So, yes it’s officially not summer any more. But hey, it was 90 here on the first day of fall so we can stretch it. Here’s the last of the run of the most extreme event of the summer. As always, we’ve got all the matches you must see together at the end of this post.
1998
This year’s event takes us to Dayton, Ohio and for the first time, onto pay-per-view airwaves. Joey Styles opens the show by introducing his co-host for the evening The Franchise Shane Douglas, who cuts a very Franchise promo, who actually comes off very DX-ish before Francine shoves Styles’ face in her cleavage and we are off to the races. ECW was a different place y’all.
Your opening contest is Justin Credible, accompanied by Jason, Nicole Bass and Chastity, taking on Jerry Lynn in the finale of their summer series of matchups. Tonight’s winner wins the feud, as Styles informed us. Maybe there was a better build up here, but Joey didn’t sell it. These though, had a good opener that was full of action, hit all the highs, ticked all the boxes and had a hell of a spot for a finish as Credible gets win with a tombstone from the top rope. Great way to set the pace for the night and this would get the honorable mention slot for this show, even if the outside interference got to be a little much.
Up next, a grudge match between former ECW tag team champions as Lance Storm squares off with Triple Threat member Chris Candido with the returning Tammy Lynn Sytch, aka Sunny. Another good match that just did not stop. Action from bell to bell that was only diminished by interference in the finish when Tammy jumped in, crotched Storm and then “accidentally” had a “wardrobe malfunction” at the hands of the ref. There was no reason to include that but again, ECW, 1990’s. But seriously, Candido’s finisher fucks. And there’s no one who will take it today, just ask the back of Storm’s head for the reasoning.
The ECW World Tag Team titles are on the line next as the frenemy champions Rob Van Dam and Sabu defend against Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki from Japanese promotion FMW.
Bam Bam Bigelow and Taz renew their war, this time over the FTW World Title, currently around the waist of Taz’ son Hook. Honestly, their match at Living Dangerously four months prior was much better all around but there is plenty there for a memorable street fight, including the through the ramp spot. Is it entertaining? Absolutely. But I would point you to their battle in Asbury Park as the better match for me.
Your main event of the evening is a Dudleyville Street Fight pitting Big Dick, Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley again Spike Dudley, Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman. Come for the wholly offensive opening promo where the Dudleys try to start a riot (old school heat). Stay for the next chapter of one of the more emotional stories of the year in the promotion. A technical masterpiece this is not, though they do get a decent amount of six-man tag match in before all hell breaks loose. It’s a sloppy brawl that’s right in line with an ECW main event in 1998. At the very least, it’s mostly entertaining even if not that impressive. There is at least some post-match action with New Jack.
MUST SEE MATCHES:
Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka
Do you really need my opinion to know that you should go out of your way to see every encounter between these two storied rivals? Just watch and marvel at Awesome’s agility and Tanaka’s resilience. This is also the match that features that iconic clip of Tanaka powerbombing Awesome over the top rope and dropping him through a table to the concrete floor on the back of his damn head.
ECW World Tag Team Championships: Rob Van Dam and Sabu (c) vs. Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki
Yes, this match gets sloppy at times. It is a spotty spot spotfest. But it’s still so entertaining, especially if you’ve never seen RVD and Sabu work together as a tag team. Hayabusa and Shinzaki also throw in some really impressive double team moves. The finish is impressive and terrifying all at once. It’s a car wreck, but one you can’t help but gawk at.
FINAL GRADE: B-/C+
Heat Wave ‘98 is often cited as one of the best PPVs the company ever put on, so I guess I’m in the minority if I don’t hold it up that high. It’s an entertaining show and you won’t be disappointed if you spend three hours watching it. But there really isn’t a standout match, even if there are a ton of moments in the show. I would encourage a viewing as a great snapshot of where the company was at the time.
1999
This year’s edition of Heat Wave returns to the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio and hits at an odd time for the company. A great number of things are about to change in ECW. The show comes about a month before ECW will debut on TNN, the national TV deal that was supposed to save the company but t’was not to be. Before the end of the year, the main event scene would completely change, as Taz and the Dudleys would leave for the WWF, Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka would fill the hole until Jerry Lynn, the Impact Players and the Network were in a place to take over. Oh, and Raven and the Sandman would return in August and October respectively. So this is a pay-per-view right before some seismic changes for the company and is almost a transition show between eras.
We’ll kick it off with tag team action as Chris Chetti and Nova square off with Danny Doring and Roadkill, which is a team that I always enjoyed. After an extended amount of schtick where Doring proposes to his girlfriend (a young Amy Dumas) with a condom, we get a seven minute spotfest which was clearly meant to get the crowd heated up and it did what it was meant to do. Everybody gets a chance to shine, even with the dance break Chetti takes mid-match. Still love their finisher, the Tidal Wave where both guys go to the same top turnbuckle and hit with a splash/leg drop combo.
