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12 Facts About The Original ECW Wrestling
Some people may have been confused when they saw the likes of Jeremy Borash and other staff from different federations at ECW events. The fact was they couldn't stay away, they just wanted to watch ECW like everyone else. Some people have even been fired because of this. WCW staff were regulars and Borash has gone on record saying, "I had to hide from a WCW executive who sat 3 seats away from me."
Todd Gordon created Eastern Championship Wrestling after the Tri State Wrestling Alliance collapsed which Todd used to work for. He was so passionate about ECW he even mortgaged his house to fund it. The early creative team was just Todd Gordon and Eddie Gilbert. Some compared it to Memphis. It certainly wasn't what the people wanted at this time.
Eddie Gilbert brought in Heyman as an on air talent but when Todd and Eddie split, Heyman was there right away to help out. He gradually got more and more involved until they were more or less a partnership. Paul was the booker. He brought in Joey Styles and many other talents.
As soon as Paul entered ECW he had one thing in mind and that was to break all the rules and do everything differently. He took away the cartoony characters and went for a more realistic approach. Public enemy an early ECW tag-team amazed people with their mockery of legends like Ric Flair and their blood thirsty matches were like no other. Sabu brought a new style or wrestling, the tables, the dives, the HARDCORE!!!
Denis Carluso a representative of the NWA and Paul Heyman had got in contact about doing a show where the NWA title would be on the line and would mark the start of NWA-ECW or something of that nature. Much like TNA is today. Paul Heyman being the great mind that he is decided to use this as a swerve. He would use the show to promote ECW then dump the title and shit all over NWA. Only him and Shane Douglas new about this. The show came and it was done to perfection. Douglas bitches every former NWA champ and throws the title to the ground. He then picked up the ECW title and claims to be the ECW Heavyweight champ. Hot off the heels of this amazing shoot, ECW changed to Extreme and a new ECW title was created.
WCW can eat the toilet roll that gets thrown in their ring because ECW has chairs baby. The incident happened during a Terry Funk match when he put his hands up and called for a chair. One fan threw his in and then everybody followed. A sea of chairs if you will. This embodies what the ECW fans were about. They were about the Whole Fn Show.
Taz has been documented as playing his character backstage, trying to keep up a bad boy image and when he met Kid Kash who doesn't really give a fuck, sparks began to fly. Kash faced Chris Chetti in a tag match and delivered a Money Maker (tiger bomb pile driver) this made Taz furious as the move is very dangerous and a massive argument broke out backstage. It never came to fists but Paul took Taz's side and punished Kash.
Fire was temporarily banned from ECW events because during a match with terry Funk and Mick Foley a fan was set on fire. Mick had wrapped a flaming cloth around a chair and as he went to throw it at Funk it came flying off and hit a fan. People went running for the doors and all hell broke loose. This also spoiled what would have been a good segment where at the end of the show the camera would pan up to the crows nest and see Dreamer handcuffed and crucified.
During a run in segment Shane Douglas gave Gary Wolfe a DDT, he landed directly on his neck and broke it. He never realized until later after the show and had been stretching and clicking it all night, probably causing more damage. There is lots of controversy around this incident. Gary still blames Douglas for doing it too short and Douglas blames Gary for not landing properly. Gary still holds a big grudge with Shane and we will never really know the truth. One thing though is we got a major angle out of it. It was that heated that people jumped the rail more than once.
Many people mainly Perry Saturn have accused Douglas of having an affair with Francine. Now the common knowledge is that they were just damn good actors but maybe there is more to it? Shane states that Paul told them to act like a couple etc so internet fans would believe in it. The other incident between these two was when Tommy Dreamer and Francine were caught together in a building where signature signings etc were going on. Shane was also there and he got angry at Francine for breaking Kayfabe. He and Tommy had words an Paul also got involved. Francine told Shane to go ask Paul if she could switch to being Tommy's valet and he said no stating he had already told Francine no. This made Shane think he was set up by Francine and they didn't talk for 4 months. During the classic kiss in their entrance, Shane states Francine said "I hate your fucking guts mother fucker." Francine denies this and both still don't talk to this day.
Without any of his fellow co-workers knowing (maybe with the exception of Paul Heyman which is a subject of argument to this day), Raven decided "on the spot" to crucify the Sandman and place a crown of "barbed wire thorns" on his head. The usually blood thirsty crowd and often violent wrestlers in the ECW arena that day were left with their jaws hitting the floor and expressions of utter disbelief. Due to the potential offending of Christians alike, Scott Levy was urged to break out of character and publicly apologize for his actions. At the time, Raven seemed hesitant to even make the apology and has recently regarded his 1996 apology as "stupid". The significance of this incident was that not only did someone besides Vince McMahon take the wrestling world "one step further", but it cost ECW a working agreement with a very displeased Kurt Angle who would later go on to become one of WWE's top draws.
Perhaps the most controversial moment in ECW history is the Mass Transit blunder. When Axle Rotten didn't show up to help D-von Dudley take on the Gangstas New Jack and Mustafa a portly kid called Eric Kulas went to Paul Heyman claiming to be a wrestler trained by Killer Kowalski which was a lie. He was also only 17 and used a fake ID with the full knowledge of his father. In a rush to make the night a success Paul Heyman put Kulas on the card as Mass Transit. Kulas had no in ring experience other than splashing some midgets at a carnie show. He totally had the wrong attitude and was preaching what he wanted to do. He went to New Jack and said he wanted to blade (get cut) but didn’t know how to do it. New Jack said he'd do it for him, problem solved. Well New Jack being the crazy bitch he is took it too far. Maybe trying to teach him a lesson, I don't know but he took a surgical scalpel attached to a piece of wood and sliced Kulas all the way across his forehead, much deeper than usual. Kulas began to scream and blood pored out everywhere. The match finished when New Jack delivered a real chair splash to Transits head as it literally squirted blood. Kulas got 50 stitches and quickly retired. His family sued New Jack but it was acquitted. He later died at the age of 22. This article is still to be updated with more sections about New Jack, Sandman, Paul and WWE EXTENDED READING: Visit the Wrestler Interviews page for ECW releated interviews. The official ECW website can be reached at ECW.com |
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