I haven’t gotten the chance to go back and look at any classic ECW shows so far, and since it’s now all hot again it seemed like the perfect time to look back at the original ECW’s premiere summertime event. At some point, I’d like to wax poetic about that Philadelphia promotion and what it opened my eyes to as an impressionable teenage, but that’s probably later in podcast form (subscribe to The Finisher Podcast on your favorite pod vending program of choice). For now, we look at the first four editions of Heat Wave, which were produced as house shows/iPPVs out of the ECW Arena in Philly.
1994
The first Heat Wave event was actually held under the auspices of Eastern Championship Wrestling. The company wouldn’t pull out of the NWA and rechristen itself Extreme for another month or so. This is also way before I first got access to the company. It was late 1996-early 1997 before a cable channel near me (PASS Sports out of Detroit) would pick up Hardcore TV, so all of this is new to me. Also the first four shows will emanate from the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, they wouldn’t hit the road until 1998.
Your opening match pits former Tag Team champs the Bad Breed (Axl and Ian Rotten) against Hack Meyers and Rockin’ Rebel, who is billed as the rock and rolla ayatollah. So that’s where Chris Jericho got it from. Rebel is surprisingly over in the ECW Arena. Must mostly be for the epic mullet. As someone whose introduction to the Rottens was their Taipei death match, I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of wrestling they’re displaying. They win a passable match, but its overshadowed by Rebel and Meyers attacking each other post-match.
The ECW Television title is on the line next as Mikey Whipwreck defends against Chad Austin. I love the visual of Mikey as champ as he has all the snaps on it done up and it’s still falling off his hips. One of the best underdog characters of all time. A pretty good, fast-paced match full of early 90’s cruiserweight action. I have a few issues though that keep this one in honorable mention territory. First, Austin kept hitting Mikey with huge moves then letting him up at two which makes no sense in a title match. Second, Austin finally beats Mikey clean with a top rope leg drop, the ref hands him the belt but he then gets on the mic and tells the ref that he hit Mikey with a pair of brass knuckles. The ref then reverses the decision and gives Whipwreck the DQ win. Joey Styles can’t understand it and neither do I. Austin finally explains that he hates the Philly crowd so much that he didn’t want them to enjoy a title change. It would make more sense for him to keep the belt and rub it in their faces week after week, but what do I know. Anyway, the ending kinda dings the match for me.
Stevie Richards and suspenders-era Tommy Dreamer are up next in a bout way before the characters that both would be known for during their time in the company. A pretty basic match where they did not have the chemistry they would pick up later in the Raven rivalry. Downright sloppy at some points actually. Richards goes to the top for a flying fuck all, Dreamer catches him with a sleeper and its over. After the match, Dreamer calls out Shane Douglas, challenging him for the ECW Title. Douglas comes out with his bodyguard Mr. Hughes and we get an impromptu match between Dreamer and Hughes. Aside from a pair of nut shots, Dreamer pretty much gets the piss beaten out of him, Douglas smacks Tommy in the back with a chair, leading to a sidewalk slam and a quick win for the Roughneck. Not much to see here in either match, just set up for Dreamer to make a run at the belt.
More tag action next as the Pitbulls are set to meet the Tazmaniac (yes, that was his original name) and a mystery partner. The Pitbulls jump Taz before the bell, there’s a brawl at ringside while the Pitbulls batter Taz. Mr. Hughes and Rebel are in there with some others, ECW didn’t have a handheld cam yet. Then 9-1-1 comes to even the sides, which are still unclear, Hughes hammers him with a chair, Jason does something, then Sabu appears out of nowhere and the bell rings. I’d give more context but Joey Styles is silent this whole time so I have no story to work with. Sabu hit a rana to the floor on #1, Taz drops #2 on his head and this makeshift team gets a quick win. Meltzer gave the five-minute encounter 3 stars, I give it a shrugging emoji because I watched it twice and have no clue what happened.
Next thing I know, The Sandman and Woman are on my screen as he gets set for a dueling Singapore Cane match with Tommy Cairo. Sandman’s wife Peaches is out with Cairo, Sandman accidentally caned her in the build up to this which was apparently a pretty hot feud in early ECW. Heyman would replicate and modify this angle for the feud between Sandman and Raven about a year or so later. Woman might be the most over in this match. This is exactly what is on the marquee: a big stick fight. It’s an interesting concept. Most of the match feels like its close to a shoot, but once we had to actually finish the thing, it just falls apart. Maybe worth a watch for the spectacle but not a must see.
