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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: THE FIRST ECW ARENA SHOW, LYNN FINALLY BEATS RVD AND MORE

May 14th

On this day in history in .... 

1964 - Gene Kiniski & Cyclone Negro defeat Toyonobori & Michiaki Yoshimura to win the All Asian Tag Team Title in Yokohama, Japan. 

1974 - Giant Baba wins the 2nd All Japan Champion Carnival tournament, his second straight win, by defeating Mr. Wrestling in the finals of the elimination tournament.  Baba defeated Curtis Iaukea and Mark Lewin to reach the finals, while Mr. Wrestling defeated Mattie Suzuki, Thunder Sugiyama, and Jumbo Tsuruta to reach the finals. 

1979 - Toru Tanaka & Mr. Fuji defeat Bill Dundee & Robert Fuller in Memphis, Tennessee to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Title. 

1983 - Carlos Colon defeats Ox Baker in San Juan, Puerto Rico to win the WWC World Heavyweight Title for the second time.

1993 - ECW held their first ECW Arena show ever in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The show was the first of two days of television tapings to hype the "Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular" that was going to be held in the same building in June. Here are the results from the show:
- Road Warrior Hawk defeated Samoan Warrior & Don E. Allen in a Handicap match.
- Tommy Cairo won a battle royal to win the Pennsylvania Heavyweight Title.
- ECW Tag Team Champions The Suicide Blonds (Chris Candido & Johnny Hotbody) defeated Tommy Cairo & Glen Osbourne.
- ECW Champion Don Muraco defeated The Sandman.
- Road Warrior Hawk defeated ECW Television Champion Jimmy Snuka via disqualification. 
- Eddie Gilbert defeated Herve Renesto in a chain match.
- ECW Champion Don Muraco defeated Tommy Cairo.
- The Dark Patriot defeated J.T. Smith.
- The Super Destroyers & Sal Bellomo vs. The Suicide Blonds (Rick Michaels, Chris Candido & Johnny Hotbody) ended in a no-contest with a number of wrestlers running in and brawling. 

1994 - ECW held their "When World's Collide" event at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Here are the results: 
- Tommy Dreamer defeated Rockin' Rebel with a Thesz press. Rebel was in control of the match, but manager Jason told him he would pay Rebel more to keep beating down Dreamer, rather than pin him.  This gave Dreamer the opening to win the match.  Afterwards, Rebel was mad at Jason, but calmed down when Jason gave him the money.
- ECW Television Champion Mikey Whipwreck defeated 911 via disqualification.  911 chokeslammed Mikey several times, then started chokeslamming the referee (Pee Wee Moore) as well, laying out both men, but losing the match. 
- Jimmy Snuka defeated Kevin Sullivan when manager Hunter Q. Robbins tripped Sullivan, who was distracted when The Sandman came out and took Woman from ringside. After the match, Sullivan beat up Robbins. 
- Tommy Cairo & Peaches defeated Sandman & Woman when Cairo tagged in Peaches to pin Sandman after suplexing him.  As a result, Peaches got to cane the Sandman.  After hitting him twice, Woman threw powder at them, and Sandman got control of the cane and blasted Peaches and Cairo with it. 
- Paul E. Dangerosuly had 911 chokeslam referee Pee Wee Moore again. 
- Pitbull #1 (Gary Wolfe) defeated The Tazmaniac (Tazz). 
- JT Smith & The Bruise Brothers (Ron & Don Harris) defeated Shane Douglas, Mr. Hughes & Public Enemy (Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) in an elimination match.  Road Warrior Hawk was scheduled to team with Smith & The Bruise Brothers, but didn't appear.  Hughes, Douglas and the Bruise Brothers were all counted out while brawling outside the ring. Smith then pinned Rock and then Grunge, to win the match.
- Sabu & Bobby Eaton defeated Terry Funk & Arn Anderson. Funk accidentally hit Arn with a chairshot while going after Sabu. Arn then turned on Funk, hitting him in the leg with a chair, and setting up for Sabu to force Funk to submit to a leglock. 

1999 - Yuuhi Sano defeats Minoru Tanaka to win the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Title in Sapporo, Japan. 

