ECW Anarchy Rulz ‘99

1. Lance Storm vs. Jerry Lynn – 5
2. Simon Diamond and Devito vs. Chris Chetti and Nova – 1
3. Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Super Crazy vs. Little Guido – 6
4. Justin Credible vs. Sabu – 4
5. Taz vs. Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome – 7
6. Tommy Dreamer and Raven vs. Rhino and Steve Corino – 2
7. Rob Van Dam vs. Balls Mahoney – 5

I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t like E.C.W. as much as I used to. After watching several hours of their shows, there’s too many things that I detest that happen each and every show: tons of interference, pseudo shoot moments which are actually tactfully directed to appear edgy, nonsensical moves added simply to get cheap crowd pops (example: doing a moonsault into the crowd in what’s supposed to be a fight between two men—why would you do something like that?), misuse of talent, asshole crowds, completely random and baffling matches, etc. Now, guest writer Adam reviewed this same show long ago, and his opinion on it defers a lot from my own. Neither of us is right or wrong, per se; it’s simply a matter of personal taste.

All that being said, this particular event wasn’t exceptionally bad. Storm and Lynn wasn’t revolutionary or breathtaking, they simply did what you’d expect out of workers of their caliber opening up a pay-per-view with a sub par lineup. The international three-way was entertaining, although these guys have wrestled each other so much, and a lot of their sequences and signature spots are obvious and don’t awe like they used to. Sabu and Credible was pretty awful; Sabu took a few nasty bumps, but Credible doesn’t belong in hardcore wrestling and proves it with flying colors in this wreck.

The three-way involving Taz is memorable due to its significance (he left afterwards for W.W.E.) and you can usually bank on Awesome and Tanaka taking some major bumps. This is the best match of the entire show—which isn’t saying a whole lot. The following tag match was abhorrent; given the workers involved you’d have expected a lot more, but nobody involved tried nor cared. I usually never fall asleep while watching wrestling, but that’s exactly what the main event caused me to do. I don’t know how they expected to sell pay-per-views and tickets to a show being headlined by Rob Van Dam versus Balls Mahoney (who was a replacement for Johnny Smith—which would have been an even odder choice). Now, Van Dam can be seen weekly on Raw stinking it up in 3-minute matches with lumbering steroid abusers and pill poppers.