Hardcore Heaven (1999) was the fifth

Hardcore Heaven Hardcore Heaven was a professional wrestling event produced by Eastern/Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). It took place annually from 1994 to 2000, with the exception of 1998. The 1997, 1999 and 2000 iterations aired on pay-per-view Pay-per-v ...

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

(PPV)

event Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of e ...

and the second to be broadcast on pay-per-view. The event took place on May 16, 1999 at the

Mid-Hudson Civic Center Majed J. Nesheiwat Convention Center (formerly the Mid-Hudson Civic Center) is a venue located in Poughkeepsie, New York, consisting of Mair Hall (a concert and convention hall) and the McCann Ice Arena (an ice skating venue). It was built in th ...

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsi ...

. Eight

professional wrestling matches Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

took place at the event. The originally supposed

main event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

was a singles match, in which

Taz Taz or TAZ may refer to: Geography *Taz (river), a river in western Siberia, Russia *Taz Estuary, the estuary of the river Taz in Russia People * Taz people, an ethnic group in Russia ** Taz language, a form of Northeastern Mandarin spoken by ...

was supposed to defend the World Heavyweight Championship against

Chris Candido Christopher Barrett Candito (March 21, 1972 – April 28, 2005) was an American professional wrestler. Candito is best remembered for his tenures with promotions such as World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, New Japan Pro-W ...

, with Taz beating Candido to retain the title in the opening match. In the changed main event, Taz successfully defended the title against

Buh Buh Ray Dudley Mark LoMonaco (born July 14, 1971) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and Impact Wrestling under the ring name Bully Ray. He was previously known as one-half of The Dudley Boyz tag t ...

in a

falls count anywhere match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

. The World Television Championship and the

World Tag Team Championship The world tag team championship is the name usually given to the primary tag team championships in professional wrestling promotions. Nomenclature The name of the promotion is often preceded to the term "world tag team championship" as the ...

were also successfully defended at the event.

Event

Before the event aired live on pay-per-view, Skull Von Crush defeated

Danny Doring Daniel Morrison (born February 19, 1974) is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Danny Doring. He is best known for his appearances with the professional wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling from 1997 t ...

in a non-televised match.

Preliminary matches

interrupted

Joey Styles Joseph Carmine Bonsignore (born July 14, 1971) better known by his ring name Joey Styles, is an American former professional wrestling commentator. He is best known for his time with ECW and WWE. Before working for WWE, Styles was a full-time ...

' introduction and brought out

The Dudley Boyz The Dudley Boyz (also known as Team 3D) are an American professional wrestling tag team that consisted of kayfabe half-brothers Bubba Ray Dudley (Mark LoMonaco) and D-Von Dudley (Devon Hughes). The team was also joined by various Dudley family me ...

(

and

D-Von Dudley Devon Hughes (born August 1, 1972) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works backstage as a producer. Hughes wrestled for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1995 to 1999 and for the WWF/E f ...

) as his insurance policy for his World Heavyweight Championship match against

in the main event. Taz however came to confront Candido and their title match began. Taz took out Dudleys but Candido gained control by

powerbomb A powerbomb is a professional wrestling throw in which an opponent is lifted (usually so that they are sitting on the wrestler's shoulders) and then slammed back-first down to the mat. The standard powerbomb sees an opponent first placed in a sta ...

ing Taz. Candido missed a diving headbutt, allowing Taz to hit a '' T-Bone Tazplex'' and apply a ''

Tazmission Professional wrestling holds include a number of set moves and pins used by performers to immobilize their opponents or lead to a submission. This article covers the various pins, stretches and transition holds used in the ring. Some wrestlers use ...

'' to retain the title. After the match, Dudley Boyz hit a ''3D'' to Taz. Dudleys then issued an open challenge to put the titles on the line which was answered by

Balls Mahoney Jonathan Rechner (April 11, 1972 – April 12, 2016), better known by his ring name Balls Mahoney, was an American professional wrestler. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) during the late 199 ...

. Moments later,

Spike Dudley Matthew Jonathan Hyson (born August 13, 1970) is an American retired professional wrestler best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as Spike Dudley. Prior to WWE, Hyson began performing as Spike Dudley in the 1990s with E ...

joined Mahoney as his tag team partner. Dudleys were about to hit a ''3D'' on Spike but Mahoney stopped it with chair shots.

