Wrestlepalooza (1998)

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Wrestlepalooza 1998 was the fourth Wrestlepalooza event produced by Extreme Championship Wrestling which took place on 30th August 1998. This was the last ECW event before its shutdown until the One Night Stand PPV in 2005 and its subsequent TV revival in 2006 as part of WWE

## Background

The main match heading into the show is is Raven defending his ECW Heaviweight Championship against Tommy Dreamer. This has been THE feud that defined ECW and it goes all the way back to 1995 with Raven and Superstar Austin teaming up against Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman as Raven first started to try a cult and get Sandman in there, Dreamer wanted to end this cult as soon as possible but he kept failing to pin Raven, even when him and Sandman won matches it was always Sandman who got the winning pin. He got an ECW TV Championship match against him at Hardcore Heaven 1996 but yet again failed to beat him after Sandman faked being Raven's disciple just because Sandman wanted the TV title himself which he got by defeating Raven on a later date, Dreamer was pissed and was suspended for attacking both men, they had a threeway dance at A Matter of Respect where Dreamer was close to pinning and eliminating Raven but Sandman threw Dreamer out of the ring and eliminated him himself, Dreamer won the TV title by eliminating Sandman but lost it 2 months later to Raven yet again. Dreamer wanted one last match against Raven to prove he could beat him and he got the match by defeating The Eliminators, but a stipulation was added that if Dreamer failed to defeat Raven, he would be forced to join Raven's Cult and that's exactly what happened at The Culmination 1996. Dreamer spent a year of his career being forced to do Raven's dirty business and work as a heel while he hoped the crowd would still be by his side, he took this year as a chance to learn Raven's moves and tricks. Dreamer defeated Lance Storm at Wrestlepalooza 1997(something Raven couldn't do) and started hatching a plan with ECW Heaviweight champion Meng where Meng would hype up Dreamer and give him wins so that Raven could be completely pissed about it, Dreamer was scheduled to face Meng for the title at December to Dismember but he was attacked by an unknown man(who was then revealed to be Raven) and Raven took his spot saying it was okay and he would win the title for Raven's Cult, Raven won the title at the show after Dreamer chairshotted Meng a lot of times in the head(but this was all part of the plan for Raven to think Dreamer is completely on his side), as Raven and Dreamer celebrated his title win, Dreamer turned on Raven when he least expected it, Raven said he had ownership of Dreamer's contract so he fired him but Dreamer had a preposition: IF he loses against Raven again, he's fired from ECW but Raven should first prove why he's a worthy champion by beating the man he's beaten every single time. Raven accepted, Dreamer said he has trained with Raven for a year and the only way for Raven to win is if he cheats and that would prove he sucks as a champion but that's exactly what Raven did at Hardcore Heaven having to resort to a rollup to end Dreamer's career and retain the championship. Raven eventually aligned himself with owner Paul Heyman who was happy at this as he always had a grudge against Dreamer, Raven didn't care about his ego or pandering to the fans anymore, he was simply living his best life as champion. Dreamer suddenly showed up at the Extreme Rumble as he attacked number 20 Justin Credible and proceeded to eliminate Shane Douglas to become the supposed winner, Heyman didn't count it as a win since Dreamer wasn't an official signed ECW wrestler but Dreamer had the contract so his title match was set for Wrestlepalooza. Heyman said he'd put his ownership job on the line just for Dreamer to not come back to ECW and Dreamer challenged him to a match with those exact stakes, Heyman picked Vader as his representative but Dreamer still picked up the win as Heyman was fired and Dreamer was officially signed back to ECW, 4 years in the making it has all built up to this one match

