This is the script for a video on my YouTube channel, you can find the video version here: https://youtu.be/Wm54afrMVCo
On January 9th 2000 ECW presented Guilty as Charged from Birmingham Alabama. Long before Brock Lesnar destroyed John Cena at Summerslam 2014. Before Goldberg laid waste to the Fiend in 2020. ECW would put on one of the most one sided and vicious pay per view main events that you may have never heard of, as Mike Awesome defended the ECW World title against Little Spike Dudley.
In September of 99 at Anarchy Rulz, Awesome had defeated the outgoing champion Taz and Masato Tanaka in a three way dance to claim the ECW World title. Awesome had spent the 90's building a reputation for his hard hitting and some might argue unsafe style, and had many famously reckless bouts with Tanaka, the most famous occuring at the still fondly remembered Heatwave 1998, thought of by many fans as ECW's best pay per view ever. He would actually lose the title to his Japanese rival, but would win it back less than a week later. Before these title changes occurred however, Paul Heyman was also building a story for Awesome's PPV title match, who on the surface seemed to be an unlikely challenger. Standing at 6 foot 6, and nearly 300 pounds, Mike Awesome would defend his title against the runt of the Dudley litter, the 5 foot 8 Spike Dudley.
The fan favourite Little Spike Dudley, whose name is a pun on the drug, had gained a reputation for being 'the giant killer'. Throughout 1999 he had earned wins against much larger opponents the likes of Sal E Graziano, Mabel who would later be known as Viscera, and even future ECW Champion Rhino.
The story of this match would begin on the December 17th edition of ECW on TNN. Answering the open challenge of the Baldies, Mike Awesome charged to the ring and made quick work out of defeating Vic Grimes. After the match he and his manager Judge Jeff Jones were proclaiming that nobody could stop Awesome, when the music of Spike Dudley would play. Spike would actually get one over on Awesome, hitting him with a low blow, and his Acid Drop, which would later be known as the Dudley Dog in when he got to WWE. With Spikes challenge made clear, the match would be booked to take place at Guilty as Charged.
The build to Spikes title shot resumed on the December 31st edition of ECW on TNN, where moments after Awesome had regained the title from Tanaka, Spike Dudley would run in to try embarrass the new champion again, but would be intercepted by Jeff Jones. This would cause Spikes girlfriend, who I don't believe was ever named to run in to help Spike, only to be blasted by a vicious strike from Awesome, that would knock out her front teeth. Going into Guilty as Charged, this was a chance for us to see a more serious and focused version of Spike than we had ever seen, but the pay per view clash has to be seen to be believed.
Spike enters first, and immediately gets a member of the ring crew to assist him in surrounding the ring with tables, even staking some on other tables, letting us know that we are in for something a bit different from a normal world title match. As Awesome slides into the ring, he doesn't even get to take the World title from his waist before Spike goes on the attack. His plan completely backfires though, as from the opening bell, it takes Mike Awesome just 13 seconds to lift Spike high above his head, and throw him from the ring through one of the tables on the floor. Once Spike eventually crawls into the ring, it takes Awesome a further six seconds to throw him back out, through two more tables. I hope you can see where this is going by now. Spike does get moments of offence in, but rarely does Mike Awesome appear to be in any kind of trouble. At one point Spike hits a low blow, and an Acid Drop which would later be known as the Dudley Dog, though a table to the floor, so eventually Spikes plan kind of worked, but less than 90 seconds later, Spike is sent careening from the top rope out to the floor through another table. Mercifully, Awesome calls for a table to be set up in the ring, and Mike hits an Awesome Bomb through it for the win.
At this point you might be wondering why I chose to write, record and edit a video about this car crash of a pay per view main event, and the honest reason is that after all of these years, this match was so different from other pay per view world title matches that the memory of it stuck with me. Most of this match is frankly uncomfortable viewing, but I admire the sheer recklessness and ambition of Paul Heyman to book such a match.
