In the ring we go and, right off the bat, Joel Gertner is slinging out some X-rated lines. Cyrus (Don Callis) shows up, of course. They'd done this sort of segment to kick off nearly every PPV of the past year or so if I'm not mistaken. At this point, ECW knew they were cancelled by TNN (which was getting Raw in its place) so this whole thing is a bit of a "worked shoot" where Gertner finally snaps and attacks Cyrus having essentially quit the broadcast team. This segment - and really, this whole show - is a big F-U to TNN and basically Paul Heyman just letting every possible obscenity and extreme idea fly. After Gertner attacks Cyrus, its time for our first real match...
"Big" Sal Graziano vs. Balls Mahoney in a squash that goes less than 5 minutes. I'm not sure what the story is here, but Graziano gets the dominant and decisive win over the ever-popular Balls Mahoney. Was Mahoney leaving the company? Did Heyman see Graziano as a possible Next Big Thing? If so...I don't know what he was thinking as "Big" Sal was a pretty one-dimensional act (not that Balls Mahoney had tremendous range, but he was over). Graziano eats a chairshot but no-sells it, which was cool at the time but seems reckless now. This was underwhelming and the crowd reacted as such. (1/5)
After a promo from Rob Van Dam hyping his new movie (The Van Terminator), the in-ring action get much, much better as Kid Kash, Danny Doring, and Roadkill take on the team of Simon Diamond, CW Anderson, and Johnny Swinger. A clip of the heels attacking Bobby Eaton plays before the match, which had me hoping we'd get an appearance from Beautiful Bobby, but unfortunately he never shows. I wasn't expecting this match to be as good as it was, but this was a really solid six-man tag with lots of great spots. Plus, Roadkill and Kash were super over with this crowd. Speaking of the crowd, this was ECW's debut in Los Angeles (I'm not sure if that's 100% accurate, but it was their first pay-per-view there at least) and the fans here are very much into every match and segment, which really helps a match like this, which wasn't going to get over with "star power" alone. Roadkill's big spots off the ropes get tremendous reactions and it made me think that, maybe with the right people in his corner or singing his praises or really coaching him (it wouldn't have hurt him to drop a couple dozen pounds as, even in the 00s, the WWE still needed guys who were legit 6'0'' and near-300 pounds), he could've had a shot at a better run in WWE. I also really liked the number of double-team maneuvers that both teams busted out throughout the match. Just a really good, above-average match. (3.5/5)
Backstage, Rhyno cuts a promo about he enjoyed putting The Sandman's wife in the hospital.
In the ring, Steve Corino makes his way down the aisle with Jack Victory in tow. His opponent tonight is Jerry Lynn, who had rejected Corino and Victory and Cyrus' attempt to have him join The Network stable. Lynn and Corino proceed to have a very good match featuring a good mix of solid "old school" wrestling with some real nasty hardcore elements once Corino gets busted open. Like the Tajiri match, Corino bleeds buckets here. Unlike the Tajiri match, it is way more of an even back-and-forth match as Corino finds way to stay alive and even counter some of Lynn's ever-impressive offense. There's even a late-in-the-match sequence of rolling pins that pops the crowd. There are some questionable moments like when Lynn painting "DIE" on his stomach with Corino's blood, which not only seemed a bit out-of-character but also unwarranted or when, minutes later, Corino sets up a chair, goes to the middle rope, and essentially waits for Lynn to reverse DDT him into it (Lynn appears equally baffled by Corino's actions here and they end up botching the move). I'm not going to go a "full 4" for this one as I wouldn't consider this essential viewing, especially if you're not into the ECW style or knowledgeable about the Network/Lynn storyline, but this came pretty close. (3.5/5)
Backstage, The Sandman is with his wife, Lori Fullington. He talks about having to visit her in the hospital for seven straight weeks with his kids and how torturous it was. Rhyno appears out of nowhere and canes The Sandman in the back. He then grabs Lori and stuffs her head into the toilet. It is a wild, vulgar, and violent scene that would have never flown on TV. As I wrote earlier, a segment like this seems like Paul E. trying to show how "extreme" he could make his show, but, of course, this would've scared off practically any advertiser or cable company that could've helped save his company.
