“If you build it, they will come”. It seems also that if I talk about it long enough it will come, as is the case here. Welcome to The Definitive History of ECW. It will be broken into three logical parts, coming out every two or three days. I’ve talked about doing this for a year or more now. It took me about three months to write, go over nine years of Wrestling Observer issues in research, check out numerous online resources, edit, have John C edit (because, as the whole reason I got into opining on wrestling, I felt it was appropriate for him to be involved with my last effort), and then insert intro and outros for the three parts and finally post it (all sources will be credited at the end of part three). It’s an effort of love, for my want of all the people talking about ECW and getting facts and numbers wrong for seemingly ever wore on me and I want to finally give people a column not only fun to read but also the ultimate reference guide for the promotion.
A fourty-five page effort spread into three parts. Columnists are often akin to wrestlers in that we always seem to come back. Maybe I will return; it depends on how much “burnt out” ever leaves a description of how I feel about reading and writing wrestling columns. But I think I’ve talked enough about the background, process, and ramifications of this column.
It’s time to break the champagne bottle, enjoy part one.
Extreme Championship Wrestling defined parts of wrestling that others simply talk about. During a time period that had many lifetime wrestling fans changing the channel in disgust for good, a few people in Philadelphia decided that unlike many other independents at the time, they weren’t going to play by the major organizations rules. Rather, they were going to move forward to untouched ground, and back to the violence and criminal undertones that wrestling was built upon, and take them even further.
So come one, come all, welcome to the column I’ve been hyping like hell for the past YEAR. It is here, within this three-part column that I’m going to set the record straight once and for all about the “Love It or Hate It” entity known as ECW. Scouring the Internet you find many two paragraph “synopsis’” of a company that deserves much more and a debating audience that deserves some solid footing. Watching only ECW on TNN as many fans did that like to talk about ECW, is not nearly qualifying in passing judgment. Watching the highspots in highlight reels is not enough either. Only when you understand ECW as a whole do you really have the right to pass judgment on it.
Make no mistake about it, without the little federation that could, there would be no “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, there would be no chance to shine for pure wrestlers like Chris Benoit, there would be no deep psychological characters. On the flip side there would be much less ultra violent garbage, fewer pornographic undertones, and not as many wrestlers almost killing themselves for free on a nightly basis. I’m not ignorant to say never, but it would have taken a hell of a lot longer time, and maybe instead of “Austin 3:16” it would have been “Orton 3:16,” when you talk about changing history or removing vital parts its much like the New York lotto; “Hey, ya never know.”
So without further ado, please join me in a journey that spans nine years and both sides of the coin. Whether ECW is a bane and easy joke for you, or an addiction and blessing in your life, after reading on and reading thoroughly, you will never think about it the same again… and if you do? Well, at least, as I said, you’ll have more solid footing to do so…
In The Beginning
To go to the very beginning of ECW, you have to back to March 1992. A jewelry storeowner was doubling as a “money mark” for Joel Goodhart’s Tri-State Wrestling, which had recently gone out of business in February. But after a taste of hanging out with his childhood heroes and being the psuedo-owner of a wrestling federation, this jewelry store owner named Tod Gordon, had wrestling in his blood now and he had decided he was going to start his own federation. He was going to name it, Eastern Championship Wrestling. He hired the same local veterans and stars that Goodhart had used, and with Don Muraco and Jimmy Snuka, even the same legends. And for a while, nothing changed from T-SW, the same fans came to see the same guys and the same matches, the only difference was that Gordon had the money coming in from his “real” business to keep afloat.
Tod Gordon, ECW Founder
But in early 1993, Gordon took the first step in a long mile. There was a kid from the south that wanted to be a booker from his childhood in Memphis, TN. That had a huge reputation nationwide, and was also known recently as being not only a booker, but also a damned good one. He’d burned his bridges almost everywhere else, and had a horrible reputation backstage, but Tod Gordon wanted to take the chance of giving him full control creatively of the newly established ECW, so on a show in Philadelphia one night, “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert debuted fresh off a tour with FMW in Japan. He immediately decided that the indy fed already known as long being (including T-SW) one of the most violent anywhere, simply wasn’t violent enough, he wanted more violence, more blood, and more sex. He brought in new stars for the fans to see, people like Road Warrior Hawk who was simply trying to find things to do while Animal sat in prison, Shane Douglas who was sick of riding his skateboard down the aisle in Atlanta, Stan Hansen, Ian & Axl Rotten, Badd Company, and most notably, Terry Funk came on for more than just occasional spots, he was unofficially “theirs”. He also brought in a nationally known manager that he had met in the Memphis territory of old, then known as Paul E. Dangerously who had led the ultra successful “Dangerous Alliance” in WCW just months earlier and who had previously been trying to start. At first Gilbert went the easy way with his acquisition and made a “New” Dangerous Alliance with Dangerously, Eddie and Doug Gilbert (wrestling as “The Dark Patriot” from GWF fame), Jimmy Snuka, and Don Muraco, but soon ditched that idea for something more unique.
A bloody Eddie Gilbert battles Cactus Jack
Eddie fought bloody battles with Abdullah The Butcher, Terry Funk, and also with Cactus Jack in what resulted as video footage that is among the most sought after in the wrestling tape community even today. “We Want Blood!” became the anthem of the crowds that increased with every show, and every show, Eddie made sure they got what they wanted. There were more notable matches, but probably his most notable overall card while serving as ECW booker was on June 19th, 1993 at the ECW Arena in front of 650 fans as he and Terry Funk followed a very solid show in front of wild fans with a chain match that is said to have been disgusting in its brutality.
In late September of 1993, right after brining in a porn actress, naming her “The Virgin Princess” and having her take off her blouse, Gilbert got into an argument with Tod Gordon over Jim Crockett, which I’ll get to in a moment, which led to an in-ring shoot promo that remains infamous to this day where he “retired”, turned himself face, and had an on the spot auction for his ring gear before immediately going back home to Tennesee.
