Despite some serious road blocks preventing ECW from getting their first pay-per-view event, which ECW created, it was finally announced that on April 13, 1997, live from the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, ECW would hold its first-ever PPV card called Barely Legal.
Perhaps the biggest match on the card was the ultimate grudge match between two former tag team partners Sabu vs. Taz. This match had been almost two years in the making. In April 1995, Sabu no-showed an event and was legitimately fired, leaving Taz without a tag team partner.
At November to Remember 1995, Sabu returned to ECW after wrestling in Japan and a brief stint in WCW. Taz was mad that Sabu was brought back and Taz, who now was aligned with referee Bill Alfonso, and began challenging Sabu to a match and called him out. For a year, Taz called out Sabu only for Sabu not to answer. Finally at November to Remember 1996, Taz and Sabu finally faced each other in the ring.
Taz defeated Sabu in a thrilling match where he made Sabu tap out to the Tazmission. After the match, Taz offered Sabu a handshake as a matter of respect, which Sabu did. All of a sudden, Sabu's teammate Rob Van Dam attacked Taz.
Sabu argued with RVD only to join RVD in attacking Taz. Sabu even choked Taz out with the Tazmission. Bill Alfonso came into the ring and took off his Team Taz shirt to reveal a Sabu shirt underneath as Alfonso double-crossed Taz and joined Sabu and Van Dam.
The first main event was a Triple Threat match between The Sandman, Stevie Richards, and the ageless Hardcore icon Terry Funk where the winner would fight Raven for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship after. Tommy Dreamer was supposed to be in this match, but he gave up his spot for his mentor and friend Funk.
Funk won the match as Raven came in and immediately attacked Funk for their title match. Dreamer was sitting at ringside doing color commentary with Joey Styles for the match rooting on his mentor to defeat his biggest nemesis. Dreamer soon hit Raven with the DDT and put Funk on top of him as Funk won the ECW Title. Dreamer celebrated with Funk.
Other matches on the first ECW PPV include The Eliminators defeating The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray and D-Von) to win the ECW World Tag Team Championships, RVD beating Lance Storm with the Van Daminator (kicking a steel chair into his opponent's face) and a Moonsault, as well as the debut of bWo Japan.
The other big match on the card was Shane Douglas defending his ECW World Television Championship against Pit Bull #2. Last year, Douglas beat Pit Bull #2 to win the TV title when Pit Bull's valet Francine turned on him and helped Douglas win the title and join forces with The Franchise. Also, Douglas broke Pit Bull #1 Gary Wolfe's neck, putting him out of action and Douglas bragged about what he did.
Douglas had several riot squad members with him to protect him from Wolfe, who was sitting at ringside, as well as protecting him from a masked man, who had been stalking Douglas and Francine since the beginning of the year. The masked man was thought to be Ravishing Rick Rude as the man sounded and acted a lot like him.
Thanks to interference from Francine and Triple Threat member Chris Candido, Douglas retained the title. The masked man returned wearing Rude's robe and planted a big kiss on Francine. Douglas attacked the man. The man unmasked himself only to be revealed as Triple Threat member Brian Lee.
All of a sudden, one of the riot squad members took off his helmet and revealed himself to be Rick Rude. Douglas pleaded as Rude nailed him with a punch and Lee chokeslammed Douglas. Lee was kicked out of the Triple Threat and replaced by Bam Bam Bigelow.
Paul Heyman was still business partners with Tod Gordon despite buying the company from him two years prior. However that relationship would be terminated when it was found out that Gordon was a "mole" in ECW helping WCW to acquire top ECW talent as Heyman and ECW had a working relationship with Vince McMahon and the WWF.
Apparently, WCW was willing to pay Gordon a ton of money to get the best ECW had to jump over to WCW in a massive walkout that probably would have ended ECW at that time. Heyman got wind of this and fired Gordon for this.
