Every ECW PPV Ranked From Worst To Best

Decades on from the promotion’s closure in 2001, Extreme Championship Wrestling’s influence and legacy is still felt in professional wrestling today, with the promotion’s demise doing nothing to mute the memories that people have of this iconic company. 

Between 1997 and 2001, Extreme Championship Wrestling held 21 pay-per-views. Some of them were truly special, while others were extremely rubbish. 

NOTE: This list does not include any of the WWE ECW-produced pay-per-views, which would be the One Night Stand pay-per-views in 2005 and 2006 fighting it out for the top spots, while December to Dismember would be right at the very bottom for being a complete disaster.

This is every ECW pay-per-view ranked from worst to best. 

21. Wrestlepalooza

Paul Heyman has intimated that the reason Barely Legal was never again used as a pay-per view name was because he wanted the show, as ECW's maiden pay-per-view, to stand out from the pack as one-of-a-kind. Wrestlepalooza was another ECW pay-per-view name that was only used once (on PPV anyway), but it wasn’t because the show was anywhere near as good as Barely Legal. 

Wrestlepalooza 1998 was very much a one-match show as Shane Douglas defended the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against Al Snow, who had only been blossoming in popularity while wrestling for Extreme Championship Wrestling. The match was a frustrating affair, however, as Douglas’ Triple Threat constantly interfered in the bout, and despite a sea of mannequin heads hoping Snow would topple Douglas as ECW World Champion, The Franchise managed to win by sitting down on a Sunset Flip. 

Douglas was dealing with injuries in 1998 and the match that headlined Wrestlepalooza very much reflected his physical condition. This would be the only pay-per-view defence of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship all year, and Douglas would only have one match for several months after Wrestlepalooza.

The pay-per-view then ended comically as the ECW locker room emptied and paraded both men around the ring on their shoulders like Lex Luger at WWF SummerSlam 1993.

In the semi-main event, there was an oddly tedious 30-minute match between Rob Van Dam and Sabu which led to fans chanting “JYD!” as Junkyard Dog had made a guest appearance earlier in the show, just four weeks before he tragically passed away. The match would end in a time-limit draw. 

Everything else on the show failed to inspire. New Jack vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, in particular, was downright horrendous. The match featured two of the most obvious blade jobs you will ever see as the two men had a lethargic brawl around the arena, which led to New Jack diving from a balcony with a guitar onto Bigelow. New Jack, who was high on cocaine during the match, was knocked out after the spot, so Bam Bam just scooped him up and hit his Greetings from Asbury Park finisher for the win. 

20. Living Dangerously 1998

Being only one number higher doesn’t convey how much better Living Dangerously was than Wrestlepalooza as a pay-per-view, but that doesn’t mean the show was anything better than mediocre at best. 

The most enduring visual from the pay-per-view came in the ECW World Television Title match between Taz and Bam Bam Bigelow when Bam Bam sent his opponent and himself through the canvas, with Bigelow then pinning Taz to become the new champion. Overall, though, the match was fine, as was Tommy Dreamer vs. Justin Credible, and the three way tag of New Jack & Spike Dudley vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. Balls Mahoney & Axl Rotten.

Other matches dragged Living Dangerously down, however, and the mystery partner main event of Al Snow & Lance Storm vs. Shane Douglas & Chris Candido in which Snow pinned Douglas was muddled, rushed, and very much compromised by the broken ring.

Masato Tanaka vs. Doug Furnas had potential but was truly bad and filled with miscommunications. You would also think that Rob Van Dam vs. 2 Cold Scorpio would be a great 22-minute match, but you would be very wrong. 

19. November To Remember 1998

The third-worst pay-per-view in Extreme Championship Wrestling history was very much a mediocre affair. The best match of the night was Jerry Lynn vs. Lance Storm in which Storm picked up the win after 16 minutes. 

The main event of the New Triple Threat (Rob Van Dam, Sabu & Taz) vs. Triple Threat (Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow & Chris Candido) very much helped position Taz as ‘The Guy’ moving forward, even if he didn’t pick up the win, with Sabu stealing the pin on Douglas with an Arabian Facebuster while Taz had the Tazmission applied to the ECW World Heavyweight Champion, who had been abandoned by Chris Candido to split up Triple Threat. The match, though, wasn’t great and there was reportedly a confrontation backstage after it was over which almost turned physical, with Douglas storming out of the building. 