Gordon was in a rut, his main star & booker had left him and he needed to find a replacement fast. He looked to who already had creative influence in Gilbert’s writing camp, and pulled out its most promising contributor, Paul Heyman, the aforementioned Paul E, Dangerously. Heyman had seen from Hot Stuff’s successes, that the Philly crowds wanted blood, sex, and something new. Also Heyman had going for him the fact that he & Jim Crockett were already about to start the promotion WWN with Gordon’s financial backing. In fact the reason Gilbert had quit was the fact that he was working with Jim Crockett, a man Eddie hated. So he brought in a worldwide indy sensation named Sabu and had him beat Shane Douglas for the ECW Heavyweight title upon arrival in October. Sabu brought his stunt filled, suicidal, homicidal, genocidal, table breaking act to Philly and even more fans showed up. His first shows were on 10/1 & 10/2, NWA Bloodfest Parts 1 & 2, respectively.
Heyman then began displaying the trait he’d become most renowned for: taking incomplete wrestlers and hiding their weaknesses while showcasing their strengths and making unknowns into stars. He took well known indy star Cheetah Master and dubbed him Rocco Rock, then took NY local Mike Durham and dubbed him Johnny Grunge, together they were the Public Enemy who first got over with a feud with none other than the Funks (Terry and Dory Jr.), ECWs all time most successful and over tag team. He took a guy named “Tombstone” and turned him into “911”, a choke slamming fool that inspired the big men in the big two to adopt the move, he took a joke in green suspenders and made him the ultimate baby face while at the same time being the “Innovator of Violence” and most impressively he took a horrible wrestler with a cheesy surfer gimmick and turned him into the beer drinking, chain smoking, owner of arguably the most memorable entrance in history, The Sandman, the Icon of the whole scene, but before his more known phase and after his most embarrassing, Jim Fullington went through probably my favorite part of his career. Sandman decided surfing wasn’t his thing, but pimping out Nancy Sullivan and other girls was. He immediately accused baby face Tommy Cairo of buying one of his prostitutes and then stiffing her and used that as an excuse to beat the hell out Cairo and his girlfriend “Peaches” with his ‘pimp stick’ (Singapore Cane) every chance he get and after he’d leave him laying he’d say “Pay Your Bills. Tommy Caiiiiiro” or “All ya got to do is pay!” in his most Jack Nicholoson-esque voice as he’d walk off. Before the whole barbwire battering ram, THIS was what had gotten him over in the first place, he just played the part of trailer park pimp to perfection and it was a joy to watch.
Tommy Cairo & Peaches won't pay their bills...
Heyman also had allowed Shane Douglas to cut curse-laden promos on the two men that he despised, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair, he brought in WCW fan favorite, Too Cold Scorpio, and even added Kevin Sullivan to his booking team and his wife Nancy to the active roster. Once Terry had finished up with the tag scene he proceeded to put over every young unknown wrestler in the company in hopes of making ECW something more. Yes, Gilbert had gotten the ball rolling, but with Heyman at the helm it was now snowballing as by 1994 the 950 seat ECW Arena (The Viking Hall, primarily used for bingo) was selling out and half of the audience were “smarks” before that term was even known of, as they even used smarked up chants like the ironic “He’s Hardcore!” as a result of Cactus Jack and his promos on Tommy Dreamer, the TERRIBLE “You Fucked Up” which came from JT Smith almost dying (it also led to Smith having a great gimmick… but what a cost), and the misogynistic “Show Your Tits” that showered the porn star looking valets that were often beat up horribly by the men and the rest of the time in gratuitous cat fights.
Heyman also had instigated the “No DQs – No Count Outs” rule for each and every match. The refs were there not to stop the over abundant violence or enforce a rulebook, but simply to count the pin falls or take the submissions. The wrestlers began asking the fans for weapons and the store next door began selling them, stop signs, keyboards, aluminum frying pans, chairs, tables, and cups of beer now became props for violence and as a new and innovative way to increase fan interaction, and enthusiasm for not only going to the shows but getting seats where they might be able to get in on the action.
ECW brought in theme music from real bands as well. Whether it was Nine Inch Nails “Closer” (which was the companies theme as the beat spelled the word “Extreme” and then segued into “Thunder Kiss ‘65”), Pantera’s “Walk,” or AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” They came out and provided a nice break from the horrible muzak and bottom barrel stock themes that had clustered wrestling at the time and for the most part still do. During their PPV advertisements and wrestler introductions ECW provides music fitting the wrestlers with songs that you either love or have never heard before with little in between. The only began using a stock theme later down the road when they got involved in PPV as the official theme of the organization, and even that in itself was a great pick that wasn’t to be ashamed of.ECW peacked musically in January of 2000 when Motor Head redid “Enter the Sandman” for the Sandman and it was published on the ECW Extreme Music CD, getting a Grammy nomination for Best Heavy Metal Performance.
Heyman also erased the black and white spots in wrestling of being a heel or baby face and created a gray area that the fans could discern their views from. Not to say that the guys weren’t booed or cheered, if Heyman wanted you booed he’d have you go out and swear at the crowd while rubbing in their faces the sexy valet you had with you, and the guy he wanted the fans to cheer would come down and pin you. But in the things they said and the tactics they deployed, it could be argued that there was no good or bad. There certainly weren’t any Bob Backlund “Gee golly!” promos and baby kissing, because in ECW, Backlund would have said “Gee golly!” kissed a baby, and then proceeded to slice up Pedro Morales’ face with a fork and cheese slicer.
The whole time they had done this, the WWF and WCW were reaching a pinnacle of cartoon styled wrestlers and both had a no-blading rule. Despite their bulges of talent at points on the card, both had favored gimmicks, cartoon characters, and big men as opposed to wrestlers that were entertaining in the ring, or could actually cut a promo without seeming like an after-school special. ECW had become a safe haven for older and smarter wrestling fans in the Philly area, and the newly emerging Internet scene embraced them as well as fans across the country traded tapes of the new promotion. To cap off their feelings, Cactus Jack appeared with his WCW Tag Team title belt at the ECW Arena on June 24th, 1994 for “Hostile City Showdown,” and after losing a match to Sabu in the main event, he cut an emotional promo putting over ECWs product and going so far as to spit on his WCW title to show how strongly he felt, much to the chagrin of current WCW head booker Ric Flair who was already being attacked by Shane Douglas every chance he was given.
