Show opening: Joey Styles and Joel Gertner, direct from the War Memorial in 'sunny, hot'. Ft. Lauderdale, FL (site of Hardcore Heaven 1997). Styles does his customary opening, and this time Gertner is 'Joel 'Deport that kid from Cuba / In fact, send them all back en masse / Furthermore, take the entire country / And shove it up Castro's -- '. The opening line of Gertner's quatrain alone gets a 'Send him back' chant from the crowd. The scene cuts to Cyrus in the back room ordering the cut and complaining about Gertner. Cyrus claims that Gertner has heat not only with the dressing room and the production crew, but with TNN and CBS Cable as well. Cyrus' tirade is interrupted by a walking argument between Bill Alfonso and Rob Van Dam. Van Dam locates Mike Awesome's dressing room and bumrushes the champ. Spike Dudley takes advantage of the melee to jump Judge Jeff Jones, but referee Jim Molino and Cyrus chase the camera crew out of the room, and Cyrus orders the TV crew to roll the opening sequence.
In a voiceover, Styles plugs appearances by Dusty Rhodes, Steve Corino, Tommy Dreamer, and Rob Van Dam.
Commercials for Living Dangerously 2000 and the ECW action figures (still using Taz in the latter commercial!) By the way, did you get your copy of ECW Hardcore Revolution reserved yet? Electronics Boutique is not only giving preorder customers an ECW video, but a ECW Hardcore Revolution T-Shirt as well!
Back to the ECW ON TNN set, Styles is hyping the next match, but Gertner, in a 'petulant frenzy' (quote Frank Zappa nevermore!), is bitching about Cyrus.
Steve Corino & Rhino are already in the ring with Jack Victory waiting for Tommy Dreamer & Dusty Rhodes (with my main online boss, Francine), for the first match of the show. (Francine, love the outfit as always!) The fans are popping big-time for all three faces, but especially for Rhodes who is stepping into the ring formally for the first time in six years. An Extreme Replay from Rhodes' appearance on Guilty As Charged is shown while we wait for the ring announcements. Dusty's hometown is billed as Tampa, FL, enticing another pop from the audience.
We cut to an out of the way area of the building where James Vandenburg (still doing his priest gimmick) is having a chat with Raven. Raven says he is bummed out because Tommy is teaming with Dusty. Paul Heyman interrupts the conversation in his own inimitable way, chases James Vandenburg away, and orders the cameraman to put his camera down. He does, but it remains on. Paul E. gives Raven his own version of a pep talk and Raven replies that he himself 'will sin nevermore'.
Next commercial break. While TNN plays a bunch of boring commercials, why not point your browser to the site that won the ECWThugs.com Viewers Choice Award For Best Official ECW Wrestler Site Of 1999, The Official Francine Fournier Homepage at http://www.francineecw.com! By the way, time is running out on your chance to win Francine's Guilty As Charged 2000 outfit in an auction -- details on the site!
Back to the show. Corino claims 'No one wants to see me destroy you once again!' (When was the first time, Corino??). Corino demands that 'that fat, disgusting man that started hardcore wrestling' (Dusty) gets tagged in 'because tonight is MY night!' Dreamer, apparently unable to resist a ringside seat for a Rhodes ass-kicking of Corino, willingly obliges. Rhodes starts and immediately dominates the match. Corino's 'offense' is to tag in Rhino. Dreamer pulls Rhodes aside and offers to take over. Rhodes declines and begins to dominate Rhino with a figure four Victory tries to interfere and gets a figure four. Corino makes the mistake of getting back in the ring and pays for his sins via a figure four from Francine. All three heels jump out of the ring with their tails between their legs but Tommy and Dusty give chase. Rhodes busts Corino open outside while Rhino becomes a human medicine ball for the Innovator of Violence. Rhino throws Dreamer into a chair at ringside. Rhodes throws Corino in the ring while Dreamer continues to assault the Rookie Monster. Rhodes knocks Corino's lights out, tags in Dreamer, and both faces throw Corino into the ropes for a double elbow. Dreamer does his own version of the Bionic Elbow on Corino and throws Corino outside, but Rhino jumps Tommy and crotches him on the steel guardrail. Rhino throws Dreamer in the ring and stomps him. Dreamer tries to zip line to his corner but Rhino prevents it and continues to assault him. Corino declines a Rhino tag-in, so Rhino plants Dreamer and hits a top-rope splash for a two-count. Rhino suplexes Dreamer and gets another two-count. Rhino tries for the top rope splash again but gets knocked off the ropes by Dreamer. Rhino lands balls first on the top turnbuckle and gets superplexed by Dreamer. Dreamer tags in the Dream who runs roughshod on Corino. Dreamer gets a second wind and goes after Rhino. Tommy and Dusty trade opponents and pummel them in the opposite corners of the ring. Rhodes scoops and slams Rhino but misses the elbow. Rhino gets up and clotheslines the American Dream. Dreamer goes after Rhino with a steel chair and then DDTs him on it, while Rhodes hits the Bionic Elbow on Corino and gets the three-count. During the instant replay, Gertner claims that Rhodes' elbow is loaded 'with a space-age polymer that's found in Uranus.' Another commercial break.