Elsewhere on the card, November to Remember 1998 was a mess. With the show taking place in New Orleans, ECW looked to bring in some legends from the Mid-South territory which resulted in the semi-main event having Jake Roberts, who was battling addiction issues at the time, be unveiled as Tommy Dreamer’s mystery partner against Justin Credible and Jack Victory. Roberts, who wore a Wigan Warriors jersey, didn’t do much in the match, and the contest wasn’t helped when Jack Victory badly broke his leg just one minute in.

This led to Jason, one of Credible’s ringside entourage, to fill in and the match descended into a farcical brawl when One Man Gang, Rod Price and The Gangstanators all had run-ins before Roberts put the match out of its misery with a DDT to Credible on a ladder. 

A potentially fun throwback match of Tracy Smothers vs. Tommy Rogers, meanwhile, was marred by way too much needless interference from the Full Blooded Italians. After that match, Ulf Herman brought out Mabel for a one-night appearance as a member of the FBI, which would lead to the former WWF King of the Ring winner losing to Spike Dudley in five seconds.

18. November To Remember 1997

A pattern should already be forming to reveal that, with only a couple of exceptions, the first year of ECW pay-per-view did not reflect the rabid cult love that the promotion had been getting. 

Two of ECW’s most beloved and revered icons are The Sandman and Sabu, but the Tables & Ladders Match they had in the semi-main event of November to Remember 1997 was so tragically bad that we ranked it as the worst ECW match ever. Their match went 20 minutes and was simply a series of terribly executed high spots, but they were hugely hampered by the equipment they were given to use. 

This began with the first major spot of the match when the table broke before they could use it. Sabu then climbed a ladder but it only grazed Sandman after Sabu changed his mind about what to do when he was halfway down. A seesaw was then botched soon after before the match mercifully ended with an Atomic Arabian Facebuster from Sabu using the ladder. 

How bad the match was makes more sense when you discover that Sandman was under the influence of LSD to the point that he thought he was fighting Godzilla inside the squared circle. 

Despite having the worst match in ECW history, though, November to Remember 1997 isn’t the worst pay-per-view as there were enjoyable matches, such as Tommy Dreamer vs. Rob Van Dam which featured one of the best Piledrivers you will ever see. Taz looking like a badass and beating Pitbull #2 in 90 seconds to retain the ECW World Television Title was also a fun time too. 

Overall, though, November to Remember 1997 was lacklustre. Shane Douglas had the storybook ending as he regained the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in his hometown of Pittsburgh, but the match leading to that ending wasn’t great and went 25 long minutes against a tired Bam Bam Bigelow. 

17. Living Dangerously 2000

It was once explained that ECW pay-per-views would often come together where there would be three or four announced matches on the day of the show, at which point Paul Heyman would look around the locker room and throw together the rest of the matches from the roster he had available that night. Looking at the Living Dangerously 2000 card, that was exactly what this event was. 

The only highlight of the night saw Super Crazy win a tournament to become the new ECW World Television Championship in the main event against Rhino. Only one match went over 10 minutes, and that match was a Bullrope Match won by a 54-year-old Dusty Rhodes against Steve Corino.

Accelerated matches on the show included ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mike Awesome winning an impromptu match against Kid Kash, Jado and Gedo having a very random match in which they lost to Nova and Chris Chetti. Balls Mahoney also defeated FMW regular Kintaro Kanemura in under two minutes. 

The post-match angle after that match where Mahoney was attacked by Da Baldies, with New Jack arriving to make the save, however, overshadowed this event. The angle led to New Jack and Vic Grimes brawling on a scaffold and they had a brush with death when they tumbled from the scaffold, with New Jack suffering brain damage and being blinded in one eye when Grimes landed on his head. This would lead to New Jack trying to legitimately murder Grimes in the ring a couple of years later. 

16. Massacre On 34th Street

Everything from this point forward is a decent pay-per-view from Extreme Championship Wrestling, and the fact this is ECW’s penultimate pay-per-view is testament to some of the entertaining shows the promotion were able to put on as ECW crawled towards its death. 

