NoDQ.com > Columns > Wrestling: In Your Face - ECWs Forgotten Champions Posted by Eric Jenkins on 05/30/2006 at 05:17 PM
With the impending return of ECW, I, like I am sure that every other long-suffering ECW fan has done, pulled out my Rise and Fall of ECW DVD and my Forever Hardcore DVD so that I could look back at what was and wax nostalgic about what could have been. Both DVDs talked about all of the great wrestlers and great champions who made their way through ECW. Somehow, when the company was falling apart and all of the big names left for greener pastures, there were a couple of guys who were given the ball and, in my opinion, scored effectively when called upon, but these guys never get mentioned when the federation’s history is relived. These guys, both former ECW World Heavyweight Champions, were “The King of Old School” Steve Corino & Peter Polaco, better known as Justin Credible.
When Mike Awesome left ECW with the ECW title and went to WCW, Vince McMahon loaned Taz to ECW so that there would be someone to take the title from Awesome. Ironically, Awesome is the person who took the title from Taz when Taz left for the WWF. Anyway, since Taz belonged to the WWF, Tommy Dreamer was given the title victory over Taz. Since Dreamer was always supposed to be the man who could never quite win the big one, Paul Heyman sent Justin Credible into the ring to take the title off of Dreamer minutes after he had won it. Now that all of the top names had left ECW, Heyman decided that Justin Credible was the man to carry the company into the immediate future.
Credible was a more than capable champion, carrying the title for nearly six months before losing the title to the one man who knew him the best, Jerry Lynn. In 1998, Jerry Lynn & Justin Credible had a feud that ran through much of the summer and ended in a near deadlock. On October 1, 2000, when Lynn faced Credible for the title, Justin was facing someone who knew him as well as any opponent could, so Justin Credible, who had defeated the likes of Dreamer and the Sandman in defense of his title, lost to his greatest nemesis, Jerry Lynn. Despite that loss, Credible proved that he was more than capable of maintaining the standing that the ECW World title had achieved within the wrestling community.
Jerry Lynn would only hold the title for one month because on November 5, 2000, Steve Corino, who had just topped “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes in a bloody war that included several victories in Rhodes’ specialty match, the Texas Bullrope match, defeated Lynn and former champions the Sandman & Justin Credible to become the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion. Corino would keep the title until the next-to-last match of the company’s last PPV. Unfortunately for Corino, that show took place two months after his victory, so his title reign was a short one. The Sandman defeated Credible & Corino in a match that featured Tables, Ladders, Chairs & Canes to win the title, only to have Rhino take the title from the Sandman minutes later. Rhino had been groomed for the world title ever since he won the TV title that was vacated due to then champion Rob Van Dam’s leg injury. Rhino was the choice then and he was the choice at this point. He was going to lead the company forward and gear up for the eventual showdown with RVD, but that period of ECW’s future never came to pass as the company folded before it was able to happen.
Taz, Raven, Mike Awesome, Shane Douglas, Lance Storm and all of the other big names from ECW’s past had left the company before the company folded completely, and there was a void to fill at the top of the company. Without giving Tommy Dreamer and extended title run, someone had to step up and carry the company on their back for as long as the time that was left. Steve Corino and Justin Credible were not just two guys who happened to be in the right place at the right time, they were two guys who had worked their way to the position that they had reached and excelled when given the chance. When the history of ECW is retold, the storyteller should be very careful not to forget two of the last, but by no means the least, former ECW World Heavyweight Champions.
Send comments, complaints or questions to me @ ericej@netzero.net
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