ECW Heatwave (August 1998)

For 1998, with their popularity and exposure rising, ECW brought the annual Heatwave event to pay per view – and, for the first time, the event was held outside of their Philadelphia home base ECW Arena, moved to a much larger venue in Ohio.

From Dayton, Ohio; Your Hosts are Joey Styles, Shane Douglas, and Francine’s tits.


Opening Match: Jerry Lynn v Justin Credible: Credible gets cocky at the bell, and Lynn takes him down in an armdrag to trigger some stalling. Justin comes in hot again, but Lynn reverses an armbar, and armdrags him again to send him back to the neutral corner. Credible tries chops next, but Lynn turns that around on him, too, and catches him with a sunset flip for two. 2^nd rope bodypress gets two, and a victory roll for two. Headscissors takedown puts Credible on the outside, and Lynn climbs to the top rope to dive after him. Back in, that gets him a two count, so he tries a forward falling suplex for two. Side-headlock slows things down, but Justin powers up into a criss cross, and plants Lynn with an inverted DDT. Fists of fury in the corner, and he rams him with a chair for good measure. Sitout powerbomb onto the chair gets two, so he dumps him to the floor for pals Jason and Nicole Bass to abuse. Justin heads out to do his own dirty work with a whip into the rail, and he punches him with a cup of beer - a spot that works if it's a can or glass, but not so much with a clear plastic cup. Inside, Lynn tries to no-sell the beer bath, but gets slammed for two. Credible with a chinlock, so Lynn turns it into a pinfall reversal sequence - ending with Jerry hitting his own sitout powerbomb for two. He puts Justin on the top rope for a super-rana, and a sidewalk slam sets up a flying rana - but Credible powerbombs him on the way down for two. He grabs another chair, but Lynn reverses this time - DDT'ing him onto it for two. Stunner, and he takes him to the top rope for a rana to the floor, and through a table - triggering our first 'ECW' chant of the night. Inside, that gets Lynn two when Jason and Bass break it up with a chair. Jerry fights them off, and tries another super-rana, but Credible counts into a Tombstone off of the top rope for the pin at 14:36. Lynn worked well here, but Credible was a mess - sloppy spots, and miscues from bell to bell. *

Lance Storm v Chris Candido: Lockup stalemate to start, to establish that these former partners know each other well. Storm breaks it up with a spinheel quickly, and starts chopping Candido into the corner, but gets the tables turned, and Chris stomps him. Backdrop puts Lance on the outside, and Candido follows with a flying bodypress before whipping him into the rail. Inside, Candido with a bow-and-arrow, and a running sitout powerbomb gets him two. Hanging vertical suplex (with a beautifully long delay) sets up a 2^nd rope flying legdrop for two, but he walks into a Superkick for two. Lance tries to follow-up with a backdrop, but gets caught with a swinging neckbreaker for two, and taken to the mat in a chinlock. Powerslam gets Chris two, but Storm reverses a suplex - sending Chris crashing over the top. Baseball slide puts him in the first row, and Storm follows up with a flying bodypress into the crowd. Candido pretty much shrugs it all off, though, and hits a shoulderblock on the way back in for two. To the top rope, but Storm catches him up there with a superplex, and a flying spinheel kick gets two. Sitout powerbomb gets two, but Chris counters a slingshot clothesline into a powerslam for two. Cross corner whip, but Storm springboards off of the top with a backelbow, and the referee gets bumped as he Superkicks Chris. That allows Tammy Lynn Sytch to crotch him on the top rope (accidentally busting out of her top in the process – though she’s such an expert she covers up before we see anything) and Candido  powerbombs him off of the top for the pin at 11:00. Not a bad effort, but came off as dull overall - kind of just meandering from spot to spot without any real flow or psychology. * ½

Mike Awesome v Masato Tanaka: They get right to it, as Awesome catches him with a flying backelbow right away to get his attention, and a big slugfest ends with Awesome overhead suplexing him. Slingshot shoulderblock and a splash get two, and a clothesline sends Tanaka to the floor for a plancha. Inside, Awesome with a flying clothesline for two, and a release German suplex hits - but he walks into a powerslam out of a charge. Tanaka with a springboard clothesline, and he blasts him with a chair - getting a running start the whole way down the aisle first. Missile dropkick on the way back in gets two, so Mike backdrops him back to the floor for the dueling chairs bit - won by Tanaka. Another backdrop puts Tanaka in the crowd, and Awesome follows with an impressive flying clothesline - which unlike in the last match, isn't shrugged off, and therefore came off a million times better. Mike drags him back in for a sitout powerbomb, but Tanaka kicks out at two. Frustrated, Mike with a flying splash for two, and he grabs another chair - cracking Tanaka's skull with three solid shots for two. Running powerbomb, and a flying chair shot to finish - but Awesome wants to put an exclamation mark on him with a running powerbomb out of the ring, through a table. Tanaka reverses, however, and impressively drops the much larger Awesome through the table with a powerbomb. Inside, that gets Tanaka two, and a discus punch for two, so he takes him to the corner for a tornado DDT onto a pair of chairs to finish at 11:48. Really fun power match - it had the psychology and rhythm of a cruiserweight match, but with heavyweight spots. ** ¾