Despite this, I've never once considered what the critical reception might have been at the time, so I searched for Dave Meltzer's review. He rated this match three and a half stars, more than anything else on the show including a match between Rob Van Dam and Sabu, noting how well Spike sold the beating he took. Something tells me not a lot of it was selling though. Something else that caught my eye in the same newsletter was Dave describing Mike Awesome as looking like Chyna on steroids, and thats a genuine quote that you can form your own opinion on. I respect Dave's work ethic, but not necessarily his writing...
From a business perspective, ECW was in an interesting position as they went into 2000. They recently had lost The Dudley Boyz and Taz, three of ECW's biggest stars who all went to WWE, but they had also regained Raven and Sandman, who had both left WCW not exactly looking like stars. This match felt like a risky idea, but one could argue that the strong undercard allowed Heyman to take a chance with this main event. The Alabama fans had already seen a battle between former tag partners Sabu and RVD over the television title, which Van Dam had held for 20 months at this point. The semi main event saw The Impact Players, Lance Storm and Justin Credible dethrone reluctant partners Tommy Dreamer and Raven for the tag titles, furthering Raven and Dreamers years long feud against each other. This event was had one of ECW's bigger PPV attendances, and had one of the bigger buy rates too despite so much fluctuation in the roster, so clearly ECW was doing something right.
This would not be the last time Mike Awesome and Spike Dudley would do battle though, as they would face off in a rematch on the January 28th TNN episode. This time Joey Styles and Joel Gertner on commentary were promoting Rob Van Dam as Awesome's next opponent, which would have been an epic match pitting the almost two year reigning television champion against the World champion, but sadly RVD's injury that made him have to surrender the title meant that match would never happen, as by the time Van Dam had returned Awesome was gone from the promotion.
The second match for the first half was less dramatic, but Awesome was still in control. Things change when Awesome decides to pull out a table, but Spike manages to put Awesome through it with a bulldog. This time Spike gets noticeably more offence in, but in the end Awesome hits a running powerbomb through a table and Spike is defeated again. Post match Awesome even powerbombs the referee just because he can.
Spike Dudley and Mike Awesome would have a third match on March 3rd 2000. This time Spike would enter with a chair and get the early upper hand on Awesome which would not last long. This time the story going in was that Spike had attacked Jeff Jones and put him in the hospital, and so Jones and Awesome were out for revenge. This match harkened back to the first, with Awesome launching Spike over the top rope and through a table on the floor. We clearly missed a lot though as coming back from the break Spike hits a bulldog on Awesome off the stage through a table. In each match Spike got more offence in, and even looked like he could have pinned Awesome had Jeff Jones not interfered. Spike takes three more powerbombs, and somehow slightly gets his shoulder up. Awesome then hits another bomb through a table in the corner like the last match, and gets the win.
Honestly, when I started writing this video I only knew about the Guilty as Charged match, and how brutal it was. Then I discovered a story being told over the three matches, where Spike Dudley went from being a comedy character to someone who could hold his own in a serious match. If anything watching all three of these matches back to back, you really see the development of Spike Dudley, which he sorely needed in the absence of Bubba Ray and Devon. It's almost as if Paul Heyman knew what he was doing...
Going forward Paul Heyman had big plans for Awesome as his world Champion, but they would come to a halt when Awesome defected to WCW, while still holding the ECW title. Awesome would appear on the April 10th Nitro, attacking Kevin Nash and eventually becoming a part of the New Blood faction that defined much of 2000 WCW. Paul Heyman quickly threatened legal action, knowing what Eric had previously done with another companies belt, and a compromise was made. WCW contracted Awesome would appear at one final ECW event, and lose to of all people, WWE contracted talent Taz, making for a strange meeting between the three biggest companies of the age. On the following weeks Smackdown Taz would lose fairly decisively to WWE champion Triple H in a match remembered by most as making ECW's new champion look bad, so WWE didn't come out of that situation looking like heroes.
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