Sabu challenges Shane Douglas for the ECW title by crashing through a wall to get to the ring. No, that’s not hyperbole. Sabu is still in his wildman phase who was being brought to the ring chained to a gurney by 9-1-1.
Your main event for the evening features the Funk brothers, Dory Jr. and Terry, taking on the Public Enemy in a barbed wire match. That’s right, Dory Funk Jr. in a no-ropes barbed wire match.
MUST SEE MATCHES:
- ECW Heavyweight Title match: Shane Douglas (c) vs. Sabu
A tremendous blend of the two participants’ styles: the wild hardcore brawiling and high flying of Sabu and the technical prowess of Douglas. They even managed to work a spot into a rest hold to keep everyone hot. Also, they worked through the building blowing a fuse and the lights going out. The countout finish would be an issue if it weren’t for the lengths they took to get there. Also, a post match chokeslam-fest didn’t hurt.
- Barbed wire match: Terry and Dory Funk Jr. vs. Public Enemy
It’s not for the faint of heart but this is pure chaos in every sense of the word. These four guys brawl in the ring surrounded by the wire. They brawl all over the building. There’s blood everywhere. The ref even gets a trash can between the eyes. Chairs come flying in from the crowd. Terry Funk ends the match wrapped in barbed wire and continues to go absolutely nuts.
FINAL GRADE: B
This is a pretty good show chocked full of everything that the promotion was all about in its early days.
1995
Things got a little bit bigger for the second Heat Wave. We’re still at the ECW Arena in South Philly, but they’ve gotten a handheld camera and the lighting rig looks to be improved as the whole building is lit up. Two title matches are on tap, as are a pair of steel cage matches. By the end of the night though, this event would be remembered most for one single event, but we’ll get there. Again, I’d like to give more backstory to set up this show, but I can’t. I’m still several months away from my first taste of ECW as a kid, so I haven’t seen any of the TV that set these matches up.
The show kicks off with an intense argument between referee Bill Alfonso and commissioner Tod Gordon, but the audio is so bad that we don;t actually know what the argument was. Just that Gordon eventually leg dove Alfonso and they had a pull apart.
The first match pits Mikey Whipwreck against Stormin’ Mike Norman, who actually has a pretty good accounting of himself in this one. South Philly has no love for Stormin’ and he drew a couple of “you still suck… DICK” chants. Norman’s interactions with the fans are eventually his undoing and Whipwreck gets the win with a top rope franken-Mikey. An opening match, mostly interesting because of the hot crowd.
Raven and Stevie Richards defend the ECW Tag Team titles next against Don E. Allen and Tony Stetson, a pair of Eastern Championship Wrestling originals. There’s less than nothing to this one, as its only a vehicle to rally introduce Francine as a Stevie Richards admirer and antagonist to Beulah. Allen and Stetson win via countout. Raven and Richards get their heat after the match until the Pitbulls hit the ring, followed by the Dudleys and finally Tommy Dreamer. The post-match brawl is longer than the match but serves to set up events for the rest of the night.
The comedown from that is Hack Meyers vs. Big Val Puccio. Big Val had formerly teamed with his brother in a tag team called Double Trouble that spent a decent amount of time on the WWF’s house show loop. He crushes Meyers with three huge looking avalanches in the corner before making a crucial big man mistake: going for an elbow drop. The Shah of ECW gets the duke after the mistake and as slow and plodding as this match was, it has to be said that Meyers was really over in South Philly.
It’s time for a little more mayhem as the Pitbulls and Tommy Dreamer take on Raven and the Dudley Brothers. That’s Dudley Dudley and Snot Dudley, not Bubba Ray and D-Von and yes that is really weird to say. Luna Vachon is with Dreamer here and got a testicular claw in on Raven. It’s just utter chaos. At some point Bill Alfonso comes back to demand the match stopped because it’s too crazy. Then Stevie Richards gets the superbomb from the Pitbulls and that bump… no thank you please. Francine and Beulah get into their 3rd or 4th cat fight of the night. Pitbulls and Dreamer win after a superbomb on Little Snot Dudley. There was just so much going on in this one.