Earlier in the year ECW had put on shows that had the wrestling world buzzing. On February 5th, they had made serious waves with the much ballyhooed (but upon actual viewing, pretty dull and sloppy) one hour time limit draw for the world title between Sabu, Terry Funk, and Shane Douglas. Douglas held the match from being a complete mess but didn’t really do anything great, Sabu missed and repeated a lot spots, and Terry Funk basically got his ass kicked.
On April 16th, they let Tommy Cairo pin the Sandman again and further the feud as the Sandman would keep coming back for his money over and over again, Road Warrior Hawk defeated Shane Douglas to retain the ECW Heavyweight Championship, and Sabu beat Terry Funk in a mere twelve minutes.
On May 14th was the first ever Singapore Caning match. Sandman & Woman lost to Tommy Cairo & Peaches (his wife). Post match Peaches pulled Sandman’s trunks down and beat the hell out of his groin with the cane until Woman through salt in here eyes, Sandman low blowed Cairo and then decided to obliterate both of them with the Cane, creating a gimmick he carries to this day, almost ten years later.
Then in June 24th, Tommy Cairo lost to Sandman in a “Cane on a Pole” match when Sandman got a Cane out from under the ring apron, The Funk Bros defeated Public Enemy and most notably Rocco Rock and Terry Funk fought up into the Eagles Nest where Funk tied a noose around Rock’s ankle and tossed him over the balcony where he hung by his ankle, Mikey Whipwreck retained his TV title (ha), and the main event was the aforementioned Sabu/Cactus Jack match.
During 1994 Heyman’s booking perhaps peaked as Heyman’s stories were ingenuitive as any other booker in history, and he made use of seemingly useless workers while also throwing down storylines that would set the scene of our modern wrestling world.. He took Al Polig, the man who would later become a jobber for WCW in the nWo boom (as Big Al), and made him 911. He was a massive man that got over perhaps more than any other man in the company by bringing the strong anti-WCW/WWF sentiments to life by choke slamming (the first man to make the move common) every performer that came into ECW from one of the Big Two (of which there were a LOT to go through, most famously “Doink the Clown,” Matt Borne which received the comment “One clown down, Bischoff and McMahon to go” from Joey Styles- a line still repeated to this very day in mid 2003). And if a referee got too close- he went down to. So would ringside staff, valets, the men working the video table (Doug Gentry and Rob Feinstein of RF Video), any particularly annoying heel, and hell, even Santa Claus. His run ended almost two years later on the tail end of 1995 after a falling out with management but during his first run there is perhaps no one as loved by, before or after him, ECW fans. He created Mikey Whipwreck, a teenager from the ring crew who stood roughly 5’6” and 150lbs and dressed like a stereotypical Dungeons & Dragons geek and became so over as a jobber that he “accidentally” pinned Pitbull 2 to win the TV title in May and HATED defending the title because it meant another ass kicking, but yet somehow continued to “accidentally” win for months on end and keep the title. He next won the tag titles with Cactus Jack from the Public Enemy when Rocco was hit in the nuts and tripped over Mikey and ended up underneath him for the winning pin fall. Mikey even won the world title on 10/28/95 from the Sandman in a ladder match.
The best of course was the worked shoot idea he brought to the table with the Tommy Dreamer/Sandman feud. Sandman had begun carrying a cane with him earlier in the year during the famous Singapore Caning trial of a US Citizen took over headlines. During the blow off “I Quit” match of the feud, the Sandman decided to have a cigarette. Dreamer took the cigarette, shoved it in Sandman’s eye and then caned him across the face. Sandman acted as if the spot had messed up and he’d gone blind and his manager “Woman”, Paul Heyman, and paramedics rushed the ring as Tommy acted like it was a tragic mistake. The ECW fans fell for it hook, line, and sinker. On the next show they pretended to try to clean up the angle as Woman dumped Sandman and Tommy Dreamer dedicated his career to him and wrestled his match looking to emotionally distraught to be out there. Roughly a month later at the arena Joey Styles had an in ring “Farewell Sandman Interview” in which Sandman’s wife “Peaches” (Lori Fullington) made peace with her husband. The scene was interrupted as Woman came to the ring and pancaked Peaches and held the cane over a helpless Sandman and prepared to level him too. Tommy Dreamer ran to the ring and made the save, stepping between the two and backing Woman down. With Tommy’s back to him however, the Sandman pulled off his bandaging and picked up the Singapore Cane. As the crowd gasped, Sandman delivered the blow to Dreamer’s head and left him lying in a pool of blood as he and Woman walked off together.
The only trouble to note in fact was that two consecutive weeks (9/6 & 9/13) ECW TV didn’t play on TV because the station screwed up the labeling. They showed both on 9/15 to appease this but many ECW were worried they would lose their momentum and cause fans to think they’d stopped running when they weren’t on the air for two weeks.
