This month marks 26 years since the ECW Anarchy Rulz 2000 pay-per-view that was held in St. Paul, Minnesota, a fitting location for the coronation of Jerry Lynn as the world champion in the main event, which was obviously the major selling point for this show. That being said, as much as Lynn was underrated and deserved the spot as the top guy, especially in ECW where he excelled as one of the company’s most valuable performers, the scaled-down production of the broadcast really underscored how much the promotion was on shaky ground. The organization was three months away from its final official show on pay-per-view, another event that Lynn worked in the main event opposite Rob Van Dam, and the ill-fated TNN deal finished up the week after Anarchy Rulz. So, Jerry Lynn became the champion of a promotion that lost its national television deal the following week. That’s not a knock on Lynn, though. It’s quite the opposite since Lynn, Steve Corino, or any of the other guys that were given prominent roles to fill the void after others left weren’t going to be able to save ECW from the collapse.
The flawed business deals and misguided decisions were more than any of the roster were going to be able to overcome to keep the doors open. Still, there was an estimated 4,500 fans in attendance for this show, displaying the dichotomy that was the extreme project. It was a sinking ship in terms of business, but still maintained its popularity, proving that the roster wasn’t going to be able to overcome the terrible business decisions made in the office.
In truth, the fact that Anarchy Rulz drew the house that it did is a testament to the brand loyalty that the promotion had. The line-up had solid talent, but the majority of it was comprised of younger guys that were looking to make a name for themselves, the bulk of the ECW star power had simply gone elsewhere by this point.
The opening bout was an example of the young talent on the card, as Joey Matthews, who found bigger notoriety years later in the WWE as Joey Mercury, and Christian York squared off against the combination of Danny Doring and Road Kill. This was a basic tag match that only went about six minutes, but it was a solid opener with good action to kickoff the PPV. This had a few highlights of dives and innovative tag moves, but nothing too spectacular, which it probably wasn’t designed for anyway since it was only given a few minutes anyway. Road Kill and Danny Doring got the win before Johnny Swinger and Simon Diamond attacked during the post-match segment. Since Swinger and Simon only posed afterward, I’m guessing this was added just to shoehorn a few more guys on the broadcast.
There was the set up for Cyrus, known today as the real-life Don Callis in All Elite Wrestling, against Joel Gertner. To be honest, the Cyrus/Gertner stuff was probably meant to be a staple of PPVs with their inevitable confrontation that often too place in the opening segment, but it got repetitive and counterproductive by this point in the year. Before the two announcers could fight it out, there was a series of interruptions, including EZ Money’s group and eventually the Extreme Commissioner, Spike Dudley, who was given the role to stay on television while he healed from a broken leg. Spike introduced Kid Kash to challenge EZ Money, setting up a rather easy pairing (no pun intended) for this PPV since this was an aerial bout that proved to be solid prior to this. This match was basically very similar to the contest that they took around the circuit for the house show loop and television tapings, but that’s not meant as a criticism. This had fast-paced technical maneuvers, and Kash hit a wild double spring board dive to the floor. There was interference to basically given Julio Dinero and Chris Hamrick a chance to get their spots onto the show, which isn’t a negative. In a lot of ways, Dinero and especially Hamrick were victims of circumstances, as they were solid workers that finally got the chance to get a full-time spot with a national organization less than six months before not only the company folded, but the entire industry consolidated. EZ Money went for a top rope power bomb, but Kash countered with a hurricanrana for the win.
Post-match, the heels attacked Kash, prompting Spike to attempt to make the save but then the villains attacked his injured leg before The Sandman, who isn’t booked for a match on the card, showed up to rescue the extreme commissioner. With the foes dispatched, based on the pre-match stipulation, since Kash won it gave Gertner a one-on-one contest against Cryus. This wasn’t exactly Flair vs. Steamboat, but it wasn’t supposed to be. After an assist from The Sandman, Gertner got the victory in about two minutes. The baby faces celebrated to end the segment.
Next up was The Baldies vs. Balls Mahoney and Chilly Willy for what was essentially the brawl of the evening. Balls immediately bloodied Tony DeVito with a fork and they fought through the crowd back toward a staging area where the announce desk was set up. DeVito did an impressive moonsault off the stage onto Mahoney. Angel gave Chilly Willy a nasty power bomb onto the chairs. Back in the ring, Balls hit DeVito with a brutal unprotected chair shot to the head that looks much different in 2026 than it did at the time this show took place. Angel used the staple gun on Mahoney to get him to bleed. After three unprotected chair shots to Mahoney and Chilly Willy, The Baldies got the victory.
CW Anderson vs. Steve Corino to determine the number one contender for the world title was next on the card. This was much more of the “work rate” match in terms of in-ring content, as the two traded reversals and counters. At the same time, this also exposed the lack of star power, while spotlighting the potential, of the roster in 2000. CW was a solid worker that didn’t get the credit he deserved, nor the opportunity for most of his career. Again, it was a matter of timing, Anderson gets a spot in a national group and then it goes out of business while the market is flooded with an entire roster of WCW wrestlers that had more TV experience to take to the WWF at the time. The point being, Corino was being given a direct push and worked up to those expectations as the eventual champion, but to be paired with CW in a number one contender bout when Anderson never had a path toward the championship almost underscores that the office only had a handful of legitimate main eventers left in the company by late-2000. When was CW Anderson ever presented as a guy that might main event a pay-per-view? It’s not about the talent, but rather the perception of his status in the organization at the time. I understand that Corino’s push to the world champion was based on his willingness to sacrifice and literally bleed for the belt, but the blood from both wrestlers really wasn’t needed here, especially since they already established entertaining technical wrestling before this. The blood in two matches in a row was overkill and an example of how not everything from ECW holds up in retrospect. Simon and Swinger were back to attempt to interfere, but Jack Victory cut them off, allowing for Corino to hit his finisher to get the win. This was a decent match, but the blood added nothing and the brawl toward the finish was actually a partial downgrade to the overall quality of the segment.
The FBI vs. The Unholy Alliance tag team title match was a fun segment. It was a lot of wild action where tags were disregarded, but it was kept short enough that it didn’t get excessive. At one point when Tony Mamaluke was upside down in the corner, and The Sinister Minister shot a fireball at him with the same flash paper gun that would legitimately land him in the hospital when it malfunctioned prior to the November to Remember pay-per-view. The real-life James Mitchell put too much flash paper into the cartridge, forcing the flash paper to explode and it took a piece of Mitchell’s finger with it. Guido was bleeding, which was more overkill and an example of how blood was used as an attempted substitute for star power. This was another example of blood that subtracted rather than added to the overall presentation. After some interference from Big Sal, the FBI hit an odd double team move to get the win.
The biggest takeaway from the ECW TV title match was that Rob Van Dam was the biggest star on the show. As much as Van Dam defined the TV title, and this match was based on the fact that he fortified it due to injury before Rhino’s reign as champion, I think it’s fair to say that had ECW survived, Van Dam would’ve been a lengthy world champion. This segment had some brawling in the crowd, something that was repetitive by this point in the night before it got back to the ring for several of the trademark RVD spot. This went just over 10 minutes and was kept tight enough that it served as a solid co-main event without taking anything away from the Jerry Lynn/Justin Credible bout that was going to close the show. Speaking of Justin Credible, he interfered with a Singapore cane shot to allow crocked referee Danny Daniels to get involved in the match. Rhino hit a gore through a table and a pile driver before Daniels used a fast count to declare Rhino the winner.
The main event had twenty minutes, a decision that clearly spotlighted it as the top match on the show. There’s a lesson for Tony Khan in there somewhere. The bout started with some decent technical wrestling, but surprisingly, they almost lost the crowd in the middle of the segment. Maybe it was because the more savvy ECW crowd knew that there was no way that Lynn wasn’t leaving as champion, but during holds in the center of the ring to try to get the crowd to rally behind the challenge, the fans were mostly quiet. It actually look Credible getting on the mic to antagonize the fans to get a reaction. Thankfully, as the typical ECW chaos unfolded toward the finish, including a ref bump that wiped out HC Loc that brought back Danny Daniels, the fans were invested toward the conclusion. When it looked like Danny Daniels was going to use another fast count, he was interrupted by the music of New Jack, who did great in his role on this show. New Jack pummeled the crocked official, and caught a series of Singapore cane shots. But, that allowed Lynn to recover and land the pile driver. prompting HC Loc to dive in for the dramatic three count to award the title to Lynn.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
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