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The following program is rated TVMA. What you're about to watch contains

explicit language, adult themes, violence, and may not be suitable for

under 18.

Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

You can activate parental controls from any device by going to account settings.

This, my friend, is a shoot.

Thank you, sir.

May I have enough?

Kiss my...

Mikey Wiprek worked on the ring crew.

Another member of the ring crew were just bouncing around and doing moon

And Paul said, we should put him in the ring.

This kid doesn't stand a chance, and he knows it.

I was like the beat -up guy.

All knew what you were good at.

My bumping and selling was so realistic. Get these people to sympathize with

you. When normally someone like you, they would crap all over.

Mikey Wiprek was such an underdog and could take such a beating that the fans

gravitated towards him.

Cactus Jack is literally dragging his partner, Mikey Wiprek, towards the ring.

Mikey was just a fantastic character. This high school -looking kid, you know,

who's way out of his depth.

The public enemy is real, real mad. You know what that means?

It means I'm going to die.

He likes it!

Mikey really, really likes it.

Paul just saw something in him, and, you know, Paul built it up on this kid, and

people believed him, and so they should.

And I know I can really get hurt, but Sam, man, it's time for

Mikey Whipwreck to get extreme.

I had no visions of being the champion.

I just didn't think it was going to happen.

They never even believed that Sandman was going to leave Mikey in the middle

the ring. That's a quivering mask.

Can you imagine Mikey Wiprek, a world heavyweight champion?

The Sandman is looking to put a permanent end to the miracle of Mikey

Reversal! And the tide has turned.

Mikey Wiprek taking it to the extreme.

Mikey continues the onslaught.

He hits the splash.

One, two.

Do you believe in miracles?

We've got a new world heavyweight champion.

It's Mikey Winfrey.

Mikey wins. Mikey wins. Mikey wins the world title.

This is not happening to me.

Come on now. This is crazy.

Bye.

That was just great.

Mikey Whitbreck took his first ever bump in the UCW arena and to watch him go

from the unknown kid who got beat up every week.

When he finally won it, it was, wow, Mikey did it.

And here come the locker room to congratulate the new champion.

Big victory for Mikey.

Big moment for UCW.

dies off the balcony, living dangerously, 1998, Asbury Park

It's a room that has two floors.

So New Jack was very well known for his high -flying antics off things.

And I'm not talking about, like, in the ring.

One of those things is, like, where's New Jack going to go with this? Because

you can only go so high, and then it's going to be a disaster.

New Jack can dive. He dove off everything. So how can you make it

pay -per -view? He brings someone else to go along with him. And Mike, toughest

little guy I've ever seen in the business.

put up with more beatings than you can imagine.

And there I am, laying on a table, my brother Devon laying on another table,

while New Jack and Spike are probably 20 feet in the air. You know, you hear

horror stories of accidents and things like that that happen in the ring, and

biggest fear was having one of those accidents come to life. I remember being

scared.

I'd never jumped off anything.

let alone a 27 -foot dive.

We measured, I

think it was 27 feet.

I remember just laying there, you know, being held, and then all of a sudden

looking up and realizing how high it really was.

And you hope that it's the kind of thing, you know, that you can walk away

That was the first time I jumped off a balcony.

When we did it, you know, I remember looking at Jack and Jack going, you're

jumping. And I went, no, you're jumping.

You're jumping.

Okay, Jack, I'll jump.

And we did it.

I'm hearing all these fans chanting ECW, ECW.

The crowd was rabid. And just this wall and feet of people behind them just

going crazy. And then they jumped out and, I mean, they flattened us.

Right before you jumped off the balcony onto us, I remember I had kids.

Actually, a very underrated moment in ECW.

Shouldn't be 49.

Sometimes accidents and jokes become some of the greatest things to see in

business.

The BWO is a parody of the NWO, the Blue World Order.

I'm the man who's using BWO.

Say hello to the BWO!

ECW's comedy is one of the things that's downplayed, not intentionally, but you

don't hear enough about how funny that was.

and how funny those moments were.

They're in New York City, in Times Square, in character.

Blue hair, you know, Stevie being Stevie, and me being me, and it's a

It's New York City, man.

Let's go check out the street. Oh, the street's cool. Very cool.

Just running around New York City, disrupting Christmas carolers.

A day or two ago, I saw that day.

BWO!

BWO! Super kicking Santa Claus.

My wife actually went with Paul Heyman and the BWO into the city. She said she

had never laughed so hard in her life.

That's what you get for not giving me that toy train when I was nine.

BWO!

BWO! Hey,

sorry.

No reason in particular.

A Jenna Jameson moment.

Okay,

back to your regular programming.

You're of a certain age. We love our wrestling and sports and music and

everything. And porn.

WWE is using people like Pamela Anderson and using real

mainstream blonde bombshells. So what does ECW do is go out and sign the

hottest... adult film star in the world. All right, here we go.

Be wild and crazy and hardcore.

I'll bet I'll get in trouble.

Not with me, you are.

I remember when I met her, I said, man, I've watched so many of your videos.

I said, never mind.

Pleasure to meet you.

And if you think I'm hardcore, well, you ought to watch Hardcore Heaven 97.

Have Jenna Jameson, the number one porn star in the world, as your valet.

And I can't even tell you how it happened.

She looked good.

So, yeah.

It is my pleasure to introduce the lovely Jenna

Jameson.

Nice girl.

Down to Earth was really down to do whatever we asked her to do.

As a matter of fact, with no experience whatsoever being in the wrestling

business, everything we told her to do, she hit on cue.

For one unbelievable night, I was out there with Jenna Jameson.

For me, it was a thrill.

Just an absolute thrill.

I remember we had just beat PG -13.

And as we're leaving, Bubba goes like this.

And she kissed with him, and I said, well, if that was the case, why didn't I

ask for one?

Hey, thought about it, and I was like, eh, it's okay.

Oh, my God!

We had signed with... a fledgling network, TNN, putting them on the map.

They had promised a lot of cross -promotion things, a lot of different

that they didn't deliver.

TNN fought us every step of the way. They did not like the way we did

television. They wanted it to be more polished, like WWE.

They insisted on having two announcers.

They wanted us to spend more money despite not giving us any money.

Paul was so mad at TNN, and you know Paul.

Paul is the best promo guy in the business.

You give a guy a microphone, he can go and tell any story.

My name is Paul Heyman, and I'm the executive producer and the owner of

Championship Wrestling.

And since this show apparently is going to make air this week, I'd like to take

this moment to thank you for watching ECW.

You have to be an ECW fan to watch this show, because God knows the network has

never put out one freaking commercial or one press release to let you know that

we're here. But that's their scheme of things.

And he just shredded TNN on their own network.

Now, in an industry where everybody wants to be real, everybody wants to do

shoot, this, my friends, is a shoot.

We hate Distinct and Network.

We hate their guts for abandoning us. We hate their guts for not supporting us.

We hate their guts for not advertising us. And we hate their guts for not

the balls to throw us off the air.

Kind of unprecedented.

I don't know if it's the smartest idea to do.

And just in case you're watching this, hey, network, I dare you to throw me off

the air.

Because I'm going to break every rule that you put in front of me until you

throw me the hell off the air.

The network had promised money.

They didn't deliver. And then shockingly, they looked under their

found like $110 million to give to Monday Night Raw. And then little ECW

pretty much dead.

You better take that $100 million that you're going to give Vince McMahon.

And you better spend it on attorneys.

Because I promise you, network, the war has just begun.

It was a real war between Paul and TNN. Are you ready to throw us off

the air yet, pig?

After tonight, it's no more.

I remember my last match vividly. ECW fans knew what was going on, not only

through newsletters, which was becoming archaic because of the internet, and

they knew that it was Mick Foley, Cactus Jack's last match.

When I walked out, it was unlike any reaction I've ever received.

Making his last appearance.

900 people chanting Cactus Jack.

Cactus! Cactus!

Cactus! Cactus!

Cactus! Cactus! Mikey and I had a very good match.

I think at one point I clutched the Leonard Cohen album that a fan had given

as a foreign object.

Act is still clutching that Leonard Cohen album.

He does!

Nick. Not taking himself too seriously and having a sense of humor.

Wanted to thank two visionaries who gave him the opportunity to be who he was.

