ECW on MTV #8
Friday, June 26th, 2001
Attendance: 2,141 – Draddy Gymnasium – Bronx, New York, USA
TV Rating: 0.88 on MTV
DARK MATCH:
SUPER CRAZY DEF. AMAZING RED – PIN – 5:42
RATING: 45
FULL-SHOW RECAPMATCH #1
AIR PARIS & AJ STYLES [AERIAL ASSAULT] vs. JUSTIN CREDIBLE & LANCE STORM [IMPACT PLAYERS] (w/FRANCINE)The ECW World Tag Team Champions opened ECW on MTV once again. And again they faced some hungry youngsters who showed up nicely at Hard Hits too. The match wasn’t for the titles and it was an interesting one. Aerial Assault seemed like threats at some point due to their flying offense, but, ultimately, in the end the Impact Players regained their dominance. Credible pinned Styles to get the win after a Tombstone Piledriver onto a chair.
RESULT: JUSTIN CREDIBLE DEF. AJ STYLES – PIN – 6:44
RATING: 53»» AND NOW THERE ARE THREE»» As the Impact Players started celebrating the win, they were attacked by the Diamond Bodies with the aid of two chairs. The champions were down and taking a beating when Francine got to the ring, slapping Diamond before Candido grabbed her hair. Dawn Marie and Tammy Lynn Sytch then confronted her and a catfight was teased but…
»» …The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer got through the crowd and to the ring. Instead of fighting, Candido and Diamond, along with their girls, chose to leave the ring. A blood feud has evolved and now there are three teams measuring forces!
»» I.Q.: A MIXED FEELING REGARDING HARD HITS»» The Insurance of Quality were, once again, the center figures of a pre-taped promo. Chris Kanyon, of course, being the mouthpiece. The leader of the I.Q. called Spike Dudley’s win a mishap that wouldn’t happen again in a million years over any member. However, there’s a good part standing as «the best Hard Hits’ highlight», and that’s Sean O’Haire’s dominating victory over the «nasty, disgusting and undisciplined» Balls Mahoney. Kanyon went ahead hyping O’Haire as the brightest prospect not only in ECW but in the whole wrestling world.
»» MINISTER: TAKING OVER TV EVERY WEEK?»» Paul Heyman was in the ring to introduce the new ECW World Television Champion: Mikey Whipwreck! Heyman hyped him for a bit after he got to the ring with the rest of the Unholy Alliance. He also thanked Mikey for, once again, standing up for ECW.
»» Mikey thanked Heyman for the words, saying that ECW lives in his heart and is a very important part of himself. And then it was the Sinister Minister the one to take the mic. The leader of the Alliance had a proposition for both Heyman and Mikey, as he suggested that Mikey defended his TV title… every single week on MTV, under TV rules, of course: 10-minute time limit matches.
»» Heyman dubbed the proposition “ballsy”, but said that he’d be ok with it. Mikey smirked as he seemed to believe that if Minister proposed it, it’s because Minister believes in him. He accepted it.
MATCH #2
DANNY DORING & ROADKILL vs. MIKEY WHIPWRECK & YOSHIHIRO TAJIRI [UNHOLY ALLIANCE] (w/SINISTER MINISTER)A month ago, Doring and Roadkill lost their Tag Team titles in a match also involving the Unholy Alliance and now Mikey was the one having some gold in his waist. So, he was the main target in the match. But Doring and Roadkill couldn’t forget Tajiri and his martial arts.
The bout was an interesting one because of that mechanic, and both teams were very synched. Mikey felt he was in danger, so he took the scepter again and used it as a weapon to put Roadkill out of play. Doring used a chair to counter some moves by Tajiri and hit the Japanese with a big shot.
In the end, Mikey and Danny had a cool little sequence, until Doring rolled Mikey for a surprise win after almost eight minutes.
RESULT: DANNY DORING DEF. MIKEY WHIPWRECK – PIN – 7:58
RATING: 43»» MIKEY: DISAPPOINTING THE MINISTER?»» After the match, Mikey Whipwreck was visibly upset about the loss. Danny Doring pinned him and was quick to made his intentions known: next week he wants to be the first to have a match for the TV title. Then, he tried shaking Mikey’s hand, and so did Roadkill. However, Mikey left the two hanging due to his temper. After him, Tajiri actually accepted, and it seemed that Minister was angry at Mikey, not for the loss, but for refusing the handshake.
»» THE POTENTIAL CHALLENGERS HAVE A SAY»» Backstage, the Diamond Bodies and Sunny Dawn were captured complaining about Candido and Diamond’s loss at Hard Hits Vol. 1. Diamond even called Francine a skank while blaming her for their fortune. «We had them», Candido said as if they had the match won when they got distracted. Anyway, the two promised their girls they’ll get some gold to the Bodies’ locker room really soon.
