On this day in Pro Wrestling history on July 19, 1997, ECW hosted “Heatwave 1997” in the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The show was main evented by 2 Steel Cage matches, the first one was a Co-Main Event for the ECW World Tag Team Championship, while the last match of the evening featured WWF Superstar Jerry “The King” Lawler in a 6 man Cage match.
This ECW event isn’t remembered by many as it never made it to a VHS or DVD release, but 2 important things still happened that night: The Gangstas captured Tag Team Gold, while Rick Rude turned on his two team partners Tommy Dreamer & The Sandman.
Here’s the card including the results:
– Handicap match
Mikey Whipwreck & Spike Dudley defeated PG-13 & Jason Knight
– Axl Rotten defeated Tracy Smothers
– John Kronus defeated Pablo Marquez
– Bam Bam Bigelow & Chris Candido defeated Balls Mahoney & Chris Chetti
– ECW World Television Championship
Taz (c) defeated Lance Storm
– ECW World Heavyweight Championship
Terry Funk (c) defeated Shane Douglas via DQ
– Steel Cage match – ECW World Tag Team Championship
The Gangstas defeated The Dudley Boyz (c)
– Steel Cage match
Jerry Lawler & Rob Van Dam & Sabu vs. Rick Rude & The Sandman & Tommy Dreamer ended in a no contest