Of course, everyone thought he was talking about Paul Heyman and Todd

One of them, he's a creative genius.

The other guy's a visionary who saw what he wanted to accomplish and went about

conforming ECW.

And I'd like to bring them out right now.

Two people that make this whole thing work.

The Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards.

The Heartbreak Kids, Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie.

And of course, he brings out Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie and does

fabulous Fargo strut with them. And it was just a great way for Cactus Jack to

go out. I'd like to strut out of the ECW arena.

It was a wonderful way to go out. You know, my strut left a little bit to be

desired. No question in my mind that it was the finest exit.

I love that.

Hunter

Q.

Robbins III introduced the most brutal, the most vicious, the most animalistic

superstar ever to enter the National Wrestling Alliance. I'm talking of none

other. than Sabu.

What we were not told was that earlier in the week, Hunter Q. Robbins had also

promised a job to the Tasmaniac. When I debuted in October of 1993 in ECW, I

debuted against Sabu. That moment there where, you know, you have Sabu and I for

the first time.

And the match wasn't about me. The match was about Sabu. And I was told that by

Paul Heyman. I think Sabu's going to be a big success in ECW.

And I'd like you to help him on his debut.

Sabu. came in no one had ever seen the scarred up crazy type of madman and

he had that stigma of being crazy from his uncle the original chief it was

sabu and taz sabu is just insane this man is crazy oh

he's not a man

Oh, God, Sabu hated that Hannibal Lecter mask.

In fact, Paul must have known that Sabu was going to hate it because he handed

me the mask and told me to go give it to Sabu.

And I didn't know Sabu from a hole in the wall.

So I walk over. I'm just a young kid, and I'm not going to say no to Paul

because I'm happy to have my job, and I'm a kid, and I don't know any better,

and he's, you know, polyangerously.

And I said, here, and Sabu goes, what's that for?

I go, Paul wants you to wear it for your entrance.

I'm not wearing that thing.

And I guess eventually Paul talked Sabu into being more dangerous and adding a

gimmick to his character. Sabu didn't want a gimmick. It made for a great

on TV.

We were scumbags. We were the worst of the worst.

The night Dudley's broke Beulah's neck was intense beyond intense because the

crowd wanted to kill us.

All of a sudden, here comes Beulah, you know, pleading for Tommy. And I remember

just reaching down and grabbing her by her hair and ready to knock her out, so

to speak.

And just as he was about to do it, I said, no, Nevon, not what you do to a

woman. Don't hit a woman.

Break her neck.

When Beulah was leaving ECW and the Dudleys broke her neck, I was scared.

It was probably going to be one of the biggest riots we had ever had.

After Bubba and D -Von hit her with 3 -D.

There was a collective gasp in the crowd, and then there was just hatred.

It was scary because, you know,

Paulie would always tell us, especially after we broke Bula's neck, like, watch

yourself when you leave the building.

Watch yourself when you're walking through the crowd.

Watch yourself at the airport.

Like, you don't know what's going to happen because these fans really do hate

you. And that night, they hated the Dudleys even more than I'd ever seen.

Eula was loved.

We did things that no other act that I can remember has ever attempted

to do. Eula McGillicuddy's blood is on your hands, Trevor.

That was just what we did. We were able to get under people's skin. What better

way to get underneath Tommy's skin but to break his girlfriend's neck?

And that was the last time you saw Buell McGillicuddy in a wrestling ring until

one night there in 2005.

Mexican professional wrestling.

And if you are not familiar with it, you are in for a special treat tonight.

I remember having my eyes glued to the monitor. I knew what Ray and Psychosis

could do.

I didn't know how it would play out in front of the hardcore fans.

Lucha had not been accepted in America. Companies like WCW and WWE thought that

nobody would take athletes that small seriously despite the unbelievable

they could do.

that our fan base accepted exemplary flying wrestlers and technical

What we didn't know is that Rey and Psychosis were going to add hardcore

The coach has come into ECW and combined Lucha Libre with the extreme style of

being able to use tables and chairs was like something nobody had ever seen

anything like that before in wrestling or otherwise.

These two have pulled out all the stuff here in the ECW arena.

Slingshot, moonsault, plancha!

I believe it's the first time I yelled, oh my God, it's Bennett.

They showed their creativity and their willingness to perform above and beyond

to please a very difficult crowd base and instantly endeared themselves to an

audience that may not have been familiar with them beforehand. If you didn't

know who Rey Mysterio or Psychosis was before that match, you certainly did

it was over.

something to say. You see, what you people don't know about is there's a

conspiracy going on in this company.

The idea was that Taz was frustrated that he wasn't getting any world

heavyweight title matches.

Nobody wants to admit that I am the world heavyweight champion.

So he created his own title.

You see, I'm not the young crowd champion because

heavyweight champion.

And this is the proof. You can call it the Brooklyn World Belt. You can call it

the World Belt.

You can call it anything you want.

That FTW title to me was the coolest thing because it fit the past character.

You don't want me to be the champ. You don't want me to get an opportunity.

You don't want me to be the guy.

Screw you. I'll do it myself.

And it was never recognized.

by ECW.

Yeah, nice looking, but legitimate? No.

It wasn't a legitimate title, but in Taz's mind, it was a legitimate World

Heavyweight Championship because he couldn't get a match with Shane Douglas

the World Heavyweight Championship.

You might not recognize this belt, I don't recognize you as a champion.

You might not recognize this belt, I don't recognize you as a commentator.

basically said, too bad, I made this, I'm wearing it on TV, and I'm going to

continue to wear it.

until you give me a World Heavyweight title match. I light up when I talk

it because it exemplified everything that the character Taz was.

I don't need you and your little ridiculous belt. I got my own.

See, I don't give a damn who recognizes this.

FPW, I am the...

in terms of violence.

Who's Axl Rotten?

Axl Rotten is the man that for the last six months has been too violent to be

shown on ECW television.

For real? Mac Daddy's a violent? That's Axl Rotten. That's Ian Rotten. And we're

the bad breed.

They'd been a very good tag team.

Been together on several tours of Japan with them. I knew what they could do.

These two brothers within the bad breed that are split up.

Formerly known as the bad breed.

Axl Rotten versus Ian Rotten.

They're brothers.

Axel and Ian Rotten.

Just the idea that these two kids were going to get the chance to work way up

the card, that they were going to do something, that was really meaningful.

There was a sense that we're not just putting you guys in a feud. We're going

do something nobody's ever seen before.

Axel and Ian Rotten set to do battle in the first ever Taipei Deathmatch.

The taping of your hand and putting glass.

and actually going in there and fighting.

Here comes Ian Rotten, two fists with broken glass glued to his knuckles.

What people don't know about the Taipei death match is that they used real

glass. Axel's showing that glass to all the fans at ringside. It's real glass,

all right.

These two lunatics taped up their fists, covered their fists with glue, and then

dipped their fists in the bucket full of real glass and proceeded to massacre

one another.

Axel and Ian went out there and literally tore their skins to shred.

They were really trying to help ECW to be extreme when nobody understood that.

Nobody had ever seen that.

To be honest, this is upsetting to watch.

This is not the wrestling that you used to watch with your grandfather or your

grandmother back in the day.

The bloodiest, most violent feud in the history of extreme championship

wrestling. Want to talk about an oh my God moment? That was a real oh my God

moment. There was nothing showbiz about that match.

Was it barbaric? Yeah, yeah.

Did it need to be?

Yeah, yeah, it did.

From that point on, from that match, that was when people started really

noticing, okay, I think we have something here.

I was hoping you'd bring up 9 -1 -1 because that was the most awesome

You're about to learn what happens when you die on 9 -1

-1!

I just remember 9 -1 -1, chokeslamming anything that

moved.

Philly can be merciless.

They loved 9 -1 -1.

These fans want to see it. He's got them all.

He's done it.

That's the way Philadelphians are.

Santa Claus comes out.

We're going to boo Santa Claus, or better yet, 9 -1 -1 him.

I'll be home for Christmas, but jolly old St. Nick is going to spend this

holiday in the emergency room.

Up and down goes Santa Claus. 9 -1 -1. Just chokeslam Santa.

If we had any type of special guest, he was getting chokeslammed. We would like

you all to stand and face the flag for an extreme version of our national

anthem. They had a guy doing the national anthem before the show.

So the guy misses a quarter to.

