute. It had plenty of spots, but it was about ten minutes worth of stuff, with the other ten used to stumble around between them - as transitions, not selling. ** ¼

Three-Way Dance: The Dudley Boyz v The Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks v New Jack and Spike Dudley: As per usual, New Jack and partner (in this case Spike) don't show up for the opening bell, so we have to make-do with the Boyz and Freaks. Four-way brawl immediately, with Buh Buh Dudley and Balls Mahoney having it out on the floor, while D-Von Dudley and Axl Rotten trade off in the ring. Everybody switches places, with Balls hitting Buh Buh with a superkick, but missing a flying legdrop - as Rotten takes D-Von to school with a chair. Buh Buh borrows the chair for a shot on Mahoney, and cue team number three! New Jack brings his usual garbage can full of plunder with him, and everyone trades randomized weapon shots for a while. Into the crowd, everyone gangs up on the Boyz, and New Jack/Spike climb onto the balcony for stereo flying splashes to but the Dudley's through tables. Back to ringside, Balls ends up side suplexing Spike, and tries to put him through a table, but Spike counters with a tornado DDT through it - leaving both dead, and allowing the Boyz to run in with the Dudley Death Drop to capitalize, and pin Mahoney at 12:30. That allows Jack and Spike to sneak up from behind with guitars, and a flying splash from New Jack finishes D-Von at 13:23. The usual chaotic ECW stuff - no real flow or finesse. *

Justin Credible v Tommy Dreamer: Jenna Jameson tries to interview both men on the way in, but gets blown off by Justin, and kissed by Dreamer. All worked up, Dreamer charges in, and they spill into the crowd almost immediately. Nice spot on the ramp way, as Dreamer sets up an unfolded chair, and sends Credible flying halfway up the aisle into it with a slingshot. He tries a DDT to follow, but Justin shoves him off the ramp - crotching him on the rail. Into the ring, Credible with a bodypress, but Dreamer catches him in a blockbuster, and ties him in a tree of woe - dropkicking a chair into his face. Powerslam sets up a flying splash - but Justin rolls out of the way, and dropkicks Dreamer. Drop-toehold onto a chair, but he gets reversed on a cross corner whip, and hit with a Russian legsweep. Cheap shot to the throat slows Dreamer down, and another chair shot stops him altogether - allowing Justin a visually impressive inverted DDT onto the chair. His hubris works against him, though, as he tries one more big chair shot off of the top rope - and gets crotched, then caught in a Death Valley Driver for two. Credible pal Jason gets involved to distract Dreamer, allowing Justin to Tombstone him - and that draws out Beulah to blow Justin low. One for Jason, too - but Nicole Bass (Credible's Chyna-esque valet) destroys her. That draws out Mikey Whipwreck (who had been on hiatus for a few months before this show) to stun her, and in the chaos Dreamer DDT's Credible for the pin at 8:58. This was a decent, well paced match - though I could have done without the mass amounts of overbooking towards the end. Credible's pinballing approach to selling a spot worked well short-term, though both men's performance suffered from an overall lack of selling - as they'd hit a big spot (often with the aid of a weapon) only to have the other guy forget about it a few seconds later. * ¼

