ktc

Dueling Chair Shots
by Kurt La Mont
Column date 01/31/2001

This week is yet another relatively quiet week in ECW. The big news this week is that Justin Credible signed with the WWF. Hopefully, Justin will continue to do well in the WWF. I think looking back we'll see that he was just starting to scratch the surface of what he is capable of. And even if he doesn't do well in the WWF he knows he'll get paid, which is most important when you consider ECW's current situation and the fact that he has a young child to support.

The other item of note is that Tajiri signed a letter of intent with the WWF. How this differs from a contract is the big question to me. Perhaps it means that if ECW were to fold he would have a contract waiting for him in the WWF but if ECW straightens its' situation out he'll continue in ECW. Of course that's purely hopeful speculation on my part.

In regard to the future of ECW things are pretty quiet these days. Whether the old cliché "no news is good news" holds true is yet to be seen. Hopefully, we'll find out soon.

So with so little happening in the ECW rings at the moment I thought it would be a good time to look to the past action in the ring. While it seems like Barely Legal was just a short time ago nearly 4 years have past since then. In that time ECW has run 20 more PPVs.

Here is my ranking of the top 15 PPVs with the highlights of each show:

15. Guilty as Charged 99 - Taz wins his first World Title over Shane Douglas

14. November to Remember 98 - Balls & Tanaka defeat the Dudleys for the Tag Team Titles and Taz, Sabu and RVD defeat Douglas, Candido, and Bigelow

13. Heatwave 99 - Balls and Spike defeat the Dudleys for the Tag Titles, Taz defeats Tajiri and RVD & Jerry Lynn team up to defeat the Credible & Storm

12. Living Dangerously 98 - Storm and Al Snow defeat Candido and Douglas, Sabu beats Sandman in a dueling canes match, and BBB defeats Taz when he puts him through the ring.

11. Massacre on 34th St. 00 - Features the great Mikey & Tajiri vs. Kid Kash & Crazy match, Doring & Roadkill win the tag team titles, and Corino defends the title against Lynn and Credible.

10. Living Dangerously 00 - New Jack and Grimes crash from the scaffolding, the Impact Players regain the tag team titles, Rhino gores Sandman's wife through a table and Super Crazy wins the TV title tournament.

9. Hardcore Heaven 00 - Lynn finally defeats RVD, Rhino defeats Sandman, and Justin Credible defeats former partner Lance Storm in Lance's final match in ECW.

8. November to Remember 99 - Mike Awesome defends against Tanaka, RVD beats Taz in Taz's final match as an ECW regular, and the Impact Players and Rhino defeat Raven, Dreamer, and Sandman.

7. Hardcore Heaven 99 - This featured the Lynn - RVD rematch from LD 99, Storm over Dreamer in a street fight, and Taz defeating Candido and Bubba Ray Dudley in the same night.

6. Living Dangerously 99 - Highlighted by the first Lynn - RVD PPV match and the first PPV title defense by Taz against Sabu.

5. Anarchy Rulz 00 - Jerry Lynn defeats Justin Credible in his homestate, Rhino defends the TV title over RVD and the FBI defeat Mikey & Tajiri.

4. Barely Legal 97 - This ranks high based primarily on the emotional attachment that comes with it being the first ever ECW PPV. It featured the highly anticipated match between Taz and Sabu and Terry Funk capturing the World Title.

3. Anarchy Rulz 99 - ECW's largest crowd ever saw one of the best PPVs in Chicago. This PPV featured the passing of the torch as Taz dropped the title to Mike Awesome in a 3 way dance with Tanaka. Also, Justin Credible beat Sabu, Tajiri beat Crazy and Guido in a 3 way dance and Lance Storm beat Jerry Lynn in one of the best opening matches in ECW.

2. November to Remember 00 - A strong PPV from top to bottom. Highlights were the first ever Double Jeopardy match with Corino winning his first World Title, the return of Super Crazy, a flaming table match and Nova defeating Chetti in a loser leaves town match.

1. Heatwave 98 - While there is plenty of room for debate about the placement of a few of these rankings, there's no doubt that this is the #1 PPV. While there were only 6 matches this PPV was about quality, not quantity. Each match was at worst really good, which says a lot. Justin Credible and Jerry Lynn finished their 'summer series', Candido beat former tag partner Lance Storm, Tanaka beat Awesome in a brutal match (the Awesome table spot is SICK), Sabu & RVD beat Hayabusa and Shinzaki, Taz returned the favor to BBB by putting him through the ramp, and Sandman, Dreamer, and Spike beat the Dudley's in a street fight to cap the evening. Just a great PPV from top to bottom.

More good stuff next week. If you have any comments or questions feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Also, if anyone is interested in a custom made ECW CD e-mail me at the address above and I can give you details of how you can have one made for yourself.

Past editions of Dueling Chair Shots
10/4/99
10/16/99
10/27/99
11/5/99
11/10/99
11/17/99
11/19/99
12/03/99
12/10/99
12/17/99
01/03
01/19
01/29
02/04
02/14
02/22
02/29
03/06
03/13
03/20
04/12
04/28
05/08
05/18
05/23
05/30
06/05
06/13
06/21
06/29
07/06
07/11
07/17
07/24
08/01
08/07
08/20
08/30
09/06
09/14
09/20
09/27
10/05
10/12
10/24
11/01
11/06
11/16
11/28
12/04
12/09
12/28
01/04
01/11
01/18

01/25