But the most important was only about to come as the summer of 1994 ended. During the summer a group of independent promoters had decided to give a shot at rebirthing the NWA, which had essentially folded when Jim Crockett has sold his NWA Mid Atlantic group to Ted Turner after already eating up Bill Watts’ UWF the stars from the Sheik’s Detroit territory, and taking in stars from Oregon and NWA Florida as their own. They had decided that ECW, the hottest indy in the country, would be granted the privilege of being the highest wing and even furthered this promise by having the finals of their tournament to crown a new “World” champion on August 27th, 1994, culminate in an all ECW final of Too Cold Scorpio and Shane Douglas. Shane Douglas (who had been making many waves with his spiteful promos on Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair, including one that was thirty minutes long where burned every single bridge in the business that came into his head. (On another side note the Flair promos ended up with him going through former Horsemen but ended after a match with Tully Blanchard that was decent but horribly received as an angle and match by the crowd who might hate the Big Two but respected the legendary groups place in history)) ended up winning and as the fans bathed him in cheers he gave the following speech…
"I stand here, before God and my father in Heaven tonight, as I said I would be: World's Heavyweight champion. In the tradition of Lou Thesz; in the tradition of Jack Brisco, all of the Brisco Brothers; of Dory Funk, Jr.; of Terry Funk, the man who will never die; and the real “Nature Boy,” Buddy Rogers -- upstairs tonight (points skyward). From the Harley Races, to the Barry Windhams, to the... Ric Flairs, I accept this heavyweight title. (Slowly becomes more spirited) Wait a second... wait a second. I'm Kerry Von Erich, I'm the fat man himself, Dusty Rhodes... and Rick Steamboat... and they can all kiss my ass! Because I am not the man who accepts the torch to be handed down to me from an organization that died -- R.I.P. -- seven years ago! I am "The Franchise!" Shane Douglas is the man who ignites the new flame of the sport of professional wrestling. Tonight, before God and my father as witness, I declare myself, “the Franchise,” as the new ECW heavyweight champion of the world! We have set out to change the face of professional wrestling. So, tonight, let the new era begin! The era of the sport of professional wrestling. The era of the “Franchise.” The era of E-C-W!"
He proceeded to throw down the NWA World’s title and hoisted up the ECW championship as Extreme replaced Eastern in ECW, the promoters and wrestlers in the back freaked out, a “Flair is Dead” chant broke out and Heyman and Gordon celebrated what they had just pulled off before pulling out membership from the NWA the very next day while comically, Shane Douglas refused to give the NWA Committee their belt back.
Shane Douglas proclaims the NWA dead, long live ECW
A New Extreme Era Begins
The next major move for ECW came in September and the following months as Heyman continually brought in top stars which he could now afford with the growing ECW tape sales, ticket sales, and house sales as ECW became the hottest indy in the world.. Cactus Jack & WCW had decided to part ways and while making good money in Japan, Cactus took the close to home job with ECW- debuting in the bingo hall by bringing his run of hardcore matches with Terry Funk home to the states. This was a big night not only because of Cactus’ debut but also because it was Funk’s first match back with the company after quitting due to major issues with Shane Douglas’ 8/27 promo. Also brought in during September of 1994 were Chris Benoit, into an immediate feud with Sabu, and Dean Malenko, into an immediate feud for the TV title held by Too Cold Scorpio. So while the promotion increased it’s quotient of violence it also brought in tremendous wrestlers in the traditional vein that could get a crowd’s reaction without giving them first a pint of their blood. During the feud with Sabu, Benoit was given a character he still carries to this day. During one of their first meetings (perhaps THE first in singles) Benoit back dropped Sabu who landed on his neck. It’s been referred to as everything from broken to a bad stinger and who knows but Benoit was instantly dubbed “The Canadian Crippler” by Paul E. and cut the best promos of his career where he’d rub his hands together and talk quietly about “the hands of a crippler” and talk up the “accomplishment.” He then was booked to also injure Rocco of the Public Enemy and Al Snow as Heyman built him up to be his world champion when suddenly he was bought out by WCW. Of course in early in 1995 Heyman continued bringing in the top workers of the world as he brought in Eddy Guerrero, then perhaps known best as either “Black Tiger” in NJPW or as half of Los Gringos Locos w/Art Barr. Directly in Guerrero’s tow came other Mexican workers Rey Mysterio Jr. & Psychosis who were setting the world on fire with their feud on seemingly every continent across the globe, and also with them came Juventud Guerrera and Konnan. 7 of the greatest workers, literally, in the world had come to the 1100 seat ECW Arena and ECW could no longer fit into the pigeon-hole “hardcore” distinction.
Things had slowed down in storylines for a while into 1995 as Heyman showcased his new world class talent and let their matches speak for themselves but those who thought Heyman had run out of ideas were soon proven wrong. In January 1995 a new character debuted, and he was called “Raven.” Stevie Richards was responsible for this new arrival as he began wearing ultra small shorts and shirts and acting like the WWF’s Johnny Polo while claiming the whole time that he was brining the “real” Johnny to ECW. When Johnny arrived however he looked like a degenerate version of a character from the movie “Singles” and spoke in poetic form to the fans, even quoting Edgar Allen Poe to end his promos, which led to him being dubbed Raven. Rather than being upset at his hero’s sudden change, Richards followed him around like a lost puppy dog. Richards lost match after match in February to Tommy Dreamer, a supposed childhood friend of Raven’s. Raven’s disappointment in Stevie’s performance led him to go after Tommy himself in March. Raven & Dreamer went on to what many fans consider the greatest story and feud in ECW history, weaving in other characters such as Beulah & Francine and Raven went on a streak of wins that didn’t end until 6/97.
Leader of The Nest, one of the greatest characters of his time, Raven
But poor Tommy Dreamer, Raven wasn’t the only one that wanted a piece of the starry eyed optimistic hardcore kid. Cactus Jack had turned himself heel and was begging Tommy to get out of the hardcore life before it was too late, pleading with him to “drop the dime and call Uncle Eric” knowing Eric Bischoff was the devil in many ECW fans’ eyes. Tommy would eventually win over Cactus who had also taken to giving him video Christmas cards and wrestling using only headlocks and encouraging fans to unknowingly chant the ridiculous “He’s Hardcore!” corniness in appreciation of Dreamer when Jack had his smiling Eric Bischoff shirt on pull over his head so it looked like his head was actually Eric’s and Dreamer bent a chair to hell over it. In fact, as great a career as Mick Foley had and through out a ridiculous number of prominent territories and promotions, many argue his best work was in ECW. His interviews were certainly astounding whether he was doing the anti-hardcore stuff or not, and even his off the cuff comments were genius in their entertainment level, my most memorable being one to Stevie Richards. Stevie had been taking quite a few beatings at the hands of the Dudley Boyz, especially Big Dick Dudley, and during a confrontation with Jack, Jack once said “You know…. Whenever Big Dick is anywhere around him, you can always know that Stevie Richards will be on his knees in front of him.” If you don’t own or haven’t seen Cactus’ work in ECW I suggest you get any of the numerous interview and match comps of his stuff there, it’s one of the best runs by anyone anywhere, and the style of what he did certainly couldn’t have happened anywhere but in ECW. Bang Bang! And I digress back to the topic…
The hot heels in the company, Sandman and his valet woman were now after Shane Douglas’ world title. During April, Sandman had a match for the title in which Woman handed Douglas the Sandman’s cane, which Douglas used to win the match and leave with Woman and thus creating a double turn. At the very next show they had a rematch and once again Woman and Sandman had fooled the world. Towards a climax of the match Woman hit Douglas in the back of the leg with the cane and Sandman used the advantage to win the ECW World Title (his first). As Sandman and Woman celebrated, Douglas got on the ringside microphone, and did a sin he was never entirely forgiven for by the ECW fan base. He put on a “Monday Night Raw” t shirt and told the ECW Arena, “Now I’m going someplace where I can wrestle.” He was later on the air claiming to have reported ECW to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission for excessive blood and violence when actually the NWA had, and resulted in “Fonzie” coming in as a referee to calm them down, his first show being on 5/13.