It didn't matter that the guy who came out and did the national anthem was

a spot -on version.

He was going to get choked soon.

Fans, myself, all of us, were living vicariously through 9 -1 -1.

I was traveling with Nunzio.

I think I flew in the day off. He picked me up at the airport, and Nunzio's a

great guy. He's like, I got to stop by the office, pick up some tape, take him

to the show, right?

And so anyways, we stopped there, and Dreamer comes out. He goes, big night

you. He goes, yeah, you're going to get the title, isn't that? I'm like, I

thought Karina was working with Sandman. He's like, yeah, yeah, we got

something. I'm like, oh, okay, cool.

Sandman's all alone.

He's done it. He's done it.

Come on.

Popular athlete in the history of ECW.

The Sandman! The new World Heavyweight Champion!

Turn around!

And Rhino just thwarted the Sandman!

When you have a three -way and then someone comes out and just kind of takes

Rhino is giving that Sandman a...

was so believable at that time.

It just worked. It just clicked.

One, it's a great way of this is the end for people to remember it. Two, it

makes Rhino a massive heel.

He was hated for this.

Another pile of fire on the shores of that table! The sand made it slip!

We needed a show of strength.

and consistency and building for the future.

And Rhino was that.

That's part of my legacy to be the last ever ECW champion and the only one to

unify both titles.

I think that Raven and Tommy Dreamer is one of the best long -term storylines

probably in the modern era. They had such great chemistry in the ring.

Two guys like that who brought the violence and brought the intensity.

And because they were so different in real life, we created such a great

backstory with them being foes going all the way back to summer camp.

We were different. I was the good kid. He was the bad kid.

And he came back to get his revenge on me.

Tommy Dreamer and Raven have a lot of unsettled issues between them dating

to their childhood and summer camp.

It really is one of the thinner pieces, I think, in ECW's history is Tommy and

Raven. The longest running feud in professional wrestling.

ECW, the next level.

It was all the Dreamer -Raven feud. And it was probably one of the best feuds in

ECW for the simple fact of for three years, I never beat him.

Tommy Dreamer never wanted to win. Tommy Dreamer knew that he was more

sympathetic if he came closer and closer and closer and closer and lost.

But Raven was leaving for WCW.

And Tommy didn't want to win the match, frankly. Me and Tommy were both totally

opposed to the idea.

He wanted to be the ultimate loser and get sympathy, and Paul just said no.

Paul, being the mind that he was, saying, look, he's leaving. You have to

him.

The final battle between Raven and Tommy Dreamer.

The winner of tonight's matchup is the winner of this lifelong feud.

Period.

The place went nuts when Tommy finally vanquished Raven, which was funny

all the fans knew Raven was leaving. It was no surprise to anybody, so I think

the outcome was expected.

But the fans loved Tommy so much that they exploded when he pinned Raven.

Legendary, epic chapter ended that night.

When I first came to ECW, I was a Tasmaniac.

Back then, early 90s, gimmicks were

in.

He's a Tasmanian? No.

It was a limited but very effective gimmick. It got over me because when the

bell rang, as goofy and crazy and wacky as the gimmick looked, the face paint

and the fur and the crazy hair, barefoot, all the stuff.

I was always hell -bent on being credible and being an athlete and being

physical. The Tasmaniac has hit the ring and beating up everyone in sight.

He did have a second -degree black belt. He had done some amateur wrestling.

Taz was and is a trash -talking guy.

He was nothing like the Tasmaniac. Paul wanted to get him out of that.

Taz gets his first chance at talking.

And said, you can do anything you want. I've told you that before.

It's real clear.

Paul felt like you got to get to another level. I was a photographer at ringside

and Taz called me before the show and said, are you shooting tonight? And I

And he said, can you please take pictures of me?

And Taz came out with the new haircut, the new tights, orange and black.

It became the Taz that we all know. The man who just commentated on this match

with me holds a second dan in the discipline of judo and has won shoot

tournaments in the country of Japan.

He obviously brings to the broadcast position the credentials to call a match

between Eddie Guerrero and the shooter Dean Malenko.

The man who called this match with me is named Peter Sinurcha.

But you know him very well.

But you know him as Taz.

It wasn't a complete departure.

It was like, he's kind of the same guy.

Here comes the all -new Taz!

But not really. I don't think this is going to work.

And it did.

I thought it was a great step up. And I saw what he did

with it with the chewed up towel over his head. And he was an angry person

anyway. So it just tapped into who he really was.

It was awesome. That's kind of how I saw what I could be.

That's really where the real Taz was born.

Beat me if you can.

Survive. If I let you.

Oh, my God!

The Indemnator!

Samba was behind Bigelow to trip them up!

We have a new world television!

Bob Van Dam held the EW World Television title for almost two years, I believe.

It was cool to see a long run like that because you don't see it much anymore.

In fact, you really don't see him at all.

The longest reigning champion in professional wrestling.

My thought every show was to make it mean at least as much as the heavyweight

championship, if not more than, because I was the whole effing show.

Everybody already knows who I am. That's why they tuned in.

I'm Rob Van Dam, the world television champion. The whole happens show.

Rob was the guy to beat, and nobody could beat him. And he faced everybody.

22 months and counting, Rob Van Dam, still the ECW

world television champion.

They will give it all.

Every night, whether I'm wrestling someone like Spike Dudley or Lil Guido,

Bam Bigelow, anything in between.

Matches were filled with, oh my God, Mark.

What will it take to beat Rob Van Dam?

Actually, the reason why Rob vacated the title is he broke his foot during our

match. The injury frustrated me.

On a few different levels because I thought that I was indestructible until

that, and I was out to prove that every night.

Good luck finding somebody to fill the shoes of the standard I've set is the

World Television Champion.

Had it not been for the broken leg he suffered against Rhino, nobody would

taken that title from him.

Who even remembers who had it after RVD?

The triple threat consisted of Shane Douglas, who was the leader, Chris

who was the workhorse, and Bam Bam Bigelow, who was the muscle.

And my triple threat rules the cream here in Extreme Championship Wrestling.

The idea was that Shane Douglas wasn't pushing himself.

And Rick Rude was going to find challenges to make Shane Douglas better.

Who did he come up with?

Al Snow, who in Queens, New York, gave Shane Douglas a tough fight. But Douglas

beat Al Snow.

In Boston, Massachusetts, Rick Rude brought out Axel Weiss, and he took the

franchise to the hardcore limits.

But in the end, Shane Douglas is still the ECW World Heavyweight Champion.

The question is now, who will Rick Rude find to challenge Shane Douglas

for the ECW?

Rick Rude, who had originally come into ECW to be a thorn in the side of Shane

Douglas.

It was revealed that this was all part of his master plan.

And he needs no introduction.

Hit the music.

Rick Rude has dropped another bombshell on the franchise and the Triple Threat.

Rick Rude convinced Bam Bam Bigelow that he should be World Heavyweight

Champion. and he should be the one to challenge Shane Douglas.

Would you look at the face on Bigelow Douglas!

Drop a finger to the eye!

Put the stop to that!

Bam Bam being such a big deal coming from WWE, when Bam Bam came in and took

title from him, it was a really big deal.

Bam Bam was a real special man to me, and it was great to see him win the

Heavyweight Championship.

dreamer was willing to do anything to be hardcore tommy suplex to the street

we've got a massacre on swanson street i was crazy and

he

chokeslamming and i just disappear from

the scene

I wish we had more cameras to show how punishing, how awful, how devastating

that choke slam was, just as a testament to what Tommy Dreamer would do for ECW.

My ass has an ability to absorb punishment, and I would always tell all

muscle -jacked -up guys, always remember, muscles tear and rip, but fat

and that's why Tommy Dreamer's still here, and I've never had a surgery, 25

-year career.

Still going strong.

Oh, my God. Get an ambulance.

Oh,

my God.

The extreme icon, the Sandman.

Sandman always got an amazing entry.

He used to joke that that's all the shine, as we call it.

He needed it. It was his entrance.

The music, the lights, you know, the thing you do with a beer.

Smoking cigarettes.

The first wrestler to come down to the ring, drinking a beer and smoking a

cigarette. And drinking a beer.

Sandman chugging another one.

What are you, crazy? You can't send a guy drinking and smoking to the ring.

Well, apparently you can.

