The Secret History Of ECW | Wrestling Timelines

July 18, 1999 - Heat Wave

ECW Heat Wave 1999 Dudley Boyz
WWE.com

We are settling into a cold period of “good, not great”. Heat Wave ‘99 cannot match last year’s edition.

There are signs, ahead of ECW’s big move to national TV, that the expansion is destined to fail. At the pay-per-view, Taz successfully defends his World title against Yoshihiro Tajiri. Tajiri has enchanted the U.S. audience with his brutal kicks, so much so that you can almost trace the phasing out of the worked punch back to his style. ECW is still introducing new ideas to the mainstream, but the match is a disappointment. Creativity doesn’t count for anything, if you can’t build new stars, and as cult a hit as Tajiri is, a true headliner he is not. The only match that approaches great is Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn’s win over Justin Credible and Lance Storm in the main event.

Heat Wave ‘99 is notable for a vile and never-ending promo cut by the Dudley Boys before they lose the World Tag Team titles to Spike Dudley and Balls Mahoney.

“We’ve got a mom in the front row who told her daughter how to suck d*ck” is typical of the content. This woman spits in Buh Buh’s face, but nobody is chasing him out of the building. The promo is also rife with homophobia and a threat of sexual assault.

The promo is still discussed as some last bastion of “real heat”, amongst the edgelord corner of the wrestling fandom, but what’s lost is the resulting match. It’s not very good at all. The fans have calmed down considerably. No riot is imminent; they’re too bored, and they fail to react unless a big violent spot happens. They only want “flaming tables”, which they chant in what is a translation of “get to the point”. If the promo is so good, the fans would care on an emotional level. They don’t.

Moreover, the content of the promo, and a spot in which the Dudleys send Mahoney and Spike through a flaming table, which WWE will take for WrestleMania 22, is the sort of thing that spooks TNN. ECW is beginning to feel distinctly cheap. The irony is that ECW could probably do with a shift in creative direction, on this evidence. The promotion is baiting the crowd, begging for heat, and the WWF is teeming with incest, sexism, and CTE. ECW can’t compete. It might be time for a new innovation.

Heyman doesn’t even consider it, and is in fact so affronted by TNN’s suggestion to scale it back that all he wants to do is double down.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!