Up next, wow, Jason is actually going to wrestle. I don’t think I have ever seen the self-proclaimed sexiest man on Earth in the ring. He’s taking on a young Jazz, long before she had her run in WWE. An interesting choice as the first half was relatively competitive and then Jason just beat on Jazz for several minutes before chairs come into play during her comeback and Jazz picks up the win after a facebuster into a chair. A competent if formulaic intergender match for the time, with Jazz’ toughness getting over through her repeated kickouts.
Cruiserweight action next as Super Crazy meets Little Guido, two thirds of one of the best three-way rivalries in wrestling history with Taijiri. It features everything that made the matches between these three so good. We got a Super Crazy moonsault from the upper section of the arena onto Guidio and Big Sal, Crazy getting squashed by Sal on the outside, Guido showing off his shooter skills but ultimately a power bomb would get the duke for the Insane Luchador. This has to be my honorable mention on the night. The pace is insane, the psychology… isn’t there but it really doesn’t matter. You won’t be able to catch your breath.
Joey Styles and Cyrus announce on PPV the TV deal with TNN and announce that the first taping would take place on August 14th in Toledo, Ohio. Hey, I was there!
Remember how I said that the Dudleys tried to start a riot when they came out in 1998? Well, they almost achieved their goal in 1999 with some way-over-the-top heel crowd work that you would never get away with today, even on PPV. I guess they had to get it out of their system, as they were weeks away from heading up north to the WWF where they weren’t going to talk about a mom in the front row teaching her daughter how to perform fellatio. The extended introductions lead to a World Tag Team Title match with Balls Mahoney and Spike Dudley in a falls count anywhere Dayton street fight. This is exactly what you expect it to be: a bloody, sloppy brawl that actually ends up with new tag team champions. Post-match activities went as follows; Spike Dudley is powerbombed through a flaming table, in attempting to powerbomb Balls through a table, Bubba slips and drops Balls on his head, New Jack returns and dinks both Dudleys with everything he could fit into a shopping cart. Chaos, chaos, chaos.
More filler as Tommy Dreamer comes out to announce he needs surgery for a pair of bulging discs in his back but is interrupted by Steve Corino which leads right into our world title match between Taz and Yoshihrio Taijiri. It was a match that was essentially a ten-minute squash. Despite Taijiri getting some hope spots, Taz just ran through him and Steve Corino and Jack Victory at ringside even kicking out of the Japanese Buzzsaw’s head kick combo finisher. But I will always remember this match for the finish. Taz and Taijiri end up on the ramp with Taz going back to the entrance way and pulling a string of barbed wire off of the setpiece and using it to lock on the Tazmission. It’s amazing how often you can use the line “this selfish son of a bitch is gonna get us thrown off of pay-per-view!” in everyday conversation. An alright match that could have been used to feed Rhino into a program with the world champ but they never came anywhere near each other.
Which brings us to a tag team war for our main event. Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn put their issues to the side to team up against the Impact Players; Justin Credible and Lance Storm.
MUST SEE MATCH: Impact Players vs. Jerry Lynn and Rob Van Dam
This was the easy pick for match of the night. It has the best story told in the night’s events, every participant got all of their stuff in and despite it being a main event where no titles are on the line, it all made sense for it to be the main event. A true showcase for four of the best young talents working at the time, not just in ECW but in the entire business.
FINAL GRADE: C
This one feels right down the middle. The main event was great, the tag title match was entertaining for all of its sloppy fun. There were no bad matches but nothing but the card ender really stood out. Middle of the road is where it fit for me but make no mistake, Dayton was turned up for this show. The Network version has a lot of crowd sweetening because of the need to cover up unlicensed music but at times where its not covered up, the reactions are loud and genuine.
2000
The final stop for the Heat Wave train was ECW’s Los Angeles debut at the Olympic Auditorium. Yes, this is the site of the infamous XPW incident. No, there’s no reason to rehash it here. The main storyline running through the company is The Network vs. ECW, as demonstrated by Cyrus’ appearance at the top of the show interrupting Joel Gertner with a well-placed ‘Excuse Me!”. Who knew Vince took that from ECW too.
We’re starting off hot with Balls Mahoney and big Sal E. Graziano and after dispatching Tony Mamaluke, Balls gets dispatched himself after a chokeslam and a giant elbow to the balls. A ninety-second squash and LA is not happy.
Six man action next as Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger and C.W. Anderson team up to take on Danny Doring, Kid Kash and Roadkill and we already have our honorable mention of the evening. This is a great opener, comparable to the way WCW would kick off its PPVs at the time, with a fast-paced cruiserweight match. This one had it all as well, plenty of high spots, all the heat to get the crowd whipped up and it was a clean bunch of chaos.