Anyway - New Jack comes down the aisle on crutches and immediately gets attacked by Da Baldiez, who then have a match against Chris Chetti and Nova (who is wearing a Flash-inspired bodysuit for some reason). The best thing to say about this match is that it doesn't eat up too much time. Nova could usually be relied upon to bust out at least one cool move, but they didn't get much time to develop a story and nothing stood out to me aside from just how garish Chetti's hair color/outfit looked. (0.5/5)
The next match is hyped as an International Threeway, but Mikey Whipwreck shows up and joins the other three competitors - Psicosis, Tajiri, and Little Guido - to make it a fourway. We also got a blink-and-you'll miss it cameo from Tony Mamaluke for some reason. Whipwreck doesn't last too long, but he got to shine in his minutes by hitting a huge front-flip dive to the floor. Tajiri was the most over guy in the match by a country mile and had the crowd going wild for his signature offense. Psicosis looked a little lost at times and there were noticeable moments when Tajiri and him had to take a beat before getting to the next spot. Little Guido was the last man eliminated, but he didn't look too strong in this defeat, spending most of the match eating brutal kicks from the Japanese Buzzsaw. This match could've and should've went a touch longer and Guido should've been made to look like more of a threat as he had quietly become one of ECW's most reliable in-ring performers. (2.5/5)
The Sandman finally got his hands on Rhyno in the next match, the two competing for Rhyno's Television Championship. As expected, the majority of this match was made up of Sandman's entrance (or so it felt like). Sandman was never a great worker, but I was hoping that he and Rhyno would have done more to make this feel like the culmination of a blood feud. Instead, its a pretty by-the-numbers hardcore match built around a piece of the guardrail being dragged into the ring, multiple Singapore Cane shots, and then the return of Spike Dudley (to save Sandman from a run-in by Corino and Jack Victory). Dudley gets piledriven through a table onto the arena floor, which was a cool trademark spot for Rhyno, but all the interference took away from the focus that should've been kept on Sandman and Rhyno's rivalry. It may not be fair to call a match as hard-hitting and with as many dangerous spots as this had in its brief runtime as underwhelming, but considering the heat around this feud and the fact that Sandman's real-life family was brought into it, I expected this to deliver much more in terms of violence and emotion. (2/5)
Next up - Rob Van Dam vs. Scott "US Male" Anton. The story here was that Anton had been RVD's best friend but had turned on him at the last PPV. Van Dam had also been hyping the debut of the Van Terminator. This match had more structure than your usual RVD match from the 90s as there was a clear babyface shine stretch to start things, followed by Anton gaining control, and then a third act that saw Rob Van Dam regain control and then deliver not only his patented Five Star Frog Splash but also debut the Van Terminator (his across-the-ring dropkick-into-a-chair in the corner move that Shane McMahon would end up stealing). This match would likely be considered a hidden gem had it shaved off a few minutes and Anton had any sort of build or credibility prior to coming into ECW. Unfortunately, Anton was a lower midcarder-at-best in WCW despite being, for ECW in 2000, probably in the upper tier of actual in-ring performers. The debut of the Van Terminator is an amazing moment that gets a massive, massive pop from the crowd, but at nearly 20 minutes, this match has too many slow parts and multiple poorly-executed overly-choreographed chair spots (what else would one expect in an RVD match from this time?) to be anywhere close to "must see." (2.5/5)
Main event time - Justin Credible (with Francine at his side) defending the ECW World Championship against Tommy Dreamer (with Jazz and former WCW valet Gorgeous George at his side) in a Stairway to Hell match (a ladder match where, instead of there being a title hanging from the rafters, its a whole bunch of barbwire). Dreamer and Credible had been feuding for quite awhile by this point so there was plenty of heat on this match. As Joey Styles noted on commentary, Tommy Dreamer had won the ECW World Championship once before, but only got to hold it for 18 minutes. Before the match even begins, though, a near-riot breaks out in the crowd as a bunch of XPW wrestlers caused a scene (leading to a bunch of ECW wrestlers rushing out from the locker room). This was not a work, as far as I've heard, but rather an attempt by the XPW crew to try to get their name out there. Anyway, once the XPW wrestlers get taken out by security the match begins in earnest...Dreamer and Credible start things off with some actual, old school wrestling (a collar-and-elbow tie-up, a side headlock, even a full nelson) which merits comments from the commentary team (which, for this match, includes a very unprepared Dawn Marie). The action spills to the floor quickly, though, and the brawling begins once they go into the stands. Dreamer walks Credible around the arena, stopping every few moments to throw him into a guardrail or hit him with a random weapon, but really, there's too much prepping and not enough actual action. At one point, Dreamer brings a ladder up to a balcony only to get shoved from atop it onto the floor, but the camera angle and lack of lighting make it impossible to see the actual impact of the move. Credible takes over and drops Dreamer onto the guardrail right on his groin, a classic Dreamer spot if ever there was one. Back into the ring they go where they trade offense involving the ladder. Francine prevents Dreamer from grabbing the barbwire, but ends up crushing her when he falls off the ladder. George and Jazz come in to take Francine out...but George turns on Jazz! Francine attempts a Bronco Buster, but Jazz gets her boot up (according to Styles, as, once again, the camera doesn't quite capture it). Jazz strips Francine's shirt off (her breasts are covered by tape), but gets piledriven by Credible to take her out of the match. Dreamer hits the "Tommyhawk" and then goes for a cover even before grabbing the barbwire, which doesn't make a ton of sense. Dreamer climbs the ladder and brings the wire down before wrapping it around the top rope. Dreamer ends up crotching Credible onto the top rope, which was a pretty convoluted spot. Credible essentially no sells it so he can hit the That's Incredible on Dreamer onto the barbwire. Dreamer kicks out and then, with the accidental help of Francine, hits his own finish on Dreamer for 2. Credible hits a second That's Incredible on barbwire to retain the championship, ending the show with a finish that I doubt any fan in attendance was happy to see (in fact, as Credible celebrates his win, multiple sodas and other pieces of garbage get tossed into the ring). This match lacked any real logic, there were multiple convoluted spots, the transitions were poor, and while there were a few good moments, some of them were barely caught on camera. Not unwatchable - mostly due to the rabid crowd and the undeniable effort - but this was not good. (1.5/5)
This show started off relatively hot with a really good, over-achieving six-man tag and an equally strong Lynn/Corino match, but save for portions of the RVD/Scott Anton match (which is too long and gets too "cutesy" with chair spots at times), none of the rest of the matches on the card even come close to matching those peaks with some of the matches being real disappointments (Rhyno/Sandman, the 4-way match). Eventhough it earned a not-too-shabby Kwang Score of 2.25-out-of-5, I'm giving this one...
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
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