Joel Gertner Joel Gertner (born September 20, 1975) is an American professional wrestling announcer, color commentator, and manager. He is best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling from 1995 to 2001. Professional wrestling career ...

got involved by hitting Mahoney with a chair and threw matches at him. Mahoney blasted him with a fireball, which distracted Mahoney enough for Dudleys to hit him with a ''3D'' to retain the titles. Next,

Super Crazy Francisco Islas Rueda (born December 3, 1973), better known by his ring name Super Crazy, is a Mexican ''luchador'' (or professional wrestler). In Mexico, Islas has worked for Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) and made appearances f ...

competed against

Taka Michinoku (born October 26, 1973), better known by his ring name (with his first name usually stylized in all capital letters), is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. Michinoku is known in North America for his work for the ...

. Michinoku nailed a ''Michinoku Driver'' but was unable to cover Crazy due to a knee injury. Michinoku attempted another ''Michinoku Driver'' on Crazy but Crazy countered with a

tornado DDT In professional wrestling a DDT is any move in which the wrestler has the opponent in a Grappling hold, front facelock/inverted headlock and falls down or backwards to drive the opponent's head into the mat. The classic DDT is performed by putti ...

. Crazy nailed a sitout powerbomb to Michinoku for the win. In the following match,

Little Guido James Maritato (born March 12, 1972) is an American professional wrestler, best known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under the ring names Little Guido and Nunzio. A high-school footb ...

took on

Yoshihiro Tajiri is a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter primarily known under the ring name Tajiri (sometimes stylized as "TAJIRI"), he has also competed under his real name as well as under the names Aquarius and Kikkoman and briefly worked as the ...

. Tajiri put Guido in a tree of woe and

dropkick A dropkick is an attacking maneuver in professional wrestling. It is defined as an attack where the wrestler jumps up and kicks the opponent with the soles of both feet; this sees the wrestler twist as they jump so that when the feet connec ...

ed Guido in the corner and then hit a

brainbuster A brainbuster is a professional wrestling professional wrestling throws, throw in which a wrestler puts the opponent in a Professional wrestling holds#Front facelock, front facelock, hooks their pants or thigh, and lifts them up as if they were e ...

for the win. Next,

Tommy Dreamer Thomas James Laughlin (born February 13, 1971), is an American professional wrestler and promoter better known by the ring name Tommy Dreamer. He is signed to Impact Wrestling and is the owner and promoter of the House of Hardcore (HOH) promo ...

took on Lance Storm. Dreamer hit a '' Dreamer Driver'' to Storm from the

top rope Top rope climbing (or top roping) is a style in climbing in which the climber is securely attached to a rope which then passes up, through an anchor system at the top of the climb, and down to a belayer at the foot of the climb. The belayer takes ...

onto a

table Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...

Cyrus Cyrus ( Persian: کوروش) is a male given name. It is the given name of a number of Persian kings. Most notably it refers to Cyrus the Great ( BC). Cyrus is also the name of Cyrus I of Anshan ( BC), King of Persia and the grandfather of Cyrus ...

interfered in the match but

Francine :''This is a disambiguation page for the common name Francine.'' Francine is a female given name. The name is of French origin. The name Francine was most popular in France itself during the 1940s (Besnard & Desplanques 2003), and was well used i ...

countered his interference.

Dawn Marie Dawn Marie Psaltis (born November 3, 1970) is an American actress, nurse and a retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling valet. She is perhaps best known for her appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and the Smac ...

got involved into a brawl with Francine. Dreamer hit a piledriver to Marie, allowing Storm to place a trashcan on Dreamer's head and hit a flying spinning heel kick to Dreamer for the win. Later,

Rob Van Dam Robert Alexander Szatkowski (born December 18, 1970) is an American professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam (frequently abbreviated to RVD). He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling ...

defended the World Television Championship against

Jerry Lynn Jeremy Lynn (born June 12, 1963), better known by the ring name Jerry Lynn, is an American retired professional wrestler currently signed with All Elite Wrestling as a producer and coach. He has worked for promotions such as World Championship ...

. RVD hit a ''Van Daminator'' and a ''Five-Star Frog Splash'' on Lynn to retain the title. After the match, RVD showed respect to Lynn by giving him a "

high five High five is a friendly gesture in which one individual slaps another's hand. High five (and variants such as Hi5, Hi-5, and Hi-Five) may also refer to: Music * Hi-5 (Australian group), an Australian children's musical group * Hi-5 (Greek band), ...