We completely shift gears to Eddie Guerrero and Taz with a full head of hair taking on Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio. I would love to give a full review of this one, based on the names in it alone. They went a solid twenty minutes on the night but unfortunately the event on the Network only has highlights, kinda taking me out of this one. So no rating here but an interesting fact: ten days after this match, Taz would break his neck in the rematch, infamously walking into the hospital and astonishing the staff the he could walk with that injury. The finish I got to see what Scorpio getting pinned after a head and arm Taz-plex but Bill Alfonso ordered the match to restart because Paul E. Dangerously interfered. Malenko would powerbomb Guerrero for the Alfonso three count and then Paul E. yelled at some kid until 9-1-1 came out and destroyed him. That was Rob Feinstein? Really? He looks 12 here.
The ECW World Heavyweight Title is on the line as The Sandman, accompanied by Woman, defends against Axl Rotten. Ten seconds in and Sandman is caning the crap out of Axl, which only ends after he rolls out of the ring and heads to the back to retrieve a ball bat wrapped in barbed wire. It’s a different kind of stick duel from last year’s event. It very quickly gets sloppy as both guys take turns unraveling the wire from the bat and wrapping each other in it. Sandman almost falls going to the top, then hits a top rope legdrop thing and retains. That took some effort to finish…
Stevie Richards is back out here and he’s now taking on Luna Vachon inside a cage. Richards takes a minute outside the cage to psyche himself up for the encounter and he can be seen saying “I’m a winner” to himself over and over again, which is just brilliant. Luna hits a ridiculous vader bomb from the top of the cage which just looked impressive as hell. Richards bleeds buckets after eating the cage a lot early. Stevie eventually hit a powerbomb and put some stank on it. Luna gets busted open as well, almost wins after a mostly knees splash from the top of the cage and eventually gets the submission win with the testicular claw. Of the full matches on the show, this is probably the best of the night so far. The reason this cage match is most remembered comes in the post-match brawl as the Dudleys, Pitbulls, Raven and Dreamer return. Then came The Chair Shot Heard Round the World and you’ve seen it. At least the gif of Dreamer murdering Raven after handcuffing him to the cage. While this was the best match of the night, I can’t say its a must see.
Despite the highly emotional ending to the previous match, we still have one more match to go, with the Public Enemy taking on the Gangstas in the cage and they just started out by throwing a bunch of weapons in the cage because, c’mon, it’s these two teams. Of course they’re gonna have weapons in the cage. The almost finish was impressive as Rocco Rock moonsaulted from the top of the cage through New Jack and two tables, but the Gangstas won when Mustafa maced Grunge and rolled him up for the three count. The big spot was awesome but it was a massive, sloppy brawl and after nearly two hours of those, I was just exhausted.
FINAL GRADE: D+
Here’s the thing. If you’re an ECW fan, this is an entertaining show. It’s basically the Tommy vs. Raven show with some stuff all around it, but there’s enough here to hold a fan’s attention. But it’s not a great show by any means.
1996
For the first time, Heat Wave isn’t just a house show but an internet pay per view. I’m not sure how well that worked back in the days of dial up, but there you go.
The Samoan Gangster Party and The Gangsta open up the show with a crazy brawl. Weapons flying, bodies all over the place dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. Eventually, the Samoans are beaten to the point where they can’t continue and officials stop the madness.
Mikey Whipwreck beats the Giant (5’4”) Paul Lauria in like 2 minutes but that squash was really only held to give the Eliminators someone to destroy when they hit the ring like right after the three count. Saturn wants Mikey to go get Sabu and challenge them for the Tag Team titles and so now we have a title match out of nowhere. And it turned out to be a pretty good tag match.
The FBI is out next, this incarnation is far more over the top than the stable would become over the years. It features Little Guido, JT Smith and Sal Bellomo and is the introduction of the massive Big Guido. The Dudleys come out, a much bigger faction than most remember at this time. Some Dudleyville family drama ensues and just kinda bleeds over into a big brawl that kinda sorta evolves into a tag match. It’s a cluster. I had no clue at first how many people were in this match, Hack Meyers gets involved randomly. It’s probably one of the disadvantages of watching these shows without seeing any of the build, which never gets recapped, but this was just a mess of a segment. Oh, and the Dudleys won. Somehow.
A bit of a death match dream match next as Axl Rotten goes one on one with Tarzan Goto. Except it wasn’t a death match. Still, they had a decent little wrestling match before taking it to the outside and the bleachers at which point the camera loses them for several seconds. We did get a dueling chairs spot which always amuses me. Sloppy brawl ensues, Goto wins with a brainbuster on a steel chair.
