10 Greatest Things About ECW’s Final Year

While Guilty as Charged 2001 wasn't officially billed as ECW's final ever PPV, the writing was clearly on the wall - and that show was absolutely indicative of that.

Emanating from the Hammerstein Ballroom on 7 January '01, Guilty as Charged was far from a perfect event and was likewise far from ECW's greatest PPV, but the show did allow for Paul Heyman to tie up certain loose threads.

Case in point, the final ever match of the final ever ECW PPV was one last go-around for Jerry Lynn vs. Rob Van Dam. Granted, this contest wasn't quite at the level of some of the pair's other fantastic matches, but if ever there was a natural end for ECW, it was - much like how WCW wrapped up Nitro with one more Ric Flair vs. Sting offering - pitting Lynn and RVD up against each other one more time.

Elsewhere, the ascension of Rhino was finally complete, as the War Machine became the ECW World Champion at Guilty as Charged; the hugely popular Sandman overcame the odds to beat Steve Corino and Justin Credible for that same ECW World Title before dropping it to Rhino minutes later; the lengthy issues between the Sinister Minister's Unholy Alliance and the F.B.I. came to a natural end, complete with the Kid Kash and Super Crazy tandem involved; and Tommy Dreamer finally got a singles win over C.W. Anderson.

As alluded to, Guilty as Charged 2001 was far from flawless, yet the PPV did a nice job of wrapping up several storylines as the company looked ahead to an uncertain future.