Chris

Here's what went down.Receiving the kind of ovation that sends chills down your spine, a clearly emotional Joey Styles welcomed fans to the show before introducing his broadcast colleague for the eveninga man no stranger to ECW, Mick Foley.Then, with the introductions out of the way, it was on with the actionHaving begun his career in a match against Jericho back in 1990, Lance Storm looked to bookend his career by facing his long-time friend in what was then to be his final match.Eschewing the idea that ECW was a promotion focused solely on ultra violence, the two seasoned stars gave a fine account of themselves as technical wrestlers in a stellar opening contest.Jericho received a thunderous ovation from the New York faithful as he took it to his formerpartner, but ultimately it was Storm who got the upper-hand, picking up the win thanks to interference from a kendo-stick wielding Justin Credible.Having stolen a victory from his best friend, Storm made a hasty exit from the ring, leaving Jericho to soak up the adulation from a crowd following as a good an opening contest as anyone could have asked for.Then, after Joey Styles teased the impending arrival of a host of invading WWE stars,introduced a video to those members of ECW sadly no longer with us, a video featuring more names than many would have liked.Billed as anthis fast-paced contest soon spilled to the outside, allowing Super Crazy to give us our first real 'extreme' moment of the evening by taking out The FBI with a moonsault from the balcony, much to the delight, andchants, from the masses.Things faired no better for the Italians back in the ring when, following a run-in from Tajiri's men, the Japanese Buzzsaw eliminated Guido from the contest.Yet it was the Insane Luchador who finally triumphed, planting Tajiri with a swift moonsault to end the contest.Following a look at some of the more memorable moments in ECW's history, it was on with the action.Though similar in style to the previous outing, this battle between two of the most recognisable luchadors in North America managed to go one better with a fast-paced, high-impact offering which delivered everything you might expect, and then some.Both men traded the advantage several times, enlivening the crowd with crisp, jaw-dropping offence before Mysterio finally put his opponent away with the West Coast Pop.Interrupting what had been a fine show thus far,andled a small army of Smackdown stars to a private viewing box, greeted by fevered chants of 'and 'from the Hammerstein crowd.Even now, this writer isn't convinced that this invasion angle was entirely necessarily, especially when Kurt Angle took to the microphone with a rather juvenile anti-ECW promo which consisted of little more than repeating the wordsJBL faired a little better on the mic, though his calling ECW as a garbage promotion full of people taking cane shots to the head made little sense following three first-class wrestling matches.Thankfully, an injuredarrived on the scene, lambasting the WWE crew and cutting an impassioned promo in which he praised the fans, the spirit of ECW and, of course, himself. Before he left, RVD discussed his knee surgery, claiming that missing the PPV due to the surgery was worse than missing Wrestlemania.Then, for seemingly no reason,ran in and gored the hell out of RVD.then popped up, and we had our next match.Sabu took the advantage in the early going, battling Rhino in a short, passable contest complete with chairshots aplenty and an awesome plancha onto the outside.The master of the gore turned the tide, pummelling his foe with some stiff offence, but when the referee took a tumble, RVD returned to the fray, planting Rhino with a chair and helping Sabu land an Arabian Facebuster through a table for the three count.Backstage,yelled at Head for a while before introducing another video montage, this one mostly featuring people falling through tables.Following this montage, the 'Raw Crusaders,' led byandmade their way to their own private box.Prior to the match, Joey Styles insisted that this match would be a firm middle finger in the face of everyone who claimed ECW was nothing more than chairshots and tables (so, the previous match then?) and that we would witnessHe wasn't wrong.Going at it in a vicious, aggressive wrestling contest, the two now-deceased superstars lit up New York with a thrilling performance that could have easily stood as the main event of a much larger show.Benoit scored the victory thanks to the Crippler Crossface.Up in the stands,beggedfor a job. Unsurprisingly, the Raw GM refused before cutting a scathing promo on ECW which put the earlier efforts by JBL and Angle to shame.Throughout the show, Joey Styles had held nothing back when it came to his commentary, shooting when necessary and giving his honest opinion whenever the opportunity arose, yet in the early moments of this brutal-yet-enjoyable contest, Styles went off the rails as he lambasted Awesome for defecting to WCW whilst still ECW champion back in the 1990s.In one uncomfortable moment following a Mike Awesome suicide dive, Styles commented thatOf course, two years later, and Awesome did just that.On this night in New York however, he and Tanaka stole the show, planting each other with some vicious offence as the battered each other around the ring, transitioning well from one violent spot to the next until Awesome powerbombed his long-time rival over the top rope and planted him with a second suicide dive for a pinfall on the outside.Overwhelmed by the standing ovation he received from the ECW diehards as he stepped into the ring,took centre stage next to cut a very personal, very real promo. Thanking Todd Gordon and others who had helped ECW along the way, especially the fans, the former owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling then turned his attentions the WWE stars.Tearing shreds out of arch-rival Eric Bischoff, Edge (, and JBL in what would have been a classic promo for the ages had the targets of Heyman's venom sold anything he had to say rather than goofing around and treating the man with the microphone like a silly child.What with The Sandman's usual hour-long entrance and a host of interruptions from(causing Joey Styles laugh manically),(who took out everybody with an incredible suicide dive),, tonight's main event took more than a fair while to get going.When it did however, what came was a wildly entertaining, brilliantly bloody brawl. Bubba Ray and Dreamer tore at each other's flesh with a cheesegrater, The Sandman battered D-Von with a trashcan and ladder shots, chairs flew, chaos ensued and the crowds let rip with appreciative round ofchants.Things turned even more violent with the arrival ofas Justin Credible drilled The Sandman with aatop a sphere of barbed wire.Fans were then treated to an impromptu catfight betweenandbefore Beulah reunited with her real-life husband Dreamer to deliver a couple of DDTs to the Dudleys.Bubba and D-Von fought back, taking out their foes and having Spike Dudley join them in the ring as they sent Tommy Dreamer flying through a flaming table for the win.Bringing the show to a riotous finale, ECW alummade his way to the ring, rounding up the troops and leading the ECW originals into a hectic brawl against the invading WWE stars. Whilst your reviewer still feels this could have been a perfect show without the Raw and Smackdown involvement, this was a fantastically fun fisticuffs which ended withbringing Eric Bischoff to the ring, Austin leading the charge as The Dudleys, Chris Benoit and Rey Mysterio hit their finishing moves on the former WCW Main man.Things finally came to a close with a rousing beer bash, the ECW Originals united in triumph.