He's a no rules, no holds barred kind of guy.

The Sandman was ECW. ECW was the Sandman.

Sandman never should have left ECW for WCW.

When he left, it was kind of a blow.

That was just a money dispute between he and Paul.

We understood it. Okay, you're going to go and you're going to make a payday.

I don't know how much Sandman made as hardcore hack over in WCW.

Hopefully it was a lot of money, but it did nothing for his career.

It didn't work.

He came back. When he came back, he was instantly welcomed by the fans.

I was in the ring when Sandman made his return.

They did the lights out.

And it was crazy.

The place just went nuts.

The fans just, they went mental.

You're looking at him going, man, this guy is so over. I was in the middle of

the ring and I experienced the energy from the crowd.

It was so loud you couldn't hear the guy standing beside you yelling in your

ear.

Perhaps the greatest entrance in the history of our business.

Bula baby over here has been a little neglected by my man Raven.

So, studly Stevie Richards, the king of swing, is going to get a kiss from Bula

baby. Come here.

No, no, no.

I was kind of like rolling my eyes like, oh my God, what is going on?

I'm pregnant was huge. It was like, and then hush. Because they got to hear how

this is going to unfold.

You're what?

You're pregnant?

Can you think of a better storyline than the abusive boyfriend yelling at his

girlfriend for not being intelligent enough to know how to take birth

The pills say one day at a time, moron.

Oh, my God.

that it wasn't easy, and then people started chanting, it's the meanies!

It's Tommy.

It's Tommy!

People were like, they never saw it coming.

And then he grabbed her, and I came and I defended her.

The place comes unglued.

I looked at her, and we hugged, and people were just like, oh my God, it

It's magic.

So I was really like, oh, man, what is this? But I have to admit, I couldn't

deny how connected the fans were.

It was just such great soap opera television.

It was just such an unbelievable moment.

So Cactus Jack's the most hardcore wrestler in the most hardcore company in

world, probably, at the time.

For years, Mick had been ripping his body apart and sacrificing himself.

When you give fans that much violence week after week after week, they become

spoiled, and the HW fans have become spoiled.

He had a young boy named Dewey, his son.

Adorable little boy.

fan held up a sign that said, Kane Dewey. When I relayed that to my wife,

nearly got sick. Like the idea that someone would take the time to write a

that was more or less advocating the beating of a three -year -old child

made her physically sick.

And that was the impetus.

I looked out into that audience, my adoring crowd, and I saw two simple

that changed my life.

Kane

Dewey. He did the promo where he called the fans heartless bastards who didn't

care about him or anybody else. Fans were over the line.

King Dewey.

Bloodthirsty. King Dewey. And not deserving of the

effort that I was giving.

Dewey Foley is a three -year -old boy.

You sick son of a bitch!

You ripped out my heart!

You took everything I believed in and you flushed it down the damn toilet.

I know it's me saying it, but it was groundbreaking stuff.

But then Nick found a way to make his anger entertaining and went on to have

of the worst matches you ever saw.

He's going to throw a right cross right at that chin.

And he grabs a side headlock.

He decides that he's going to do 10 -minute arm locks and 15 -minute

Cactus Jack.

is intentionally wrestling the worst match in the history of this great

He just had this headlock on, I forget who, forever.

And the crowd was so mad.

And they're chanting boring, he's chanting boring with them. It was really

to watch the fans get completely irritated with him.

It was genius on his part because he was saving his body and getting a bigger

reaction than he had gotten by beating himself to death.

I love being right.

Oh, my God!

Dean and Eddie had amazing matches.

I didn't have to go over the top and scream, oh, my God, to get anyone's

attention during their matches.

Any time you got to see those guys in the ring, everyone was around the

or around a curtain watching.

Their talent.

And the drama they created in the ring spoke for itself.

People have the misconception that ECW

was all about blood and gut.

As bloodthirsty as those fans could be, and were, they appreciated good

wrestling, too. It was kind of like a three -ring circus.

Santa Claus would be chokeslam. You would see someone set on fire, but then

could watch some of the greatest technical wrestling in the world.

This will be the last time they will be allowed to take it to the extreme.

The question will be answered. Who is the better man?

It does not get any better than the Malenko -Guerrero classic, as we call

was a night that I share with a good friend, a close friend, somebody I've

wrestled many times before.

They took...

The violence that we've been stereotyping, and people forgot about it

moments.

Guerrero takes Malenko down.

Another hip toss, no, monkey flip by the shooter.

I remember the emotion in the ECW arena that night. You can feel the emotion in

this arena.

It was special because of the crowd and the fans. The fans of ECW.

The fans just got into them really quick.

They were like no other fans at that time, and they didn't even play.

Goes for flying head scissors.

Goes around back.

Waistlock on the rail. Tries to roll up for me. And he does. He's got the

bridge. Both.

Two. Three.

We've got a double pin.

We've got another draw.

Classic match.

It had the emotion needed for a classic match. Those two really put us on the

map in a different way. I remember myself and Eddie kind of really choked

little bit.

Everyone in this building is a little choked up.

It was sad to see him go, but they became, I mean, it was absolutely the

move for him.

To this day, people ask me what my favorite match to call was, and it was

the farewell match, the draw between Eddie and Dean.

A highlight in both men's careers.

I think it was a highlight, you know, in the history of ECW for sure.

The night is kind of embedded in my mind for one of the best nights I've ever

had in a wrestling business.

They say sometimes all you need is a little head to turn your life upside

I guess I found mine.

Al Snow's problem was always that he was a great wrestler, but he didn't have a

character.

So he came to ECW, and the idea was that the frustration had finally gotten to

Al, and he finally snapped.

He found this mannequin head backstage at the EW Arena.

And I thought it was bad when this buried me all those years.

For God's sake, give me a spot!

Come on!

Can we please have a little privacy?

Alex knowing Hedwig was a crazy thing because I don't think it was intended to

be a big deal.

That's right!

He's wonderful!

He's a shooter!

It was just...

We'll give him some kind of gimmick and make him crazy and that'll be fine.

And it just caught on like crazy.

All of a sudden you see all these white foam heads and it's like head, head,

head, head. And I remember looking out going, this is cool.

And here comes the man who started this madness.

An athlete who you might say is ahead of his time.

We got to the point where we were buying, you know, hundreds or even up to

thousand mannequin heads for pay -per -views and passing them out to fans, and

it made Al a star.

We got heads!

We got heads!

We got heads! We got heads! We got heads! We got heads! It's a sea of

and white styrofoam heads, and it's a really cool visual.

It's probably one of the most coolest things I think I've ever seen in ECW.

I mean, if somebody told you they saw this at the arena, you'd think they were

kidding, right?

Watching that entrance, it's a lot of energy, and it's something you want to

part of.

You could feel the crowd.

I don't know whether they were stomping their feet or just them bobbing their

heads and banging their heads together.

You could hear it and feel the building shaking.

He was ridiculously over it.

Taz and Sabu were very, very, very competitive. They both had chips on

shoulders.

Absolutely, Taz and Sabu did not get along, did not like each other outside

the ring as well as inside of the ring.

Sabu legitimately left ECW, left ECW high and dry, left Paul high and dry,

Taz high and dry to go do a gig in Japan.

One member of our dressing room will not grace you.

For what you paid to see, bottom line, Sabu decided to go in Japan tonight.

Paul had come out and told the ECW arena what Sabu had done.

And the only way he's going to walk his miserable ass to that door anymore is if

you people say we forgive him for choosing the Japanese audience over us.

And eventually Paul and Sabu were able to, you know, get back on the same page

and do business.

And that was the big deal. That was the big build.

Sabu versus Taz. I think it was like a year.

It was a build up to the match at Barely Legal.

And we were all around the ring for it because it was a big moment.

Come on, Sabu. Let's get this shit on. Enough with the games. It's been a year.

Bring it.

It sounds so cliche to say you could feel the energy in the air, but you

The lights are out. The droning sensors automatically go up. I knew, and Sabu

knew, that once those lights came on, that the place was going to be loud.

Lights off.

Lights on.

Taz and Sabu are standing in the ring looking at each other.

Boom!

Explosive pop.

I am not joking.

It's not an exaggeration. I felt the ring moving.

Philadelphia, being really well -educated wrestling fans who kind of

coming, they didn't know that was coming.