Taking place on December 3, 2000 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, the better matches of the night were of the tag team variety. Danny Doring and Roadkill’s ECW World Tag Team Title win against the FBI was a good match with a satisfying ending which included a crazy bump from Tony Mamaluke as he jumped from the apron straight into the metal barricade. Mikey Whipwreck & Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Super Crazy & Kid Kash was also the type of spotty insanity that fans want to see from professional wrestling, and it was probably the best match of the night. 

Elsewhere, Rhino remained ECW World Television Champion with a win over Spike Dudley, while the main event saw Steve Corino retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible. 

A show where there was nothing mind-blowing but nothing awful, either. Overall, an agreeable few hours. 

15. Hardcore Heaven 1997

It was always going to be difficult trying to match how special Barely Legal was, but ECW assembled a card that had potential to do just that. Sadly, ECW’s second pay-per-view emanated from the Fort Lauderdale War Memorial Auditorium, which felt even more indy-ish than the ECW Arena to the point it felt like everything had to be cleared out by midnight so that a rave could take place. 

The main event was Shane Douglas vs. Sabu vs. Terry Funk for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in a rematch from their fondly-remembered 60-minute time-limit draw three-way a few years earlier at The Night the Line was Crossed in 1994. The match made for an enjoyable enough conclusion to the evening, filled with interference from the likes of The Sandman, Dory Funk Jr. and Francine before Douglas recorded the successful title defence. 

That match was preceded by a semi-main event of Tommy Dreamer vs. WWF’s Jerry Lawler and saw the ECW mainstay defeat Lawler despite interference from Sunny, Rick Rude and Jake Roberts. 

The undercard was solid enough too, including a good Rob Van Dam vs. Al Snow match, and Taz vs. Chris Candido for the ECW World Television Championship, but this decent enough show was a strangely hollow one due to the poor production values which resulted in poor lighting and a muted atmosphere. 

14. Guilty As Charged 2001

Guilty as Charged 2001 proved to be the end of an era as January 7, 2001 would be Extreme Championship Wrestling’s final ever pay-per-view and the third-last show from ECW overall before the company went out of business. 

The major promotion of the night was the tease of a monumental surprise. Hopeful fans believed it would be the announcement of a new TV deal or potentially a new benefactor with deeper pockets to keep ECW going, but it ultimately proved to be the return of Rob Van Dam, who had been sitting out of ECW shows due to being owed thousands of dollars by Paul Heyman.

Van Dam would face Jerry Lynn to conclude their long-running feud, and despite Lynn wrestling in black trunks because he didn’t bring his wrestling gear to Guilty as Charged due to being in no mood to wrestle, the match was solid enough and an apt way to end ECW’s time on pay-per-view.

The other major occurrence at Guilty as Charged was Rhino defeating The Sandman for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in an impromptu match after Sandman had captured the ECW World Title from Steve Corino in a three-way Tables, Ladders, Chairs & Canes Match that also featured Justin Credible. In a sign of the times, though, Rhino disavowed the ECW World Television Title before his challenge of Sandman, shouting, "This f*ckin’ poor-ass company don’t even have TV." 

The best matches of the night were an underrated I Quit Match between Tommy Dreamer and CW Anderson in what was an old-fashioned hard-hitting brawl with plenty of sadism, and the three-way tag team match of Yoshihiro Tajiri & Mikey Whipwreck vs. Kid Kash & Super Crazy vs. The FBI of Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke. 

A historic show, but also one that was a solid few hours of action. 

13. Heat Wave 1999

While ECW would begin moving into financial peril in 1999, the promotion had a good year on pay-per-view due to a combination of the TNN TV deal and the return of some major names to the promotion like Raven, The Sandman, and Mike Awesome, which lent a renewed flair to the promotion that wasn’t there in 1998. 

This may be the worst of ECW’s 1999 pay-per-views, but that doesn’t mean Heat Wave is a bad show. Major moments from the show included The Dudley Boyz almost inducing a pre-match riot as they cut a promo on the crowd which got so much heat that a woman spat at Buh Buh Ray. The Dudleys would then drop the ECW World Tag Team Titles to Spike Dudley and Balls Mahoney at the event. 

Overall, the wrestling at Heat Wave 1999 was mostly solid, which included a great main event as Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn defeated the Impact Players, and a good Super Crazy vs. Little Guido match. Taz also successfully defended the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against Tajiri in the semi-main event, during which he choked out the challenger with barbed wire over his face and neck in what would have been a great visual if the broadcast hadn’t panned to a wide shot. 