Also in this time period ECW began doing tours of Florida. Having secured deals for middle of the night shows on the MSG network (where yours truly was introduced to them) based out of New York City & the Sunshine Network, which was based out of Florida. Tall deals with Sunshine Network, Liberty Cable, & Prime Cable were aligned together. hough the time slots for the shows didn’t lead them to bust out as they had hoped, the tours kept them slowly expanding and they always did great live show business. Of course this was also by ECWs own doing. Many stations refused to show the bloody brawls and abuse of women as well as the Tommy Dreamer/Sandman Eye Injury angle. SO the shows had to be clipped and ECW in turn didn’t always get to show their top offerings on their own television programs. Heyman saw clearly that for the company to exist at its current levels of talent (and booking) that he had to make more money and that television was not going to help him. He soon began making promises of Pay Per View, where he could run the angles and show what he wanted while also hopefully drawing enough buy rates to make a profit after paying his talent, to his talent that would lead him to many rough time periods and many high points as well.
To add to his new and soon to be rapidly accruing problems, in April Heyman fired Sabu. Heyman had built up Sabu & Taz vs. Public Enemy vs. Benoit & Malenko as the biggest match in company history and Sabu had decided he didn’t want to work it for whatever reasons and instead went to Japan to work the Heisei Ishingun promotion. Heyman buried Sabu to start the show and announced Rick Steiner as his replacement and Sabu went from being the biggest star in the company to a walking piece of shit in the eyes of the fans in an instant. ECW fans were loyal to ECW, not any one performer. While many of the boos were at first “smarks” thinking they were in another worked shoot and playing along, Sabu wasn’t seen in the US again until debuting on Monday Nitro later in September. But not before Heyman got a little more mileage out of the “angle”. Sabu had received some favorable chants a few months into his departure which prompted Heyman to get in the ring. Heyman said ECW isn’t about letting fans cheer and chant whatever they wanted, and those same Sabu fans were the ones that booed Dean Malenko and Eddy Guerrero during their leaving town run. The point not being that ECW didn’t want fans to cheer whomever they wanted but the fans who purposely did the opposite if the norm were getting out of hand and screwing up the atmosphere at points. Later on that same show Guerrero & Malenko had another thirty minute draw. The point? I don’t know, sure fans can cheer whatever they want but purposely sabotaging the heat and atmosphere is pretty fucking stupid. At least that’s what I got from it.
In May HHG Corporation began being the company stamped on wrestlers paychecks rather than ECW as a result of outstanding bills and ECW finding bigger backers. Some plans that never saw daylight awesome were in talks and I’ll mention them purely for their level of interest and curiosity. One they were going to have a stadium show in Lackawanna Stadium (home of the MLB’s AAA Phillies) but had to cancel as they wouldn’t be allowed to do it unless they protected the grass by laying out tarp on the field which would have cost them $9,500 and obviously halted plans. They soon were looking for another stadium but apparently never found it as history shows. The reason for the stadium, open air show was that they were trying to set up a match for Terry Funk and Cactus Jack where the ring would be surrounded by walls of fire.
September was a busy month for the company in a number of ways that never went away for very long, and the haste and dramatic and un-foreseen fashion in which they took place started the “You Sold Out” chants for more than a dozen people from the ECW fans. Eric Bischoff had started Monday Nitro to compete with WWF RAW is WAR. In doing so he took what were arguably the three best guys on the ECW roster, and certainly the catalysts of their best matches, Chris Benoit (whose last match was with Scorpio vs. the Steiners in which he was turned face and made a nice farewell speech), Eddy Guerrero, and Dean Malenko on board for their cruiserweight division that Bischoff was determined would be a fresh division that fans would want to see and that he would give them in his cause to overtake the WWF as the top American promotion. Also gone to WCW and to never again have the same fire (see also: Sabu; 911; Sandman; etc) were the Public Enemy who were expected to get over on classic wrestling & tables and nothing else and whose true allure was never understood by WCW despite it’s simplicity. Also gone was Woman, as her husband had just gotten a great offer to book in WCW and for her to join him. Konnan, though not overly important to the company on screen himself, left but more importantly he convinced Super Calo, Rey Mysterio Jr., Juventud Guerrera, and Psychosis all to go with him. With their absence though, Bischoff released Steve Austin. Austin debuted in ECW also in September to the sounds of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and proceeded to cut parody promos of Bischoff and Hogan as well as a new bad ass persona of his own that instantly made him the indy star more sought after than any as Heyman set him on the course to take Sandman’s World title. Not bad for a boring guy that can’t promo or work. Of course, it was not to be as, as WCW had snatched up Chris Benoit during his world title push, WWF quickly signed him to their active roster after a very short (two month) stay in ECW. Douglas was also gone, off to play “Dean” Douglas in the WWF and wonder why Shawn Michaels would do such an outlandish thing as hate the guy and hold him down after Douglas had done something as innocent as cut a hundred promos at Michaels expense to get himself over in ECW. Cactus Jack also left ECW for the WWF and a new role as a fresh character destined for a top card feud with the Undertaker named Mankind.
