We’re in August 1997 and we’ve got a PPV from Extreme Championship Wrestling: ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997. It’s the company’s second PPV of the year so let’s see if it tops Barely Legal.
The Best of ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997
The opener saw Taz defend his WCW Television title against Chris Candido. There was some hullabaloo before the match but what we got here was a really solid bout to kick off the show. It was a standard challenge to Taz where he comes out, obviously accepts the challenge, gets a little more than expected but ends up dumping his opponent on the head and putting them to sleep. Clip it and ship it.
A match with a little more mustard on it—or your preferred condiment—saw Al Snow take on Rob Van Dam in the match of the evening. RVD was putting on strong matches against opponents such as Sabu, Doug Furnas, and Lance Storm. Al Snow is a similar opponent who can deliver the goods in-ring and he gave RVD a good challenge. Sure, Can Dam won as expected but it was one of the better matches on the card.
Tommy Dreamer faced Jerry Lawler in a major battle of the ECW vs. WWF feud. The match was actually a really good brawl that had the perfect set up of promotion defending super babyface against invading asshole heel that just worked. Lawler was great here, folks.
However, the match was bogged down more by how long it went than the interference—both of which you kind of expect with ECW.
The Rest
Bam Bam Bigelow took on “Giant Killer” Spike Dudley in a brief match that went as expected with Bam Bam rolling through Spike. Sure, the smallest Dudley got in some offense but this was still a sound steamrolling. ECW Tag Team Champions the Dudley Boyz had their usual entourage for their match against PG-13 but added porn star Jenna Jameson for ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997.
I don’t know how this came about exactly but it is on PPV—even though you’d be surprised to know this was a PPV event looking at the production and lighting here. The match itself wasn’t bad but it wasn’t anything special at all. It was a mid match with some shenanigans.
For the second PPV ever we get Terry Funk vs. Sabu vs. Shane Douglas in the main event. Sabu is defending his World title in this one and it’s fine. The main negative here is that it was one of those lengthy ECW matches that seem to go on longer than necessary.
This was supposed to be one of Funk’s last ECW hurrahs as he would have a “retirement” show in September. So, there was significance in the main event but it didn’t play out as an epic final showdown. It was definitely an extreme epic where it seems to go on forever.
That aside, this wasn’t a bad match to end ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997 on at all. I’d say it was the fourth-best match on the card, though.
ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.3/5)
ECW’s pay-per-views had a certain look to them that became the standard throughout the late 1990s. Production-wise, this resembled one of their supercards—and there have been supercard shows that could’ve easily been floated to PPV.
The main problem was the lighting. I don’t know what happened here but it made the show look like—well, somewhere between Heroes of Wrestling and ECW Barely Legal 1997. In that comparison, Barely Legal ‘97 is the higher end.
As for the matches, this wasn’t the best show to put on PPV and promote. There was just something that wasn’t working. The number of matches was fine, the card itself was decent but the event itself—meaning the in-ring action and the flow of the show—left something to be desired.
I’m giving match of the evening to RVD vs. Al Snow but don’t sleep on Dreamer vs. Lawler.
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