ECW Television Title Match: Taz v Bam Bam Bigelow: Big staredown (well, for one of them) ends with Taz taking him to the mat in a reverse armbreaker, but Bigelow makes the ropes - so Taz clotheslines him over the top. He follows with an axehandle off of the apron, but Bam Bam catches him, and rams him into the ringpost. Back inside, Bigelow with a visually impressive powerbomb for two, and an avalanche - but a second try sees Taz fire out of the corner with a lariat. Side suplex, but Bam Bam counters into a bodyblock for two, but another charge fails - this time getting back backdropped onto the ramp. Taz with a crazy head-and-arm suplex off of the ramp into the crowd, and he follows for a proper slugfest. Back to the ring, Bigelow with a DDT, and a sloppy flying moonsault gets two. Bam Bam goes for a table (already half broken by the time he gets it into the ring), but that doesn't stop him from powerbombing Taz through the rest of it - nope, Taz's counter into a stungun through the table does. That gets two, so they go to the floor for another slugfest - won by Bigelow, and punctuated with a chair shot. Inside, Bigelow goes for a powerslam, but Taz counters into the Tazmission, so Bigelow - in one of the more famous spots of the era - falls backwards, and crashes through the ring. Watching the entire arena literally spring to their feet along with that spot makes for an amazing visual. Both guys crawl out of the hole, and all Bam Bam has to do is cover to win the title at 13:36. Fun brawl that took a little too long to make it's closing argument, but with both men working and bumping hard, and one of the most memorable endings - in the days when falling through the ring was still a shocking spot. Bigelow ended up becoming a transitional champion, losing the title to Rob Van Dam on TV the next month, and starting what would be the longest reign in the title's lineage. **

Dueling Canes Match: The Sandman v Sabu: This was actually taped before the pay per view went on air, and announced as 'censored by the pay per view companies' at the onset, but because the ring needs to be repaired, they 'air it anyway.'  Both men are armed with Singapore canes, and Sabu charges in to attack from behind, only to have Sandman stungun him, and reveal that 'Sabu' is actually Rob Van Dam in disguise, doing a very convincing impression - right down to perfecting the mannerisms. I would have loved to see the prep for that backstage… ‘No, squat deeper when you point to the ceiling, fool. Deeper!’ That distraction allows the real Sabu to charge in, and he and RVD take turns kicking the shit out of Sandman. The referee clears Van Dam out for Sabu to have his own fun, and he tosses Sandman onto the ramp for his springboard bodypress. To the floor, Sabu dives off the ramp at him with a spear, and tosses him into the rail before putting him through a table with a flying splash. Inside, that gets two, so Sabu gives him an Arabian Facebuster for two. Flying somersault version misses (sold by Sabu looking more annoyed than devastated), and they go back onto the ramp for Sabu to reverse a suplex. Springboard moonsault, but it takes more out of Sabu than Sandman - and he gets whipped into a table. Sandman throws it at him for good measure (Who throws a table? Honestly!), but Rob Van Dam shows back up to stop Sandman from putting him through it. He takes Sandman out with the Five-Star Frogsplash, and he and Sabu hit stereo flying legdrops through a table to finish Sandman at 9:35. The canes literally never came into play - tables were the weapon of choice here. Thankfully much shorter than the November to Remember match that preceded it, though pretty dull, overall. ¾*

Main Event: Shane Douglas and Chris Candido v Lance Storm and Al Snow: ECW's version of 'patching up' the gaping hole in the ring is to throw some caution tape around it (held up by the ropes) and ring the bell. All that's missing is duct tape. This was set up when the Triple Threat kicked Storm out in favor of Bam Bam Bigelow, and Snow acts as his mystery partner for this showdown - after his original mystery partner Tammy Lynn Sytch turns on him within moments, rejoining the Threat. I know what you're thinking, 'Tammy Sytch, unreliable? Impossible!' - but it happened. Snow runs in as the crowd fills the ring with mannequin heads, and it's a giant brawl - Al targeting Douglas, and throwing him into the pit. Snowplow finishes Shane (the ECW World Champion) at 4:48. Really underwhelming for a main event, but the giant pit in the middle of the ring (not to mention the hundreds of mannequin heads flying in from all sides) kinda made working a match something of an impossibility. DUD

BUExperience: Underwhelming main event aside, this was the usual blend of ECW anarchy and memorable moments – pretty light on the actual wrestling this time out. ECW was becoming increasingly influential on mainstream wrestling (the Attitude Era – now really underway – took many cues from them) by this point, but failed to deliver the same satisfying product a WWF show from this period would have. *