Sandman's violence turned Woman on...
In a desperate attempt to boost fan interest, and obviously before she left, Heyman had an angle ran where Woman would become sexually aroused by the bloody beatings Sandman would give to Mikey Whipwreck with his Singapore cane. Unfortunately, while it was a fairly successful angle with fans, it led to even more trouble with his station managers who refused to run the angle in any type of coherent form and almost got his shows kicked off the networks. He also had a match in November of 1995 between Cactus Jack and Terry Funk in which Cactus tried to hit Terry with a flaming chair (while Funk’s wore a water doused number of shirts under his ring shirt) which instead ended up severely burning Funk and setting the ECW arena on fire which nearly caused ECW to not only lose Terry Funk but also their home building. Heyman took other steps to help his product that was desperate for it.
He started running shows in Queens, NY which became an area perhaps more successful than any but the ECW Arena itself. Heyman also signed new talent to hopefully fill the voids that the departing talent had left. He stole The Gangstas (New Jack & Mustafa) who were arguably the hottest young tag team in the country from Jim Cornette’s SMW, he put together to young and yet to be established stars Perry Saturn & Kronus as the Eliminators and pushed them as “the greatest tag team on earth” which many fans came to believe and still do, he gave Raven’s crony Stevie Richards a crony of his own- Blue Meanie and the dup went on to great comedic success with a young Super Nova, he replaced Woman as Sandman’s manager with Missy Hyatt whom Sandman drank beer off the breasts of in another lewd scene that didn’t help their relationships with TV. He brought back Sabu (and built Sabu vs. Taz to be his promised PPVs headliner) who had left WCW on horrible terms in December, he created the Dudley Boys (Snot, Dudley Dudley, Big Dick, Dances With, Bubba Ray, Sign Guy, Chubby, D’Von, & Spike, with manager Joel Gertner), he brought in Rob Van Dam who was hot in Japan and the Great Lakes areas, and even brought back Shane Douglas with “Lady Francine” and with the tumultuous end of 1995, 1996 would begin.
As 1996 began, ECW brought in future World Champion Chris Jericho whose reputation as a great performer that oozed charisma took him from Germany to Canada to the USA to Mexico and to Japan with great success (and a job for Lance Storm) in each place. Heyman also opened up the ECW House of Hardcore, a school taught by Taz and Perry Saturn that they hoped would breed their stars of the future. Its first graduate was D’Von Dudley (debuted 3/96) and it did continue to produce talent for them over the years. Of course in 1996 came one of the most infamous moments in ECW history. Kimona Wannalaya and Beulah McGillicuty decided to end the rumors the Beulah was pregnant by Tommy Dreamer and did so with a graphic lesbian kiss. They then decided Tommy wouldn’t be that bad and asked for a “three way dance” with him. While exciting a large portion of the male contingent and creating a boner party in the stands, ECW finally stepped too far and was immediately kicked off the Sunshine Network, effectively killing one of their hottest territories for the time being.
Heyman was also making his way to his PPV goals. Unfortunately he found himself stuck in situations he couldn’t alter- simply do damage control on. One being the constant revolving door of his talent due to his restricted budget and the second being that he had built ECW primarily on the legs of fans that wanted blood, violence, cursing, and misogyny and then to combat that the PPV people told him he had to tone down his product if he wanted to eventually be featured.
But wait, let’s back up a minute and talk more about Raven. I’m pretty much not known as a Raven fan but I think that’s not true- on the contrary, I’m a huge Raven fan. I simply just don’t think his WCW, 2nd ECW, or WWE runs come anything close to the sheer brilliancy his character displayed on his first ECW run. For instance an angle that started in the spring of 1996. Raven had become the ECW World Heavyweight champion and decided that he needed a woman. So he began his quest for “the ultimate slut.” His crony Richards would of course bring him tons of women to try and appease Raven but Raven wasn’t happy with any of them. Then Richards brought out Peaches; Sandman’s estranged wife if you’ll remember, and Raven took a different tone. The mood was changed when Sandman came out however, and said that he could care less because she had already slept with half the locker room anyhow. So Raven turned her down. Stating the half was too little and she was in no way a big enough tramp to be his girlfriend. Then a thing happened. Tyler Fullington, the ten-year-old son of Sandman, came down to the ring. He called Raven “Daddy” and left with Raven, Richards, and Peaches. Promos then aired for a while of Tyler denouncing Sandman as a drunk and how he now worshipped Raven. At the next arena show was the infamous “Rage in a Cage” which had a cage in the ring, a cage in the stands, and a cage in the balcony. At the end of the match, Sandman was going to cane Raven and Tyler got in the cage and stood in the way. Though Tommy Dreamer and a hot crowd begged him to hit his son with the cane, Sandman had refused. At a later show Sandman “spanked” Tyler and Raven ran down to save him and laid out Sandman and the scene ended with Tyler standing over his father’s prone body doing the crucifixion pose. Finally Raven crucified Sandman in front of Tyler and brutalized him with a cane as he was helplessly tied. This event actually cause the majority of the arena fans to leave in disgust, most prominently Kurt Angle who was prior to scheduled to join ECW in a huge storyline but quit the company on sight. The angle wouldn’t end until Raven eventually left the company but we’ll get to that when it comes.
Also in 1996 was a hot angle between Shane Douglas and Pitbull #1. Douglas had broken Pitbull’s neck in a feud over his TV title and Heyman turned it into a legit storyline, one that would lead him into PPV. Rick Rude eventually became part of the angle, revealing himself from under a mask and letting people know he’d be involved with Douglas but not letting them know just how until the PPV. Also, towards the end of 1996, ECW brought in Lance Storm who was hot in Japan, Chris Candido who was a WWF midcard refugee (and ended up arguably my favorite ECW character of all time), Kroffat & Furnas (my favorite tag team of all time), Bam Bam Bigelow, Brian Pillman, Louie Spicolli, Ron Simmons, Terry Gordy, and a host of others. Also was the bWo, the Blue World Order, which was a parody of the hottest angle in the country at the time, WCW’s New World Order, and consisted of Stevie Richards as “Big Stevie Cool”, Blue Meanie as “Da Blue Guy”, Super Nova as “Hollywood Nova”, and Rob Feinstein as “Three and a Half” (or any other odd fraction you can come up with before he left the group as 7-11).
