Extreme Championship Wrestling's final show at its home base, the ECW Arena, took place on December 23, 2000 in Philadelphia PA. This post aims to give some insight into this little-known show since it never was televised on ECW Hardcore TV nor elsewhere.
This show took place during the often-incorrectly-claimed "sad, final days of ECW". While the company's demise took place shortly thereafter, fans who attended this show didn't have the feeling that it would be the company's final show at the Arena. There was no mention of the show being the final one, nor was there any mention of a potential upcoming hiatus or other reason for fans to believe that the end was near.
The aim of this post is to give you accurate information about this final ECW Arena show, and hopefully you will see strengths in the company even in what would become the company's fourth-to-last show. December 23 2000 marked the last show ECW ran in 2000, and the next show was the final pay per view: Guilty As Charged 2001 in New York City on January 7, 2001. Two final shows (in Missouri and Arkansas) were the last shows in company history on January 12 and January 13, 2001.
First, let's get some interesting recaps of each match that night. Instead of relying on third-party recaps which took place years later, let's go to the Wayback/Archive.org website to see the match-by-match recaps from the company's original website, ECWwrestling.com.
Here are the recaps:
Chilly Willy vs. Da Blue Boy (formerly Blue Meanie) with Jamin St. Claire
https://web.archive.org/web/20010207214546/http://www.ecwwrestling.com/arena/122300/arena1223.asp
Da Baldies (Angel & DeVito) vs Dastardly Danny Doring & Roadkill for the ECW World Tag Team Championship
https://web.archive.org/web/20010207222555/http://www.ecwwrestling.com/arena/122300/arena1223a.asp
Bilvis Wesley (with Prodigy, Prodigette and Chris Krueger) vs. Balls Mahoney
https://web.archive.org/web/20010207223421/http://www.ecwwrestling.com/arena/122300/arena1223b.asp
Joey Styles & Joel Gertner came to the ring to tape the opening for Hardcore TV. Cyrus & Jerry Lynn came to the ring for a promo which led to Jerry Lynn vs. Spike Dudley
https://web.archive.org/web/20010208082438/http://www.ecwwrestling.com/arena/122300/arena1223c.asp
C.W. Anderson vs. Super Crazy
https://web.archive.org/web/20010208082817/http://www.ecwwrestling.com/arena/122300/arena1223d.asp
EZ Money vs. Nova
https://web.archive.org/web/20010207144123/http://www.ecwwrestling.com/arena/122300/arena1223e.asp
Hot Commodity (EZ Money, Julio Dinero and Chris Hamrick) with Elektra vs. Dreamer, Christian York and Joey Matthews
https://web.archive.org/web/20010207145853/http://www.ecwwrestling.com/arena/122300/arena1223f.asp
FBI (Guido Maritato & Tony Mamaluke) with Big Sal E. Graziano vs. Mikey Whipwreck & Yoshihiro Tajiri
https://web.archive.org/web/20010207150914/http://www.ecwwrestling.com/arena/122300/arena1223g.asp
3-Way Match For The ECW World Heavyweight Championship: Justin Credible (with Francine) vs. Steve Corino (with Jack Victory) vs. The Sandman
https://web.archive.org/web/20010207160617/http://www.ecwwrestling.com/arena/122300/arena1223h.asp
The above recaps haven't been seen by most die-hard ECW fans as they were on the website only for roughly 3 months before the company's website ceased to be about ECW, instead redirecting to a pro wrestling news site by April 2001 (after ECW's bankruptcy).
Additionally, after some research was completed, here is a list of the non-wrestlers who appeared in the ring during this final show on December 23, 2000. This includes referees, valets, announcers, ring attendants & timekeepers, and more.
This video clip from WWE's YouTube channel shows a small portion of the main event from that night:
Here is a fan podcast interview about this final show:
Even CZW wrestlers, the Backseat Boyz tag team (Johnny Kashmere and Trent Acid) discussed being at the ECW Arena and ready to wrestle on this final show:
Next, in the segment when Joey Styles & Joel Gertner came to the ring, they mentioned that the show was being taped for ECW Hardcore TV. The series' final episode took place on December 30, 2000 (episode #401), but it aired shows & promos/segments from the previous show. That was December 15, 2000 at the Elks Lodge in Queens New York. No matches, segments, promos nor anything else was aired on ECW Hardcore TV nor on the January 7, 2001 pay per view. It is unknown at this time if there even is an episode #402 which likely would have had content from the final ECW Arena show (Dec 23, 2000). It even is possible that a potential episode #402 may have had content leading to storylines and feuds for after the then-upcoming pay per view event. Conversations with ECW veterans who were there that night still have not led to anyone confirming the existence of any Hardcore TV episode #402, but if this changes then an update to this post will be made.
There is a full-length video of this show, but there is no television announcing team (likely would have been Joey & Joel). Years later, Danny Doring & Tommy Dreamer found the video from this show and added their own commentary. A preview of their version can be seen here:
The final takeaway from this show is to give you some understanding of how good the talent was despite it being during very difficult financial times for the company. Here is the list of the talent from that night who later appeared in WWE with some consistency:
Blue Meanie
Balls Mahoney
Guido Maritato (who became Nunzio)
Jerry Lynn
Joey Matthews
Joey Styles
Justin Credible
Nova (who became Simon Dean)
Spike Dudley
Super Crazy
The Sandman
Tony DeVito (worked for WWF before coming to ECW)
Tommy Dreamer
Yoshihiro Tajiri
Those with a smaller number of WWE appearances included Chris Hamrick, Christian York, Francine, Julio Dinero, Steve Corino, and Tony Mamaluke.
Even though there were no title changes, matches or promos which made TV, and no way for loyal ECW Arena fans to show their appreciation to the wrestlers & other performers - this last Arena show still has its strengths. So many social media comments over the past quarter of a century have the sentiment of "I miss ECW" - yet this final show at ECW's home base in Philadelphia still hasn't been documented well enough to give a "bookend" to the ECW Arena shows. I hope that this post gives you some more context and information to show that ECW's final days were much "stronger" than most wrestling fans may believe.