Raven, Stevie Richards, and Perry Saturn already had left ECW for WCW during the year while The Public Enemy left for WCW the previous year as they already lost wrestlers to WCW before. Gordon claimed this was all a work as he was originally supposed to come back to take on Heyman yet Heyman claims otherwise believing Gordon screwed him over.
Going back to the beginning of 1997 even before the Barely Legal PPV, ECW had been involved in a "war" with the WWF as Jerry "The King" Lawler badmouthed ECW on WWF Monday Night Raw after hearing fans chant "ECW" at WWF events. Lawler challenged ECW to come to the WWF and fight their guys.
On the February 24, 1997 edition of Raw from the Manhattan Center in New York City, ECW "invaded" WWF Raw. Paul Heyman entered the ring with The Eliminators and they give Total Elimination to a ring attendant as Heyman tells Lawler challenge accepted. This was done to help promote the Barely Legal PPV.
Heyman joined Vince McMahon and Lawler for commentary. "Big Stevie Cool" Stevie Richards, leader of the bWo, defeated Little Guido. Taz easily made Mikey Whipwreck tap out to the Tazmission. Tommy Dreamer, with Beulah McGillicutty, then quickly defeated D-Von Dudley with the DDT while Lawler and Heyman were going at it back-and-forth during the match.
After the match, Buh Buh Ray Dudley came out and attacked Dreamer. As the Dudleys were about to give 3D to Dreamer, Sandman rushed into the ring to help Dreamer and attack the Dudleys. ECW wrestlers came into the ring as a big brawl ensued as Heyman was going after Lawler on commentary.
Heyman said this show sucked without ECW as WWF Raw really struggled in early 1997 competing with WCW and Nitro as they got their asses kicked in weekly ratings each and every Monday night in 1997 going back to the middle of 1996.
During this time, Rob Van Dam would call himself "Mr. Monday Night" as he proclaimed he should be working for either WWF or WCW on their Monday Night shows and should be paid a lot more saying he was too good for ECW. Van Dam aligned himself with ECW hater Jerry Lawler to bring ECW down.
When he aligned with Sabu and Bill Alfonso, they too joined Van Dam and Lawler in their anti-ECW crusade. Van Dam and Sabu would even wrestle on episodes of Raw during May and June 1997 as they were portrayed as traitors for bashing ECW and being pro WWF. The ECW wrestlers all wanted a piece of RVD, Sabu, Alfonso, and especially Lawler for his anti-ECW rants.
While the stuff of getting their first PPV on the ground along with the battles with the WWF, there was still one final score to be settled and that was none other than the long-time, legendary feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven. Dreamer had never pinned or beaten Raven since Raven came to ECW in January 1995 and had one more chance to do so or else.
Their score would finally be settled at Wrestlepalooza on June 7, 1997 from the ECW Arena in Philadelphia. The loser of the match must leave ECW as Dreamer only had one chance to beat Raven or he'd be gone from ECW. Raven was going to leave ECW anyway as he going to go back to WCW after this match, where he was Scotty Flamingo.
Dreamer overcame the odds despite interference from Raven's valet Chastity and follower Lupus along with Louie Spicolli. Chastity sprayed hairspray in Dreamer's eyes only for Beulah to go after her in a cat fight!! Spicolli DDT'd Dreamer as Raven pinned him only for two. Spicolli then went for the Death Valley Driver only for Dreamer to counter it into a DDT.
Spicolli soon left ECW to go to WCW to work as a lackey for his friend Scott Hall and the nWo. He helped Hall in his feud with Larry Zbyszko and was booked to face Zbyszko at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22, 1998. Sadly one week before the PPV on Feb. 15, Spicolli was found dead as he was just 27 years old.
Raven then hit Dreamer with a DDT again only gets a two-count. Raven goes for yet another DDT only for Dreamer to counter that into the Death Valley Driver. Dreamer then grabs Raven for a DDT as he yells out "EC fucking W" and drops him with the DDT and covers him for the 1-2-3 as finally after two-and-a-half years of misery, Dreamer finally pinned Raven and sent him packing to WCW.
