Throwback Thursday: Looking back at ECW Heat Wave 1998

Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Last time, I covered WCW Clash of the Champions 13. Next week, we'll look back at Starrcade 1985.

ECW Heat Wave 1998

Date: Aug. 2, 1998

Venue: Hara Arena, Dayton, Ohio

Some random notes

This was the fifth annual Heat Wave Extreme Championship Wrestling presented. The promotion presented two more before closing its doors in 2001. This was the first Heat Wave to take place outside of the ECW Arena — now known as the 2300 Arena in South Philadelphia.

It was also the first ECW pay-per-view to take place in the state of Ohio.

After suffering through December to Dismember a few weeks back, it was nice to sit down and watch a pay-per-view from the real ECW. It turns out that my beloved fans actually recommended a very good show, as this is regarded as one of the best events in ECW's history.

While that was all and good, I'm afraid we're going to touch on some sad events.

The dark match on this card was Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten teaming up to defeat the Full Blooded Italians' Little Guido and Tracy Smothers.

The reason why this match is worth mentioning is due to some unfortunate recent events. Mahoney — real name Jonathan Rechner — passed away back on April 12 at the age of 44. He died the day after his birthday.

The cause of his death is currently unknown. Mahoney's death came a little more than two months after Rotten — real name Brian Knighton — died of an accidental overdose in Maryland. He was also 44. He would have turned 45 today.

In watching a lot of these matches and events of yesteryear, it can be nostalgic and reminder of fun days of my childhood. But in some ways, it can be sad thinking about all of the wrestlers that left this earth way too young.

It happens almost every time I do one of these posts. I try not to dwell on the deaths too much, but with Mahoney's death being so recent, I felt the need to bring it up.

Unfortunately, Mahoney and Rotten aren't the only men to participate on this show I'll have to mention solely in the past tense. There are a couple of more tragic endings that I'll try avoid bringing up when I go through the matches, as this is supposed to be about the good and hilariously bad parts of wrestling history, not the overwhelmingly sad ones.

But since there are so many on this card, I'll quickly run through the list of those that are no longer with us. Names like Chris Candido, Mike Awesome, Hayabusa, Bam Bam Bigelow and Big Dick Dudley all participated on this card, but met their demise far before they should have.

It is sad, but it is the unfortunate reality of the world of professional wrestling.

Now that we have gotten the sad parts out of the way, how about we discuss the horribly dubbed music for entrances.

The only people on this show that had their actual music played on the WWE Network were Taz and Sabu. That's because ECW created those specific songs. Everyone else had licensed music that WWE would have to pay for in order to use.

WWE has decided to keep its money and instead dubbed over it with horrible remixes to the real songs. Heck, The Dudley Boyz didn't even get a song.

What WWE did leave on a lot of ECW pay-per-views is most of the cursing. WWE edits out some of the foul language, but for some reason leaves in a considerable amount. That is so not PG.

Let's get to the matches.

Justin Credible def. Jerry Lynn

This was a match between two very capable performers and they put on a very good match. However, Joey Styles and his unkind remarks about Nicole Bass, who accompanied Credible to the ring, distracted me.

Bass was a very muscular woman, making her an easy target to be made fun of by men and women. She would have pummeled the vast majority of those people. She was not getting any static out of me. WWE may fans may remember Bass from her appearance at WrestleMania 15.

If you thought Styles treatment of women was bad, wait until you get a load of Lynn hitting Bass with a steel chair (probably didn't hurt her that bad) and dropping Chastity, who also accompanied Credible to the ring, with a tombstone pile driver. That's no way to treat a lady.

Styles said he usually didn't condone violence against women, but approved of what Lynn did to Chastity because she had it coming.

Lynn succumbed to all of the distractions, however, as Credible defeated with a tombstone of his own, but from the top rope. That is very dangerous, but I'm sure quite effective.

Chris Candido def. Lance Storm

Tammy Sytch — better known as Sunny in WWE — joined Candido to the ring.

Sytch had the best seat in the house for another quality match. This match had a lot going on. It had Candido attempting to use powder and the referee almost pulling Sytch's dress off by accident.

But the biggest moment came when Candido pulled off a power bomb to Storm from the top rope. Another very dangerous, but it was quite effective.

