Plot: What’s it about?
In a federation where no one is innocent, on this night, all of workers are Guilty as Charged! This is a terrific pay-per-view event and while it lacks marquee names in most matches, it has talent to burn and it shows, via some awesome matches. The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York was packed with fans who saw one hell of a show, including the return of Rob Van Dam, an “I Quit” match, and a wild three team tag match, in which you can’t even blink, the action moves at such a furious pace. Kid Kash, Tajiri, Mikey Whipwreck, Super Crazy, and The FBI are all in the ring in that one and I assure you, it is an excellent contest and it more than lives up to the tradition of ECW tag matches. As good as that match is and as cool as the returns of Rob Van Dam & Rhyno are, the highlight of the card for me is when Tommy Dreamer faces C.W. Anderson, with the stipulation that one of them has to submit. This is an excellent match in all respects, one of Dreamer’s better ones from this time, to be sure. Another great ECW event has reached DVD, so let’s hope Pioneer continues to release the ECW pay-per-view discs.
1. Cyrus & Jerry Lynn vs. Christian York & Joey Matthews
2. Danny Doring & Roadkill vs. Hot Commodity
3. Nova vs. Chris Hamrick
4. Tommy Dreamer vs. C.W. Anderson
5. Mikey Whipwreck & Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. The FBI vs. Super Crazy & Kid Kash
6. Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger vs. Balls Mahoney & Chilly Willy
7. The Sandman vs. Justin Credible vs. Steve Corino
8. Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn
Video: How does it look?
Guilty as Charged is presented in a full frame transfer, as intended. This looks better than it did when it was shown on television, which is all we could ask for here, given that this is a sporting event, not a feature film. ECW was not the slickest federation in terms of production values, so some softness is evident, but this is due to how the event was filmed and not this treatment, so no worries on that front. The image looks clean and as sharp as possible, with strong color presence and well balanced black levels. In other words, this is above and beyond what we ECW fans could have wanted, terrific work once again from Pioneer here.
Audio: How does it sound?
As this is a wrestling event, not an action driven movie, the audio is rather reserved, but sounds as good as we could demand. I was pleased to hear some surround use at times, which kind of makes you feel like you’re in the crowd yourself and of course, that is very welcome with a release like this one. The slams, chops, kicks, and even chairs to the skull come through loud & clear in this mix, no problems in the slightest. The commentary is crisp and clean also, so you’ll have no trouble following the action.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes text based histories on the feuds, which helps if you didn’t follow the storylines, as I assume will often be the case with viewers.
