Mike Reviews: ECW Hardcore TV #334 – 18/09/1999

Hello You!

Here we are at the go home show for Anarchy Rulz 99. They’ve announced Taz Vs Masato Tanaka for the ECW Title in decent time ahead of the show at least, but maybe we’ll get some other matches announced as well?

As always, you can read a recap of the previous episode of ECW on TNN from Mr. Scott Keith by clicking right HERE!

So with all that dealt with, lets relax into our blood encrusted slippers and once again take things to The Extreme!!!

Today’s matches were taped from a combination of New York and Philly

Calling the action is Joey Styles

Joey Styles is in front of the ECW Banner, where he runs through the Anarchy Rulz card

ECW World Title
Champ: Taz Vs Masato Tanaka

ECW TV Title
Champ: Rob Van Dam Vs Johnny Smith from All Japan Pro Wrestling (Pretty random, but it should be a decent match at least)

ECW Tag Team Titles
Champs: Raven and Tommy Dreamer Vs A Mystery Team of Doom managed by Steve Corino

Lance Storm Vs Jerry Lynn

Justin Credible Vs Sabu

That’s a pretty strong card actually, with at least three of those matches having the prospect of being very good whilst the others could be entertaining if done correctly.

We get a promo from Bill Alfonso and Sabu in the toilet, where Fonzie says that Justin Credible is going to get his bottom smacked at Anarchy Rulz (Although he said it in a less polite manner)

Show Intro. This week’s tagline; “There’s No Law & Order ‘Round Here, Anarchy Rulz Live On PPV Next Sunday Night September 19^th

We get a promo from The Impact Players of Justin Credible and Lance Storm, along with their own respective personal bytche’s in the form of Jason and Dawn Marie. Storm says he’ll carry Lynn to a great match whilst Credible says he’s an animal that has been backed into a corner and that he’ll rip Sabu’s heart out. Well the joke’s on Credible there as Sabu’s heart can actually be found in his left shin, so if he goes for Sabu’s chest he’s going to get nothing but lung. The promo is then followed with a long music video hyping up the team, which is kind of ruined by the generic WWE dubbed music playing over it.

COMMERCIAL

We see a promo from Raven in January of 1995, where he’s in a classroom and talks about how he had a terrible time at school due to being an outcast. He says that Tommy Dreamer will return to the horror of the classroom of his childhood, but this time he will not graduate. The camera then pans to the chalk board, which has “I Hate Dreamer” scrawled all over it. That was one heck of a promo and totally got across Raven’s weird vibe whilst also leaving you on a cool visual to build up the feud.

Joey hypes up that Raven and Dreamer will be defending the Tag Titles at Anarchy Rulz and ponders how they can successfully co-exists, which leads to a series of clips highlighting some of the things the two men have done to each other over the years. Watching it back really highlights what a long reaching and violent feud it was, probably one of the best of all-time as it not only involved Dreamer and Raven but also brought in so many others and helped get so many people started in the company like Stevie Richards, Blue Meanie, Nova, The Dudleyz, Luna etc. Looking back at with hindsight though, they really shouldn’t have had Dreamer pin Raven in 1997 as the story line implications of him failing again would have been great. Joey ponders what Raven’s end game is.

Next up are clips of Tommy Dreamer taking on The Dudley Boyz in Queens, New York. Dreamer looks set to be defeated, until Raven makes his surprise return to ECW to rescue his foe and get the pin on Buh Buh Rau with the Evenflow DDT. Interestingly, it seemed like the fans wanted Sabu to be the one to rescue Dreamer, which would have certainly been an interesting team. Dreamer’s reaction to realising that he and Raven now have to be a team is pretty great, as he has a fantastic “why me?” expression.

Joey hypes up Anarchy Rulz again in front of the ECW Banner, running through the card once more, although he does add confirmation that Super Crazy, Little Guido and Yoshihiro Tajiri will be taking each other on in an Extreme 3 Way Dance.

COMMERCIAL

Back from the break, Joey recaps the situation between Jerry Lynn and Lance Storm. Lynn was supposed to get a match with Rob Van Dam for the TV Title at the ECW Arena, but Storm allegedly jumped him, sending him to the hospital and taking the shot himself. However, that match ended abruptly when Justin Credible and Johnny Smith ran down to attack RVD. Lynn came back to help however, but he also ended up getting laid out. Joey explains Smith joining The Impact Players by revealing that he trained in Calgary, which is why he’d have an affinity with Storm. Hey, that makes sense at least, so I’ll allow it!

