10 Greatest Things About ECW’s Final Year

When looking back at the pantheon of great teams, one tandem that doesn't get anywhere near as much love from the masses, is the Impact Players.

Granted, we're not talking the Hart Foundation, the Road Warriors or Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, but the pairing of Justin Credible and Lance Storm made for a fantastic unit during their time together. Of course, said time lasted not even 18 months, and thus the Impact Players obviously didn't embark on some legendary, lengthy run.

For a spell, though, Credible and Storm were one of the best teams in the industry, as highlighted by how they were positioned by Paul Heyman. Not just did the Impact Players have two runs with the ECW Tag Team Titles, but they were notably paired up against names like Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Shane Douglas, Mike Awesome, the Sandman, Masato Tanaka, Sabu, Jerry Lynn and Rob Van Dam - all talents who were ECW World Champions at some point (albeit if RVD didn't achieve that goal until his WWE days).

The beginning of the end for the Impact Players came at CyberSlam 2000, with Credible defeating Dreamer in an impromptu match for Tommy's freshly-won ECW World Title. That was followed by the one-time Aldo Montoya vacating his half of the company's Tag Team Championships, joining the nefarious Network, and setting in motion a feud with Lance Storm over the greatest prize in ECW.

Credible and Storm did some great work here, with the Canadian serving as the fired-up, pissed-off babyface opposite the cocksure, obnoxious Connecticut heel. As the first notable feud for Credible as the World Champion, this was brilliant and even led to these one-time pals headlining Hardcore Heaven 2000.