Two weeks ago, on this channel I made a video about one of the bigger events in ECW’s early history, the first Holiday Hell event in 1993. That got me thinking about the last one, which occurred in 2000, and was one of the last shows that the company ever held. While December ‘93 was an optimistic time for the still young Eastern Championship Wrestling, December 2000 was a very dark time for those involved, from the wrestlers to those behind the scenes.
In this video, we’ll look at ECW Holiday Hell 2000. We’ll look at the state of the company going into it, the card that was put on that night, and the wrestlers who were involved. We’ll also look at what the newsletters were saying at the time.
Over this year I’ve covered a lot of ECW. I’ve talked about the high points, and a lot of the lows, but never really end very end. Watching a lot of ECW from 93 for my last video, I got the idea to look at one of the last shows, one under very different circumstances.
Background
On December 23rd 2000, ECW presented the final Holiday Hell event at the ECW arena, the same place where the first was held back in ‘93. Things weren’t looking good though, as ECW was several weeks behind in paying their roster. They were at risk of not having enough footage recorded to air on TV having cancelled shows, and they were about to run their final event in the building they called home for many years.
As time went on, shows were held at the ECW arena less and less. At its peak, there would be up to seventeen shows a year, such as in 1995 and 6. Later on there were just nine events in ‘99, only six in 2000 and none would follow in 2001. This is because of two things, the promotion touring more, covering more states in 2000, and even their first show in Canada, than in any other year previous. The other reason is that ECW needed bigger venues in hopes of generating more revenue to sustain itself. There were thoughts around the time that the Hammerstein Ballroom, which the company had only started hosting events at a few months earlier, could become ECW’s new regular home, given that its capacity was around double the ECW arena, and much bigger than their New York home the Elks Lodge. Whether this would have worked especially by December 2000 feels unlikely, but there must have been a feeling that the company needed to make some changes.
It seems that other promotions were noticing this trend as well. On November 18th 2000, months before the company would close it’s doors, Jersey All Pro Wrestling would present their first ever event outside New Jersey. Their third anniversary show would be at the ECW arena, also known as “South Philly Invasion.” As if to add insult to injury, the main event on this night was Sabu vs Axl Rotten, two former ECW wrestlers, one of which had left on very bad terms. Jersey All Pro would run more events there after ECW closed, including one on February 3rd 2001 “The New Beginning,” clearly a jab at ECW, also including The Sandman, one of their last World champions.
As we get into December, morale was low as you might expect. There were things to be positive about though. For their last pay-per-view, November to Remember, the company had packed four and a half thousand fans into the Odeum Expo Centre in Illinois, and they were set to add a new special event to the calendar. Massacre on 34th Street took place on December 3rd, at the Hammerstein Ballroom, where the company had sold out twice that year already. Two and a half thousand fans were packed in, making for a third sellout. Between this show and the November to Remember, there was evidence supporting the idea that there was still some fan demand for ECW.
Massacre on 34th and the Elks Lodge
Massacre on 34th Street is not considered the strongest of ECW pay-per-views, but there are some memorable things to take away from it. A brutal match for the television title took place between Rhino and Spike Dudley, who had been fighting for weeks on television with Rhino getting the upper hand. This would end up no different, with Spike left laying in a puddle of his own vomit, as a result of Rhino choking him out. The show would also include one title change, a coronation of sorts for two genuine ECW originals. Two of the very few graduates of the House of Hardcore training school, Danny Doring and Roadkill. The unlikely tag team would win their first championships from the Full Blooded Italians, Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke, and would hold them until the end of the promotion. In the main event, Steve Corino would defend the World title against two men who had also been first time champions that year, Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible. After Corino retained the title, The Sandman would attack, and would steal the World title belt. This is worth remembering when we get to Holiday Hell.
