The ECW World Title belt has finally made its way home. At the Cyberslam event held Saturday night at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Tommy Dreamer pinned Tazz and won the ECW World Heavyweight Title only to lose it to Justin Credible minutes later.
On loan from the WWF, Tazz walked into the arena as the ECW Champion. His return was well-received by the fans and Dreamer who applauded Tazz from inside the ring. The match itself broke down into a brawl at ringside and beyond the steel retaining fence. Once the action returned to the ring, Dreamer survived Tazz’s arsenal of suplexes to execute a Sunset Flip for the pinfall.
As Dreamer made a victory speech about how much the title meant to him, Tazz and Dreamer hugged in a mutual display of respect and good sportsmanship.
But, that wasn’t the end of it. Raven entered the ring and embraced Dreamer as well. Then, Justin Credible and Jason came in beating up on Dreamer and Raven. Justin spat on the ECW World Tag Team Title belt, discarded it and challenged Dreamer to a title match right there and then. Turncoat Francine and Jason meddled in the match on Credible’s behalf. Francine punched Dreamer in the crotch as Jason distracted the official. Credible drove Dreamer into the mat with his That’s Incredible piledriver to win the ECW World Heavyweight Title for the very first time.
Though he has been with the federation since its inception, tonight was Tommy Dreamer’s first reign as ECW World Heavyweight Champion. All of Dreamer’s prior championships came about in the tag team ranks. He has been a ECW World Tag Team Champion three times with Johnny Gunn, Raven and Masato Tanaka as his partners. Dreamer is not only a part of the ECW talent but is Paul Heyman’s unofficial assistant in running the federation.
Mike Awesome unexpected and controversial jump to the competing World Championship Wrestling federation sparked a period of unprecedented turmoil in ECW and resulted tonight’s title changes at Cyberslam. Awesome skipped out on his contract with the promotion while still in possession of the ECW World Heavyweight Title belt he had won from Masato Tanaka in December. A threat to have the belt disgraced on WCW’s Monday Night Nitro program had ECW owner Paul Heyman on the phone to company lawyers in an attempt to get back what he termed as “stolen property”.
Last-minute negotiations between ECW and WCW prevented Awesome from showing up on Nitro with the belt. ECW and the WWF then made a deal to share their talent. Awesome agreed to appear at a house show and drop the belt to the former ECW superstar now WWF mainstay, Tazz. In a quick match, Tazz made Awesome submit to his Taz-mission hold after Tommy Dreamer DDT’ed Awesome. The match was taped and shown on ECW’s TNN broadcast.
With ECW’s consent, Tazz appeared with the ECW World Heavyweight Title on the WWF’s Raw Is War and Smackdown! television programs. On Smackdown! Dreamer cost Tazz a chance at winning the WWF World Heavyweight Title when he interfered in Tazz’s match against Hunter-Hearst Helmsley. Aiming for Triple H, Dreamer inadvertently struck Tazz with a steel chair precipitating his loss. Dreamer’s actions on Smackdown! set the table for his match against Tazz at Cyberslam thereby insuring that the ECW World Title would be put back around the waist of one of their own wrestlers.
Cyberslam is an annual ECW fan convention that wraps up with a better-than-average house show. The show itself is taped and released on home video at a later date. This year’s card was broadcast live on the official ECW Web site by way of a written transcript. Fans can expect footage from Cyberslam to be aired on ECW On TNN this coming friday.
Cyberslam Results
- In a match featuring returning superstars, Masato Tanaka defeated 2-Cold Scorpio with his Diamond Dust finisher.
- In a mixed tag bout, Dawn Marie and Lance Storm beat Jazz and Nova. Storm suffered an injury during the match. Nova’s Kryptonite Krunch missed its mark landing Storm on his neck. Storm needed assistance to make it back to the locker room. At press time there is no word on how serious the injury is.
- Little Guido came out on top in a three-way match against Super Crazy and Kid Kash. Guido executed the Maritado on Crazy to get the pinfall.
- The New Dangerous Alliance defeated Danny Doring and Roadkill. C.W. Anderson spiked Doring with the Spinebuster to take home the win.
- Though outnumbered, New Jack laid waste to The Baldies in a street fight. A flying chair shot to DeVito won him the match. Balls Mahoney helped New Jack clear the ring of folically-challenged baddies.
- Steve Corino and Dusty Rhodes continued their fierce feud. With Jack Victory’s aid, Corino got a shocking pinfall over the veteran, Rhodes..
- At the urging of the fans in attendance, Yoshihiro Tajiri refused to hand over the ECW World Television Title to Cyrus. This action brought forth a Rhino versus Tajiri match. Rhino piledrived Tajiri twice to become the new ECW World Television Champion. Rob Van Dam and Scotty Anton spoiled Rhino and Cyrus’ revelry in the ring. RVD was told by Cyrus that he would have to work for a title shot and that he would be facing Jerry Lynn at Hardcore Heaven. Lynn and Van Dam had a brief verbal showdown.
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