ECW Guilty As Charged 2001

ECW Guilty As Charged 2001

January 2001 - New York City, NY

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, the ECW World Champion was Steve Corino, the ECW Television Champion was Rhyno, and the ECW World Tag Team Champion was Danny Doring and Roadkill.

The final ECW pay-per-view (at least, of its original incarnation) starts off with a video package highlighting the events of the previous show before cutting to the ring where Joey Styles and Joel Gertner welcome the audience. Gertner's X-rated monologue is as filthy as anything he'd ever said before as hype man for the Dudleys. 

Our opening contest is set to be Jerry Lynn and Cyrus vs. Joey Matthews and Christian York, however, Da Baldies show up and take out the babyfaces before the bell even rings, beating them up all over the ring. I'm not a big fan of Da Baldies, but they actually looked decent laying down the punishment without having to also include awful weapon spots. Could it be that these guys actually knew how to wrestle and were wasted in garbage brawls? Maybe? I was unaware that Jerry Lynn had turned heel in the month between this show and the previous one so its a bit jarring to see him as a villain all of a sudden. Cyrus ends up getting the pin and Lynn cuts a promo, calling himself "The Whole F'n Show" to mock Rob Van Dam, who he says is not in NYC tonight. We'll see about that....This was more of an angle than a match so its near impossible to rate as anything other than just your average segment, but I'm just not going to factor it into the score.

We get another video package (the typical pre-PPV music video) before heading back to the ring for our ECW World Tag Team Championship match - Danny Doring and Roadkill defending the gold against EZ Money and Julio Dinero of Confederate Currency. Doring and Roadkill were a good tag team, but this wasn't their best outing. Roadkill was super over with the ECW crowd by this point and they love seeing him perform his signature spots - the Amish Bomb and the flying double clothesline off the ropes. When people talk about a "What If...?" scenario regarding what could've happened if WCW stayed in business (but ECW closed), I could see Doring and Roadkill taking their act to WCW and, with the right booking, continuing to be quietly one of the best tag teams of their time. Its crazy to see EZ Money doing a Buckshot Lariat (Nova would also perform something close to one later on) when I must admit to being unfamiliar to the move prior to watching Hangman Page perform it in AEW. Nothing really special about this match, but it was fine for what it was. (2.5/5)

As is often the case during the early goings of an ECW event, this match segues into Nova vs. Chris Hamrick. Nova is sporting a new look and wrestling with much more intensity than ever before, but I don't really buy it. He's still Nova. Styles tries to put him over as a big badass on commentary, but I would've preferred if he had stuck to hyping Nova as the guy who innovates new moves and can bust out things that his opponents have never seen before. Cyrus describes Hamrick as a high-flyer and while he does have a nifty flying legdrop and some good speed for a guy his size, I'd consider him more of an "all-arounder." After a good back-and-forth bout, things get super overbooked as Chris Chetti shows up in a ref's shirt to screw over Nova. Lou E. Dangerously also shows up, which then causes Spike Dudley to show up as the equalizer. This leads to Nova getting the upperhand and hitting Hamrick with the Kryptonite Krunch to get the pinfall (counted by Spike Dudley). Its classic ECW for just about anyone to be able to make a count at any time and for matches to end and then re-start and for there to be a ton of interference...but it doesn't make it good. The company seemed to want to push Nova, so why not just give him the clean victory? Its hard to get behind Nova as a potential main event level babyface when he's unable to get clean victories over midcard guys like Hamrick. (2/5)

In a rematch from the previous show, Tommy Dreamer took on CW Anderson in an "I Quit" match next. I really enjoyed the match they had at Massacre on 34th Street, even calling it one of the best of Dreamer's career (if I'm not mistaken). This match doesn't quite reach the same level, but it is very good as Dreamer puts a hell of a beating on Anderson and Anderson bumps and sells like mad. I didn't love the inclusion of the Towel Boy and the goofy use of holiday presents (striking someone with a tin foil baking sheet is lame), but I loved the use of chairs by Dreamer. Dreamer eventually gets the win by hitting CW with a Death Valley Driver off the top rope through a table and then choking him out with the plastic part of the table. They shake hands after the match, which feels deserved in this case because both guys had gone through a hell of a match. Like Steve Corino, CW Anderson never really got a fair shot in any major wrestling promotion after the fall of ECW but was clearly among the best workers in the company at the end. While I wouldn't call this "essential viewing," it is still quite good and worth checking out if you're at all a fan of ECW. (3.5/5)

There's a backstage segment involving Francine, Corino, Jack Victory, Justin Credible, and, in a bit of a shocker - at least to me - Missy Hyatt. I liked that Hyatt and Jack Victory had a brief run-in together, a reference to the fact that they used to work together in NWA/WCW. ECW was ahead-of-the-curve on many things, including referencing former friendships and alliances from other promotions way before AEW made it one of their signatures. 