Backstage at the show, Paul Heyman gave each wrestler their cheque, promising that things weren’t going to change any time soon. I assume he meant that positively, but you could also read it as Paul admitting that his roster was still going to be behind on payments. “At the meeting, Heyman admitted that the company is going through a frustrating financial time, but added that it will not go out of business. He described the company's problems as short-term, but fixable, and vowed that he will not bankrupt the company.” I give Paul quite a lot of leeway in these videos sometimes, but the idea that the company’s financial problems were ‘short term’ is laughable. If you’ve seen my video on the start of ECW on TNN, I talked about financial problems dating back to mid ‘99, when Paul was trying to get deals that would hopefully save the company like the one he landed for Acclaim to make ECW video games, and loan the company some money. On the subject of Paul making deals, It’s also noted that Paul was still trying to get new national television following the collapse of the show on TNN. ”USA Network, FX, and Fox Sports Network” are all named, but nothing was near set in stone.
ECW’s next event would take place two weeks later on December 15th, from the Elks Lodge in Queens, which was added to the schedule as a way to improve ECW’s money problems. The company charged higher than usual ticket prices to try and raise funds to pay debts, and for this elevated ticket price presented a one off appearance by Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley, as well as a surprise appearance from Tazz. They were also hoping to use as much of the show as possible to produce more content for Hardcore TV. Unfortunately for ECW, the show sold out of seated tickets, but didn’t overspill like most of the shows there did, and so the result was ultimately disappointing.
If the wrestlers weren’t already unhappy, they were even more so coming out of this night. “The wrestlers did not receive their scheduled paychecks at the Queens event, leaving most of them seven weeks behind in pay. Heyman did not hold a meeting in Queens to address the matter, but some wrestlers claim that he told them the checks will be sent to them during the week.” To make things even worse, “there were reports that the company cancelled a few checks they had issued to the wrestlers during the previous pay period.” The same edition of the Torch reported that “rumors have spread that a few wrestlers have discussed the idea of boycotting the Dec. 23 show at ECW Arena.” While no specific wrestlers are named, Wade Keller claims that some were threatening this, while others were laughing at the suggestion.
As the final episode of Hardcore TV would air one week later, none of the December 23rd show would be used for television, though fan cam footage exists, so we are able to see the event. While it’s alleged that at least two completed lost episodes weren't aired, it's not clear whether these would have included footage from Holiday Hell, or if they were still using the December 15th show from the Elks Lodge. What is clear though, is that the footage from this event seems to have been intended for TV, because in 2013 RF video released a much better quality version of the show, including commentary by Tommy Dreamer and Danny Doring. Dreamer actually notes at one point that he booked this show, and alludes to having some creative influence throughout, presumably with Paul Heyman having final say. This version of the event includes unedited footage of Joey Styles and Joel Gertner filming an intro for Hardcore TV, one that would never make it to fans screens.
Undercard
So now we get to the show itself, and for the sake of brevity, I’ll divide it into the Undercard, and the main matches later on. In the opener of the night, Da Blue Guy faced Chilly Willy. While the Blue Guy was very familiar to the fans in the ECW arena, he looked very different in this run with the company, having lost over a hundred pounds near the end of his time with WWE. Chilly Willy however was a relative newcomer to ECW, having made his debut in February of 2000. In the RF Video commentary, Tommy Dreamer says that to his mind, Chilly Willy would have become a mainstay in the company had ECW stayed open longer, also noting that he was signed to a WWE developmental deal afterwards. He worked in OVW, but never made it past a couple of dark matches on main WWE shows. There’s not a whole lot to say about the match, as I’ve already talked about both guys for longer than it actually lasted. After just thirty seconds, Rhino runs in and blasts Meanie with a gore. He has a bit more trouble with Chilly Willy, but hits him with a piledriver. Rhino is not done there though, as he hits Meanie’s manager Jasmine St. Clair with a terrifying looking piledriver off the second rope, and gives one to referee HC Loc through a table off the apron. While it was good to see Rhino, it’s slightly gutting that he had no match on this card. He would wrestle again in the venue many, many times over the following years though, for quite a few promotions from Jersey All pro to quite a few for TNA. His last match in the building was earlier in 2025, where he challenged for the NWA World title, a belt he held twenty years ago.
The rest of the undercard continues with a parade of ECW’s more unusual gimmicks, starting with the two remaining Baldies. Of all of the Baldies that ECW had, from Red Dogg, also known as Rodney Mack, to Vito LaGrasso to PN News to perhaps most infamously Vic Grimes, the last two left in the group were Tony Devito and Angel. They would face the new tag team champions who won at Massacre on 34th Street, Danny Doring and Roadkill. This match is the first of only two defences they would ever make of the tag team titles, also retaining them against Hot Commodity at Guilty as Charged a few weeks later. The two teams would essentially have the real opening match, with a very quick pace where the popular team won.