And to see them face -to -face, and right before there's that first blow,

are off.

And then once it was over and we got backstage, I'm like, man, we are doomed

this pay -per -view. There's no way we're living up that high because I know

we're in trouble.

Steve Austin had had a falling out with Eric Bischoff, and Eric had fired Steve.

Paul Heyman knew that Steve was an immensely talented performer.

So he called up Steve, just come up here and do promos, because I know you can

talk. And he looked at Paul and said, what do you want me to say? And Paul

I want you to vent your soul into the camera.

So then I am floundering along.

There's nothing going my way because the politics in WCW kept the biggest

potential superstar in wrestling on the damn ground.

Long before Eric Bischoff went after WWE, Steve Austin went after Eric

Bischoff. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Monday Night Raw, where the big boys

play with each other. I apologize for the booms.

But I had to fire the pyrotechnician guy because he couldn't show up. I did it

over the phone, no less, but I had to fire him. It's technically not a great

Bischoff imitation, you know, but it was so full of emotion and nobody had

thought to do that. I remember sticking around late at night and watching Stone

Cold do his Hulk Hogan.

impersonation and it was awesome i'd

never seen steve do imitations like i didn't know he could do imitations you

people get up every morning you throw a ham and cheese sandwich in a metal

lunchbox you put your time plot you let some jack off yell at you for nine hours

then you push out and go back home to some hag i'll never do that man

That first glimpse of Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was a personality, was seen

in ECW. And I don't know that ECW or Paul could take credit for it because it

was just Steve being allowed to be Steve. That's not a promise. That's the

bottom line.

Because Stone Cold said so.

I'll be the ECW champ, the only champ that means a damn thing.

And that's the bottom line.

Steve was handed a microphone and Steve made himself.

Because there's no one, no one in ACW

that can stop me.

ECW Arena is very legendary and very fondly remembered, but it was a dump.

It wasn't the most technically sound building.

This night was a very memorable night because it was over 100 degrees in the

building, and the ring kept breaking.

The crowd was like, F the ring, F the ring.

So the ring broke, and they had to fix it, and it took a long time. I'm

30 minutes, 45 minutes, and the crowd's starting to get restless.

So Kimona was there, this gorgeous Asian girl.

Kimona Winalea, she was beautiful, very eye -catching, who happened to have

another talent besides being a wrestling valet.

I want to be a cameraman tonight.

Paul just ran to her and said, we need time, we need time. Can you go up there

and strip?

All of a sudden I hear music.

And I said, oh, they might have got everything back up again. And no, Kimona

started doing a strip tease.

And if you go back and look, you can see there's a bunch of holes in the back

where everybody's eyes are like this because we're trying to see.

I'm right there, meaning I'm behind her. I felt like I was getting my own lap

dance.

And I remember I was standing there with Terry Gordy, and Terry was like, I

ain't never seen this at no wrestling match.

Spits the big thing in the...

chewing tobacco in the cup. And I was like, I haven't seen this either, Terry.

Haven't seen it before and haven't seen it since.

And it sold a lot of VHS tapes. You can still hear me saying Extreme Warfare

Volume 2, the night Kimono Wanalea danced atop the ECW arena.

It was a night at the ECW arena when the ring had collapsed.

We needed a diversion.

Kimono Wanalea provided one.

That saved the day.

The fans were very happy, and the ring finally was fixed. I think they were

chanting for Kimono during the next match.

Who else would do that? If the ice melts in an NHL game, they're not going to be

like, oh, find a hype girl and put her on the stage. ECW did.

They offered the refund if anybody wanted to leave.

I don't think anybody got their refund. I think they stayed for the show.

That was the night that me and Devon were leaving ECW and getting ready to

over to the WWE.

Everybody knew we were leaving.

This matchup for the World Tag Team title belt is underway.

Nobody expected Balls and I to lose the match and drop the titles to him.

I said that we were going to take the ECW championships and we were going to

them at the feet at Vince McMahon on the altar of the WWE.

If you're an ECW fan, that's the worst thing you can do.

We will go on Monday night.

going to leave with the titles.

So how would we get out of this?

Paul had an ace up his sleeve.

Raven

slid

in. Place erupts. No one knew he was going to do that. He hit him in the

I'll say it's probably in the top two or three loudest reactions ever in

ECW.

Raven is back in ECW!

Moments like those are the moments you live for. Those are the moments in life

where it's just like, wow.

Another swerve in the whole Raven -Tommy Dreamer saga because now these two guys

who have just beaten the hell out of each other are now tag team champions.

Tommy Dreamer and Raven!

Or the new ECW World Tag Team Champion!

Welcome back! Welcome back! Welcome back!

Oh my God!

Excuse me!

Excuse me!

Paul gets with me before.

He had warned me about the New York fans, and back kind of in the day when I

wrestling, I'd always done a gimmick where I would challenge the people to

the ring.

And I'd kind of been warned about doing this, but I was like, I don't care, so I

had Rhino with me.

Well, being New York, the fans actually did try to hit the ring. And I was like,

look at Rhino. I'm like, well.

We've got a cop in the ring, and Rhino just cuts this cop in half with a boar.

And the hell was that?

Some people still question, like, is that real? Is that a police officer?

That moment of speculation is what people would go for.

People throw around the word riot or near riot and whatever, but it really

exactly that. And the security team that we had at that building really earned

their money that night.

A full -scale war has broken out!

What Paul was always great at doing was flowing one segment into another segment

into another segment. So you really never got to catch your breath on some

the ECW shows.

Kid Cash was way ahead of his time in terms of his acrobatics and what he

do and is really underrated.

The ECW locker room is still in the aisle.

Kid Cash goes to the air.

Kid Cash just jumps on everybody as a domino effect.

Everybody falls down, a lot of energy.

All hell has broken loose here at the Hammerstein.

It went from being a pseudo -dangerous situation to kind of, okay, this is just

a really over -wrestling segment.

It was one of the most craziest things I think I've ever seen.

i've never experienced a more hostile crowd towards one individual

the death it got in the ecw

arena that real life feeling when people

are shocked gary confronting the franchise and the

fridge

Shane Douglas had broken Gary Wolf's neck with a DDT on a championship.

When Gary Wolf got in the ring to confront Shane Douglas and Shane Douglas

grabbed him by the halo and shook him and threw him down, it was one of the

despicable, unthinkable things we had ever seen.

Shane grabbed it, threw him down, and people were like, whoa, you just crossed

the line.

A man with basically a shattered neck.

Being held in place by this halo. It's not just a regular neck collar.

It's this apparatus that looks like, you know, it looks like machinery.

You're cringing.

Cringing in the locker room.

People are like, oh no, oh my God.

Definitely a scary moment, man.

I don't understand. Gary, if you're listening up there, I don't understand

everybody's so angry with me.

Why everybody's so damned upset with what I've done to you.

He's just a mastermind.

And capable of anything.

and will stoop to any depth.

And the franchise was just that kind of guy. He was, for lack of a better term,

his comeback.

You see, the swim from the island behind me, for a franchise, that's nothing

more than a light workout.

But for you, Gary Wolf, it is something that you will never do.

There were people who really wanted to beat him up. That worked for the

Oh, my God!

Fans were going to... I really thought they were going to kill Shane.

They started rioting. They started hopping the ring. They started getting

the guardrail faster than security would stop them.

They thought there was going to be a riot.

It got to the point where they had to escort Shane out of the building to his

car and to another hotel for what he was saying.

He had that much heat.

We had to run Shane Douglas out of the back of the building and drive him away.

Shane was lucky he escaped out of that. It sure helps.

It would have been, it was bad.

It was really, really bad.

His rocker, Brian Pillman, was a perfect fit for extreme championship wrestling

because we were the island of misfit toys, and Brian Pillman was the biggest

lunatic of them all.

I have been fired by Eric Bischoff!

Pillman was one of those guys that had been misused for his whole career. Like,

the office thought he was too small.

Bischoff, or should I...

I remember Brian's debut as being completely bizarre.

You're not running this interview.

I am. Because I'm Brian.

Film it.

Indy Combs, he had that cane.

He looked different. He acted different.

He was known as the loose cannon around that time. And people didn't know what

he was going to do.

He came in and threatened to urinate in the room and cut the Philly fans down

like crazy.

Eric Bischoff is each and every one of these mothers.