»» In a different follow-up promo, The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer claimed that the Bodies need to learn some rules before biting more than they can chew. Dreamer said: «Your record against us is a win after interference and a loss, pretty boys.», so Sandman concluded: «My math isn’t really the best, but you’re not ahead of us and we won’t let you be! Want to face the champs? Beat us again, assholes!»
MATCH #3
BIG VITO (w/LITTLE GUIDO & TONY MAMALUKE) vs. MIKE AWESOMEOne-sided for almost its entirety, the World Champion faced and beat the bigger man of the Full Bloodied Italians as the two cruiserweights of the gang watched and reacted to the beating. An Awesome Bomb sealed the match shut.
RESULT: MIKE AWESOME DEF. BIG VITO – PIN – 4:36
RATING: 39»» CORINO: TESTING AWESOME’S SELF-CONTROL
»» As time passes, Steve Corino gives us fewer reasons to believe that he’s actually changing. After Mike Awesome’s match he decided to confront him, shoving in the champion’s face the fact that he was close to beating him for the title last Saturday. He went further, saying that Awesome himself knows that if they both face again, Corino will walk out with the gold.
»» Awesome’s patience hit a low and he thought of knocking Corino off his boots. The ‘King of Old School’ sensed it and encouraged Awesome to hit him again so people could see that “wholesome Awesome” isn’t a real thing. The crowd really wanted the champion to hit Corino, but he didn’t and chose to walk away as the better man.
MATCH #4
BILLY KIDMAN & ROB VAN DAM vs. JERRY LYNN & STEVE CORINOA great main event between four of the best talents ECW has. Excitement was a thing, as the bout was open and very fast-paced, with only Corino breaking up the pace sometimes in favor of a more traditional approach. The two teams also saw eye-to-eye and the crowd reacted heavily, specially when RVD and Lynn squared-off.
At the beginning we got treated to a Shooting Star Press from Kidman to everyone at ringside. Then, both teams were close to take the match home: Lynn and Corino with a Double Superkick on RVD; and RVD himself put Corino off the match with a highlight-reel bound Van Terminator. But then Lynn and Van Dam fought at ringside, culminating with Lynn hitting RVD’s trademark Corkscrew Leg Drop.
Back in the ring, Lynn taunted Van Dam and the crowd and paid for it, as Kidman kicked him low (like Lynn did at Hardcore Heaven a month ago) and rolled him up for a three count after nearly 15 minutes.
RESULT: BILLY KIDMAN DEF. JERRY LYNN – PIN – 14:18
RATING: 70»» RVD: DELIVERER OF BAD NEWS»» How could anything ruin a show with such a great main event? Well… Billy Kidman and Jerry Lynn were close to get physical after the match, but their issues had to be solved out of scene. Instead, Rob Van Dam had some news he had to give, and they both listened. The ‘Whole F’n Show’ cut it short and announced that after Heat Wave… he’s leaving ECW. The faithful crowd gasped and a lot of them figured out that he’s going to the WWF, so RVD got booed at first.
»» He could calm the crowd by saying that he won’t forget about ECW and in fact he’s taking ECW with him in his heart and that he has a goal: to become a WWF World Champion and defend the title in ECW. He won the crowd with that, but deep inside, they know it won’t happen.
»» Still, RVD isn’t going anywhere without first treating the fans to a 5-pack of RVD’s singles matches. Every week from the next to Heat Have, Van Dam will square off against some hand-picked ECW stars. He left the ring, feeling emotional, and the show ended.
FINAL RATING: 64
AROUND THE WORLDWWF – KING OF THE RING 2001: WWF held King Of The Ring on Sunday, June 28th. It sucks that they opted not to book the tournament, so it was actually a normal pay-per-view, but it had some amazing first-time-ever clashes. In the main event, the WWF Championship was successfully defended by Stone Cold Steve Austin… against Bill Goldberg! The pre-main event saw The Rock beating Booker T. Also in the show, Sting defeated William Regal and Ric Flair beat Chris Benoit.
BOOKER'S TAKEAWAY:Yeah, I tricked you all. It wouldn't make sense to keep Rob Van Dam around for long, as he was, IRL, the only guy to be picked up by WWF to float around the upper midcard. He'd always be an asset to WWF, so it makes sense that I got to use him in the first few months of this diary, but not more than that. From the beginning, he had an exclusive contract with the WWF, but was loaned to me for three months.
ECW Heat Wave - Saturday, July 27th 2001 - New York, New York, USA
The card so farSingles Match - The Last F'n Show - Match #5Rob Van Dam vs. ???
For Rob Van Dan's final opponent, my prediction is that Sabu and Heyman buried the hatchet, and we have Sabu vs. RVD at Heat Wave.