Before Dreamer can celebrate, however, the lights go out. When they came back on, Rob Van Dam was standing in the ring and attacked Dreamer. Dreamer fights back, but the lights go out again. When they came back on, Sabu was in there as he and RVD double-team him, only for Dreamer to again fight back and simultaneously DDT the duo.
Then the lights went back out for a third time. This time when they came back on, Jerry Lawler was standing in the ring. Dreamer goes after The King only to be tackled by both Sabu and RVD as they kick the crap out of Dreamer. Lawler then trashes ECW and calls out their wrestlers. Sabu and RVD would take out anyone who came in the ring, including The Sandman. Spicolli is holding and restraining Beulah as Lawler insults her.
Finally, Taz comes out and takes on Sabu in a revenge match. Taz quickly locked the Tazmission on Sabu and choked him out as he refused to let go of the hold. Refs tried to get him to break the hold only for Taz to lock them in the Tazmission. Finally, he was able to get his hands on Bill Alfonso and choked him out.
ECW TV Champion Shane Douglas was sitting up in a stage at the arena telling Taz to leave the ring. Taz insults The Franchise telling him to come into the ring to make him. Taz then challenges Douglas for the TV Title where he will make him tap out in three minutes or else he'll leave ECW for 60 days. Taz got the Tazmission on Douglas and made him tap out just before three minutes were up and Taz was the new TV champ.
A month later, Jerry Lawler again comes out to insult ECW. Dreamer attacks Lawler and finally gets his hands on Lawler and it about to DDT him when the lights go out. When they came back on, fellow WWF personality and ECW hater Jim Cornette whacks Dreamer in the back hard with his tennis racket.
Cornette, Lawler, RVD, and Sabu all attacked Dreamer and The Sandman. Lawler uses Sandman's kendo stick on both Sandman and Dreamer. He nails Dreamer in the balls with the kendo stick and rupturing Dreamer's testicles and sending him to the hospital. Lawler was fearing for his life what would happen to him by the ECW crowd for seriously injuring their hero.
At the Heatwave event on July 19 from the ECW Arena, Dreamer and Sandman were about to take on Lawler, RVD, and Sabu in a Steel Cage match as it was going to be a 3-on-2 Handicap match. However just before the match started, Rick Rude, who was doing commentary since he could not compete in the ring due to his real life back injury, said he would be Dreamer and Sandman's partner.
The trio entered the ring much to the shock of the crowd and the anti-ECW crusade. However, Rude double-crossed Dreamer and Sandman by attacking both as Lawler, RVD, and Sabu all beat the hell out of Dreamer and Sandman. Rude then threw Beulah into the cage and locked the cage door shut so no one could get in and help them.
For quite a long time, they beat up Dreamer and Sandman (and even give a few shots to Beulah) badly. They handcuff Dreamer and Sandman to the cage and keep beating on them as Lawler again gets on the microphone and again insults Dreamer and Sandman as well as the fans.
Dreamer finally got his hands on Lawler at Hardcore Heaven on August 17 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida in ECW's second-ever PPV event behind April's Barely Legal event. Before the match, Lawler again cut a promo on ECW and hyping up the upcoming WWF PPV: Ground Zero.
Dreamer quickly destroys Lawler and makes him bleed as the brawl goes to the outside and into the crowd. As Dreamer had the upper hand in the match, the lights go out as usual and Rick Rude was in the ring when they came back on and nailed Dreamer with a garbage can. Lawler pins Dreamer but only gets two.
Dreamer goes for a piledriver, but again the lights go out. When they come back on, it's Jake "The Snake" Roberts who attacks Dreamer. He gives Dreamer a short-arm clothesline and then nails him with the DDT. Roberts then nails Lawler with the short-arm clothesline for good measure. Lawler again goes for the cover but again only gets two.