2000 - ECW held their Hardcore Heaven Pay-per-view at The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The building (which was also hosting a concert at the same time) had a power outage during the PPV at one point, with the action continuing for a few moments with only spotlights and cameras (operating from a separate power supply) working. In a dark match, Chilly Willy defeated Johnny Swinger.  During the opening angle, a beaten Tommy Dreamer staggered through the crowd, but with the fans looking at the ring, no one noticed, resulting on part of the show being rewritten on the fly, and a segment was added with Kintaro Kanemura choking out Joel Gertner to set up Cyrus doing commentary with Joey Styles.

Here is Tim Whitehead's original report on the show:

I really enjoyed the ECW Hardcore Heaven PPV, 5/14 from the Rave in Milwaukee. It was a strong show throughout with a hot crowd and really no weak matches at all. It had its share of technical glitches. After the opening promo, Joey Styles & Joel Gertner were left standing in the middle of the ring with nothing to do, an obvious miscue of some sort. Styles later tried to cover for it by saying he had seen Tommy Dreamer staggering around all bloodied up, the victim of an assault by Justin Credible and it threw him off his game since he couldn't explain it since it was off camera. Later, the lights went out during the Little Guido vs. Mikey Whipwreck vs. Simon Diamond three way match, so they had to use searchlights to illuminate the ring. The main event somewhat couldn't follow the previous match and it was the one bout where the heat died at the end. But overall it was a very good show with everyone working hard and good commentary.

They did an angle early on to replace Gerter on commentary with Cyrus. Cyrus confronted Gertner and called him a fat, vulgar piece of crap and said people don't like his gimmick. Gertner removed his neck brace and acted like he would fight Cyrus but Kintaro Kanemura choked him out from behind. Knowing Kanemura, it's a good thing he didn't slash him up the arm with a spike or powerbomb him on a flaming ring. Oh, I forgot, Kanemura only does that to himself.

MASATO TANAKA defeated BALLS MAHONEY in 9:13. They traded mat spots before Balls took over with fists. Balls bumped out where Tanaka hit a pescado, but Balls caught him and dropped him on the rail. Tanaka hit Balls with a chair and then DDT'd him on the ramp. They ended up fighting in the ring with chairs and Tanaka took three chairshots, two of which were ultra-sick. Balls still only got a two count. He kicked a chair into Tanaka's face for another two. Tanaka scored twos with a Tornado DDT on some chairs and the Diamond Dust. Balls hit the Nutcracker Sweet on the chairs for a two. Balls missed the New Jersey Jam and Tanaka caught him with a roaring elbow for a near fall. Tanaka then pinned Balls with a second roaring elbow after a chairshot. They shook hands afterward. Great opener with tremendous heat.

Lance Storm cut a promo on Justin Credible and went off on him for discarding the ECW Tag Titles they co-held. He said Credible had always had people protecting him and mentioned "Kev & Scott" in the WWF (from when Credible was a prelim guy there a few years ago under a mask as Aldo Montoya).

LITTLE GUIDO beat MIKEY WHIPWRECK and SIMON DIAMOND in a three-way match in 7:07. There were plenty of people at ringside here. Mikey had the Sinister Minister, Guido had Big Sal, and Diamond has his entourage of kooks. They started with a good series of spots where they blocked some moves and hit others. Mikey dropkicked the hell (no pun intended) out of Diamond. They messed up a corner spot but quickly recovered and Diamond suplexed Mikey, but Guido plastered Diamond from behind for a near fall. Mikey hit a guillotine legdrop on Guido. Diamond threw a chair in Mikey's face. Then the lights went out and they had to use a searchlight for the rest of the match. Mikey and Diamond each did dives out onto the whole gang. Mikey pinned Diamond with the Whippersnapper at 5:33. Mikey then did a great move which was sort of a powerbomb attempt dropped into a DDT (if you can picture that) but Guido kicked out at two for a big pop. Sal slugged Mikey and Guido hit a legsweep and got two. Guido dived off Sal's shoulders but Mikey rolled clear. Mikey threw a fireball at Sal, which missed by a mile but Sal sold it anyway. They were smart enough not to show this on replay. Guido then hit a Tomokaze (or whatever it's called when he does it) and got the pin. Pretty good match.