12. Guilty As Charged 2000

Guilty as Charged 2000 wasn’t a perfect show, but it still managed to deliver the goods, and it was a perfect representation of ECW pay-per-views, really, for the most part in that it was an inconsistent show but one which grew in quality over the final three matches. 

This began with a fiery Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu match for the ECW World Television Championship, and was followed by The Impact Players' tag team title win over frenemies Tommy Dreamer and Raven, which was a great mix of old-school tag wrestling and the boundless ECW template. The main event, meanwhile, saw Mike Awesome defend the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against Spike Dudley in a great clash of styles in which the champion tore Spike apart. 

Elsewhere, Taijiri and nemesis Super Crazy put together a quality wrestling match with Jerry Lynn and Little Guido.

The show did have a few shortcomings in an overbooked undercard and The Sandman missing the event due to an emergency, but overall this is a vastly underappreciated pay-per-view that overdelivered on the night. 

11. Living Dangerously 1999

Living Dangerously 1999 took place at the same Asbury Park Convention Hall which hosted Living Dangerously 1998, but the difference in quality was night and day. 

Sometimes all you need from a pay-per-view is for the top matches on the card to deliver and that is exactly what happened on March 21, 1999. The main event of Taz vs. Sabu to unify the ECW World Heavyweight Title and FTW Championship was probably the best match they ever had with one another, topping their long-built dream match at Barely Legal. 

Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn’s 22-minute match over the ECW World Television Title was also the harbinger to even more great matches between the two, and was quite superb in its own right outside of a bizarre piece of officiating that saw the referee try to award the title to the challenger after the time limit expired. 

The show did have its misses in New Jack vs. Mustafa and Tommy Dreamer & Shane Douglas vs. The Impact Players, but what was good was really good.

10. November To Remember 2000

November to Remember 2000 wasn’t the most eventful or dramatic ECW pay-per-view in history, but the roster seemed particularly motivated to provide a fun night of pro wrestling for the fans in attendance and watching at home. 

A few ECW regulars were absent from the show, including Rob Van Dam who was off filming a movie but was on bad terms with Paul Heyman anyway at this point, while Tommy Dreamer was inactive. This left November To Remember noticeably lacking star power, but ECW tried to mix things up with a whole bunch of gimmick matches at the event.

This included a Flaming Tables Match of Balls Mahoney and Chilly Willy against Da’ Baldies, a Loser Leaves Town Match between Little Guido and former partner Chris Chetti, and a Double Jeopardy main event for the ECW World Heavyweight Title which saw Steve Corino win a four-way against champion Jerry Lynn, Justin Credible, and The Sandman to leave with the gold. 

The best match of the show was an undercard bout pitting Kid Kash against CW Anderson in an encounter that was all action and excitement. 

Overall, ECW may have been on its last legs by late 2000, but the promotion was committed to making the best of a bad situation at November to Remember 2000 and that should be commended. 

9. November To Remember 1999

The best of the pay-per-view editions of November to Remember featured a number of performers who were close to finishing up with ECW, including Taz and Chris Candido in their final pay-per-views for ECW, Sabu in his penultimate ECW pay-per-view, and the final Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka singles match on ECW PPV. 

Awesome vs. Tanaka for the ECW World Heavyweight Title was the bone-rattling showcase fans expected from the two heavy hitters in a great match. The Jerry Lynn vs. Super Crazy vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri three-way was also great with their usual high level of pizzazz and panache, while Sabu vs. Chris Candido in a throwaway bout turned out to be somewhat of a sleeper hit. 

Taz, in his final ECW PPV match, had a poor bout with Rob Van Dam over the ECW World Television Title as neither competitor was on the same page, and while the return of The Sandman following his WCW run to save former rivals Tommy Dreamer and Raven was a fun moment, their nine-minute main event match against Rhino and the Impact Players was incredibly rushed. 

8. Anarchy Rulz 2000

It felt weird to see Extreme Championship Wrestling holding a show in the old AWA territory as Paul Heyman’s promotion headed to St. Paul, Minnesota on October 1, 2000. It was for a good reason, though, as Jerry Lynn was booked to capture the ECW World Heavyweight Title in his home state, and he did just that.

