Reliving A Title Run Volume #20: Justin Credible As ECW World Champion In ‘00

By April 2000, Justin Credible had become one of the top villains in Extreme Championship Wrestling. Formerly known as Aldo Montoya in the WWF, Credible managed to quickly silence those chants of Montoya with feuds against Tommy Dreamer, Jerry Lynn and The Sandman. He had formed a successful team with Lance Storm known as the Impact Players and was becoming a quality in-ring competitor for ECW. He knew how to get heat and he wasn’t afraid of the violence that ECW was all about.

April 13th, 2000 saw ECW World Champion Mike Awesome lost the championship to WWF superstar Taz in less than two minutes. Awesome had broken his contract and jumped ship to rival promotion World Championship Wrestling.

Nine days later at ECW Cyberslam, Tommy Dreamer won the ECW World Championship from Taz in a five and half minute match. Dreamer finally realized his dream of being the ECW World Champion. However, it would be short-lived as he was immediately challenged by Credible to a title match. Since Dreamer isn’t someone to backdown from a challenge, he accepted.

After nearly seven minutes of action and Francine turning on Dreamer, Credible won his first and only ECW World Championship when he pinned Dreamer following the That’s Incredible. Following his win, Credible vacated the ECW Tag Team Championships that he held with Lance Storm, which didn’t exactly sit well with Storm.

Credible started his reign successfully defending the championship against the likes of Jerry Lynn and Raven before he entered the Hardcore Heaven pay per view on May 14th, 2000. Originally, Credible was supposed to defend against both Lance Storm and Tommy Dreamer in a triple threat match, but decided he only wanted to wrestle Storm. If Dreamer had gotten involved, Credible was going to toss the belt in the trash. Credible hit the That’s Incredible on Storm to retain the championship.

Dreamer would get his shot at Credible at ECW Heatwave 2000 on July 16th. Leading into the match, Dreamer had gotten a few victories over Credible in mixed person tag matches that included Jazz and Francine. Their match at Heatwave would be a Stairway to Hell match. The match is essentially a ladder match with barbed wire hanging and can be used as a weapon. Credible was able to retain the title after two That’s Incredible tombstone piledrivers.

Following the pay per view, Credible defended the championship against the likes of Kid Kash and Chris Chetti. Credible successfully retained the title against Steve Corino and Jerry Lynn in a triple threat match in Ontario on September 9th. Less than a month later, Credible would lose the ECW World Championship to Jerry Lynn at Anarchy Rulz on October 1st, 2000.

Credible would remain in the main event picture as he competed for the championship at November to Remember, Massacre on 34th St. and Guilty As Charged 2001 failing to win the title in all three matches.

Personally, I enjoyed Justin Credible in ECW. Yes, I know that he used the tombstone, had a kendo stick and shaved his head. Sure, people can make the argument that he stole a version of the Undertaker’s finishing move, Sandman’s weapon and appearance of Steve Austin. But, maybe that was the point? He was an arrogant jerk who thought he was better than everyone else. He was a complete heat magnet in ECW. There have been house show matches of his that I really enjoyed. His feud with Dreamer from 1998 to 2000 got really heated and provided some memorable moments and probably made Credible a star in ECW. Credible held his own when he fought Jerry Lynn, too. Those are matches that are often forgotten about. Anyway, I enjoyed Credible’s title run.

What are your thoughts on Justin Credible’s title run in ECW?

Thanks for reading.