Mike Awesome started trying to get a tag team partner to do something of noteworthy in ECW, he introduced Masato Tanaka and after 2 matches where they showed they had great chemistry together, Awesome turned heel on Tanaka and said the awesome era had begun. Awesome ended up winning the TV Championship and Tanaka returned, he didn't want that title YET, all he wanted was to get revenge on Awesome so he accepted a non title match at Hardcore Heaven which Tanaka managed to luck out and win. Awesome continued targeting Tanaka throught the weeks as Heyman tried to talk to him but he always shut him off, Heyman finally revealed that Awesome didn't defend the title for 30 days due to his obssession with Tanaka and was stripped off the belt, Awesome challenged Tanaka to a 2nd match and due to all the pain caused by him, Tanaka wasn't at 100 percent and lost their second match but Tanaka promised that as soon as he recovered from his injuries, he would have the tiebreaker against Awesome. They had it at Fuck Mania IV and within 30 minutes of war, Awesome and Tanaka both passed out from exhaustion and the match ended in a draw. Both men promised that when they came back they would fight each other again, Paul Heyman decided to have this be a best of seven with the winner getting an ECW Heaviweight title shot, they had their fourth match at Extreme Countdown which ended with Awesome top rope powerbombing Tanaka onto a chair and he had to be stretchered out as he was knocked out, Awesome waited for Tanaka's return and said he'd do whatever it takes to beat him, in their 5th match at Hardcore TV 184, Awesome did 2 top rope powerbombs and Tanaka was getting stretchered out again until he returned to the ring and didn't quit, this led to them going up to the balcony and eventually falling off 20 feet through a table as yet again the match ended in a draw, their 6th match was set for Wrestlepalooza which would be both men's returns but last wednesday Mike Awesome returned early as he defeated Lance Storm for the TV Championship so this match will also be for the TV title, they are currently 2-1 with Awesome leading due to all the draws, if Awesome wins he gets the title shot, if Tanaka wins he gets his 7th match and his last shot at beating Awesome

At ECW vs WWF, the most defining moment of Taz's character happened as he failed to defeat WWF Champion Vader and this led to Vader retaining the WWF title and becoming ECW Heaviweight champion taking the title to WWF, due to all the guilt he had towards this Taz became an undefeated monster crushing the whole midcard division as he had a 1 year long TV title reign, his undefeated streak ended at December to Dismember with Jerry Lynn finally being able to defeat him, Vader made a special appearence to ECW as Paul Heyman's representative against Tommy Dreamer but failed to win, upon seeing this Taz just wanted to get his hands on Vader one more time as he kept challenging him throught the weeks to no response, Taz will do an open challenge here tonight as he hopes Vader will show up

Little Guido has recently become way scarier with New Jack's return as he took his hammer and beat New Jack up as much as he could, his tag partner Kid Kash had to stop him before he killed New Jack, due to this new found aggression Kash and Guido rose up the ranks of the tag division and challenged Dudley Boyz to a match for the tag titles who accepted as even they were scared of this version of Guido, they managed to defeat them to win the tag titles at November to Remember. During a defense against Impact Players, Guido was about to use the hammer on Bobby Duncum but Kash stopped him and let Guido be rolled up for them to lose the titles, Kash said he'd rather lose the titles than have his friend succum to darkness but Guido responded with a beatdown on Kash, they fought in a scaffold match at December to Dismember which ended with Guido throwing Kash off 40 feet through many tables and through the ring as he smiled like a maniac. Kash's new tag partners Tajiri and Super Crazy kept trying to get revenge but kept failing, Kash returned but it was clear he was afraid of what Guido had become as he ran away everytime Guido showed up, Guido wanted to crush Kash one last time but Tajiri and Crazy said they would have to go through them first in a gauntlet match which Guido did at Heatwave, Kid Kash will have to surpass his fears tonight if he wants to beat Little Guido

Rising Speed, Jerry Lynn and RVD, Dudley Boyz and The OGs have been a constant force in the tag division since the start of 1998 and it has been decided that they will all face each other tonight in a fatal 4 way tag match for the titles

Triple Threat were tired of all the blood and guts of ECW and wanted real wrestling, they started holding 15 minute iron man matches between its members but they kept being interrupted and thrown through tables by the most extreme tag team on ECW: New Jack and John Kronus, Douglas had had enough and challenged them to a match where no weapons were allowed and Gangstanators accepted

