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THE 2001 SERIES, PART 1: ECW GUILTY AS CHARGED 2001

Ten years ago last week, ECW ran its final show in its original form, and while the ECW name would be revived and reused on an unusually frequent basis over the ensuing decade, the true spirit of the original ECW died in 2001. The final ECW show, while an end in and of itself, was actually only the beginning of a series of events over the course of 2001 that would irrevocably change the landscape of the wrestling business. It's staggering to realize that it's really been ten years, but when you look back at the last decade and realize how much things have changed since then, it really drives home what a hugely important year 2001 was in terms of the wrestling world literally collapsing and then beginning to reconstruct itself to adapt to its new reality.

Over the course of the coming weeks, this series will take a look back at some of the major PPVs and other events of 2001, and give a hindsight perspective on what was happening then and what it's meant to the business since. We start with Guilty As Charged, the final ECW PPV and, for all intents and purposes, the company's last hurrah before the end. Some people felt the writing was on the wall before this show even hit the air, but at least they went out with a great show that I thought featured some good matches and a really well booked ending to the World Title match.

 

ECW Guilty As Charged 2001: 1/7/2001 in New York City, NY

Joey Styles and Joel Gertner (in his usual electrifying fashion) welcome us to the show, and then Gertner introduces a team that has the potential to be future ECW Tag Team Champions, Joey Matthews & Christian York. Newer fans would probably know Matthews as Joey Mercury of MNM and the Straight Edge Society, and York was his regular partner and basically a blond version of Matthews who dropped out of the business a few years after this and has only made rare in-ring appearances since. Da Baldies (Angel & DeVito) run out and attack York & Matthews from behind and Gertner tries to physically intervene, but that ends about as well for him as you would expect. Da Baldies take the fight into the ring and continue attacking York & Matthews there as Cyrus and Jerry Lynn make their way down to ringside. Lynn comes into the ring and gives Matthews a cradle piledriver, then tags in Cyrus, who covers Matthews to get the win in what I guess was our opening match. Cyrus hands Da Baldies some cash and a couple of cigars and they take off so Jerry Lynn can cut a promo telling York & Matthews that their job is to make the stars look good, a job Lynn had for 12 years that he doesn't want anymore. His job is now to be the Whole F'N Show (prompting an RVD chant from the crowd), and Lynn says he's not here, he's not coming, and he's not the big surprise tonight. The surprise is that he'll never wrestle in ECW again unless it's in the main event because he's JERRY LYYYYYYYYYYNN. Solid segment, and I was really digging Lynn at this point in his career, I thought he made a much more interesting heel than babyface and I never thought we got to see him in that role enough other than the end of his ECW run and when he worked heel against AJ Styles early on in TNA. And if you suspect we'll see more of Lynn before the night is out, I'd say you're probably on the right track.

Our second match (and proper opener) saw ECW Tag Team Champions Danny Doring & Roadkill defend against Julio Dinero & EZ Money. With all due respect to Doring and Roadkill, they couldn't hold a candle to teams like the Dudleys, the Eliminators, the Gangstas, Public Enemy, and the Pitbulls, and the title meant nowhere near as much at the end as it did when all those teams were in ECW. Doring & Roadkill never impressed me, but I always thought Money & Dinero were solid and could have gone further than they did, though I suppose that with the huge glut of WCW, ECW, and indy talent that became available in early 2001, people were going to fall by the wayside and not get picked up, and unfortunately they were two of those people. Pretty standard stuff with the heels controlling the match until Doring hit a double underhook implant DDT on Money and then countered the Money Clip into the Bareback before tagging out to Roadkill so he could come in and clean house. Chris Hamrick tried to come in with a springboard clothesline but accidentally hit Money and then Roadkill rammed Dinero into Hamrick and sent him out to the floor, and then Doring & Roadkill hit the Buggy Bang on Dinero for the win, and they would end up being the final ECW Tag Team Champions, a pretty underwhelming ending to a title with such an impressive lineage.