COMMERCIAL

Back from the break, we get clips from the TNN show, where RVD asks Lynn to come back to the ring so that they can give the people the TV Title match they were promised. Lynn agrees and we have the match.

Main Event
ECW TV Title
Champ: Rob Van Dam w/ Bill Alfonso Vs Jerry Lynn

The fight is on right from the off, as Lynn tries to defeat RVD as quickly as possible due to his injured ribs, which are adorned with tape. A double line sends both men down, but RVD is up first with a leg drop for two. Lynn fights back with a cross body that sends both men tumbling to the floor, but RVD throws him into the crowd out there and then tries to follow with a Van Daminator, but Lynn throws the chair right back at him. I believe that counter was first used in the epic battle between “Farmer” Robinson and Jack Jonathon Jackson way back in 1927, which saw them fighting on the back of a whale just off the coast of Manhattan Island.

Anyway, Lynn bulldogs RVD onto another chair in the crowd, but makes the mistake of picking up another chair and leaves himself open to the Van Daminator from RVD, which sends him flying back to ringside in a fantastic spot. RVD sends Lynn into the ring post following that and then sends Lynn back inside for a cover, which gets two. Lynn dodges a somersault leg drop, but gets a leg sweep and then follows up with a split legged moonsault for two. RVD gets a flying kick from the top rope next, but Lynn kicks out at two once more. RVD tries to monkey flip Lynn onto a chair, but Lynn counters it and ends up powerbombing RVD onto the chair for two. Lynn slips out of an RVD suplex next and delivers a German Suplex, which gets another two from the referee.

Lynn gets up and overed onto the apron next and ends up getting knocked off by RVD through a ringside table, which would appear to be as far as the medical personnel are going to allow him to continue. Lynn decides he doesn’t want that to be it though and limps back into the ring, where RVD shows him no mercy and suplexes him back inside for two. RVD takes his time flipping into picking up a chair, which allows Lynn to get his own Van Daminator for a nail biting two count. The fans completely bought that near fall there and it was excellently done. Lynn goes for the Cradle Piledriver next, but RVD back body drops out of it and goes for a Northern Lights Suplex, but Lynn counters that in mid-air into a DDT for another two, as the ECW Arena crowd is now fully behind him.

RVD heads up top but Lynn crotches him and then brings him down with a big superplex, but that hurts him as much as it does RVD and it delays him in making a cover, which means RVD can kick out at two. Both men trade pin attempts, which leads to Fonzie hitting Jerry with a chair. RVD heads up top for the Five Star Frogsplash, but Lynn moves and then gets a roll up for another fantastic near fall. The ECW Arena crowd are utterly losing their minds at the near falls here and it’s brilliant to watch. Lynn grabs a chair in desperation but RVD catches him with an even more desperate Van Daminator to pick up the last gasp win.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: ROB VAN DAM
RATING: ****1/2

This to me is the best RVD Vs Lynn match ever, as it was all about Lynn desperately trying to put RVD away due to his injuries meaning he couldn’t work his usual match, which meant this one felt fresh and different. It’s amazing how RVD and Lynn were able to wrestle each other so many times but still manage to make every match they had feel different. This match was a good example of that, as they toyed with people’s expectations and ended up giving the crowd palpitations with the near falls.

Should Lynn have won here? Maybe, but I feel similar to this the way I felt about Okada beating Naito at the Tokyo Dome. Like Okada, RVD was clearly the top guy in the company at this stage and regardless of how over Naito/Lynn was, sometimes you just need your top guy to be the top guy, and that means they win. Obviously the way RVD’s TV Title reign ended means that with the benefit of hindsight this would have been a good place to have Lynn win, but had they managed to get the ECW Title on RVD as planned, they would have had a ready-made story they could do of Lynn winning the now vacant TV Title but getting gradually more jealous that he never got to pin RVD for it, meaning you could do another big Champion Vs Champion match down the line.

COMMERCIAL

We get clips of Masato Tanaka defeating Mike Awesome back at ECW Heatwave 98 in one of ECW’s most famous matches. Joey hypes up that Tanaka will be facing Taz at Anarchy Rulz and then goes into the hard sell for the pay per view again.

In Conclusion

RVD Vs Lynn makes this one an automatic thumbs up. The rest was all just hype for Anarchy Rulz, but it worked in making me want to see it again. You can expect that to be uploaded tomorrow, so keep a look out for it.