## Results

 2
 3
 4
ECW TV Championship Match
 5
 6

## Details

* Paul Heyman kicks off the show to huge boos, he says he understands but he's breaking kayfabe a bit today as the crowd silences, he talks about this wonderful idea he has while watching Haku beat the shit out of Tama in 1991 so he started putting his hands on the job creating eastern championship wrestling and adding extreme to a company "extreme was always a thing I knew drew well,from the battles with Cactus Jack and Vader,from wargames,people enjoyed seeing huge beatdowns with weapons,but ECW wasnt just the place for trash deathmatch crap wrestling,no, I added the extreme element with amazing wrestlers who were on the rise to stardom, this was the place to get introduced to luchalibre, to technical wrestling, to storytelling bouts, a lot of people got introduced on ECW and then got signed to the "big leagues" but the truth is,ECW was alWAYS one of the big leagues. We might not have had the money to make huge spectacles, we might not have had a PPV deal, but we always had the most important thing in a company,some goddamn great fans. But as I mentioned,we do not have the money, there was a lot of times where I thought ECW would have to close down so I reach the part I didnt wanna get to, ever. ECW is not in a good situation right now, PPVs started to get cancelled,we never got a good TV deal, we got a shitton of lawsuits and it is with my deepest sorrows that I am announcing that ECW is coming to an end. I dont know for how long we can keep going, I dont know if tonight is our last show or if our last show is 3 weeks from now or if even I get a miracle and our last show never happens, all that I know is that I am here promising to you that as long as we stay on air, as long as there's shows with us, you can guaranTEE THAT YOU WILL BE GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH, because after all, we are one of the big leagues, WE ARE E C FUCKING W.
* Before the opening match begins, Heyman shows up again announcing this is now a fourway ladder match
* The match ends with RVD five star frog splashing Dudley Boyz through another ladder outside of the ring while Lynn retrieves the tag titles
* Taz enters the ring saying just as he thought, no Vader on the crowd, no Vader backstage, no Vader anywhere, he's a pussy, the only man to hold all of the 3 big companies championships decides to not show up, he holds an open challenge to anyone backstage as them just showing up proves they're better than Vader, VADER COMES OUT HE'S HERE
* Kash goes outside of the ring multiple times because he's scared of Guido, Guido jumps off the turnbuckle and Kash hits him with a chairshot outside of the ring while he's diving, Kash puts Guido in the ring and hits him with his finisher but Guido kicks out, Kash composes himself, starts hyping himself up and starts chopping Guido as he admits he's not afraid of him anymore, he hits his finisher one last time to finally beat Guido
* It's possible the the 7th match between Awesome vs Tanaka won't even happen as ECW is coming to an end so they leave us with a bang, 5 star match. For the first time ever, Awesome goes for a top rope powerbomb, he jumps but Tanaka reverses it into a hurricanrana as the crowd pops big. The match ends with a tornado DDT right onto a chair and Tanaka has finally beaten Awesome and wins the TV title
* New Jack and Kronus start using chairs and Douglas is confused because those weren't the rules, New Jack says "fuck the rules, this is ECW" Douglas quickly realizes the mistake he did as he gets chairshotted on the head
* We get snippets of every Dreamer vs Raven match that has happened but Dreamer is now smarter than Raven, Raven tries to roll him up but Dreamer kicks out and transitions into putting Raven on the top rope and jumping with a DDT through the table, TOMMY DREAMER HAS FINALLY BEATEN RAVEN, HE'S ECW HEAVIWEIGHT CHAMPION, THE HEART AND SOUL OF ECW STANDS TALL. The whole ECW roster celebrates with Dreamer and so do the fans jumping the barricade, OUT COMES WWF'S TERRY FUNK as he shakes hands with Dreamer and raises his hand as the official ending of ECW......for now
* ECW shuts down 2 days after on 1st September 1998