Smart marks roll up in a leg.

Giant pieces.

They hated Brian Pillman by the end of that night, but it was absolutely what

was necessary.

Man, he was intense.

That was such an intense moment for ECW.

A great moment, but also like a very unsettling moment in ECW history.

Brian really never let down his guard on the insanity gimmick.

We were all staying at the same hotel in Philadelphia, and Brian was there.

And I remember riding an elevator up to my room with him.

And, like, two other people, and I was scared.

Everyone was looking at him and, like, thinking that he was nuts.

And I remember he looked at me and caught my gaze and winked.

Yes, he was crazy, but I think he was putting on an act.

It set forth a sea of imitation, and none of it was quite as good as the

original.

Terry Funk and Cactus Jack had some death matches in Japan.

Harry and I had started including fire in our matches in

Japan in January of 1995.

And had beaten one another up and tore each other apart, and Paul had to have

these matches in America.

They used fire overseas.

You know, we'd better use some fire here.

It's gonna be a hot time.

In the ECW.

These are the two guys that actually bought ECW style to America.

Terry and I felt pressure to live up to this thing that we had set.

We had to up the ante.

I'm not afraid of fire, and I'm not afraid.

There was a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure to succeed and excel and live

to expectations.

Folks got a flaming branding iron! Branding iron was a painful but

tool of the trade.

He's tearing off Katniss' shirt!

I took a precaution.

You know, I wet my shirt, you know, like I taped a washcloth, wet washcloth.

He's trying to burn tactics.

You play with fire, you do get burned.

He's doing it. He's branding tactics with a flaming branding iron.

Oh, my God.

It's on fire, you know. It's fire.

It's fire.

You can feel that kind of rubber, you know, melting.

Tactics is in trouble.

It was a really uncomfortable feeling, but it looked good.

On video. And in the end, you know, 20 years down the road, that's all you

really care about.

He's doing it! He's Brandon Cactus with a flaming branding! Oh,

my God!

McTaggy matchup. Rob Van Dam and his manager, former referee Bill Alfonso.

To take out Tommy Dreamer and Eula McGillicud.

Sam Booth hit the ring and kicked Tommy Dreamer right in the face.

Tommy Dreamer is down and Rob Van Dam is leaving.

The matchup is still in progress, but is it going to be Eula and Fonzie?

Eula was not trained to be a wrestler.

She had an amazing performance.

Anzi was a little stiff, but he wanted to deliver it back.

Bullseye!

Oh, Bella Alfonso has busted open. She caught him good.

He got cut, and he got cut back.

I mean, neither one of them are wrestlers. So for them to go out there

that type of match was phenomenal.

Bueller was a hell of an athlete. She did a great job in there that night. She

got her ass kicked and she gave it back.

In the name of Tommy Freeman, Bueller is taking it to the extreme.

Was it a 10 -star match? No, of course not. But as far as passion behind it and

work ethic, they put it all out there.

Watching Beulah come back to the locker room just covered head to toe like she'd

just done a cameo in a Carrie movie, it was just crazy.

And she couldn't get the clothes off of her quick enough, even like her

sneakers. When she was walking, you'd hear it.

And it wasn't her blood. It was someone else's.

Ponzi was about to be let go from ECW.

He had had some problems with Paul, and there was some stuff going on behind the

scenes. And that was supposed to be his last night. Took such an amazing

beating, and it was just such an incredible moment that I think it saved

job.

But he went out there and had such a great match with Bula that by the end of

the match, I think Paul just said, all right, we're just going to let bygones

bygones, and you can stick around.

And that was one of the things that Paulie did.

He forgave him.

You know, in the business, there's cycles where two guys will be having the

matches in the world for six months or so. And at that time, it was really

and Rob.

Rob Van Dam versus Jerry Link.

It's as good as it gets anywhere in professional wrestling.

You could put those guys on, and you know it was going to steal the show. You

know it was going to tear the house down.

I think Jerry Lynn was the only one who was athletically gifted enough to keep

up with Rob Van Dam because he was the only one who was as fast and as quick as

Rob was. And you go back and you watch those matches and some of the things

did, and it was absolutely amazing.

The first time I wrestled him, the match ended up going over 20 minutes. I had a

bloody nose. My outfit was ripped. My hair was all over the place.

The crowd understands when people are working hard.

and they knew how hard those guys were working.

When you saw Jerry Lynn and RVD on the show wrestling against each other, you

know you were going to get your money's worth.

I took Jerry, and we ended up wrestling again and again and again, and we always

seemed to outdo what we did before, like a counter to his counter to my counter

to his offensive move, and it set like new standards.

Rob Van Dam versus Jerry Lynn is ECW.

Wow, how can they top this one? And they go out there and they top it.

Matches like that inspire people.

That's Flair Steamboat for ECW is Rob Van Dam, Jerry Lynn.

And if you look at those matches, you'll have a hard time finding something

that's as athletic as what those two were doing within the confines of

storytelling.

After my matches with Jerry Lynn, so many times when I would wrestle someone

that I haven't wrestled before, they would say, hey, man, you know, it'd be

cool. Can we do some of that RVD Jerry Lynn stuff?

No, you can't.

Van Dam now sends Jerry Lynn to the right. Drop down, split leg.

Leg drop misses.

Bustle like kick duck.

Leg sweep.

Elbow misses.

requested that he give this opportunity to Tommy Dreamer, who Taz felt deserves

the opportunity more than anyone else on the ECW roster, and who could argue

with that?

Tommy, you know, had never been the ECW champion, and he was the hood ornament

in the company for so long, you know, and the heart and soul, literally, of

company. Blood, sweat, tears, legitimately.

From what I remember, they had a hell of a match.

Taz!

I've waited my whole life for this.

I may never make it to WrestleMania.

I never want to make it to Starrcade.

I just thought Tommy was one of those guys that should always be chasing the

belt and always just miss it because Tommy was such a great, compelling

babyface. He wanted to go his whole ECW run and never win the title. That was

his goal.

Everybody else wants to win the title. Dreamer wanted to get this close but

never make it. I never wanted to win a title in ECW.

I didn't feel I needed it.

I never wanted people to say I got what I got because I was friends with Paul or

I had any stroke in the company.

And then Paul was like, you are my stable rock. You are the stability of

company. I have to put it on you.

To all my fans that are here in other companies up in the heaven, and all you

fans, thank you very much.

Paul came up with, get your pictures, put it around your shoulder, never wear

the title. Never put it around your waist.

Tommy Dreamer never even got a chance to wear

that belt.

There's not one picture of him wearing the title.

He never wore the title.

And that was the next hurdle for Tommy Dreamer. Which actually put more

on Tommy because he had the moment and then it got pulled away from him.

Oh, that was like a big joke.

Dude, you're the champ, like five minutes.

You know, so I was like, yeah, it's just Tommy. That's the way it goes for him.

Most of these oh -my -god moments all result in me losing or getting beat up.

It's worthless ever.

Continue.

Oh, my God!

The throw.

Oh, God bless the throw.

It was an awesome moment.

Tremendous.

It made me...

The first time we did it was at the 1997 Hardcore Heaven, but the camera

lighting sucked, and it didn't pick up well.

Oh, my God!

So we came back to the Philadelphia Arena, and we did it again, and it was

crazy.

Bam Bam took him.

six feet away from the ring, and picked him up and threw him.

He's got Spike up!

Oh, my God!

I just can't imagine what was going through Spike's head with that 10, 15

of air time going, God, please be there.

Don't drop me, don't drop me.

Bam Bam Bigelow threw Spike over the top rope, cleared the guardrail to the

crowd. You got to think of why he did that, because you could count on that

crowd.

I landed in the third or fourth row, and they caught me, and they surfed me

around, and it was the loudest moment ever in the ECW arena.

We've got Barney surfing at the ECW arena!

They wound up surfing him. It was the coolest thing in the world.

And this crowd is pretty adamant.

And what this crowd wants, this crowd...

I don't think it had ever happened before.

It will never happen again.

That was awesome for us. And for the fans, come on. You bought a ticket to

of wrestling shows. You got to hold the wrestler.

Maybe pick his pocket, too. I don't know.

It was very, very interactive.

This was one of those moments in my career that was just a unique night.

Scotty Anton, you heard any of the hype about the Van Terminator? I have.