Chris Hamrick came in and tried to attack the champions after the match, and this brought Super Nova out to make the save and start an impromptu match. Nova totally destroyed Hamrick through the entire early part of the match until getting Hamrick in a figure four, at which point Elektra ran in and gouged his eyes. Hamrick went for a leapfrog but Nova caught him in a wheelbarrow and planted Hamrick on his face and then went up top, only to be tripped up and crotched by Elektra. Hamrick hit a big top rope Frankensteiner (or as Joey Styles used to call it, a hudanconradda), but that only got 2 and then Nova started firing up and unloading with a flurry of punches and kicks on Hamrick in the corner and then hit an enziguiri for 2. Nova hit a superkick for 2 and then Elektra ran in again, so Nova tossed her on her butt and locked Hamrick in a crossface chickenwing, but the ref got bumped as Nova fell backwards into him and then landed on his own back. Suddenly, Chris Chetti (who had lost a Loser Leaves ECW match to Nova) comes running in wearing a referee shirt and fast counted Nova, awarding the match to Hamrick. Referee Mike Kehner came in to protest the call, but Lou E. Dangerously cold cocked him and left him laying.

Suddenly, Spike Dudley comes out of the locker room to confront Lou E, who asks Spike why he would call himself a Dudley and then says that he would never call himself a Dudley (the joke of course being that he used to be Sign Guy Dudley). He reminds Spike that Chris Chetti is retired, but that doesn't stop Spike from attacking Chetti and hitting the Acid Drop. Nova then goes after Hamrick and gives him the Kryptonite Krunch and then Spike and the original referee crawl over and count 3, so it looks like Nova came away with the win after all. Score one more for PWInsider! Fun impromptu segment, and Nova was on fire at this point with his work in the ring and had gotten himself super ripped as well. Look at him here and see if you can figure out why WWE gave him a gimmick as a fitness guru.

We go backstage to ECW World Champion Steve Corino, who proved all the doubters wrong by going from being Rhino's manager to ending the legend of Dusty Rhodes to winning the ECW World Title, all within one year. Tonight, he's going to walk up the ladder, grab his belt, and walk out the World Champion and have his belt with him, and then he's going to nail Justin Credible's girl because he's the World Champion. Sandman may have stolen his belt, but tonight he's going to climb the ladder and come away with HIS World Title.

Up next was the I Quit Match between Tommy Dreamer and CW Anderson, and they didn't even wait for the introductions to finish before going at each other and tumbling to the floor where Tommy hit a vertical suplex on the floor with Anderson barely landing on the mats, coming very close to going splat on the floor. They head back into the ring where Dreamer takes a page from the Anderson Family Playbook going to work on Anderson's arm, but that doesn't last long until Anderson rams Dreamer shoulderfirst into the ringpost and starts going to work on Dreamer's arm. Anderson bars the shoulder (rather than the arm, which looks really painful), but Dreamer escapes that and they head back out to the floor where Dreamer continues attacking Anderson's arm by ramming it into the guardrail and then placing it against the ringpost and slamming a chair into it. Dreamer places Anderson's head on the apron and places the bell on top of his head, then bashes it with a wrench and Anderson's busted open. Anderson returns the favor by busting Tommy open with a drop toehold onto a chair, and then assaulted Tommy with repeated chairshots to the head. Towel Boy came into the ring and he and Dreamer double teamed Anderson with cookie sheets to the head, but Anderson got ahold of one and nailed Towel Boy then superplexed him into the ring. Dreamer introduced razor wire into the match, but Anderson hit a spinebuster on Dreamer onto the razor wire and then locked in an armbar, but Dreamer made the ropes so Anderson suplexed him onto a pair of chairs that had been set up in the ring. Anderson grabbed a table from under the ring and set it up in the ring, but Dreamer hit a Spicolli Driver off the top rope through the table, and then took the plastic band from around the edge of the table and wrapped it around Anderson's face, Crippler Crossface style, and Anderson immediately quit. Dreamer and Anderson shook hands after the match in a nice show of sportsmanship. This was just brutal and both guys took a ton of abuse, as well as a lot of bumps and headshots you might not see so many people taking these days.