In a complete 360 to the last match, the king of old school Steve Corino meets the new f’n show Jerry Lynn.
New Jack makes his way to the ring, assumingly to do a promo about his broken leg but he’s immediately attacked by Da Baldies which then leads us to an impromptu match between Angel & Devito and Chris Chetti and Nova who came out to make the save. Relatively quick and simple, nothing extraordinary here.
Up next, an international four-way dance between Little Guido Maritato, Psychosis, Yoshihiro Taijiri and Mikey Whipwreck (who just showed up during introductions and added himself, like you do). First and foremost, LA loves Tajiri and why wouldn’t you. This felt like it got the show back on track after a little wandering. It started out really fast paced, less than five minutes in we had our first two eliminations and then Tajiri and Guido settled into a hard-fitting final segment. I forgot but looking back, Guido took that dropkick to the face while tied in the Tree of Joey Lawrence a lot. Good cruiserweight showcase that hits the familiar beats if you’ve seen a three-or-four-way dance before.
The Sandman and Rhino are up next for the Television title and a little moment I caught during Sandman’s entrance just got me giggling for no reason. He comes through the crowd, stops to crack his first beer, leans over the kid standing next to him and asks how old he is. The kid clearly says 23, so Hak pours the can down his throat. That’s right, even the Sandman was out here ID’ing. This is a big sloppy Sandman match, but Rhino took a ton of offense from the hardcore icon before Jack Victory and Steve Corino interfere. Then Spike Dudley in a leg cast comes out, he and Sandman hit Corino with a 3D before Rhino commences to wreck shit.
Your semi-main event is an intense grudge match as Rob Van Dam looks for revenge from Scotty Anton after he turned his back on Mr. Monday Night and joined the Network. The match itself is sold and Van Dam takes a lot of punishment, probably more than even Jerry Lynn got in during their series of five star encounters. But this one is memorable for the debut of the Van Terminator which is one of those things you do not forget the first time you see it. Yes, most of you first saw it when Shane did it to Vince at Wrestlemania a year later. But the first one will always be the best one.
Your main event is a Stairway to Hell match for the ECW World Heavyweight Title as Justin Credible defends against Tommy Dreamer. This is a ladder match where instead of the title belt hanging over the ring, it’s a bail of barbed wire. If the description sounds like chaos, the actual match is very much that. There’s swerves and betrayals and huge bumps and catfights and just a ton of stuff packed into fifteen minutes. But a mat classic it is not but I don’t think anyone expected it to be. Also, before it even got going you had the beginning of the XPW incident and it was interesting to see how they dealt with that on the night. If you’re unfamiliar with that particular moment, other wrestling sites have done a far better job of explaining it than I ever could.
MUST SEE MATCH:
- Steve Corino vs. Jerry Lynn
- Not one for those who are squeamish but this is a great old school brawl with plenty of heat between two phenomenal workers. Corino is busted open in the first three minutes and is a mess for the rest of the match. Impressively, they do the fish out of water spot after about 15 minutes leading into the finish. A great piece of work between two all-timers.
FINAL GRADE: C
I hate to say it but it was another pay per view that was right down the middle for me. There was plenty of fun stuff (the four-way dance), plenty of serious stuff (Corino v. Lynn & the main event), but also stuff that dragged on (the whole opening segment) and kind of meh stuff. It’s unfortunate that the company never got a chance to redeem itself for another summer. LA was hot for ECW and an extended promotional war between them and XPW could have been quite entertaining (or frightening), but alas we would not feel another Heat Wave.
| Date | Participant | Participant | Stipulation |
| 7/16/1994 | Shane Douglas (c) | Sabu | ECW Championship |
| Dory Jr. and Terry Funk | Public Enemy | Barbed Wire Match | |
| 7/13/1996 | The Eliminators (c) | Mikey Whipwreck and Sabu | ECW World Tag Team Championship |
| Chris Jericho (c) | 2 Cold Scorpio, Shane Douglas & Pitbull #2 | Four-Way Dance for the ECW World Television Championship | |
| 8/2/1998 | Masato Tanaka | Mike Awesome | |
| Rob Van Dam & Sabu (c) | Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki | ECW World Tag Team Championship | |
| 7/18/1999 | Impact Players | Rob Van Dam & Jerry Lynn | |
| 7/16/2000 | Jerry Lynn | Steve Corino |
So how about another seasonally-based event? I’m thinking that the next time we meet in this Retro Review segment I will present an event that for a spell was a major WCW PPV: Fall Brawl. Why? Well, War Games of course.
The Finisher 
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