6. Tazz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow -- Heatwave, August 2, 1998
Of all the great ECW rivalries from 1998, none were more extreme and out of control as "The Beast from the East" against the "Human Suplex Machine," Tazz. This feud was founded in pure hatred these two had for one another. On August 2nd of that year, Bigelow and Tazz battled it out at Heatwave in Dayton, Ohio, in the most extreme confrontation of their long feud. In the opening seconds of the match, Bigelow powerbombs Tazz, the unrecognized FTW World Heavyweight Champion. Tazz comes back with hard hitting clotheslines followed up with a Samoan Drop, demonstrating his unbelievable strength. This one is going to be extremely physical, and it's Falls Count Anywhere. Tazz chops the Beast down and sends him flying into the crowd with a Brooklyn Boot, followed up with a high cross body off the elevated ramp that leads to the ring (like the kind they had at Maple Leaf Gardens). Bigelow catches him in mid-air though -- Tazz may be strong but Bigelow is truly the Beast -- and throws him into the ringside chairs, then delivers a vicious chair shot to the back. Like Bruiser Brody and Abdullah the Butcher in Puerto Rico, the majority of this battle is chaotic and spent out in the crowd, in the far reaching corners of the arena. Giving up a hundred pounds to Bigelow, Tazz is hurled like a rag doll into the hockey rink boards. Tazz then absorbs the steel guard rail as Bigelow smashes him face first and sends Tazz flying. Tazz battles back, though, with a sickening suplex on the concrete. Staggering back towards the ring, Bigelow slips on the wet concrete and takes a nasty fall as Tazz quickly takes advantage and applies a Fujiwara arm bar. "Bam Bam will never submit," says Shane Douglas, on commentary with Joey Styles. "He would have to be killed. You'll have to rip his heart out before he submits!" Back on their feet, Tazz goes for his signature Tazmission, but Bigelow reverses it with a jawbreaker. Back over the ringside guardrail they both go, as Bigelow busts open Tazz with a kick to the eye, followed up with a powerbomb in the ring. Tossing a table into the ring, Bigelow sets it up in the corner and sends Tazz through it like an arrow, head first, breaking the table in half. Tazz's face is a bloody mess as Bigelow drives a knee into his throat, cutting off the air flow. Amazingly, Tazz keeps coming back, this time with a clothesline and an explosive T-Bone Taz-plex, sending Bigelow crashing through the already broken table. Weary and beaten, they take the battle out to the ramp. As Bigelow goes for a slam, Tazz reverses it and DDTs him through the ramp to the concrete floor as the crowds erupts into "EC-DUB!" and "Holy Sh*t!" chants. After a few moments, Bigelow emerges from the giant hole in the ramp, as the announce team of Styles and Douglas speculate Tazz was crushed beneath the 345-pound "Beast from the East." Seconds later, though, Tazz crawls out from the carnage and clobbers Bigelow from behind, before hooking on the Tazmission. Bigelow submits, as the Dayton crowd goes nuts, having witnessed one of the most brutal and shocking matches in ECW history.