Lynn and then-champion Justin Credible have had some excellent bouts with each other over the years, but Lynn's victory on this night may have been the best of their lengthy series that spanned several promotions, and the win sent the crowd home happy. 

Anarchy Rulz also featured one of Rob Van Dam’s final matches for three months as he lost to TV Champion Rhino in another enjoyable clash. The highlight of the show, though, was Kid Kash vs. EZ Money, which featured Kash’s reversal of a top rope powerbomb into a mid-air hurricanrana.

It was a largely consistent card, and even Cyrus vs. Joel Gertner wasn’t too offensive as the match was kept short and the crowd was hot for the contest, making it nowhere near as bad as it could have been. 

7. Guilty As Charged 1999

After a disappointing 1998 dragged to a close, 1999 opened with what was then ECW’s third-best pay-per-view to date, and it was actually compromised by some notable no-shows. 

Masato Tanaka was originally scheduled to face Rob Van Dam for the ECW World Television Title but he wasn’t able to appear due to frigid ECW-FMW relations. Jerry Lynn was also pulled from the show due to injury, which resulted in Lynn’s original opponent Lance Storm taking on RVD. Fortunately, this all worked out well as their 18-minute match was quite good. 

Elsewhere, Taz ended the 13-month ECW World Heavyweight Title reign from hell when he forced Shane Douglas to pass out to the Tazmission in a match that was a lengthy brawl that got better as it went on. Guilty as Charged also featured the ECW debut of Sid Vicious, who mauled John Kronus in about 90 seconds and received rock star-like cheers in the process. 

Combined with a great Super Crazy vs. Tajiri bout and a decent Stairway to Hell match between Tommy Dreamer and Justin Credible, Guilty as Charged 1999 was a well-rounded card on the whole. 

6. Hardcore Heaven 2000

Organisational chaos was becoming more apparent in Extreme Championship Wrestling by May 14, 2000, with it being the month after ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mike Awesome walked out of the promotion.

Justin Credible ended up with the ECW World Heavyweight Title and he faced Lance Storm in the main event in what would be Storm’s last night with the company as ECW continued to struggle to pay their talent.

The match was originally booked as a Three Way also including Tommy Dreamer but Credible threatened to throw the ECW World Heavyweight Title in a trash can if he had to face Dreamer, which resulted in Paul Heyman holding the Innovator of Violence back from the match. Credible would go on to retain following interference from Francine, with Dreamer appearing post-match to batter Credible with a cane and deliver a Dreamer Driver to Francine.

Rhino vs. The Sandman for the ECW World Television Championship was also an entertaining, memorable encounter, notable for Rhino delivering a Piledriver through a table to Sandman’s wife Lori before he later won the match by hitting a Gore to both Sandman and Lori to send them through another table. Jerry Lynn vs. Rob Van Dam was also another entertaining outing from the two great rivals, although the match had a little too much interference, including a Scotty Riggs heel turn on RVD which allowed Lynn to pick up the win. 

On the whole, though, the pay-per-view overachieved as the three matches advertised ahead of time delivered to varying degrees, while Balls Mahoney vs. Masato Tanaka and Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Steve Corino vied for the best match of the night. 

5. Heat Wave 2000

The real-life drama at ECW Heat Wave 2000 was far more fascinating than any of the scripted storylines that took place inside the squared circle on July 16, 2000 in Los Angeles, California.

That real-life drama saw rival promotion XPW send talents to the show and they ended up causing a scene while seated in the front row just before the main event. This ultimately led to a brawl between XPW and ECW wrestlers in the parking lot. 

As for the matches themselves, Heat Wave was a show of abundant goodness in the face of a barely organised product. The best match of the night was probably a four-way dance between Tajiri, Mikey Whipwreck, Little Guido, and the returning Psicosis. Jerry Lynn’s sadistic mauling of Steve Corino, complete with him using Corino's blood to fashion war paint on himself in a twisted visual, was also quite a spectacle. 

The chaos both inside and outside of the ring makes this show worth a look. 

4. Hardcore Heaven 1999

Hardcore Heaven 1999 is primarily famous for Rob Van Dam’s ECW World Television Title defence against Jerry Lynn. Some have called it a very overrated match, while others will tell you that it's one of the best matches in ECW's nine-year history. Somewhere in the happy middle, it can at least be agreed that ECW's portrait isn't complete without mentioning the match in which Lynn suffered a serious head injury early in the match, but managed to work feverishly with Van Dam the rest of the way. RVD ultimately retained and gave Lynn a respectful high five post-match, with the contest at the very least an ideal primer for a viewer new to ECW. 