We go backstage to Francine as she's trying to eat a gigantic sub, and she seems to be having a little trouble fitting it in her mouth when Steve Corino comes in and offers to try and fit his sub in her mouth. Francince said that Corino may be the champion, but she won't touch him until he gets the belt back. Corino asks where Justin Credible is, and Francine says that he's in the next room with his friend. Corino assumes that Credible is being his own best friend, but Francine says he's with Missy Hyatt. Corino doesn't believe her and leaves, banging on the door outside on his way out and telling the occupant to have fun with "Missy Hyatt" and then leaves. The door opens after Corino's gone and out comes Justin Credible with his pants unzipped and he is indeed joined by Missy Hyatt, who is wrapped in a towel and (to make this PG), tells Francine that she needs to play Nintendo because Missy had been playing Nintendo with him for two hours and can't take any more of his NES Max. Corino tells Francine that if she's not going to give it to him, he's going to get it somewhere else, and Francine responds by saying that she won't play Nintendo with him until he comes back with the ECW World Title. Credible calls her a Metroid and leaves. Missy walks out as well and runs into Corino and Jack Victory in the hallway and they act all excited and Victory asks if Missy remembers him, and she asks if she played Nintendo with him. Victory reminds her that she managed him, and she says he managed himself then and walks off. Victory gets really angry at this, but Corino holds him back. Hilarious stuff, and I have to give it to Francine, that's one way to motivate your guy to win matches.

Back out to the ring for our next match as the FBI (Tony Mamaluke & Little Guido Maritato), Kid Kash & Super Crazy, and Mikey Whipwreck & Yoshihiro Tajiri face off in a Three Way Dance to determine the number one contenders to the ECW Tag Team Title. I would personally argue that any of these teams would make better champions than Doring & Roadkill, but I guess it's a moot point now. There was a great segment at the start where Tajiri and Super Crazy, who had one of the most famous rivalries in ECW, went at it and as usual, neither guy got an advantage. From that point on it turned into everyone in the match inside the ring throwing move after move at one another on an all-out melee. The FBI and Mikey/Crazy wound up on the outsideand fell victim to a dive from Tajiri and then from Kid Kash. Kash hit another hudancanradda on Mikey as Crazy missed a dive onto Tajiri and Tajiri kicked him in the face, and then Big Sal Graziano came in and hit a splash on Kid Kash and allowed Tony Mamaluke to pin and eliminate him. So it's down to the FBI and Mikey/Tajiri, and all four men fight on the outside and Tajiri backdrops Guido into the crowd as Mieky hits a guillotine legdrop over the guardrail onto Mamaluke. They get Mamaluke into the ring and double team him, and then Guido finds his way back into the ring and takes more of the same. Mikey misses a charge and tumbles to the outside where Sal rams him into the guardrail to give the FBI the advantage. The FBI work Mikey over while taunting Tajiri on the apron until Mikey hits the Whippersnapper on Mamaluke and makes the hot tag to Tajiri. Tajiri cleans house on the FBI and then he and Mikey set up chairs in two corners and ram the FBI into them, and then Mikey goes for the Whippersnapper off the top on both FBI, but they block and catch Mikey in a double Fujiwara armbar. Tajiri saves by spitting the green mist in Mamaluke's eyes and they hit stero German suplexes on the FBI for the win. Mikey and Tajiri become the #1 contenders, but it's now over a decade later and they're both still waiting for their title shots, so I think that they ought to be awarded the title since Doring & Roadkill have far exceeded the standard 30 day rule.

We go backstage to the Sandman, who says he had no problem handing the ECW Title belt over when he got here today, and also said that he's the King Of Extreme and the Hardcore Icon, so everybody had better bet on him.

Back out to the ring as Simon Diamind and Johnny Swinger greet the crowd, but Johnny Swinger says that he has a problem since Simon has been receiving more than he's been giving when it comes to Dawn Marie, so he's enlisted the services of Blue Boy and Jasmine St Clair to manage his career. This leads right into their match against Chilly Willy & Balls Mahoney, and the future NWA World Tag Team Champions hit the Problem Solver on Willy right from the start, but when Balls comes into the ring with a chair to even the odds, Rhino runs out of the back and slides into the ring as well to confront him. Balls takes a swing at him but Rhino ducks and hits the Gore on Balls, then hits Simon and Swinger as well. Rhino sets his sights on Dawn and we take a moment to relish what we're about to see before Rhino Gores her too. Willy gets back in the ring and actually gets some offense on Rhino and hits the Butt Butt, but Rhino pops right back up and hits the Gore on Willy and then on Blue Boy as well. Jasmine comes in to check on Blue Boy, so Rhino grabs her and drags her up the corner for a second rope piledriver. Now THAT is how you book a monster heel!

We go backstage to catch up with Rhino, who says he's just just duckin' started tonight, and violence is even better than having Jasmine taste the joystick on his NES Advantage.