Back to the ring we go for a 3-way Tag Team match pitting The FBI vs. Tajiri and Whipwreck vs. Kid Kash and Super Crazy. With these six guys involved, you knew this was just going to be a huge spotfest and it did not disappoint in that regard. This is the type of match that wrestlers would emulate for years to come with lots of cool double team maneuvers and "stereo" submissions and great high-flying from Kash and Crazy. This is just pure fun and lets everyone involved get a chance to shine. Kash and Crazy are the first team eliminated, which makes some sense because as good as they were at performing their signature spots, the other two teams were just that much better. It really is a shame that none of these teams would get utilized in the WWE moving forward because the WWE could've had a hell of a tag team division in the years that followed with these guys and Doring & Roadkill too. A really fun match but not necessarily something I'd consider "must-see." (3/5)

Before the main event we get a promo from The Sandman and then, in the ring, a segment involving Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger, and Dawn Marie. Swinger basically fires Dawn Marie and then brings out his new managerial team - The Blue Meanie and his real-life girlfriend, porn star Jasmin St. Clair. Balls Mahoney and Chilly Willy show up and it looks like we're going to get an impromptu tag match but Rhyno shows up and basically takes everyone out, including Dawn Marie (who gets gored) and Jasmin St. Clair, who takes a piledriver from the second rope. Overall, not a great segment, but damn, Rhyno came out of this looking like an absolute monster - or Man Beast? - and that's enough for me to give this a point. (+1)

Main event time - Steve Corino vs. The Sandman vs. Justin Credible in a Ladder Match for Corino's ECW World Championship. This is a violent and crazy match, as expected, with lots of nasty ladder spots. I'm not sure this match was designed to be as crazy as it was, but the ladders looked super flimsy and some of them were destroyed during the course of the match to the point that one had to wonder if they had to call an audible at times to deliver the planned spots. I liked how wild this was but didn't think the finish delivered what it needed to as Corino and Credible basically took themselves out of the match and allowed The Sandman to win in relatively unimpressive fashion. All three men took a ton of punishment and worked hard, but a better finish would've went a long way. (2/5)

From here, the show devolves into more chaos as Da Baldiez show up and start brawling with Corino and Credible. I'm not sure why Cyrus would be going after these two, but whatever. Rhyno shows up, berates the crowd, and then challenges The Sandman to an impromptu World Championship match, threatening The Sandman's family. 

Rhyno vs. The Sandman in an impromptu title match occurs and The Sandman gets a bit of protection as he kicks out of a gore through a table and then also a piledriver through a table before getting the 3-count after a second piledriver. Its hard to rate something like this because its more of an angle than a match so I'll just call it "average." It certainly wouldn't have been better if The Sandman and Rhyno had actually gone longer and Rhyno did come out of this all looking like a great monster heel. (2.5/5)

Rhyno and Cyrus celebrate in the ring and challenge anyone in the back to come out - which leads to the return of Rob Van Dam, who gets a massive pop. RVD was so over with this crowd - and probably with any and every ECW fan at the time - that it is reasonable to say that he probably could've supported the company on his back for a stretch if there was actually an avenue by which ECW could've survived. Sadly, that just wasn't the case. 

Van Dam gets in Rhyno's face but before their showdown can become an actual match, Jerry Lynn attacks and now its Van Dam vs. Lynn. These two had done battle countless times before and gone longer, but I must say, I liked the dynamic of this match better than any of their other encounters. Lynn was the heel and Van Dam was finally the face that fans were "allowed" to cheer whole-heartedly. This match goes a bit long, but the wrestling is intense and Rob Van Dam looks particularly energized and impressive. While this is definitely the "RVD show," Lynn gets in a sunset flip powerbomb into a chair and one of his trademark DDTs and I was momentarily wondering if maybe he might somehow get the upset win - not a small feat. Joel Gertner eventually shows up to prevent Cyrus from interfering and the match ends with an absolutely devastating Van Terminator. This match has its defenders and its critics and I'd tend to side with the former. While RVD and Lynn had some amazing matches in 99', Rob Van Dam was a much bigger star by 2001 - clearly ECW's most popular babyface - and Jerry Lynn now being in the heel role gave this match a much better dynamic as Van Dam's showboating and playing to the crowd added to the match instead of detracting from it. (3.5/5)

As a final ECW event, Guilty As Charged 2001 - and its 2.86-out-of-5 Kwang Score - isn't a great final chapter (for starters, it ends with a bit of a cliffhanger as Rhyno is new ECW World Champion, but won it under controversial conditions and then was saved from having to defend it against Rob Van Dam), but I could see the argument that the show's warts-and-all approach and ridiculously overbooked and convoluted final 40 minutes is exactly how ECW should end. But taking away the historical significance of this show, its important to note that there are actually some great matches here - RVD/Lynn is great fun, the tag triple threat is very good, and the Dreamer/CW Anderson "I Quit" match has been rightfully called the company's best final hardcore offering. 

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand