Written by: Arnold Furious
Did anyone know what Double Jeopardy was all about before this? I thought it was where you couldn’t be convicted of killing the same person twice but it turns out that if you have 2 matches going on at the same time in the same ring then that’s Double Jeopardy. That’s exactly what happened at N2R2000. Sandman v Corino and Credible v Lynn. 2 guys would win and then face each other and the winner of that match would be the ECW champion. Elsewhere Rhyno wrestled New Jack, flaming tables came to PPV and Nova and Chetti would battle, the loser would leave town.
We start backstage. Jerry Lynn tells us that he’s a fighting champion. He says he’ll beat everyone in the company if he has to. Why didn’t they keep the belt on him again? Credible, Sandman and Corino add their thoughts. We’re in Chicago, Illinois. Hosts are Joey Styles and Joel Gertner. Simon has a problem though and he comes out to interrupt the intro. He gets on Joey’s case about not putting him over. Chicago asks him to shut the F up. Gertner lays the badmouth on Diamond who opts to beat some respect out of Gertner, Joey saves him but Swinger comes in with a chair and out comes Dreamer. CW Anderson gives him a spinebuster and he’s saved by York/Matthews. This brawl has degenerated into a match!
Simon Diamond/Swinger v Christian York/Joey Matthews
Double powerbomb from York/Matthews. Heels bail and York/Matthews hit a double tope. Double Russian legsweep on Diamond. He takes over though and hits rolling snap suplexes into a gourd buster for 2. Double legsweep variant from Diamond/Swinger. Gertner has been taken off commentary and Cyrus is on there. Inverted DDT/side slam from Diamond/Swinger gets 2. Super rana from Matthews but CW runs in and hits a spinebuster. Problem Solver puts Matthews away at 5.19. **. Okay little match. Some decent spots but ultimately nothing to get over excited about. York and Matthews get stomped post match, which brings out Kid Kash. He hits a HUGE ref assisted plancha onto the assembled heels at ringside. Looks like he’s wrestling CW.
CW Anderson v Kid Kash
Tilt-a-whirl headscissors and some armdrags from Kash. CW bails so Kash dives over the ropes and hits a rana on the floor. CW into the crowd and Kash leaps over the guardrail. He’s a nut. Back inside Kash hits a double springboard but CW grabs him and hits the Ferris Wheel. They botch a jumping armbreaker. CW goes after the shoulder and works it over using the ringpost and a chair. Shoulder stunner from CW. Coolness. Corkscrew Merosault from Kash. What the heck was that? Big Anderson left takes Kash down for 2. Samoan armbreaker from CW gets 2. Near falls sequence albeit a short one follows and a double clothesline draws the fan appreciation. Bitchslapping contest from the ground but CW blocks a Moneymaker. Kash runs up the buckles and hits a leaping swinging rana for 2. Standing vertical SUPERplex from CW gets 2. Kash gets a roll up for 2 and so does CW. Kash springboard misses and CW hits the Anderson spinebuster for 2. CW blocks another Moneymaker but Kash hits a tornado DDT out of its remains for the pinfall at 10.47. ***1/4. Cool match. It should, by all rights, have been a clash of styles but they worked very well together.
EZ Money/Julio Dinero/Chris Hamrick w/Elektra v Roadkill/Danny Doring
Hamrick w/southern accent appears to be wearing garbage bags Viscera style. This is a 3 on 2 donnybrook. Doring and Roadkill get stomped. One minute in Spike Dudley comes out. They just couldn’t leave this one alone and he’s in this match with Doring/Roadkill. Spike cleans house. Doring hits a pescado out onto Hamrick, Dinero takes Spike down with a Sambo legsweep and dives over the ropes onto Doring. EZ Money somersaults over and Spike hits a big plancha. Back inside Roadkill plants Hamrick and hits an elbow drop. Powerslam on EZ Money and Doring drops the elbow on him. Triple team Hart Attack on Dinero. Doring gets caught by EZ Money’s Money Clip. Doring goes for a Bareback but EZ Money hits a drop suplex to avoid it. Doring gets dropped onto the top rope and Hamrick drops a leg. Hamrick gets reversed into the G-Spot sweep and Roadkill comes in. He hits a Barnburner on EZ Money and a dirt road slam on Dinero. Hamrick chair shots him and everyone comes in. Spike gets his injured knee clipped. Spike avoids a Doomsday device with a victory roll for 2. He goes for the Acid Drop on Dinero but gets caught by EZ Money with a powerbomb for 2. Elektra comes in and gets the Bareback from Doring. Wheelbarrow bomb/cutter from Roadkill/Spike on Hamrick and it’s over at 8.21. **1/2. One HELL of a lot of spots. Fun to watch but very messy.
Backstage Rhyno gets upset and cuts a promo on New Jack. He says he’ll rip New Jack’s face off and shove it down his throat so he has to shit his own face back out. When people talk about Rhyno’s promos in ECW being a little more violent and a touch sweary this is what they mean.