The third match on the night featured an interesting looking Muppet show of a group, fronted by Elvis impersonator, Bilvis Wesley, formerly known as Beautiful Bill Wiles. He would be accompanied by House of Hardcore trainee the Prodigy, as well as the Prodigette who was trained by Dusty Rhodes, and Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy graduate Chris Krueger. That's quite a collection of names all in one place there. Danny Doring on commentary notes that Wiles hated the Elvis gimmick that Paul Heyman gave him, but it’s worth noting that he kept using it after ECW for at least a year after the company closed. Bilvis faces Balls Mahoney in what is essentially a handicap match, but one that's somehow in the favour of Balls and his chair, as he handily outlasts the whole group to win the match. The Pro Wrestling Torch would add in the following week that “Krueger bladed severely and blood gushed from his head. He was later taken to the hospital.” Dreamer and Doring dispute this, saying he got cut for real. Tommy also says that Kruger used to drive from Texas for his ECW bookings. A twenty five hour drive to get bludgeoned by Balls and a visit to the hospital doesn’t sound like the most fun of ways to spend a weekend. While I’m being quite flippant, it’s not at all fair to compare many of these names to the mainstay ECW talent who had been there longer, as Bilvis and his crew among others were still finding their footing. It’s very difficult not to though, when ECW in years past would have many more established stars on their shows. Many of those stars had either moved on to bigger companies, or fallen out with ECW, but fortunately they still had some names in the building.
Main Show
While watching the rest of this show one thing is very clear. Even though things weren't looking good for the company, there was still a mindset of building up new talent for the future, or at least changing direction for some who had been around a bit longer. After the third match, Joey Styles and Joel Gertner come out and the show really feels like it’s getting started. Joey has some fun with the crowd, before they tape an intro to Hardcore TV, starting with Joey’s trademark “hello everyone and welcome,” and a dirty limerick from Gertner. The two are quickly interrupted by Cyrus, who comes out to introduce not just Jerry Lynn, but the heel “simply the best” version of Jerry Lynn. The turn to the dark side for Jerry came after his brief run as ECW world champion had ended, losing it after just a month and a few days at November to Remember to Steve Corino, another who was being built up into a top level star in the company.
On November 11th 2000, days after the pay per view, We find Jerry Lynn sitting in front of a mirror, no doubt for dramatic effect. Cyrus enters the frame, to which Lynn at first reacts with hostility. Cyrus manages to calm the former champion down, and convinces him that he got screwed out of the World title, and Jerry begins to hear him out. The following week’s episode begins with Cyrus listing the various ways that Jerry has been overlooked and underappreciated by ECW. He’s looking into the camera, but he’s talking only to Jerry, a bit like how I imagine he pitches joining the Don Callis Family to people today.
I talked about the company having plans for the future, and the next few matches definitely show that. First, Jerry Lynn would defeat Spike Dudley in what might well have been the most technical wrestling match of Spike's entire ECW career, then CW Anderson would beat Super Crazy, who himself had been pushed earlier in the year, winning the TV title after RVD gave it up due to injury. Next on the card though, a newer addition to the roster would get a big win over a veteran, and like with many things in ECW, it’s not quite that simple.
The match was originally set to be Nova vs EZ Money, who Tommy Dreamer notes is someone that Paul Heyman was a big fan of. EZ had joined the company in June, and would quickly become a regular on shows. He would wrestle with Nova for a few minutes, before blood started pouring from Nova’s ear, and the referee would call for the bell. Danny Doring says on the RF Video commentary that Nova was quote “doing a burst eardrum gimmick.” The Observer also notes that this was an angle, but explains that it stems from a real ear injury that Nova was dealing with. “The angle was done because if Nova needs surgery on his ear, he’ll be out six weeks, although it won’t be definite about the surgery until an exam on 1/4.”