ECW ON TNN commercial featuring The Impact Players, Rhino, and Cyrus and Joel Gertner.
The Impact Players cut a promo in a hottub. Lance Storm claims that he and Credible want to defend the belts but don't want to tarnish them by fighting 'inferior talent'. Credible agrees. Dawn Marie (aka Powerpuff Girl Bubbles) tries to fill in the rest of the Impact Players' airtime by dropping the top of her itsie-bitsie teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikini on camera a-la Miss Kitty, but Jason jumps in her way and, out of sight of the camera (thank God!), removes his towel. Storm, Credible, and Dawn Marie immediately get nauseous looks on their faces, as does the rest of the audience!
Danny Doring & Roadkill promo. Doring claims that they deserve not only a title shot, but the belts amongst their waists. Elektra interrupts the spot when Doring starts talking about women, slaps Doring upside the head, lectures 'Daniel Christopher Doring' to remember where he came from, asks the cameraman to move in closer, and with one handful of Doring's 'Danaconda', changes the pitch of Doring's voice from Henry Rollins baritone to Christina Aguilera soprano. Elektra then cuts a promo on Dawn Marie, claiming that Ms. Bytch is not half the woman that she is. Roadkill, as always -- and after several seconds of admiring Elektra's boobs, has the last word: 'Chickens -- pssshhh!'
Mikey Whipwreck promo. Whipwreck claims that he is not a baby, boasts of his having defeated 2 Cold Scorpio for the World TV Title, of being hardcore enough to have carried Cactus Jack when they were tag team champions, and that he will win the World TV Title from Rob Van Dam.
With Kilgore's cover of 'Walk' blasting, Rob Van Dam and Bill Alfonso come out to the usual accolades of the crowd, while Styles and Gertner make fun of how many title changes the WWF and WCW have had since RVD won the belt. Whipwreck interrupts RVD's ring entrance by jumping on the champion outside the ring, then proceeds to control the opening minutes of the match outside the ring. Whipwreck gets stomped on the ring apron and then elbows RVD into the ring. Whipwreck makes a pin attempt, fails, goes on top for a splash and gets another two. RVD recovers and uses his martial arts talents to knock Whipwreck over. RVD whips Mikey into the corner, reverse atomic drops him, and then hits him with a chair surfboard-style. Mikey jumps outside the ring and Van Dam follows. Whipwreck gets whipped into the guardrail, then gets his chin wrecked with a Van Dam karate kick. Whipwreck gets hung over the guardrail, Fonzie holds a chair over Mikey's head, RVD gets onto the ring apron and hits a guillotine legdrop. RVD gives Whipwreck a chance to recover, then resumes the match with more classic RVD moves, including splashing onto a prone Whipwreck with a chair draped on the challenger's chest. Whipwreck reverses one of these by German suplexing RVD onto a chair in the middle of the ring. Mikey goes for a piledriver, RVD blocks it, so Mikey switches to the Pedigree on the chair. Mikey goes for the Whippersnapper but RVD flips him over, takes the chair and knocks Mikey out with the Van Daminator. RVD opens the chair, puts in it the corner, has Fonzie sit in it, then climbs onto the top turnbuckle and hits the Five Star Frog Splash for the pin.
Cut to Mike Awesome in the parking lot, in front of an ambulance that he says is about to take Jeff Jones to the hospital. Awesome says that both Van Dam and Spike had 'better pray to God' that Jones will recover from the dressing room attack, otherwise he will not just kick Van Dam's and Spike's asses, but he will 'fuck up' both wrestlers and end their careers.
While RVD celebrates his victory in the audience, Gertner runs over the next month's worth of ECW tour dates and states that tickets for Living Dangerously 2000 on March 12th will be available starting Monday morning. The PPV will take place from the WCSU O'Neill Center in Danbury, CT. The number for information is (203) 744-8100
The ending of the show is interrupted with the announcement by Paul Heyman that Rob Van Dam suffered a broken leg several hours after that match was taped, and that details are available on ECWWrestling.com. He adds that 'further details and a discussion on the ramifications' of this injury will be discussed on next week's episode of the show. Despite that low note, the show is still a very good one that advances many of the storylines just enough to keep the viewers hooked in for the next episodes of both ECW On TNN and (if available in their area) ECW Hardcore TV.