Masato Tanaka def. Mike Awesome

The craziness of this show was only just beginning. The intensity got ratcheted up a lot of notches when Awesome took on Tanaka.

Let me first say that Awesome was … awesome. He was a big guy with a great look, was good in the ring and was very athletic for his size. He showed off a lot of that athleticism during this match.

He also showcased just how nuts he was by taking as many unprotected chair shots as he did. He wasn't alone. Not by a long shot. That's because Tanaka took even more unprotected chair shots than Awesome did and no-sold half of them.

These guys did everything. They fought with steel chairs like they were swords.

Then Tanaka sent Awesome through a table on the outside, but it definitely looked like Awesome hit the back of his head on the concrete floor. It was rather tough to watch.

The finish came when Tanaka hit Awesome with a tornado DDT onto a pair of steel chairs … from the top rope. Top rope finishers were the order of the evening on this night. It wouldn't be the last either.

This match was insane.

ECW World Tag Team championship – Rob Van Dam & Sabu def. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki

But wait, the insanity only continued with arguably the best match on the card.

For a little background, Shinzaki was once in WWE as Hakushi. The best part about his run was his entrance music. Quite frankly, it was beautiful.

As for Van Dam was only four months into his 23-month reign as the ECW World Television champion. He won it April 4, 1998. He held it until March 4, 2000. But this match wasn't about the TV title. He was about the tag team titles he reluctantly shared with Sabu.

Hayabusa and Sabu not only dressed alike, but also had similar in-ring styles. Their styles didn't clash in this match. Their styles only enhanced it.

People were flying around from one side of the ring to the other. Van Dam kicked steel chairs into people's faces and the finish was a pair of splashes from Van Dam and Sabu through a table. It was awesome.

The only annoying part was Bill Alfonso and that damn whistle. I know his job was to be annoying, but he was a little too good at it.

ECW FTW World Heavyweight championship – Taz def. Bam Bam Bigelow

Taz was not the official ECW World Heavyweight champion. That title belonged to Shane Douglas, who did commentary on the show alongside Styles. Douglas was nursing an injury, as he sported a brace on his arm reminiscent to the ones Houston Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt wears during games. The injury was because of constant attacks from Taz.

While Douglas healed, Taz created his own title and dubbed the FTW World title. I'm not at liberty to say what FTW means. Let's just say it rhymes with buck the world.

Taz held the title in such esteem that others wanted to take it from him like what Ted DiBiase did for the Million Dollar Championship. He was even introduced as the "unrecognized FTW World champion."

Although unrecognized, ECW treated the FTW World title as if it was an actual title, even giving the match the traditional championship introductions.

Speaking of introductions, I always loved how Taz was presented in ECW. Sure, Taz wasn't the tallest guy in the world, but WWE really squandered a chance to make another big star with Taz. He was money in ECW.

As far as the match, it was the brawl everyone expected. Taz and Bigelow fought all over the arena, as falls counted anywhere. In a callback to their match at Living Dangerously earlier that year, when Bigelow drove Taz through the ring, Taz drove Bigelow through the ramp before locking on his chokehold finish to pick up the win.

Shane Douglas was not happy with the finish and wound up throwing a monitor from the announcer's perch all the way to the floor. This wasn't the days of flat screens either. This was a hulking tube television monitor.

Street fight – Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, & Spike Dudley def. The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray, D-Von and Big Dick Dudley)

In the middle of the show New Jack was cutting a promo outside of the arena when Jack Victory and The Dudley Boyz attacked him.

New Jack was scheduled to face victory later in the night, but was taken out of the match due to the beating he took. New Jack came into play later on.

Before the match, Buh Buh Ray and Joel Gertner did everything they could to incite a near riot from the fans. A riot didn't take place on this night, but they took place other times because of The Dudley Boyz.

This match was mostly about Dreamer getting revenge on The Dudley Boyz for breaking his girlfriend's neck.

Because of that, this was another crazy brawl that was hard to keep track of. Even the referee got involved and helped the babyface team, which came out on top.

After the match, Victory came out and hit Dreamer with a guitar, which brought out New Jack, who used a stop sign, a golf club, a shopping cart and a guitar of his own to clean house.

Obviously, New Jack's actual theme music was not played during the melee.