10 Weirdest ECW Main Events Ever
Extreme or Eastern: no matter what the "E" stood for, this company put on some crazy matches.
Extreme Championship Wrestling might have been a financial wreck, but it was undoubtedly a massive influence on the business.
Not only did it bring hardcore wrestling to the mainstream, but its focus on smaller wrestlers and stars from Japan and Mexico helped widen American fans' vision of what the sport could be. It wasn't always good, but when it was, it was excellent.
As well as being innovative, ECW was also super weird. There were a bunch of mad characters running around Philadelphia when Paul Heyman was in charge, and some of them got to main event a pay-per-view every now and then.
A "main event" here is classed as the final show on a card, but the definition of "pay-per-view" is a little less clear. ECW used to run non-televised supercards in addition to their broadcast output, but since they're such a key part of the promotion's history, they also qualify for this list.
The "E" in "ECW" used to stand for "Eastern" up until 1994 and the shows run under that name are also eligible for this retrospective on the island of misfit toys.
10. Rob Van Dam vs Balls Mahoney - Anarchy Rulz 1999
Only ECW could have gotten away with having a wrestler named Balls on their roster.
The late Jonathan Rechner's most famous character was a mainstay of the original land of extreme, winning their tag titles three times and participating in numerous midcard angles. Though popular, he was never considered to be a top star by the brand, which is what makes the main event of Anarchy Rulz 1999 so odd.
Mahoney made it to the show's conclusion, taking on actual top guy Rob Van Dam for a championship. Not the World championship, mind you, but the Television Championship.
It's not like the World title wasn't featured on the card. Taz defended the belt in a three-way dance against Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka, a star-studded affair by anybody's measure. Furthermore, this was one of Taz's final matches for the promotion, as he would jump to the WWF early the following year.
Did Paul Heyman not book Taz in the main event because he felt betrayed by him leaving? It's entirely possible, but whatever the reason was, at least Balls got a nice payday out of it. Or he would have done, if this wasn't ECW.