Justin Cedible did a promo with Francine doing some very nice things to a kendo stick in the background.

KID KASH beat C.W. ANDERSON in 5:59. Lou E. Dangerously came out with Elektra and said she has never had plastic surgery (silicon maybe?) and is more than just a pretty face, tits, and ass. He dared anyone in back to fight Elektra. Jazz came out and walloped Lou, Anderson, and Bill Wiles before stripping off Elektra's jacket to reveal a Mike Awesome T-shirt. The idea was to have an Awesome shirt ripped off of a heel but it may not have quite come off that way. Jazz continued to strip Elektra down to her extremely skimpy outfit which had Jim Quigley salivating before the guys all piled of Jazz and she was beat up and had to be carted out. Kash arrived and made the save to officially start the match. Kash hit a plancha across the rail. He had Anderson reeling with chops and hit a spinning headscissors. Anderson came back with a powerbomb and fists. Wiles interfered. Anderson blocked a moonsault and hit a suplex for a near fall. He got another two with a powerslam. Lou tried to hit Kash with the cell phone but missed and busted it over Anderson's head. Kash won with a huracanrana off the top. Good match, and good to see a native of Johnson City, TN go over on PPV!

Rob Van Dam was taping up his injured leg and assured Bill Alfonso that he wasn't overconfident.

Styles tried to explain the dead air time at the beginning of the show by saying he had been distracted by the (imaginary) Credible assault on Dreamer. Cyrus said it proved why TNN should run the PPV's and also brought up that these productions may soon be a CBS/Viacom operation involving the WWF.

NOVA & CHRIS CHETTI beat ANGEL & DEVITO and DANNY DORING & AMISH ROADKILL in 6:34 in a three-way match. It was all action. Doring threw DeVito off the ramp. Nova hit some good flying moves. In fact, Nova and Chetti together did some great double spots. Roadkill did a double lariat on Angel & DeVito, but they came back and slammed Roadkill on two chairs. Grimes ran in with a guitar and somehow in the melee Angel got it and walloped Doring with it to eliminate that team at 4:16 with a pin. Before leaving, Roadkill put Grimes (who nearly broke his back on the stairs bumping off the ramp) through a table. The remaining teams brawled until Nova & Chetti pinned DeVito with the Tidal Wave. Angel & DeVito attacked Nova & Chetti afterward, but as expected New Jack arrived with the cartload of weapons for the save. He juiced DeVito big time with the staple gun as Nova & Chetti subdued Angel. New Jack brawled through the crowd with DeVito, with New Jack doing his regular PPV insane spot by diving off the balcony and putting DeVito through a table. He was okay afterward and returned to the ring to "officially" begin his match with Angel.

NEW JACK beat ANGEL in 0:45. Nova & Chetti held Angel as Jack busted a guitar over his head. He then hit him with a chair off the top for the easy pin to reclaim his title as King of the Streets. Short, but combined with the DeVito brawl it was entertaining.

YOSHIHIRO TAJIRI beat STEVE CORINO in 10:23. Corino hurled racial insults at Tajiri until Tajiri kicked him to start the match. Corino hit an enzuigiri and a powerbomb. Tajiri hooked the tarantula hold. Corino juiced a major gusher after taking a brainbuster on the ramp. Corino was then hung upside down in the tree of woe, allowing the blood to flow down and puddle up on the mat for effect. Jack Victory interfered and Corino came back with a superkick. The commentators put over big that Corino was showing courage by continuing to fight so they obviously have babyface designs on him at some point. Tajiri threw a chair into Corino's face and kicked a table into him. Corino backdropped Tajiri through a table. Corino made a comeback and scored several near falls. Tajiri hooked the octopus hold and sprayed mist at Victory when he tried to break it up. Corino made yet another comeback but Tajiri put him through a table and got the pin. A very good match! Afterward, Kanemura attacked Tajiri but Dusty Rhodes made the save and laid out Kanemura, Corino, and Victory before Rhino ran in and destroyed Dusty.