After the match ends, Tommy Dreamer, along with two more relatively new ECW talents, Christian York and Joey Matthews, come out to check on Nova, EZ as well as his Hot commodity teammates Chris Hamrick and Julio Dinero go after them, and a six man tag breaks out. Dreamer on commentary says that he in particular was quote, “a huge fan” of York and Matthews, and said that he thought of them as the next top tag team act. Matthews would achieve quite a bit of success in WWE in a different team, with Johnny Nitro as MNM, while it would take York a fair bit longer to eventually get signed by TNA in 2012. The six men have an absolute brawl of a match, with even Tommy Dreamer attempting a dive, and catching his feet on the top rope on the way over. The match would end with EZ Money getting a pinfall victory over Dreamer, but not without interference from CW Anderson, Tommy’s next opponent at Guilty as Charged.
The Main Event
Perhaps the most notable of all the matches that night was the main event, which was originally set to be Justin Credible challenging Steve Corino for the ECW World title. There’s just one problem though, ever since Massacre on 34th Street, Sandman had possession of the title belt. After a very long entrance which as usual got through the whole of his Metallica song, Sandman gets on the microphone and demands that the match be made a three way dance. He does make a valid point, how are the other two going to fight for the belt if he is wearing it?
When I told you about Sandman stealing the belt at the last pay per view, I said that it would be worth remembering for later. I was referring to a very nerdy detail that I actually first noticed when making my ECW arena video last year. On June 8th 1993, the very first episode of television from the ECW arena aired, and on that night Don Muraco would defend the ECW title against the Sandman. Fast forward to the final ever ECW match in the same building, and the Sandman is challenging for that same, albeit different looking title. This time though, he was wearing the belt to the ring despite not being the champion. I did say it was a nerdy thing to point out.
The match itself is actually fairly short for a main event, with Justin Credible getting eliminated not very long in. Steve Corino takes a scary looking superplex onto a guardrail propped up by chairs. After this, Justin attempts to whip Corino into the ropes where Francine, who he wasn’t getting along with, was set to crack Corino with a cane. Steve reverses the whip though, and Francine hits her own client, leading to another caning from Sandman, and old school expulsion from Corino to take Justin out of the match. On his way out of the arena, Francine can be heard shouting at Justin that he screwed it up.
It’s almost fitting in a way that this match and the night ended with a callback to a classic ECW moment. The Sandman, much like Terry Funk did at Hardcore Heaven ‘94, would request chairs be thrown into the ring, and the fans would gladly oblige. Luckily for Steve Corino though, he was more fortunate than poor Rocco Rock who took the brunt of it by laying in the ring while the chairs flew back in ‘94, and he had the good sense to get out of there until the chairs stopped coming.
Afterwards he and Sandman are left with a big stack of chairs in the ring, and spend the final few minutes staggering and slipping on them. Sadman misses a Rolling Rock, diving off the top rope and crashing into the pile of chairs. When he gets up, Corino hits Old School expulsion, a sort of variant on the Twist of Fate. After a distraction from Jack Victory, Corino hits Sandman with a cowbell, which he carried as a reference to his brutal bullrope match with Dusty Rhodes earlier in the year. He then pins Sandman to win the match. Corino wouldn’t get his belt back though, as Justin comes back to Corino, and Sandman gets the upper hand in the end with his cane. All of this was planned to build towards Guilty as Charged, but for now the show ends quite fittingly with Sandman celebrating with the fans, world title belt in one hand and his cane in the other. Clearly from the optimistic booking plans ECW, weren’t expecting this to be their final show there, but what an appropriate ending knowing that it was.
Aftermath
After all the talk from some wrestlers about boycotting the show, it’s not clear if anyone actually did, though some wrestlers weren’t there for other reasons. The Observer (Jan 1st) notes that Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger, Jim Mitchell, Dawn Marie weren’t there as they were at Swinger’s wedding, and New Jack wasn’t because he had a falling out with Paul Heyman. It had been reported a week earlier that the dispute had come over New Jack working the Jersey All Pro show at the ECW arena. He would effectively be gone from the company, with his last ECW match being against Angel on the non-pay per view portion of Massacre on 34th Street, which would also air on Hardcore TV. The other notable name that Dave mentions is Kid Kash, who had suffered broken ribs at the Elks Lodge show, and was advised not to work.