ECW World Tag Team Title Match: Rob Van Dam and Sabu v Jinsei Shinzaki and Hayabusa: Long stall process to start, as Van Dam and Sabu argue over who gets to start - while the Japanese team just hangs out in the corner twiddling their thumbs. They finally settle on Van Dam and Hayabusa, but Rob's too bust playing to the crowd to notice. They trade go-behinds, and Van Dam gets him on the mat in a leglock - but can't hold him firm. Both guys try springboards that literally go nowhere (no spot - botched or otherwise), and a big flippy-floppy criss cross ends in Van Dam armdragging him. He neglects to follow up, however, and gets caught with a kick while playing to the crowd. Tag to Shinzaki (best known to American audiences as Hakushi) for a Vaderbomb, but a backdrop gets him a face full of foot, and RVD spinkicks him into the corner. Battle over an Irish whip ends in Shinzaki hitting an enzuigiri, and a ropewalk chop puts Van Dam on his ass. Kneedrop misses, however, but a Van Dam spinkick doesn't, and he tags Sabu for a springboard leg lariat. Clothesline for two, and he goes to a chinlock. Shinzaki slugs free to tag Hayabusa back, but he gets a Sabu slingshot moonsault for two, and a shoulderblock. Off the ropes again, Hayabusa dropkicks him to the outside, and Sabu quickly crouches against the rail to avoid any dive follow-ups. Back in, Sabu wins a slugfest with a dropkick, and tries an anklelock on the mat, shifting into a reverse chinlock. That leads to both Van Dam and Shinzaki flying in with dropkicks, and everyone ends up brawling on the outside - Hayabusa springboard moonsaulting onto the heap. Back in, Van Dam ties Shinzaki in a surfboard, with Sabu leaping off of the top with a chair to the ribs for two. Hayabusa saves by bulldogging Van Dam, and the challengers hit stereo slingshot dives for two. Pair of superkicks get two on Sabu, and Shinzaki goes to the top rope, but Sabu brings him down with a rana, and Van Dam flies in with a splash for two. Hayabusa with a gorgeous 450 splash on Van Dam for two, as they've abandoned all tags/psychology/selling, and are just taking turns hitting various tandem flying spots. A table gets involved, but the challengers can't figure out how to properly set it up with it collapsing first, so they end up splashing Van Dam onto a flat table - which came off horribly. Sabu brings in another table to show them how to properly do it (you know a match is falling apart when Sabu is helping you stop botching shit), and the challengers get driven through it with stereo flying splashes for the pin at 20:51. This had its charm, but certainly not a good match. The first half went nowhere, and then it turned into a spot-spot-spot exhibition, with zero psychology, or selling involved. That being said, some of the spots were nice and creative, but a lot of others were botched or sloppy - overall it came off like they were booked to go twenty minutes because everyone expected something awesome, and they got a little lost. **

FTW Title Falls Count Anywhere Match: Taz v Bam Bam Bigelow: Taz had recently unveiled the FTW (Fuck the World) title as his own vanity belt when he felt sanctioned ECW World Champion Shane Douglas had been ducking him. Taz tries a takedown to start, but Bigelow counters with a well executed powerbomb - only for Taz to spring to his feet, give him the finger, and armdrag him. Taz with a series of clotheslines, and he drops him like a Samoan for two. Out onto the elevated ramp way and quickly into the crowd for a tour of the arena - Taz suplexing him on the floor out there for two. He actually tries an armbreaker on the crowd, which is about the equivalent of trying a rana in a bar fight. Luckily, Bigelow doesn't chinlock him to comeback, instead brawling back to ringside for a chair shot. Inside, Bam Bam powerbombs him again, and grabs a table from ECW's seemingly never-ending supply to whip Taz through. An economical fellow, Bam Bam sets up the still usable remains of the table for another whip, but Taz counters into a head-and-arm suplex into (though not through) the table. Back onto the ramp, the crowd begs Bigelow to press slam Taz into their arms, but instead, Taz DDT's him - crashing through the ramp in the process. Both guys crawl out of the rubble, and Taz dives onto the dazed Bigelow with the Tazmission for the victory at 13:20. This started off fine, but quickly descended into a dull brawl to satisfy the stipulations, and then ending in the worst possible way - a reference to their better, legitimately unexpected 'through the ring' spot from Living Dangerously. ¾*

Main Event: Six-Man Tag Team Match: Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, and Spike Dudley v The Dudley Boyz: The entrances alone take up a ridiculous twenty minutes before Dreamer and D-Von Dudley end up staring each other down at center ring to start. Criss cross ends with a Dreamer sunset flip for two, and a pinfall reversal sequence leads to a stalemate. Dreamer with a neckbreaker to send D-Von crawling over to Buh Buh Dudley - and the crowd wants Spike to tag. Dreamer obliges - leaving his little buddy to gets press slammed, but he starts firing off forearms, and unloads a ten-punch count in the corner. Rana, but Buh Buh counters with powerbomb, and levels him with a lariat. Backdrop, but a splash misses, and Spike manages the rana this time on the dazed Dudley. Tags to Big Dick Dudley and Sandman lead to a six-way brawl on the floor, and everyone works in various weapon shots. A ladder gets involved for Spike to impressively fly off of onto the other Dudley's brawling on the floor, and an Acid Drop on the way back in gets two on Buh Buh. D-Von saves by sidewalk slamming Spike onto the ladder, but Dreamer and Sandman step in before he gets himself pinned. More ball shots than a porno follow, and Dreamer DDT's Buh Buh onto a ladder for the pin at 14:29. Spike Dudley taking a heat segment or pulling insane bumps is always fun, but this never went anywhere beyond the usual, overbooked ECW brawls. ¾*

BUExperience: Pretty forgettable show, it had a lot of the elements that initially made ECW a fun alternative to the WWF or WCW, but also felt like they were going through the motions. Certainly not boring, but the promotion (despite more exposure, and bigger crowds) was starting to look tired – especially with the WWF’s crash-TV Attitude programming putting on a better version of a similar product. DUD