Time for our scheduled (and I emphasize the word scheduled) main event, as Sandman, Steve Corino, and Justin Credible face off in a three way Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Canes Match for the ECW World Title. This match was one nasty spot after another, like Credible laying a ladder on top of Corino and then riding another ladder down on top of Credible, and then Sandman laying the ladder down and giving Credible a bulldog onto the ladder. Credible and Corino ram a ladder into Sandman's chair and then throw him through a table at ringside, but Sandman came back in and cleaned house with a cane and then suplexed Corino onto a ladder. Corino tried climbing the ladder but Credible came off the top with a dropkick that knocked Corino off the ladder and onto a chair. Sandman climbed to the top and fought with Corino, but Credible ran over and shoved him off the ropes and through a table at ringside. Corino rewarded him by catapulting him into a ladder and then Credible hit him back with That's Incredible as Francine gave Sandman a Coochiecanradda off the apron. Joey once again proves why he's the most clever man in the business when he explains that Francine's a Coochadore. I love Joey. Sandman drags a GIANT ladder out from under the ring and Credible nails him and sets it up in the ring as some smartass decides to raise the belt even higher up than it was before as Corino and Credible climb up to grab it. Sandman nails both with a cane, and they try to climb up again but they both tumble off the ladder and through a table, allowing Sandman to climb up and grab the belt to become the first and only four time ECW World Champion.

Sandman hugs what can be called his belt more than anyone else's in the middle of the ring as his music plays, and Corino and Credible both regain their feet and go face-to-face with the Sandman, but shake his hand instead of attacking him. Da Baldies rush the ring and Corino and Credible fight them off and brawl with them all the way back to the locker room. Sandman goes back to celebrating, but Rhino suddenly rushes the ring and goes for the Gore, trips, and goes for it again and hits it on Sandman. He grabs a mic and tells New York how much he loves them, then asks why he's the World TV Champion when this poor ass company doesn't even have TV. He says if the ECW World Title is the company people want, then it's the belt he wants to kill for. Rhino tells Sandman to give him a title shot and Sandman refuses to play Bubble Bobble with him, so Rhino beats him up some more and says that if Sandman doesn't give a title shot, his family sitting up there (indicating the top of the ramp, where Tyler and Mrs Sandman were live at the show, though they don't appear on screen here) will die. Rhino drops the microphone in front of Sandman, and Sandman takes it and tells the referee to ring the bell. Rhino sets up a table in the corner and rams Sandman through it, but only gets a 2 count so he takes Sandman out to the apron and piledrives him off the apron and through a table. He rolls Sandman into the ring and covers him but still only gets 2, so he delivers another piledriver and that's enough to pin Sandman and become the final ECW World Champion, as well as the final ECW TV Champion. Cyrus comes into the ring and announces Rhino as the new champion and challenges anyone in the locker room or any wrestling company to come out and challenge Rhino for the title.

Rob Van Dam's music hits and the crowd goes nuts. He comes out and goes face to face with Rhino, and Rhino lays down the belt between them and dares Van Dam to take a shot, but Jerry Lynn runs out from the locker room and nails RVD from behind and starts putting the boots to him as Rhino takes his belt and heads to the back.

And so begins the final televised match ECW would ever present, as Jerry Lynn and Rob Van Dam would revive their feud that is right up there with Taz and Sabu as one of the most legendary in ECW history, one final time. Van Dam fights Lynn off and then goes to the floor to high five some fans, then comes back in and plays to the crowd some more. They have a back and forth sequence that ends with Lynn hitting a crossbody on Van Dam that sends both men tumbling to the floor. Lynn rams RVD into the guardrail and then does it again, but RVD gives him a boot in the face and hits a moonsault off the guardail. RVD is already bleeding from the mouth as he picks Lynn up for a suplex and drops him chest first on the guardrail and gives him a spinning guillotine legdrop off the apron. They head back into the ring where RVD hits a press slam, standing moonsault, and then a moonsault off the second rope for 2. RVD sets Lynn up top and goes for a rolling something but Lynn hits a clothesline off the ropes to take control. Lynn charges RVD in the corner and gets backdropped to the apron, but Lynn hits his patented guillotine legdrop and then comes into the ring and hits a baseball slide to send RVD to the floor. Lynn goes outside and pulls back the mats and slams RVD on the concrete. Lynn rolls RVD back into the ring and covers for 2, and then whips RVD into the corner and RVD reverses but Lynn reverses to a sunset flip and they get a series of pinfall reversals with neither guy getting the advantage. Lynn goes for a kick but RVD catches the boot and hits the stepover spinkick and Rolling Thunder for 2. RVD goes for a leap onto Lynn on the second rope, but Lynn moves out of the way and hits a twisting sunset flip/powerbomb off the second rope for 2. Lynn goes for a tornado DDT and RVD blocks and a series of reversals ensues, but Lynn comes out of it with a German suplex for 2. Cyrus slides a chair in to Lynn, and Lynn puts it on the mat and hits a DDT on the chair and then covers, but RVD makes the ropes on 2. Lynn whips RVD into the corner but RVD comes off the second rope with a springboard jumpkick and then goes up top for the Five Star Notebook Splash, Cyrus grabs the ankle but Van Dam kicks him off and goes for the splash again, but Lynn moves and gets a rolling cradle for 2. Suddenly Joel Gertner runs out and chases Cyrus into the ring and lays him out, getting revenge for the beginning of the show as Lynn grabs another chair. Lynn swings and misses and RVD hits the Van Daminator, then puts Lynn in the corner and brings Joel Gertner into the ring to hold the chair in front of Lynn for the Van Terminator. RVD hits it and covers Lynn for 3. HELL of a match to go out on and also give closure to the RVD-Lynn feud.

