Today in ECW History - July 16th

 

Today in ECW History - July 16th, 1994

ECW Heat Wave 1994

ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

• Bad Breed (Axl Rotten and Ian Rotten) def. Hack Meyers and Rockin' Rebel
• ECW World Television Championship: Mikey Whipwreck (c) def. Chad Austin to retain the title
• Tommy Dreamer def. Stevie Richards
• Mr. Hughes def. Tommy Dreamer
• Sabu and The Tazmaniac def. The Pitbulls (Pitbull #1 and Pitbull #2)
• Dueling Canes Match: The Sandman def. Tommy Cairo
• ECW World Heavyweight Championship: Shane Douglas (c) def. Sabu to retain the title
• No Ropes Barbed Wire Match: The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) def. Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk

Today in ECW History - July 16th, 2000

ECW Heat Wave 2000

Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California:

• Sal E. Graziano def. Balls Mahoney
• 6-Man Tag Team Match: Roadkill, Danny Doring and Kid Kash def. CW Anderson, Johnny Swinger and Simon Diamond
• Jerry Lynn def. Steve Corino
• Chris Chetti and Nova def. Da Baldies (Angel and Tony DeVito)
• 4-Way Dance: Yoshihiro Tajiri def. Little Guido, Mikey Whipwreck and Psicosis
• ECW World Television Championship: Rhino (c) def. The Sandman to retain the title
• Rob Van Dam def. Scotty Anton
• Stairway To Hell Ladder Match for ECW World Heavyweight Championship: Justin Credible (c) def. Tommy Dreamer to retain the title

Wrestler birthday(s): Chris Chetti turns 49 years old today. Chetti was a ECW mainstay and was the first student of ECW's House of Hardcore wrestling school that was ran by his cousin Taz. He appeared on and off in ECW from 1996-2001. During ECW's dying days, he and Nova were teaming up and had participated in the ECW World Tag Team Championship tournament in August 2000 for the vacant titles. However, he turned on Nova becoming a heel for the first time in his ECW career. The two had a Loser Leaves ECW match at November to Remember 2000 which Nova ended up winning. This turned out to be Chetti's final ECW match. He would return at ECW Guilty as Charged 2001, the final ECW pay-per-view, where he jumped into Nova's match against Chris Hamrick as the special guest referee to help Hamrick until Spike Dudley made the save for Nova. Following his time in ECW, he participated in several independent promotions and signed a contract with the ECW-ripoff called Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) in 2002. In November 2002, Chetti proclaimed himself the new ECW FTW Champion, only to loose the title to Danny Doring on July 16th, 2003. His and Doring's reigns are all but forgotten in the title history of the belt. He appeared ringside at the first ECW One Night Stand in 2005. Shortly there after he sustained a career ending back injury and went into retirement. He came out of retirement once in 2013 to team with long time partner Nova to defeat Hurricane Helms and Starman at a internet pay-per-view promoted by the Pro Wrestling Syndicate promotion in New Jersey. 

Wrestler death(s): Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy passed away on this day in 2001. Gordy appeared in ECW in 1996 as a challenger for Raven and his ECW World Championship as the "internationally recognized #1 contender". He lost the match but went on to team up with Raven's nemesis Tommy Dreamer and later reunited with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams to face The Eliminators (Perry Saturn and John Kronus). He also had a bout with Bam Bam Bigelow at ECW Ultimate Jeopardy that was billed as the "Battle of the Bam Bam's" on the old commercials for ECW Extreme Warfare - the VHS tape that Joey Style's voice would hype on nearly every old episode of ECW Hardcore TV during the commercials.