I had promoted that I've got this new move that's better than anything you've

ever seen before.

I know that it can rattle your brain.

Congratulations, Scotty. You deserve it. Enjoy your buzz. And Terminator, daddy.

The fans all saw the promotion and they were all waiting for it and ready for

it.

The most devastating maneuver in professional wrestling history.

He calls it the Grand Terminator.

And then Scotty Anton was way in the other corner and they were just chanting

Terminator.

Talk about pressure.

Seriously. I mean, this was like the moment was on.

Rob didn't even climb the turnbuckles. Rob springboarded up to the top rope and

then leapt across the ring with those gigantic quads of his and drove his

into his opponent's face.

They loved it. They loved it. Everyone was out there screaming, oh, like they

had never seen anything like it before because they hadn't.

It's a hell of a bump for me to take to jump as far as I can.

And then it just, bam, just like land on my back.

At the time, he was set in the bar with his moves, with his athleticism. It's an

incredible spot.

Not many people can pull it off.

You don't know when it's coming. You have a field chair in front of your

You know, you hope you've said enough prayers the night before.

The Terminator!

Crazy.

I mean, obviously, I lived up to the expectations.

We and Devon had worked with Balls and Axl Rotten and doing all the hardcore

stuff for years.

You know, we're like, what are we going to do? What are we going to do that's

different? What can we do that's really going to shock the people?

Balls came on over and said, hey!

Why don't we just light the table on fire?

And I went, you know what, Balls, that's a great idea.

What in God's name are they doing?

Let's get Balls Mahoney up!

Powerball for the Thug Tech and the fire!

When we put Balls to that table, that crowd lost their mind.

It wasn't very safe.

But it got a hell of a reaction.

My God, no, no, no!

Flaming tables suck.

That was crazy. The first time they set it on fire, I was just like, what?

There's just so many things that can go wrong.

You can't predict fire. You have no idea whether it's going to go out, whether

it's going to get burned, whether it's going to get scorched.

Watching two human beings put another man through that, you're thinking, you

know what, maybe one day I'll have to take that.

You know, why can't the fans just reject it and say, I don't want to do that?

But, no, they loved it.

Balls was just that type of guy where he was game for anything.

And if a flaming table needed to be done and someone needed to go through it,

Balls was the first one to raise his hand.

It wasn't even Paul necessarily asking any of the guys to do it. The guys

to do it. And it was really, really impressive. And with the Dudleys, you

team that could work without it. But when they did it, it really meant

something. We weren't the first people to ever do a flaming table, but I

the Dudleys made the flaming table really, really cool.

Chaz and Bigelow through the ring is definitely a top 50 oh -my -God moment

ECW. Bam! Bam!

Bigelow!

It's Bam Bam Bigelow's hometown. It's Asbury Park, New Jersey.

He's going to win the World Television Championship.

As a New Yorker, of course, I'm hated in Jersey, right?

Bam Bam was the hometown boy. Like, legit grew up there, lived there all

Throughout the years, many people had come up from underneath the ring.

What is going on?

Nobody had ever broken through the ring.

This is really great. I was on the ring crew.

Taz and Bam Bam wrestled around, and we had a signal set up. So Taz would stick

his foot underneath the ring, and we would reach out and tap his foot. That

everything's okay, we're good to go.

I just had him in the chokehold, and they went back.

My back hit the mat first. Bam Bam's on my chest.

Boom! Crashing through literally six inches from us.

It disappeared just . It couldn't have been more perfect. They swallowed them

up, and you couldn't see them.

I mean, I just can't tell you how much it hurt.

The pop, the, oh, my God, it was definite.

And I just was like, yeah, yes, yes! And Bamfitt was like, we did it! No, we

were just so nervous, you know?

John Finnegan, the referee, gave the best bell you will ever see of all time

during that match.

Look at the crowd right as it happened.

Look at that real...

to something they never saw coming.

And it was Bam Bam Bigelow pinning a knocked -out Taz in Asbury Park, New

Jersey.

Another great thing with Paul, he wanted it to feel as natural as possible, so

he purposely didn't put them in the main event.

I was in the main event following that match, so we had to do our main event

match with one -third of the ring being this giant hole that's just... taped off

with fleece tape.

I remember when it was all said and done and the people had cleared out me going

up to the ring trying to figure out how the hell they did that.

Fans always think they know the finish and they know this and they know that

blah, blah, blah. There's not a person in that building that knew the ring was

going to have a hole in it.

It was one hell of a great moment that has been copied by others.

Having your son tell you he doesn't love you, but he loves another man, that he

wants that other man to be his father. You know, at that young age, it's like,

oh. I mean, this has nothing to do with wrestling. It's that we're talking life.

You don't mess with a man's family.

No one expected it.

No one expected a little kid to be in a ring doing an angle. You just don't see

it coming. And then when you see it, you can't believe it.

It tugged at any...

person who was going through a divorce or, you know, when they get split time

with their son and Sandman played it to the key.

Here's Raven taking away the Sandman's wife. And now he's in the Sandman's

head and he's turning his whole family against him. People can relate to that.

It actually goes on in real life.

Everybody knows a couple where one parent uses the child as a weapon in the

divorce, which is the meanest, filthiest, lowest, most despicable thing

possibly do.

And so for Raven to do that and not even bat an eye, what a dick.

The bond between a father and a son can never be broken.

Until now.

And then how sympathetic does it make the Sandman? You know, he lost his wife,

but now he loses his kid, and they're ransoming the kid's love.

Ah, it's just, it's epic.

It got you. Like, it was such a great angle, but so, like, taboo.

Now I know what a father's really supposed to be like.

That's the kind of intriguing storytelling we would do in ECW, the

-life stories, very mature.

very adult -oriented type of stories.

And if you don't tell a compelling, interesting story, the people aren't

to be intrigued, you know? And we just told as compelling and interesting a

story as you could possibly want.

And storyline for storyline, me and Sandman, I'll put that against any

in the history of the business. I mean, it was that good.

Sandman, I've waited two years to get you like this.

Gotcha.

It's the very first pay -per -view from ECW.

Barely legal.

Taking my personal life out of the equation.

Getting married. Becoming a father.

ECW Barely Legal was the greatest day of my life.

Barely Legal was the first ever live ECW pay -per -view, which was a nerve

-wracking thing.

I was in the main event, Sabu and I, and neither of us had any experience

wrestling on a live pay -per -view at that time.

Nevertheless, main event where you got to kind of finish on time.

Paul

Heyman

had a lot of pressure on him.

This was a pay -per -view that if we would have flopped, ECW would have been

done. All the hard work, everything, all the blood, sweat, and tears that we put

in to leading up to that pay -per -view would have been gone.

We would have been that small little indie company that tried to make it in

big time and failed.

Tonight in the three -way dance, three men in the same ring at the same time,

the winner gets a shot at Raven and the gold.

The co -main event, it was Sabu and Taz, and it was whoever wins the match

versus me for the title.

Funk was getting ready for his 15th retirement.

And now he's got to face the press.

World heavyweight champion, Raven.

Well, Terry Funk insists on continuing.

We expect nothing less. Joey, he's busted bad.

The championship on Terry Funk that night was the absolute right way to end

pay -per -view, but also to really embrace someone who was there for quite

while before ECW started getting popular. He was there when there was 100

in the crowd and the company ran once every two months. Terry Funk was a

Everybody clapping, happy.

I think it's the only time in my life I've cried tears of relief and

And it was just... So emotional for me. I will never, ever forget Fairly Legal.

The only

time

I actually got queasy calling a match with all the violent and crazy stuff I

called in ECW.

was barbed wire match, born to be wired, Terry Funk versus Sabu.

That kind of match in America at that time was pretty unheard of.

Terry Funk at that time was 65,

and he's in there with barbed wire with Sabu, who's the most crazy lunatic

you've ever met.

I had probably been in ECW a couple months at that point, and I was in there

going, what the hell am I doing for a living?

Sabu whipped into the ball! It was like two guys fighting in Roman days and

barely alive.

Sabu goes from one side of the ring to the other, and Terry moves.

He lands in the barbed wire. His flesh from his arm pulled like six inches.

There's veins, there's tendons sticking out of his arm.

Sabu just taped up this massive dash in his bicep.

And he just wrestling taped it and taped it shut, finished the match.