Nova v Chris Chetti w/Lou E.Dangerously
This is loser leaves town. Rumours persisted that Chetti had been signed by the WWF at this point. Nova comes out fast and hits a jawbreaker. He backdrops Chetti to the floor and misses a pescado. Double ouch. Chetti does a weak bladejob after smacking his head off the guardrail. Crossface chickenwing from Nova but Chetti escapes and hits a superkick. Chetti drops like a sack of crap after hitting a chair in the corner. He has a history of back problems but this is a ploy. Lou E blindsides Nova and Chetti takes him down with a rocker dropper. Big sidekick from Chetti gets 2. Nova has also done weak bladejob. Chetti hits a vertical suplex for 2. Backslide from Nova gets 2. Chetti hits the Novocain on Nova for 2. Nova hits a sidekick from the top and they’re stealing each others moves. Nova hammers on Chetti in the corner so Chetti blasts him with a chair and Nova still keeps coming back and screaming “die” at Chetti while pounding him. Ensiguri from Nova. Double arm DDT gets 2 for Nova. He goes outside to deck Lou E. Chetti suplexes him back in but Nova escapes into some near falls. Rolling piledrivers from Nova, which is broken up after 2 by Lou E. Nova kicks out of the loaded 80’s phone shot. They both head up top and scramble for something and Nova hits a Kryptonite Krunch from the top to win at 9.48. **. Would have been awesome if Nova could hit his moves. Unfortunately the whole match looked rushed and sloppy.
Backstage New Jack tells Rhyno that he should have killed him. He says he doesn’t care about the TV title. If he wins he’ll pawn it so he can fix his car. He also says he’ll open Rhyno up and eat his guts like a buzzard.
Flaming tables match – Da Baldies v Balls Mahoney/Chilly Willy
You win by putting your opponent through a table that’s on fire. Why did they waste this match on these losers and Balls Mahoney. Ballbreaker on Angel and he eats a chair. Another killer chair shot for DeVito. This one spills into the crowd for a lengthy brawl. They fight up onto a huge balcony to tease a spot that someone else will do later. More crowd brawling. God this is dull. Everyone is bleeding after the crowd brawling. Chilly Willy gets himself powerbombed on a pair of set up chairs. Balls is left 2 on 1. He hits a DDT on Angel. Super Nutcracker Suite on DeVito and BAH GAWD he’s dead. A Nutcracker Suite on Angel. Balls and Willy empty 2 whole cans of lighter fluid on the table and Angel gets powerbombed into it with the flames at their highest at 12.09. Balls Mahoney is a sick man. Not content with murdering DeVito he decided to scar Angel for life too. Sick, sick match although they could have gotten away with teasing that for much longer than they did. The pay off seemed a bit weak as a result. *1/2. Balls Mahoney is under rated in wrestling terms but this whole match was just a brawl.
Backstage the Sinister Minister hypes the card in his unique way. Tajiri and Mikey horse around a bit and they hype the tag titles match with them battling the FBI.
ECW TV title – Rhyno (c) v New Jack
New Jack uses a load of plunder. Big ugly clothesline from Rhyno gets 2. More plunder from New Jack leads to a ref bump. Replacement heel ref gets beaten down by New Jack. Rhyno no sells the guitar shot of doom and gores New Jack through the table for the finish at 7.59. DUD. One would question the point of having 2 garbage brawls back to back. Especially when the second one had no spots in it.
Backstage Steve Corino monkeys around in Sandman’s locker room but Sandman shows up and punks him out.
ECW tag titles – FBI (Mamaluke/Guido w/Big Sal) (c) v Mikey Whipwreck/Tajiri w/Sinister Minister
This is a rematch from their Hammerstein ballroom classic at Cyberslam. Can someone remind me to pick that up so I can review it? Mamaluke and Mikey start with mat switches. Mamaluke works a keylock and they run some more sequences with Mamaluke getting a pair of near falls and then going for a tilt-a-whirl only to get slammed. Tajiri comes in and they double kick Mamaluke in the head. Guido-Tajiri now. They run some awesome sequences including Tajiri going after a Dragon suplex and I can’t even start to do a play by play on this stuff because it’s so damn fast. Guido-Mikey now and the babyfaces screw up a double team. Mikey guillotines Guido with a legdrop to compensate. Guido gets his head sandwiched between 2 chairs and they double dropkick him. OUCH. Mamaluke gets thrown onto the guardrail and he’s dead too. Mikey goes for a super double Whippersnapper, which he gets, but he stays down selling a shoulder injury. Big Sal miscues on the cover and crushes Mamaluke. Mikey crawls out of the ring injured (was that legit? I can’t remember). The match stalls while he’s removed. Crowd chants for Mikey and then for Super Crazy. Tajiri mists Mamaluke and goes on a kicking rampage but the FBI strap him in a camel clutch/Boston crab combo.