We get a promo segment that goes a very long way to get Taz over as a bad ass by choking out 9-1-1 before we get the match that we all came to see.
After the TV title 4-way, Louie Spicolli squashes Tom Marquez before Sabu charges the ring. That was the originally scheduled match but Sabu was hurt in the impromptu tag title match, which has never stopped him before and we have our match. Spicolli makes a good accounting of himse before falling to an Arabian Facebuster.
The main event was a big ole gimmicked up mess. It was Raven, Brian Lee and Stevie Richards against the Sandman, Tommy Dreamer and Barry Gordy where Richards and Gordy started on the stage, Raven and Sandman started inside a steel cage and Dreamer and Lee started outside the cage and Raven’s the world champion but the only way to win the title is to pin Richards and the Blue Meanie and Super Nova are there and, yeah. There’s a plan here to continue all three feuds but it is all too much, all too sloppy and in the end all too confusing.
MUST SEE MATCHES:
ECW World Tag Team Championships: Eliminators (c) vs. Mikey Whipwreck & Sabu
This 12-minute tag match was a really good example of how the company blended its hardcore style with solid, dare I say, traditional tag team wrestling. It was physical, had good psychology and got a little of the classic hardcore involved as well. If you’re unfamiliar with Perry Saturn outside of the thing with Moppy, this one’s well worth your time.
Four-Way Dance for the ECW World Television Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs. 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Shane Douglas vs. Pitbull #2
There is so much that went into this 41-minute match that its easy to dismiss it as overbooked, which I would disagree with. The finish is overbooked but the match on the whole is the framework for an elimination match. There are several different segments to this one, each unique depending on who is featured.
FINAL GRADE: C
This is essentially a one match card that’s more focused on getting all these storylines to the next big show. The TV Title match is excellent and everything else is pretty good with the Tag Title match being a pleasant surprise. Nothing is awful, even the early squash and or house show matches. Yes, I know this was technically a house show. But the rules never applied to ECW really, especially in the first half of the promotion’s life.
1997
This is a weird one. For some reason, possibly because I’m blind, I cannot find this show on Peacock. It skips right from 1996 to 1998 and I can’t find it nor a reason that it’s unavailable. Instead, I’ll take the excerpts that were broadcast on the July 22, 1997 edition of Hardcore TV.
The ending of the World Tag Title match between the Dudleys and the Gangsters was a mess. Mustafa pinned Bubba after he hit a cutter from the top rope on New Jack but he re-injured his leg, so he was ripe for the picking. We joined this one in progress but it looked like a good, old fashioned, weapons filled mess.
We do get John Kronus vs. Pablo Marquez in its entirety. It’s pretty decent for a squash match. Marquez looked good early before hitting the floor and Kronus taking over for the win. It did get trimmed down quite a bit for TV though. In the arena, it went about 11 minutes.
Terry Funk defends the ECW World title against the Franchise next. Funk opens the match with a chair shot to Douglas’ dome and here we go. It was a physically, sloppy brawl typical of ECW World title matches of the time and it was going well and Funk was dealing well with the interference of Chris Candito and Francine before the match was stopped by… disqualification?
The main event on the night was a tag team steel cage match between The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer and a mystery partner against Sabu, Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lawler in the peak of the first ECW invasion angle. Rick Rude jumps down from the commentary position to defend “his company” from Lawler and here we go and Rude decks Dreamer and it was a setup all along. And the match would continue on the show next week. Which thankfully for Peacock started immediately. It’s a beatdown, Dreamer and Sandman end up handcuffed to the cage, the Triple Threat get involved, Terry Funk gets involved, Taz gets involved, it’s an overbooked mess. I’m sure the swerves made sense at the time but looking back at it some 27 years later, it does not hold up.
FINAL GRADE: I
It’s not fair to rate the card as a whole because I can’t view it as a whole. If I can get a hold of the full show, I’ll revisit this one. By the way, the matches we didn’t see were: Mikey Whipwreck and Spike Dudley beating PG-13 and Jason, Axl Rotten pin Tracey Smothers, Chris Candido and Bam Bam Bigelow bear Chris Chetti and Balls Mahoney, and Taz retain the ECW World Television title over Lance Storm.
So I’m stopping here to post this because for the rest of its run, Heat Wave would be seen on full coverage (maybe) pay-per-view, which changes the dynamic a little bit. More ECW to come.
The Finisher 