# @wrestlingnewsco on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DbzDXzBRzDO
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69020526-wrestlingnewsco-instagram
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- **Posted:** 2026-08-08T23:34:24.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Wrestling News - WWE, AEW (@wrestlingnewsco) — https://gondola.cc/wrestlingnewsco

## Caption

When ECW debuted on TNN in 1999, the match Paul Heyman aired to showcase the company was Rob Van Dam against Jerry Lynn.

The series began at Living Dangerously on March 21, 1999, with Van Dam defending the ECW World Television Championship. Van Dam entered as both TV champion and one half of the tag team champions with Sabu. Lynn had declared himself The New F’n Show, an answer to Van Dam’s Whole F’n Show billing. Van Dam retained, and the match is widely cited as the one that elevated both men.

Van Dam praised Lynn on the microphone afterward and challenged him to a rematch. At Hardcore Heaven on May 16, 1999, at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York, they went 26 minutes and 57 seconds in a no time limit match, and Van Dam retained again. By multiple accounts of the match, Lynn was concussed early and finished it anyway.

Both matches remain highly rated by fans. Reviewers on Cagematch have called the Hardcore Heaven match the best of 1999, with one writing that “this series is the foundation of the 2000s style.” A review of Lynn’s career on the site says the two produced matches “years ahead of their time.” The Hardcore Heaven bout was later featured in WWE Network’s 100 Best Matches To See Before You Die.

Heyman had been denied the segment he wanted for the TNN debut that August, and aired the Hardcore Heaven match in its place.

At Heat Wave in July 1999, Van Dam and Lynn teamed in the main event to beat the Impact Players, Lance Storm and Justin Credible.

Van Dam’s Television Championship reign ran roughly 700 days before an ankle injury forced him to forfeit the title in 2000. Lynn won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in October 2000.

The two met roughly 40 times across their careers, per Cagematch, in ECW, WWE and TNA.

#RVD #JerryLynn #ECW #WrestlingHistory #RobVanDam

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## Tags

ecw, wrestlinghistory, rvd, robvandam, jerrylynn

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