". In the penultimate match,

Shane Douglas Troy Allan Martin (born November 21, 1964) is an American professional wrestler and promoter, better known by his ring name Shane Douglas. He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (W ...

was scheduled to compete against

Justin Credible Peter Joseph "PJ" Polaco (born October 16, 1973) is a retired American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Justin Credible. He ...

but Douglas was injured. Judge Jeff Jones came to confront Credible and brought out

Sid Vicious John Simon Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. Despite dying in 1979 at age 21, he remains an icon of the ...

as Douglas' replacement and Credible's opponent. Sid dominated Credible and was about to hit a powerbomb but

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...

interfered but sustained a powerbomb by Sid. Credible

cane Cane or caning may refer to: *Walking stick or walking cane, a device used primarily to aid walking *Assistive cane, a walking stick used as a mobility aid for better balance *White cane, a mobility or safety device used by many people who are b ...

d Sid but Sid

chokeslam A chokeslam is a type of body slam in professional wrestling, in which a wrestler grasps an opponent's neck, lifts them up, and slams them to the mat. It is common in televised wrestling because it is simple and relatively safe, yet looks power ...

med him. Sid then attempted to hit a powerbomb on Credible but Lance Storm broke it up and Sid chokeslammed him, which disqualified Credible. Credible threw powder in Sid's eyes and then Storm and Credible placed Sid on a table until Sabu showed up to attack Credible and Storm. Sabu placed Credible along with Sid on the table and hit an '' Air Sabu'' on the table, with Storm pulling Credible out of it and Sid being driven through the table. Credible and Storm retreated while Sabu and Sid were about to brawl with each other until security separated the two. Sid hit two powerbombs to Judge Jeff Jones in the ring.

Main event match

Dudley Boyz attacked several wrestlers backstage including

Nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

Chris Chetti Christopher Chetti (born July 16, 1974) is an American retired professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) between 1996 and 2001. Professional wrestling career Extreme Championship Wrestling ...

and

Jack Victory Kenneth Rinehurst (born July 3, 1964) is an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name, Jack Victory. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with the Universal Wrestling Federation and the World Class Wrestli ...

as ordered by Joel Gertner, which led to a match between Taz and Dudleys for the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event. D-Von Dudley injured his hand while attacking Chetti, so Buh Buh Ray Dudley challenged Taz for the title. Taz declared it to be a

Falls Count Anywhere match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

. D-Von interfered in the match and Dudley Boyz hit a ''3D II'' to Taz for the near-fall. Dudleys attempted another ''3D'' but Taz countered by hitting a DDT to D-Von and drove Buh Buh through a table with a ''T-Bone Tazplex''. Taz followed by applying a ''Tazmission'' on Buh Buh to retain the title.

Reception

John Molinaro of the ''SLAM! Sports'' section of

Canadian Online Explorer Canoe.com is an English-language Canadian portal site and website network, and is a subsidiary of Postmedia Network. The phrase Canadian Online Explorer appears in the header; the name is also evidently a play on words on canoe (or ''canoë'' in ...

rated the event 7.5 out of 10 and wrote "Heyman was able to pull off a respectable show that was far better than the recent PPV efforts of the WWF and WCW. Heyman, displaying the resiliency that he has become so famous for, delivered a respectable and entertaining show as ECW presented its annual Hardcore Heaven spectacular last night on PPV." Arnold Furious of ''Wrestling Recaps'' wrote "Started badly and ended badly but was really very good in the middle. Unusual for a PPV to be like that and normally a bad main event will let you down but I consider RVD-Lynn to be the main event so in this case the score isn’t affected." Dylan Diot of ''411Mania'' rated it 6 and wrote "ECW was no long a unique and edgy product by this point. WWF had successful incorporated elements of ECW into their product so everything ECW was doing was suddently coming across as a second rate WWF product. They took cheat shots throughout the PPV about what the WWF and WCW was doing while putting on the same overbooked segments and matches that the other two companies that they were making fun on were doing. They had guys like RVD, Lynn, Tajiri, and Taz who were wrestling a totally different style than the other two companies were doing and could have shifted the style and focus of the company to keep them differentiated but chose to stick to their roots which ended up hurting them in the long run. This show was solid with a great RVD/Lynn match and some solid wrestling but you can see the magic of the company was starting to fade." Scott Keith of ''411Mania'' gave negative reviews on the event, citing Chris Candido's quick loss in the opening match, Taz versus Buh Buh Ray Dudley as the main event, Justin Credible's forced

push Push may refer to: Music * Mike Dierickx (born 1973), a Belgian producer also known as Push Albums * ''Push'' (Bros album), 1988 * ''Push'' (Gruntruck album), 1992 * ''Push'' (Jacky Terrasson album), 2010 Songs * "Push" (Enrique Iglesias s ...

and lack of mentioning

Heat Wave A heat wave, or heatwave, is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries. While definitions vary, a heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the ...

and ECW's deal with TNN as the failure of the event.

Results

References

External links

* {{ECWPPV, Hardcore Heaven Hardcore Heaven Professional wrestling in New York (state) Events in Poughkeepsie, New York Events in New York (state) 1999 in New York (state) May 1999 events in the United States 1999 Extreme Championship Wrestling pay-per-view events