Also Taz emerged, dumping his Tasmaniac gimmick, he brought on the gimmick of a legit shooter and his ring work and promos therein caused him to be pushed right up the card. He would challenge Sabu and claim he was going to choke him out and beat him so he could prove himself to ECW fans, Sabu finally answered his claims at the end of 1996, yet more build to the PPV as the two men had pull apart brawls across the east coast. And also at the end of 1996, Heyman, looking for exposure nationally to push for his PPV began contacting Vince McMahon. McMahon was desperate to overcome WCW and the nWo, while Heyman desperately needed help with exposure. After all, Heyman lost his Sunshine Network deal and at the end of 1996 he also lost his deal with the MSG network. Though striking deals with America One & Prime his exposure was threatening to be as low as ever. Luckily though, ECWs established fan base was growing more feverous than other and they got an unexpected jolt from a story on A Current Affair that received a good amount of attention and talk. ECW fans are now in the books for the last quarter of 1996 as the 1,110 sell out fans they averaged in the area spending $15 a head on each and every show. But back to McMahon & Heyman; at the Mind Games PPV (famous for the match Mick Foley calls the best of his career, vs. Shawn Michaels) in September of 1996 as soon as the PPV was on the air and the opening Savio Vega/Bradshaw strap match was taking place, WWF cameras spotted Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, and Paul Heyman all sitting ringside. And as the action spilled outside Sandman spit beer all over Savio Vega and the ECW crew was removed by security as McMahon made mention of the local outlaw group creating a disturbance. It all seemed very real at the time. The next night on Raw is War, Taz stormed the ring with an ECW sign and Raw immediately went to a commercial break. After Vince had tested the water with these two bits, he and Heyman began serious talks for a more in depth angle, one that would start up at the end of February 1997, but we’ll get to that later in the timeline. First we need to talk about December 1996 & the event that almost killed ECW for good.
Barely Legal: The Mass Transit Incident
On November 23rd of 1996 in Revere, Massachusetts, Eric Kulas, his father, and some midget wrestlers arrived at the show and one way or another made their way backstage. Kulas had wanted to participate on an ECW card while they were in his home area. Kulas, dressed in a bus drivers outfit and soon to be dubbed Mass Transit, eventually got in touch backstage with Paul Heyman. The 400lb+ Kulas lied about his age (he was only 17) and when Heyman asked for verification he was shown a fake ID by Kulas, his training and experience (he had none of either except perhaps sneaking his way onto another card previously but said he had tons) he claimed came from the Killer Kowalski school, and he managed to be no-show Axl Rotten’s replacement in the Gangstas/D'von Dudley/Rotten match of the evening as Heyman needed a replacement and took Kulas on his word and claims. D’Von and Mustafa left Kulas in the ring with New Jack, who had seen through Kulas’ claims and planned on teaching him a lesson. New Jack hit Kulas with keyboards, toasters, guitars and many other weapons. But back up, earlier in the locker room while going over the match New Jack asked Kulas if he would be up to do a blade job. Kulas said he’d done them before but couldn’t stomach cutting himself and asked New Jack to do it for him- a very bad idea. So when the time came to blade, New Jack dug extremely deep and wide into Kulas’ forehead and cut through the muscle within and Kulas’ head was letting out blood in a fashion similar to a garden hose. New Jack wasn’t done though and continued working over Kulas before “sealing the deal” with an ultra stiff and mean looking, full force chair shot from the top rope, the whole time the crowd chanted “You Fat Fuck!” and New Jack looked to enjoy what he was doing tremendously. As soon as New Jack ended the scene and pinned Kulas, EMTs rushed the ring and performed emergency care for 10 minutes in an attempt to slow down the bleeding before rushing Kulas to a hospital where it took sixty stitches to close the wound. New Jack is quoted after the event as saying he didn’t “care if the kid was dead or alive.”
Well, for about a week or two after the incident, it was heavily pushed for sale on video tape by ECW in a disgusting marketing move before Heyman decided that he should pull it after reality set in and he realized the ramifications the footage could immediately or in the future cause for ECW. And as Heyman plugged towards Barely Legal, the PPV whose success would determine if ECW would be dead within in months or live on a few more years, came closer and closer. As it did so, with an urge to continue the hype to the PPV, Heyman granted the PW Torch, only second to the Wrestling Observer as a wrestling insider publication, an interview, a move seen as out of nowhere and shocking to many as it was no secret and still is no secret that Paul Heyman hated and despised the Torch and their staff. In the interview, Bruce Mitchell asked Heyman how the Mass Transit Incident had effected their relationship with Request TV and Viewer’s Choice, the two providers of the PPV, and Heyman answered that everyone in those companies who needed to had seen the tape and were still willing to go ahead with the PPV, regardless of the event. A few weeks after the interview was published, Request TV received a phone call in which the subject of the Mass Transit Incident came up and miraculously a few days later, the tape lay in the hands of the Request office. Upon viewing the tape, Request was outraged, In Demand now refused to allow the PPV broadcast on their airwaves and Barely Legal was DOA. “Who placed this call,” you might be asking? Bruce Mitchell.
And 1997 was underway….
And with it, the deal with Request, In Demand, & Viewer’s Choice was back on in sometime of January 1997. Not without restrictions, but it was on nonetheless. The restrictions put for by Request President Hugh Panero required Heyman to get binding contracts for all wrestlers to appear in an attempt to prevent any false advertising, an approval of the show script in advance by the Request offices, no excessive blood, and no gimmick matches that used and were sold by unspoken of promises of excessive blood, and no over the top man on woman violence. A date, time, and cost were set. April 13th, 1997, from 9pm to midnight, and $19.95 respectively. Also, some estimates of cost and buy rate needed were figured out. Production, trucks, satellite rental, pay offs, and transportation were going to cost ECW $300,000. And to make a profit they needed a minimum 0.2 PPV buy rate from the 70% of the PPV universe that Request could reach.