We go backstage to Francine with Steve Corino and Justin Credible, and they may not like each other but they fought one another for months and announce that they are together and are going to make an impact. I guess this was going to be them as the new Impact Players, but ECW closed before we could find out where it would lead.

* * *

And that was that...almost. ECW ran a final pair of events in the days following Guilty As Charged, but after the Pine Bluff, Arkansas show on January 13th that saw all the wrestlers come out to the ring for a final toast after the last match, the future of the company was left in serious doubt. ECW was supposed to have a PPV that March and had the timeslot reserved in the TV listings, but with no venue announced and no dates between Pine Bluff and the PPV, there were serious doubts as to whether that PPV would even end up happening. Indeed, with Paul Heyman taking a job as an announcer on Monday Night Raw, it appeared less and less likely that ECW would be able to continue. The March PPV was cancelled to the shock of almost nobody, a cryptic goodbye message was posted on the ECW website, and ECW filed for bankruptcy on April 4th.

This might be difficult for newer fans to grasp, but the end of ECW meant more than just a wrestling company going out of business, because while it was the clear #3 in the wrestling landscape, the effect it had on the business is undeniable. Wrestling had become a caricature of what it had once been by the early 90s, which motivated Tod Gordon to start ECW just to have a place where professional wrestling could be professional wrestling. Over the years, it became a springboard from which most of its top, and even many of its middle and lower, stars would go on to bigger and better things in the WWF and WCW. Without the grittier, adult presentation of ECW to serve as a template, it's sketchy at best as to whether Vince McMahon and Vince Russo would have had an inspiration to remake the WWF and send it into the Attitude Era, which would see the WWF hit its highest heights ever, or what the rosters of either company would have looked like without ECW to showcase a lot of the guys they ended up hiring.

Even beyond what it meant internally to the business, ECW was more than just a wrestling company to most of its diehard fans, it became a way of life. It was a place where they could go to see real hardcore wrestling, not just in the weapons and blood sense, but where you got the true sense that the guys in the ring were fighting and were doing their damndest and doing whatever it took to beat the other guy because winning matches and destroying their enemies meant everything. It was a place where you could get away from phony looking People's Elbows and 25 minute Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff promos (sound familiar?) and see guys putting their entire heart and soul into everything they did to present a product that was more realistic and in tune with the fanbase of the 90s than anything the WWF or WCW, in their ivory towers, could even hope to present.

When ECW died, it took something out of the business that nobody has been able to bring since: not TNA, not Ring Of Honor, not Dragon Gate, not WWE, NOBODY. While those companies may have had a lot of great wrestling, and may at times have good storylines as well, and even though between them they've employed nearly every major ECW star at various times, none of them has managed to fill the void that ECW left. ECW was unique in the role it played in the business, and the fact that it's still such a constantly discussed topic amongst the wrestling community just speaks to the legacy it left behind, and even with the many attempts to revive ECW and parade it around like Weekend At Bernie's, nobody has been able to recapture the spirit that made ECW special.

But revived it would be, and that's something we'll get to later on in this series. Up next in Part 2 of this series, we'll take a look at Greed, the final WCW PPV.

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