Again, we skipped over an ECW PPV from July 1999, so we’ll take a quick glance at Heat Wave 1999. This event took place in Dayton, Ohio, and drew 3,400. The main event for this show saw The Impact Players of Justin Credible and Lance Storm take on rivals Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn.
The Best
ECW Heat Wave 1999 had a few bangers worth catching. Like the WCW cruiserweight matches or the Revolution hours on PPV, the good stuff mainly comes from a particular group of players. The first two banger feature the trio of Tajiri, Super Crazy, and Little Guido.
First, Super Crazy and Little Guido threw down a strong match that had a little more room to groove than necessary. It had a great pace and filled the over 12 minutes it had with plenty of action. This was also the case for Taz defending his ECW World title against Tajiri.
You wouldn’t expect the stiff, violent weirdo Tajiri to really give the fight to the dominant Taz but this was good defense. It definitely wasn’t Taz just…murdering an opponent and then coming out later. RVD and Jerry Lynn teamed up against the Impact Players team of Justin Credible and Lance Storm in a very competitive bout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeROngm-Icw
What made this match even better was the build-up via ECW Hardcore TV. Without that build, this would’ve been an extremely exciting exhibition, and honestly, that would be better served in the middle of the card.
The Rest
Our opener saw Chris Chetti and Nova face Danny Doring and Amish Roadkill in a fun, spotty match. It wasn’t the most jaw-dropping thing but the smaller guys really got their sh** in and even big Roadkill got to do some athletic stuff. I’d say this was a perfectly acceptable Doring and Roadkill tag team opener.
Jazz vs. Jason had months of build and didn’t eat up too much time on the show. Jason is a weird ECW Original who has always been there but never actually added to ECW as far as memories and moments go. However, I definitely remember his feud with Jazz and this match. I’d say this was skippable.
Of any match in “The Rest” that could’ve gone into “The Best”, the Tag Team title bout between the Dudley Boyz and challengers Balls Mahoney and Spike Dudley is the closest. This was a textbook ECW Tag Team title brawl where weapons come into play early on and New Jack becomes involved.
The ending kind of went on and on but for the most part, this match wasn’t bad at all. It just needed less time. There’s also Francine vs. Corino which wasn’t going anywhere as soon as you saw that it was scheduled.
ECW Heat Wave Verdict: Bronze Medal (5.75/10)
Heat Wave 1999 was pretty damn compact and is precisely how ECW PPVs should be structured. It felt more like watching a lengthy but eventful episode of Hardcore TV. I can’t say that too much was going on or that a lot of the show just meandered as this just seemed like a tighter show. The match of the show goes to RVD and Lynn vs. The Impact Players.
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