It would be held in a bingo hall, and with everything figured out and agreed upon, the pressure reached a maximum on Heyman who was going to get some help from Vince McMahon. Heyman would be in a focused upon angle on WWF TV where he could hype his PPV and expose and establish his talent as stars. On February 24th, ECW wrestlers again appeared on Raw as they had the previous November. Wrestlers to make appearances that night in the Manhattan Center included: the bWo, Tommy Dreamer, Taz, the Eliminators, a smoking and drinking Sandman, Beulah, the Dudleys, and Heyman joining Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler on commentary during the ECWs matches and segments (which included an RVD vs. Jeff Hardy match & Sabu doing a senton off the 10’+ Raw entry way display. Heyman eventually became so upset during a verbal exchange with Jerry Lawler that he attacked him and had to be thrown out by security. March 10th, two weeks later, Lawler and Heyman had an in-ring “debate” of sorts that resulted in the ring being rushed by Sandman, the Dudleys, the Eliminators, and Tommy Dreamer who threatened violence for their front man and promotion’s honor. Other events included RVD being happy to be on Raw is War (thus his Mr. Monday Night moniker (as coined by Jerry Lawler)) that resulted in Sandman & Taz beating the hell out of Lawler with Singapore Canes in an attempt RVD to come home. The next week Lawler got his revenge with a piledriver through a table on Tommy Dreamer and RVD went home, a huge heel as he still spoke his love of the Monday nights. The WWF had sent out the Hart family. Owen Hart was sent to ECW to break his nose, Bulldog was sent to crack open Taz’s skull, and Bret Hart was sent to injure Sabu at a house show. The Gangstas retaliated by interfering on an episode of WWF Superstars where they took on and massacred the rookie Hardy Boys. Lawler, who had a made a public challenge to “ECW: Home of WWF Exiles and Drunken Derelicts,” invaded the ECW Arena with RVD and Sabu and almost destroyed the entire roster. Sandman, Dreamer, and Rick Rude took on Jerry Lawler, Sabu, and RVD in a cage match and Rick Rude turned on ECW to help the WWF team win and it culminated at the Hardcore Heaven 97 PPV when Jerry Lawler fought Tommy Dreamer. It ended on WWF TV in a different way. Sabu and Flash Funk had a match, during which Heyman took the time to tear a new asshole for Eric Bischoff and Public Enemy, that ended in a count-out and Sabu leaving in a hissy fit through the crowd after it wouldn’t break when he tried to put Funk through it. McMahon was upset with Sabu and approached him about his post match fit and Sabu retorted with anger over the table not being gimmicked for him and not being allowed to have the Sheik accompany him to ringside. To further burn the bridge (well, not really, ECW received money and workers from the WWF for the rest of their existence after this deal through negotiations between McMahon and Bischoff that the specifics of which are unknown to this day) Bruce Prichard, the WWF Talent Coordinator at the time, couldn’t come to any terms of agreement with Paul Heyman.
With exposure of the promotion at an all time high via WWF Raw is War, characters running as strong and smoothly as ever, and feuds and angles reaching a fever pitch, ECW was ready for PPV. Stress was at an all time high as well, resulting in many needless backstage fights and real life heat in the locker room but Paul Heyman, who could motivate the Eskimos to buy ice, gave a riveting speech, one I was hoping to transcribe but unfortunately won’t be, but if you’d really like to hear it, and you should, it can be found on the Wrestling with Shadows documentary.
The one & only, Terry Funk.
The excitement in the air was audible and even through a TV screen you could feel it. The building may not have looked great, but it certainly made them look like a cult senation as it was jam packed with fans insanely supportive of their product. The show kicked off with the Eliminators winning the tag titles from the Dudley Boys (which by now had become D’Von & Buh Buh). Rob Van Dam then went on to beat Lance Storm in a great match that is still talked about today as one of the best in either of their careers, & next was a match put together with the help of New England indy promotor Sheldon Goldberg, a ten man tag match from another indy sensation from Japan, Michinokou Pro as The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada & Masato Yakushiji defeated Taka Michinoku, Dick Togo & Terry Boy in action that had never been seen on such a national scale in the States before. Shane Douglas kept his TV title from Pitbull #2 but more notably after the match Rick Rude (who served as a HILARIOUS color commentator for his first month before becoming old hat with it) let his alliances be known and with Brian Lee put a beating on the Franchise, & Taz completed his journey to legitimacy by making Sabu tap out. The main event was a two parter. First Terry Funk pinned Stevie Richards and then he pinned the Sandman; all of this to earn a title shot at Raven. The night was capped off by Funk defeating Raven and once again winning the world title as a tribute to all he’d done to help them in the past and it created one of the most emotional scenes in wrestling history. When the cameras stopped rolling for the live PPV, Paul Heyman himself came mid ring and through chills and tears said the promotion had finally reached his ultimate goal, PayPerView, and it was because of the work ethic of his boys in the back and the loyalty of their fans. A week later Heyman got the buyrate for PPV and the celebrating continued as they had gotten an 0.26 buyrate and could consider the show a financial success now as well.
Well, you’ve now read part one covering ECW’s transition from a small, overly violent indy run by Eddie Gilbert and a jewelry store owner through the period many consider it’s best time period and up to their first ever PayPerView, Barely Legal. In part two we will follow along as Extreme Championship Wrestling takes its usual jagged path of highs and lows until they finally make a deal with TNN to arrive on national television.
If you’d like to reply, I’d love to hear any and all views and responses to all and any parts of this column. You can of course do this in the best place to talk intelligently about wrestling online, The Oratory Forums or you can e-mail me directly at DaysWorkrate@hotmail.com. As I said, I’d love and appreciate some feedback for this.
See you in part two, which will be up sometime tomorrow afternoon.
Justin T
daysworkrate@hotmail.com