While the company technically sold out seated tickets for Holiday Hell, they were disappointed by the turnout afterwards. As reported in Figure Four Weekly, “It was said to be a full house, but attendance was down a bit since there weren’t people standing around everywhere.” The Observer would report that this was “similar to Queens in that every seat was packed, but there was no overflow, with the crowd estimated at about 1,000.” Critical reception seems to have been best summarized by Bryan Alvarez, who said he had heard it called “a decent show with nothing spectacular happening save for a chair-throwing incident in the main event.”
Backstage at the ECW arena, the wrestlers did in fact get their cheques this time, however there would be a catch. “The wrestlers were given paychecks covering two weeks on Dec. 23. The checks were post-dated to Dec. 27, meaning the wrestlers weren't allowed to cash them before the Christmas holiday. Even with the latest checks, the company is still six weeks behind on paying the wrestlers.” While the wrestlers would again get paid at Guilty as Charged, this would still leave them several weeks behind on pay, as they would be until the company closed. Tommy Dreamer on the RF Video commentary made sure to point out that these were very difficult times for many on the ECW roster, but the best they could do was continue to hope that the company would pull through the difficult times, like they had done before.
On January 6th, the Torch would report something that really began to spell the end for the company, as “a spokesperson for MSG network says ECW’s syndicated show is not scheduled to air on January 6th. ECW has paid a fee to air the show throughout it’s run,” While at the time Heyman was telling people that it would all be resolved, this would mark the official end for Hardcore TV, as the December 30th show would be the last to air anywhere. The timing of this was particularly awful, as it meant that their episode set to air the day before the next pay per view wouldn’t air. While this might not have much of an effect on Guilty as Charged itself, as Bryan Alvarez put it, “I think if ECW fans tuned into MSG Saturday night and found a George Foreman Grill infomercial, they’d still buy the PPV the next afternoon, but the perception issue is what is really important. Not having a show in that slot would just reiterate to fans that the company is in such bad shape that they couldn’t even afford to air their TV show the night before a PPV in the market the PPV is airing from.”
The future would continue to look bleak for ECW, but there was one last big show before the end came. On January 7th, the company would return to the Hammerstein Ballroom, selling it out one final time for Guilty as Charged. Two and a half thousand fans would see the Sandman win the ECW World title officially, only for it to be ripped away from him by a challenger he had been in a heated feud with all year, when Rhino defeated him for that title. Also on the show, Tommy Dreamer would have what he called in 2013 one of his all time favourite matches, defeating CW Anderson in an I Quit match. On the RF Video commentary for Holiday Hell, Dreamer says that Anderson was quote, “the next guy in line to get a push,” and sadly this wouldn’t come anywhere else for the then thirty year old Anderson.
Ending
I’ve been trying hard to find a way to not end this video on a depressing note, and the best one I can find is that for the average fan viewing on pay per view at least, ECW went out with a bang at Guilty as Charged. For one final night, arguably until One Night Stand, ECW felt like a hot promotion with dedicated fans, and a roster who was ready to show the world who they are. This was helped immensely by Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn closing the show not with a classic like they had before, but with a match that made the fans happy.
On screen, ECW was still presenting the product that they always had, with the stars they had left and a new crop of wrestlers that Paul Heyman had hoped would take them into 2001, many of whom would go on to have long careers. Despite my covering of some quite bleak times in this video, RVD’s reception as he walked into the Hammerstein is the positive side of how we can remember the end of ECW, with a roaring crowd, loudly shouting obscenities at Cyrus.
Sources:
Dec 3rd
PWT Dec 9th Meeting after 34th https://members.pwtorch.com/torchbackissues00/torch631/T631ECWNews.html
PWT Dec 23rd Not paid in Queens https://members.pwtorch.com/torchbackissues00/torch633/T633ECWNews.html
Dec 23rd
PWT Dec 30th 2000 Wrestlers paid poorly, show review https://members.pwtorch.com/torchbackissues00/torch634/T634ECWNews.html
WON January 1st 2001 - Show report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/january-1-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-candidates-wrestler-year/
FFW Jan 1st Show report https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w288-brief-history-recent-backstage-fights-january-1-2001-88731/
PWT Jan 6th Last HTV
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