BRM Reviews ECW Heat Wave 1994

[Big Red Machine]

ECW Heat Wave 1994 (7/16/1994)- Philadelphia, PA

BAD BREED vs. HACK MYERS & THE ROCKIN’ REBEL- 6/10
Well… that was a pleasant surprise. With these four guys, I was expecting tons of garbage wrestling, but they gave us a good old-fashioned tag team match. After the match the Rebel got angry at Myers for taking the loss. They appeared to make up, but then Rebel turned on Myers and they brawled to the back.

ECW TV TITLE MATCH: Mikey Whipreck(c) vs. Chad Austin (w/Jason)- 6.75/10
Another surprisingly good match. Mikey was a fantastic babyface and Jason’s cheating on the outside was great.
Wait… WHAT THE F*CK?!
Chad Austin wins the title. Then Austin, the heel, lies to the ref, claiming that he used brass knuckles when he really didn’t, so the ref reversed the decision and declared Mikey the winner by DQ. The crowd was happy with this. Then Austin attacked Mikey anyway. Mikey, who had already taken a chair-shot and a table-bump, ate a piledriver onto the title belt from Jason. I am completely perplexed as to why any of this happened. The best explanation Joey Styles could come up with was that Chad Austin “hates the fans so much that he didn’t want them to enjoy the title change.” Like I said: stupid. It’s unfortunate that it marred such a great bell-to-bell match.

TOMMY DREAMER vs. STEVE RICHARDS (w/Angel)- 5.25/10
No, that is not a typo. He was introduced as “Steve Richards” and that is what Joey called him all match. The fans chanted “SLUT!” at Angel a lot, and Joey also made a much less direct comment to that effect. Dreamer won the match with the “Dreamweaver.” It is SOOOO bizarre to see Tommy Dreamer win a match with a sleeper hold.
After the match Dreamer cut a promo saying that he wanted a shot at the ECW Heavyweight Title and called Shane Douglas a “piece of Pittsburgh sh*t.” Shane came out and wanted to fight Dreamer, but his bodyguard Mr. Hughes offered to fight Tommy instead, so we got…

TOMMY DREAMER vs. MR. HUGHES (w/Shane Douglas)- 2/10
During this match, Joey claimed that the previous match had gone twenty minutes. It didn’t even make it to eight. This match didn’t even get half way to that. Dreamer lost after Shane hit him with a chair and Hughes hit him with the spinning side slam.
After the match, Shane cut a promo saying that he would take care of Sabu and Mr. Hughes would take care of 911, but he needed someone to take care of Paul E. Dangerously. He asked Angel to be that someone. She said yes. Shane then asked her if she would also be willing to take care of him and Hughes tonight. Angel flat out said “I know my reputation” and then agreed to that as well, which means that her gimmick is apparently that she is a slutty manager.

THE TAZMANIAC & A MYSTERY PARTNER vs. THE PIT BULLS (w/Jason)-
Taz’s regularly scheduled partner couldn’t make it, s Tod Gordon wanted to postpone the match, but the Pit Bulls jumped Taz and beat him down. 911 came out to fight with Mr. Hughes. Sabu eventually came out to attack Hughes, and then decided to jump in the ring and save Taz, so we got…

THE TAZMANIAC & SABU vs. THE PIT BULLS (w/Jason)- no rating. Decent segment.
The match went about a minute and wasn’t even a tag team match so much as it was just a brawl where the bell happened to ring, but it was really more about the segment as a whole, which was decent.

DUELING CANES MATCH: The Sandman (w/Woman) vs. Tommy Cairo (w/Miss Peaches)- 7.5/10
Sign Guy brought perhaps his greatest sign ever: “When I grow up, I want to be like The Sandman.”
SH*T! This was VICIOUS! These guys just wailed on each other! I loved the spot where Cairo kept caning Sandman in the arm to try to weaken Sandman’s cane shots, and the overbooking with the women was a good touch. It REALLY made me want to see Peaches get some revenge on Woman for caning her at the previous ECW Arena show, Hostile City Showdown 95.

ECW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Shane Douglas(c) (w/Mr. Hughes & Angel) vs. Sabu (w/911 & Paul E. Dangerously)- 7.75/10
Some good technical wrestling, some high-flying, some chair shots, some brawling… a very ECW match. Shane won by TKO when Sabu couldn’t answer a ten count after missing an Asai Moonsault to the floor and was apparently injured.

POST-MATCH STUFF- an angry Paul E. Dangerously tried to attack Hughes from behind with his phone after the match, but Hughes no-sold it and beat him up. 911 took out the ref, then chokeslammed Shane, setting up a confrontation between the two big men. Hughes got some punches in, but wound up eating a chokeslam as well, which he sold horribly (in his defense, it’s probably not a move that a 375lb man has to take very often). Angel also ate a chokeslam. The fans went totally bonkers for all of this, and chanted “911!”

NO-ROPES BARBED WIRE MATCH FOR THE ECW TAG TEAM TITLES: The Public Enemy(c) vs. Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk- 7/10
The match started with the Pubic Enemy taking refuge up in the Eagle’s Nest, while the Funks tried to throw chairs up at them. Speaking of throwing chairs, this is the match with the famous first “chair riot.” I’ve ranted on this before. Every single fan who threw a chair is f*cking idiot, and the later you threw your chair, the more of a f*cking idiot you were. Todd Gordon was completely justified in his backstage freak-out because of enormous potential danger to both the fans and the wrestlers. Also, Terry Funk is a f*cking idiot for calling for it the second time.
The heels won the match fair and square, but the babyfaces beat them up after the match because they are apparently sore losers.


A very good show from ECW, with a lot of the matches on the undercard greatly exceeding my expectations.