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With TNA's HardCORE Justice set to air on Sunday night I thought it would be in interesting to take a look at the glory years of the little promotion that could -- Extreme Championship Wrestling.Thanks to the wonders of the internet there are countless matches available for free.

The first installment of what will be a fairly regular feature showcases the beginning of one of the most impressive title reigns in recent pro wrestling history. On April 4, 1998 Rob Van Dam met Bam Bam Bigelow for the ECW World Television Title at a live event in Buffalo, New York. Van Dam's tag team partner Sabu was set to meet Bigelow for the Television Title at the Wrestlepalooza '98 Pay-Per-View so Van Dam was dispatched by manager Bill Alfonso to soften up Bigelow.  The saying goes something like the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry and that is exactly what happened in this instance.

Video of the full match and a breakdown after the jump.

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The Sun reports that Paul Heyman, in his latest "Heyman Hustle" commentary, that pop superstar Rihanna is ripping off ECW on the cover of her latest single.  Before you begin, this is Rihanna's cover:

And this is the image Paul claims is being aped:

As the sun paraphrased so nicely:

Paul - the former boss of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) - says there is an uncanny similarity between her latest single cover and an old album of his theme tunes.

He posted both pictures on his Heyman Hustle website, pointing out his image - featuring a grappler known as Sandman - was released back in 1998.

And Paul told The Sun: "It's pretty obvious this was copied from, or at least EXTREMELY inspired by the ECW album cover.

"From the barbed wire and the right arm up in the air to the blood dripping off the logo.

"Hey, I don't blame them. If you're going to copy someone, copy from the best.

"By the way, Rihanna... you're welcome!"

First of all, if Rihanna has ever in her life heard of ECW I would fall over backwards like a 1920s comic strip character.  Secondly, the only thing remotely similar about the two photos is the presence of barbed wire...and even that is a bit of a stretch.  Perhaps Paul spends a lot of time using the Google Image Search function for "right arm raised" so that he can jump in and claim credit for completely random things.

Shameful.

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Internet wrestling community legend Raven Mack raises goats, drinks beers, and makes babies. Once upon a time he also wrote about wrestling. This is a 12 Beer Review. 12 Days, 12 Beers. Not for the faint of heart. If you click more you will experience depravity, cursing, and political incorrectness. You have been warned.

Beer 1 follows the break:

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Tommy Dreamer will get a chance to regain the ECW Title next week against Christian. The new champ had a succesful defense last night against Zach Ryder in what was the best free TV match all month.

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