Hardcore Heaven did have its clunkiness, notably Chris Candido being jobbed out in the opening contest as he challenged Taz for the ECW World Heavyweight Title. Taz would then wrestle again in the main event facing Buh Buh Ray Dudley in a match the crowd never really bought into and was not worthy of being the main event of a pay-per-view partly because they didn’t see the future Bully Ray at that level. Other clunkiness included Shane Douglas vs. Justin Credible not taking place as scheduled due to Douglas leaving which led to Sid Vicious as The Franchise’s replacement, but the match ended in two minutes by DQ. A DQ in ECW?! 

Matches like Tommy Dreamer vs. Lance Storm, Super Crazy vs. Taka Michinoku, and Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Little Guido dragged Hardcore Heaven out of potentially being a terrible show, though, as did the aforementioned match of the year contender between Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn.

3. Anarchy Rulz 1999

ECW was running on pure momentum in front of a white-hot Chicago crowd for Anarchy Rulz 1999 with a pay-per-view that delivered several huge moments. 

This included Mike Awesome's surprise return as he was inserted into the ECW World Heavyweight Title match between an outgoing Taz and Masato Tanaka. Taz was initially treated as Judas by the fans in attendance who showered him with chants of “You sold out” in reference to his impending move to the World Wrestling Federation, but they switched to giving the Human Suplex Machine a proper send-off after a great match as Taz sportingly handed the belt to Awesome. 

This crowning moment for Awesome was supported by Jerry Lynn vs. Lance Storm and Sabu vs. Justin Credible to make Anarchy Rulz a solid event from top to bottom. 

The one criticism was the topsy-turvy nature of the show’s layout. RVD vs. Balls Mahoney for the ECW World Television Title was the main event, while the semi-main event was a three-minute tag title match pitting Raven and Tommy Dreamer against Rhino and Steve Corino. Surely the world title three-way should have gone on last? 

Even despite this small criticism, Anarchy Rulz 1999 was probably the last truly great ECW pay-per-view before Paul Heyman’s promotion declared bankruptcy. 

2. Barely Legal

ECW’s inaugural pay-per-view, Barely Legal, has been criticised by some over the years as a show that hasn’t aged well. It could be argued the ECW style on pay-per-view doesn’t hold up as much decades later, but the night was still a magically seminal one. Over 100,000 fans bought a show held by the #3 promotion in the United States, which in itself was a win. 

The much-hyped Sabu vs. Taz match didn’t reach its promise, but it was still a vicious-looking fight in its own right. The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada & Masato Yakushiji vs. bWo Japan of Taka Michinoku, Dick Togo, and Terry Boy was probably one of the three or four best matches in ECW history, and it is still a staggeringly good contest today. 

The show is also littered with iconic moments, from Rob Van Dam’s self-serving speeches, to the main event which saw already-a-legend Terry Funk win the final world title of his career, first winning a three-way dance to become number one contender before The Funkster emotionally defeated Raven to end the pay-per-view on the highest of highs. 

That main event puts ECW over the top as a remarkable show. You will agree if you watch it with more heart than cynicism. 

1. Heat Wave 1998

There were four ECW pay-per-views in 1998 and three were pretty awful, but this one was fantastic.

Given ECW’s unconventional nature, it is kind of appropriate that the best pay-per-view in company history is one in which neither recognised singles title was defended. 

The ECW World Tag Team Title match of Rob Van Dam & Sabu vs. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki was disappointing and disjointed, especially for the calibre of wrestlers in the match, but everything else at Heat Wave 1998 delivered. 

Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka’s 12-minute war may have been their best work together, while the Dudleyville Street Fight pitting Buh Buh Ray, D-Von, and Big Dick against The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, and Spike Dudley was a nice combination of brutality and comedy. Taz and Bam Bam Bigelow’s Falls Count Anywhere Match for the unofficial FTW Championship is also underrated and far better than even their Living Dangerously bout. 

Mix in some pure matches like Jerry Lynn vs. Justin Credible and Chris Candido vs. Lance Storm and it was easy to see why Heat Wave 1998 is ECW’s crown jewel.