Dreamer again goes for the DDT when the lights go out for the third time. When they came back on, Sunny was in the ring as she sprayed hairspray in Dreamer's eyes. Beulah attacks Sunny as we have a good old fashioned catfight!! Lawler grabs Beulah as she low blows Lawler. Dreamer then gives Lawler a testicle claw and then DDTs him for the win and ending their feud as Lawler never returns to ECW.
With Lawler out of the picture, Dreamer, Sandman, and Taz still had revenge on their minds against the traitors Sabu, Rob Van Dam, and Bill Alfonso as they battled them for the rest of 1997. WWF wrestlers and fellow ECW invaders Doug Furnas and Philip Lafon were also involved in the feud.
Whenever Dreamer and Sandman did not team up to take on RVD and Sabu, Dreamer would go after RVD and Sandman would fight Sabu in singles matches. RVD and Sabu attacked Sandman at the beginning of Hardcore Heaven and sent him to the hospital.
Sandman returned and attacked Sabu during his ECW World Heavyweight Championship defense against both Terry Funk and Shane Douglas. The two brawled and it ultimately cost Sabu the title.
Dreamer beat RVD one time where Sabu attacked him after the match and RVD and Sabu draped a WWF flag on top of Dreamer. They would do the same thing to Sandman a week later. This ultimately setup matches between the two at the third ever ECW PPV: November to Remember, the first November to Remember shown on PPV.
Dreamer took on RVD in a violent "Flag Match" that ended in a no-contest when the WWF invaders (and the returning Stevie Richards) attacked Dreamer and joined RVD and Sabu attacking Dreamer and even Beulah until Sandman came out for his Tables and Ladders match with Sabu. Sabu won when he gave Sandman an Arabian Facebuster onto the ladder.
Dreamer teamed with Beulah to take on RVD and Bill Alfonso at As Good as it Gets. Dreamer and Beulah defeated RVD and Bill Alfonso "Fonzie" when Beulah pinned Fonzie. Van Dam pinned Dreamer in a match where he a leg drop onto a trash can on Dreamer's face. Van Dam and Sabu defeated Dreamer and Taz at Better Than Ever on December 6.
Late in 1997, my hometown of Buffalo hosted an ECW event at Erie Community College's (ECC) Burt Flickinger Center as Dreamer fought Taz to a no-contest when Sabu and RVD interfered. Dreamer then fought RVD to a no-contest. Sabu defeated Sandman in a "Death Match."
Sandman defeated Sabu in a wild and violent Stairway to Hell barbed wire ladder match at House Party '98 in January 1998. Sabu broke his jaw and Sandman defeated him by using the Singapore Cane on him. The feud between these four finally ended in early 1998.
Shane Douglas started 1997 on top of his game and ended 1997 on top of ECW. As mentioned before, he lost the TV Title to Taz but would rebound to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship for the third time on August 17 at Hardcore Heaven in a Triple Threat match between the champion Sabu and Terry Funk.
Sabu had won the title from Funk eight days before at Born to Be Wired in a brutally violent barded wire match. The match was so violent where both men bled profusely and both men were tangled together in barbed wire and had to be cut free from ring technicians. The match was dubbed "Too Extreme even for ECW." The match might be the most violent in ECW history and that's saying something.
Douglas still had The Triple Threat backing him up and even had Ravishing Rick Rude "handpicking" wrestlers for Douglas to defend his title against. However in October, Rude picked Triple Threat member Bam Bam Bigelow to face Douglas. Bigelow defeated Douglas to become the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion and being kicked out of The Triple Threat.
Douglas would not be down for long. He defeated Bigelow to win back the ECW World Title at November to Remember and would not give up the World Title until January 1999, which would be an ECW-record 406-day reign. Bigelow's spot in the Triple Threat would be replaced by Lance Storm as Storm and Chris Candido ended the year as ECW World Tag Team Champions.
Douglas and The Triple Threat would be very strong in 1998 as ECW was still going strong despite being a lot smaller than the WWF and WCW. Over the next couple of years, the strongest ECW wrestlers would soon bolt for the "greener pastures" of WWF or WCW.
No comments:
Post a Comment