ktc

Dueling Chair Shots
by Kurt La Mont
Column date 10/05/2000

Welcome to the first column of my second year columns here at ECW News.com. Time flies, eh?

Anarchy Rulz was a PPV that we have come to expect from ECW now, full of great in-ring action, solid commentary and erratic production. The big event at this show was Jerry Lynn winning the World Heavyweight Title from Justin Credible. I was excited to see that happen as I'm probably the columnist who is the biggest Jerry Lynn mark on the internet. I don't think that there is a better wrestler in ECW so we should be in store for a series of great matches, regardless of who is in the ring with Lynn.

Here is a breakdown of each of the matches with some brief comments:

Doring & Roadkill vs. York and Matthews

It's amazing how over Roadkill has become lately, especially for someone that says no more than 'Chickens'. A pretty strong opener between these two teams.

3.00 out of 4

Kid Kash vs. EZ Money

Using this match to 'decide' whether Cyrus would have to face Gertner was nice to give this match some meaning. You knew what the finish would be but it was still really cool to see that move again. Another strong match

3.25 - 4

Cyrus vs. Joel Gertner

Good for what it was. No rating.

Baldies vs. Balls & Chilly Willy

An average match that was hurt by not having any meaning to it. It was just there as the obligatory ECW brawl for those fans of stiff work and blood, which isn't my cup of tea.

2.25-4

CW Anderson vs. Steve Corino

I really liked this match. However, I'm not sure why they felt they needed to bring chairs and blood into the match. I think that they could have still had a match just as strong without it. Blood is best when it is used in moderation and right now it seems like Corino is blading EVERY SINGLE MATCH. At some point it won't have any meaning to it if he this keeps up. Regardless of that this was a good match. I'm a fan of matches where working a body part is a big part of the match such as this one.

3.25 - 4.00

FBI vs. Whipwreck & Tajiri

An excellent match, albeit not as strong as the match when the FBI won the titles at the Hammerstein ballroom. It was nice to see the FBI win without the assistance of Sal E.

3.00 - 4

Rhino vs. Rob Van Dam

This match was a little better than I expected and Fonzie taking the Van Terminator was a nice twist to the match. Hopefully this is something that will be continued in the coming weeks.

Will Fonzie turn on Van Dam now? I haven't watched the tape again yet but didn't it seem like Van Dam no-sold the gore and piledriver? He was up right after the match mugging to the crowd. But on the positive side he kept that to a minimum during the match which helped the match immensely.

3.00-4

Jerry Lynn vs. Justin Credible

As I mentioned earlier I think it's great that Jerry is the champ. And it's not because I think Justin Credible is a bad champion, because I don't. Jerry has really earned his spot in ECW through his work over the past 3 years.

However, I didn't care for the booking of the match. When HC Loc was the referee to start the match I knew at some point we would see Danny Daniels. And I can't tell you how much I hate the idea of heel and face referees. It's so Sports Entertainment-esque. And then to put it in a title match? Ugh.

I look at it this way, if you have 2 thoroughbreds you don't use them for kiddie horse rides, you race them as hard as they can go. In this case you put Credible and Lynn in the ring, stand back and let them do their thing, which is wrestle. They don't need any help to put on a great match, just let them loose.

This reminded me a lot of when Taz defeated Shane Douglas back at Guilty as Charged '99, when Douglas lost in part because of the Sabu's interference and Candido abandoning him. I feel now how Douglas felt then. He wanted a classic match without any outside interference. And this is what they did the next week, at what I believe was House Party '99, and that match ended up being the far superior match. I believe the ad for the tape even claims it as the greatest Heavyweight Title Match. That's what I wanted here. Hopefully we'll get it shortly.

3.00 - 4

Overall, this was a really good PPV that only lacked a classic match to call it one of the best ECW PPVs to date.

More good stuff next week. Send any comments or questions to me at [email protected].

Past editions of Dueling Chair Shots
10/4
10/16
10/27
11/5
11/10
11/17
11/19
12/03
12/10
12/17
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