ECW Anarchy Rulz 1999 Match Ratings and Commentary

Villa Park, IL—Odeum Expo Center

September 19, 1999

Taz’s last show as ECW Champion (Credit: WWE)

Let’s look back at ECW Anarchy Rulz ‘99, where Taz lost his world title in a shocking three way dance. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.

ECW Anarchy Rulz ’99

• Lance Storm def. Jerry Lynn: ★★★

• Tajiri def. Super Crazy and Little Guido: ★★

• Justin Credible def. Sabu: ★★

• Mike Awesome def. Masato Tanaka and Taz to win the ECW World Championship: ★★★★

• Tommy Dreamer and Raven def. Steve Corino and Rhino to retain the ECW World Tag Team Championships: ★

• Rob Van Dam def. Ballz Mahoney to retain the ECW TV Championship:  ★★

Jerry Lynn and Lance Storm (Credit: WWE)

Show Highlight—

• New Awesome champion.  Mike Awesome in 1999 was a revelation.  You thought he was going to go to Vince and be the biggest star in the business.  Why?  Because Mike Awesome was to powerbombs what Scott Steiner was to suplexes.  …and he had a damn fine mullet.  Awesome was credible to be the guy to take the belt off of Taz that the hardcore ECW fanbase wouldn’t reject (who was leaving for WWE in a shocking move that the hot Chicago crowd got wind of and shit all over).  Awesome was the right guy to carry the baton before RVD got it.  Because ECW was a land of misfit toys with guys a few inches shorter than the boys in WWE and WCW, he towered over the roster, and seemed the most physically impressive.  I can’t recall if there was an interest in 1999 or 2000 by WWE in Awesome.  And in hindsight, Awesome’s ascent was right when the terrible powerbomb accident happened with Droz that left him paralyzed, so if there was any ECW guy that seemed too stiff or would have a moveset that wouldn’t translate, it would have been Awesome.  One of the moves he enjoyed doing to his opponents—and in this match he did it to Masato Tanaka—was a brutal as fuck powerbomb to the unprotected floor/table.  This match could never be replicated today from its sheer physicality.  The angle though, totally could and should have been.  Taz defends against Tanaka, but a pissed off Awesome wants to make it a three way dance, annoyed that ECW was showing footage of Tanaka beating Awesome to make Tanaka a credible challenger for Taz.  Simple and effective way to transition the belt off of Taz.  And the way that they did, eliminating him almost immediately into the match, ended an era.  I always thought this was the way to put CM Punk in the main event of WrestleMania at Mania 29 defending his long reign against Cena and Rock.  I’m sure Tony Khan or Triple H will steal this as it’ll work.

What Worked—

• Joey and Cyrus.  What a great, forgotten commentary duo they were.  Like a Gorilla and Bobby with a snarkier, smuttier edge.  Any smart fan at the time thought Joey Styles was on his way to becoming his generations’ Jim Ross.  It’s funny to think, but an alternate universe where say Russo doesn’t split to WCW, you could listen to this and easily predict they’d take JR and King’s spot on Raw as WWE adopted more and more of ECW’s talent and style.

• Lance Storm vs. Jerry Lynn.  What a solid opener, one of the better technical matchups in ECW history that almost hit legendary status.  Hardcore fans that they were, the front row crowd was in visible disbelief and annoyance at the shitty finish that took the match down to just a near-classic.

• The future Sam Muchnick!  In attendance was Billy Corgan, noted Chicagoan.  Funny to think of how fast the music industry moved in the 90s, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness had come out just a few years earlier and his star had already started to fade.  Like Chris Rock joked, “Here today—gone today.”  Funnily enough, my first college roommate when I lived in Chicago in 2004 was obsessed with the Smashing Pumpkins and had numerous run-ins with Billy Corgan.  None of them bad or salacious or anything crazy by the way.  But Billy would frequent this guitar shop where my roommate worked at that every rockstar would go to.  I can’t remember the details precisely, but my then-roommate was going to buy one of the guitars used on Mellon Collie that apparently Billy just had no interest in keeping for like a hundred bucks or something ridiculously low.  Was Billy that nice, or just working his first Ciazarn?  Who knows…

What Didn’t Work—

• Casual 1999 misogyny.  Of fucking course I knew rewatching an ECW PPV wouldn’t be politically correct, but it is insane to watch the show today, thinking of what was passable in popular culture back then.  We were, what, three months removed from Woodstock ’99 and the wafting fart of Limp Bizkit and nu-metal and Surge cola was still lingering in the atmosphere.  So many “show-your-tits” and “she’s-a-crack-whore” chants, boob-job jokes, and women beating ran rampart here.   Even laudable senior ECW official Jim Molineaux does a bit where Dawn Marie grims at him, thinking the ref was also chanting to show her tits, and when she looked elsewhere, he made a point to check her out in the showiest, hammiest way possible.  A different era, to say the least.  Oh, and also amusing to me, was the Catholic priest in the front row loving every minute of the show.

• Fast counts.  Another thing that takes you out of the product, was how fast the refs’ near falls would be.  Guys would be obliterating each other with chairs or going through a table and they’d get a faster two-count than Hebner on coke.

• More impactful player?  It had been years since I watched this show, but I remember the Justin Credible/Sabu match being legendary or a four star outing—which, it decidedly was not that.  I guess it was a shocker at the time for Sabu to job to Aldo, but you wonder, with the benefit of hindsight clearly, how different ECW’s fate would be if Lance Storm was the guy Paul E put the belt on to use for RVDs chase in the heel-reign of doom in 2000.   

• RVD’s stalling.  I forgot how Lalwer-esque RVD could be in ECW.  You can appreciate the desire to “make ‘em wait” all you like but it’s also easy to project why the generation above Van Dam always thought he was trying to get himself over, versus trying to get an angle or storyline over and felt threatened by him.

Show Cringe—

• Impromptu garbage. I never got the ECW trope of having unadvertised, impromptu matches.  It worked on occasion, I guess, but doing it three times in one show was overkill.  Especially when you consider it being a regular happening because who knows who would be available for a show with all the chaos going on in ECW.  I don’t know how you’d even call it a match, but Simon Diamond came out, cut a promo, and shit-talked Jazz with the safe-space sentiment, “If women have proven anything in this industry, it's that they’re worthless and they’re just simply T&A.”  Shockingly, the crowd vociferously cheered for that.  Then some other jobbers ran-in, Danny Doring and Roadkill followed, beat up women for no redeeming value, and them New Jack came out and did his bit.  Why was New Jack so beloved by the the snobby ECW fanbase anyways?  His shtick aged even less with “Natural Born Killaz” plucked from Peacock.

Rough highspot for Tanaka (Credit: WWE)

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