Crazy comes out for a big return and dropkicks the FBI. Crowd is super hot. Trifecta of moonsaults on Mamaluke and Tajiri kicks Guido’s head off. The biggest X-Factor EVER from Super Crazy as he did it from a Farewell. Mamaluke in the tree of woe and Tajiri kicks his head off. Guido gets chaired down. He pops back up and slaps a Fujiwara armbar on Tajiri. Mamaluke comes in and hits a snap Northern lights. Guido comes in with a Sicilian Slice for 2. Guido blocks the handspring back elbow and goes for a Maritado but Tajiri escapes into a backslide and when that doesn’t work he kicks Guido’s head off, again. Double handspring elbow from Tajiri and Crazy tags in with a moonsault. Missile dropkick on Mamaluke. He goes for a rana but Crazy blocks into a sit out powerbomb for 2. Swinging DDT on Guido gets 2. Spinning heel kick on Mamaluke and they spill outside. Crazy alley oops Mamaluke into the crowd! Big Sal beats Crazy down. They fight out into the crowd. Guido is busted and Tajiri works an armbar on him into a keylock. Tajiri stops to watch Crazy wrestling onto a balcony – BIGGEST MOONSAULT EVER onto Big Sal some 20 feet beneath him. Tarantula on Mamaluke and the crowd is going banana. Guido bulldogs Tajiri out of the tarantula for 3 at 15.46 and you know that Tajiri is going to blame the spot crazy Super Crazy for the loss. ****. Match was awesome until Mikey got crocked. It was still innovative after that but it wasn’t the amazing wrestling match it should have been.
Backstage Jasmine St Claire showers to wash the spunk of her. She shills ECW’s website.
ECW title/Double Jeopardy. Jerry Lynn v Justin Credible. The Sandman v Steve Corino
Dawn/Victory are in Corino’s corner. Francine is in Credible’s. Sandman is late coming out. Lynn and Credible run a near falls sequence. Corino comes in but misses a superkick on Lynn. Crowd chant for Sandman and then RVD. Lynn bulldogs both challengers. Sandman finally shows up 3 minutes after the bell. He comes in through the crowd to eat up some more PPV time. Meanwhile in the ring Lynn is double teamed but he fights back after a miscued superkick. Lynn is busted. Sandman canes the hell out of everyone and Corino swats his beer away. Lynn hits a tornado DDT on Corino. Bossman slam on Lynn from Credible. He’s bleeding badly as well. Sandman grabs a ladder and whips everyone into it. This is such a mess. Sandman suplexes Corino onto the ladder for 2. Slingshot senton w/ladder from Sandman gets 2. Sandman grabs Credible and bulldogs him on the ladder but he can’t pin him so he grabs a length of guardrail. Corino finally blades (after 12 minutes, that’s a new record for juice boy). In the ring Corino sets up some chairs and puts the guardrail on them. Sandman comes back in and suplexes Corino onto it for 2. Lynn goes for the tombstone and they reverse it back and forth before Lynn hits it. Francine comes in followed by Dawn Marie and Corino prevents a catfight. Sandman canes him. Corino/Credible superkick Lynn. Credible tombstones Lynn while Corino hits the Old School Expulsion out of nowhere on Sandman. Tandem pin sends the world champ and the drunk out of there at 16.16.
Corino-Credible now for the title. “Bullshit” – Chicago. Dusty offence from Corino and he drops the elbow for 2. Credible backdrops Corino over the ropes onto Lynn. He boots Corino and punches his bloody head. Credible gets sent outside and Sandman beats him up. Corino brings a table in. Lots of chops and Credible goes low. They switch waistlocks and Corino hits a Northern lights through the table for 2. Francine comes in and Credible drags her in front of the superkick. Old School Expulsion gets 2. Superkick from Credible gets 2. Credible grabs the Singapore cane and clubs Corino. Another Old School Expulsion and Dawn Marie turns on Corino with a low blow. She low blows Victory too and she walks. Credible with more cane shots but Corino refuses to go down and he hits the superkick for the finish at 24.21. **. Messy title match. It was all over the place until it got down to Credible-Corino and I hate to say it but that’s not high on my list of “dream matches”. It also made little sense to job Lynn out after just one month with the title when it would have been perfect to wait for RVD to come back, turn Lynn with the belt and do a switch in the New Year to put the title on RVD who was the only man who could carry the company away from death. The writing was on the wall at this point as ECW had a solid undercard still and lots of young talent but no real main event direction.
Overall PPV rating – C+
Far too much crap, not enough good stuff. But on the upside the tag title match was good and there were a lot of entertaining spotty matches on the 1st half of the card. I think the problem ECW was suffering from was repetition coupled with weak main events. They didn’t have any big name stars left after WCW and the WWF had done plundering their ranks. It’s this that led to their eventual demise (that and lack of backing). So the shows were starting to wind down and fizzle out around the end of 2000, which was too bad. ECW was a great company while it lasted.