RHINO beat SANDMAN in 6:23 to retain the TV Title. Sandman did his In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida entrance, meaning that even if that was his entrance song, and it was the album version, the song would still have time to play by the time Sandman got to the ring. Sandman juiced himself with a beer can before the match. Sandman went for a quick cane shot but missed and Rhino pounded him. They brawled on the floor and on the ramp. Rhino charged, Sandman ducked, and Rhino went through a table. Sandman piledrived Rhino on the remains of the table. Lori came out but Corino grabbed her. Sandman beat Corino up. Rhino nailed Sandman from behind and piledrived him on the ramp. In a scary looking spot, Rhino then put Lori through a table with a piledriver off the apron. He was then going to put her through another table in the ring but Sandman caned the hell out of him and went to rescue Lori but Rhino recovered and gored both Sandman and Lori through the table and got the pin. He said "Happy Mother's Day, you f****in' bitch," before leaving. A good brawl with some scary spots.

JERRY LYNN defeated ROB VAN DAM in 19:48. They opened with a great series of spots where they blocked and countered one another. Van Dam hit a spinkick and cartwheel press. Lynn hit a springboard dropkick and a slingshot somersault plancha. Van Dam hit a corkscrew guillotine legdrop but missed a moonsault when Lynn moved and he crashed to the floor. They returned to the ring for a series of near falls, including one after a great DDT from Lynn. Bill Alfonso tossed a chair in the ring. Lynn blocked the Van Daminator, threw the chair into Van Dam's face, and then legsweeped him on the chair for a near fall. Van Dam hit a solid superkick and a rolling senton for a two count. They traded chair spots and scored some more twos. Both ended up going through a table from a spot off the apron. Van Dam came off the apron again but Lynn moved and Van Dam plastered his friend, Scotty Anton. Alfonso held a chair in front on Lynn's face and he took a Van Daminator. Van Dam frog splashed a chair on Lynn, which hurt both men. There was a ref bump in here somewhere. Corino and Victory attacked Van Dam but Lynn, wanting a clean pin, aided Van Dam. This prompted Rhino to spear Lynn. Rhino also powerbombed Van Dam. Van Dam rebounded and sent Rhino out with kicks. During this altercation, Cyrus had left the broadcast table and went in. Van Dam laid him out with the Van Daminator. Lynn laid Alfonso out. Van Dam went to the top but Anton turned on him and shoved him off and he took a scary bump against the ramp. Styles sold it that Lynn didn't see this. Lynn hit a cradle piledriver but Van Dam kicked out, but Lynn got the pin on the second one. The run-ins at the end were excessive but it was a great match.

JUSTIN CREDIBLE defeated LANCE STORM to retain the ECW World Title in 12:27. This one just couldn't follow the lead-in match, but it was still okay. It had less crowd heat, though, then earlier matches and the heat totally died at the finale. This was scheduled as a three-way, also involving Tommy Dreamer, but Credible said he'd throw down the belt and vacate it and spit on it unless Dreamer was removed. Paul Heyman came out and caved in to his demands, which came off looking real bad to give in to such a demand. Heyman explained that Credible had him by the balls but using that logic any wrestler should be able to make similar demands on any PPV and it was totally against the Heyman character to be pushed around. Dreamer had to accept Heyman's decision, but did flip him off. They began brawling to start the match. Storm barely grazed Credible with a dropkick and he bumped off the apron. Storm hit a pescado but got caught with a cane shot and juiced. They traded a ton of chops. There was a "We Want Dreamer" chant. Storm scored a bunch of two counts off of moves such as a huracanrana and a Northern Lights suplex. Credible came back with some twos as well. Credible got put through a table on the ramp. Storm hooked a Boston Crab, but Francine clocked him with a high-heel shoe. Dawn Marie attacked Francine for the catfight spot. Credible hit the Tombstone Piledriver on Dawn. Once the catfight was over the heat died and even though they traded some near falls the crowd was dead. Credible won with a Tombstone ("That's Incredible"). This may be Storm's final ECW PPV as he may be WCW bound. Dreamer ran in afterward and caned Credible. Francine begged for forgiveness and Dreamer pretended to have sympathy but gave her a Spicolli Driver to send the fans home happy.

2003 - Chris Sabin defeats Champion The Amazing Red and Jerry Lynn in a three way match to win the TNA X Division Title in Nashville, Tennessee.

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