That's a MacGyver survivalist thing to do. He didn't even think about it. He's

going to try to tape that dash closed?

And then at the end of it, they were just so entwined, they couldn't move.

They are completely intertwined in barbed wire. We called a pinfall, but

nobody's shoulders were really on the mat.

We have a new ECW heavyweight champion of the world!

They sent all of the ring crew guys down there, and we all had wire cutters.

And we're trying to just release.

Emergency medical technicians in the ring trying to cut these two apart.

It was work getting them untangled from each other because those barbs on the

wire, they hold into each other. It was in both of their hairs and all their

clothes and skin and everything.

That was the most disturbing thing I've ever seen and I've ever caught.

Both of those guys have scars and injuries that they're never, ever going

recuperate from.

The fans loved it.

It's a moment in history

We're going to find out just how extreme ECW can be.

WWE needed help against WCW.

I

guess

Vince figured, you know, this promotion out of Philadelphia, ECW has some buzz.

Why not let them on our show? If anything, it'll draw eyeballs to the

Can't hurt anything.

Well, this promises to be a little bit different, ladies and gentlemen. We

know what's going to happen here.

That was a big deal for us, the invasion back in 1997.

You just

knew how good it would be for the company.

I remember at the end of the night, we all left, and we all lined up, and we

to pass by Vince, and Paul introduced each and every one of us to Vince.

It was a very cool night.

I've never been ashamed of being a professional wrestler, but right now,

look at this crap in the ring, and when I look at an idiot like you sitting

right there, I'm like, shut up! Shut up!

When I look at you, and when I look at this crap, at the UCW system for

extremely crappy wrestling, I'm ashamed!

I finally beat Raven after three years.

Ship him out. My biggest celebration. Lights go off. Here comes Jerry Lawler.

When Jerry Lawler came to the locker room, I honestly thought that he really

hate ECW. And probably deep down inside, he probably did and thought it was

crappy wrestling.

So this is it, huh?

This is a big time ECW, huh?

When you talk about heat, I've never experienced a more hostile crowd.

They wanted to kill him.

Vince was giving us a shot to be on national TV to help get ECW over. You go

down to a bingo hall once a month in Philadelphia, and you put on your little

charades, and you beat each other into oblivion.

Shut the hell up! You don't hate ECW.

We're hardcore and damn proud of it.

Jerry the King Long is going to get an extreme boot of his royal can.

In primetime, Brian Lee and Tommy Dreamer will be settled on a swinging

over a ring filled with tables.

It was a culmination of the feud with him and Tommy Dreamer where they were

falling off of stuff.

Tommy was coming off balconies, through tables.

I was afraid of heights. I'm a crazy person.

How do you cure a fear? You book yourself in a scaffold.

Pinballs do not count.

No submission.

No count out.

knockout and no DQ.

The object is to knock your guy off of the scaffold and have them crest and

through all the tables in the room.

Primetime watch streamer up on the scaffolding. That wasn't a real

We had the Sandman basically put a platform up on four chains and tied it

top of the building.

He also made love on the scaffold the night before, which he told me

was kind of gross.

He didn't really stabilize it, and it was held by chains.

This thing was swinging back and forth.

That scaffolding doesn't look too sturdy. Both men might go crashing

table. We went over that side. We were falling on the fan.

We go this side. We had to try to do it right.

My favorite part of that whole match, you will see Brian grab something like

this. That was the electricity to the building.

So that match could have ended in a double electrocution.

And Tommy giving it everything he's got.

you know, 6 '6", 300 -pound guy falling from the top of the ceiling through all

of these tables.

It was pretty awesome. You think about it, you're on top of that scaffold and

you fall through all those tables, but as you're falling through them, those

other tables that you have fell through are now starting to come down. It's like

a building.

Brian Lee was knocked out legitimately.

He was absolutely out cold and had to be brought to.

Meanwhile, Tommy's crazy behind it, sitting up there screaming ECW.

And that's when I really had to look back and go, do I really want to be

It was absolutely brutal.

Tommy Dreamer was a young, good -looking, promising young baby face who

had to look a certain way.

I mean, with the pompadour hair, he was all glistened up with baby oil.

Well, on ECW, that wasn't going to work. They couldn't get over my appearance.

I was a good -looking dude.

Tommy was supposed to be a good guy, and the hardcore fans in Philly hated Tommy

for it.

The Singapore King continues to reign!

It's Ugly Head here in Eastern Championship Wrestling.

We were calling the kendo stick of Singapore Kane because at the time in

news, there was a young man who I believe in Singapore who was going to be

So Paul, being the genius that he is, decided to have the first ever loser

Kane match.

And me being the idiot that I am, I volunteered for it. I'm going to light

butt up like a Christmas tree, dreamer. The loser of this match.

Between the Sandman and Tommy Dreamer will receive ten shots with the

Cane. Oh, my!

Did you hear that shot?

DDT! The Sandman spiked Dreamer one, two, and three! Oh, my!

The idea was that at any moment, Tommy could simply say, I've had enough,

and kiss woman's feet, and ask for mercy, and he would get it.

All you have to do is get down on your knees and kick my feet.

It wasn't a

gimmicked cane. This was a real cane.

Oh, I don't want to watch this.

I can't look.

First hit, they cheered. The second hit, they cheered. The third hit, they're

like, oh, wait, he's bleeding.

Instant welts.

Look at the welts on Dreamer's back.

Oh, God, look at the pain etched in his face.

By the fifth one, they're like, just stay down, dude. And they kept on

up. Six, there's people crying. There's people turning their heads.

And the Sandman kept hitting Tommy harder and harder and harder.

The audience felt Tommy's pain to the point where they were almost begging him

to stop.

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

Tommy, what are you thinking?

And it was graphic, you know, it was violent. And that was a huge moment

people, the audience and fans just really, and the wrestlers just ended up

getting like a gigantic amount of respect for Tommy Dreamer.

That was the night that Tommy Dreamer went from being a pretty boy to being

hardcore.

Before that match, he was not appreciated.

He was not liked.

After that match, he was appreciated and he was loved.

They were the most meaningful shots I think I'd ever seen in a wrestling

The most extreme team in wrestling today, the Public Enemy!

That was the first act that Paul created, and it felt silly.

They were very entertaining, and deep down, they were beloved.

Every time the Public Enemy came out and danced and threw their hands in the air

and waved them back and forth, the fans started doing it with them. So I guess

the next natural progression was to invite some fans to the ring.

This was the ECW faithful's way of celebrating with them.

Public enemy inviting their fans in the ring for a victory house party.

The Junkyard Dog for years had kids come in the ring and dance to them. So I

guess we figured what could go wrong.

The stands emptying into the ring.

I don't know whether that ring had been scientifically tested. I don't know what

its breaking point was.

On that particular night, we exceeded it.

It's a celebration for Flyboy Rocko Rock and Johnny Grunt.

And a ring is not meant to support that many thousands of pounds. Certainly not

our ring.

The ring shifted a little bit, and then boom.

Oh, my God.

They broke the ring.

A ring is very heavy, and it's made up of steel ring posts, and it's made up of

wood, and there are steel beams inside of it, and somebody could have been very

hurt. When that ring collapsed, that was definitely a scary moment, but funny

and entertaining.

I'm like, what if somebody gets hurt? We're in trouble!

I thought we were going to be in a whole world of trouble.

Someone's going to blow a knee out, a fan, and sue everybody. I'm out of a

I always repent.

All that screams up is lawsuits, but I don't think we got hit with one for

I think the fans actually enjoyed falling in the ring with the public

Retigious society.

You know, people are, first thing they do is call their lawyer. But in the ECW,

we made history. Like, people just recover their bumps and bruises and then

proudly show them off to their friends. We were part of that. We were part of

that. Oh, I've seen it all now!

It's like a testament to what ECW was, too. It's just like, whatever.

Let's have everybody come in the ring and just party together.

It's one big party all the time.

This is ECW at its best.

Our greatest audience participation moment would be all the fans jumping in

ring to celebrate with Public Enemy.

Mike Awesome showed up on an app just like he did Monday night on Nitro. But

Taz, of all people, Taz is here to stand up for ECW, to

face the ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mike Awesome, who sold his soul

to WCW.

Probably one of the, not just the crazy, wild, insane moment in ECW, but in my

personal career, my personal life, was when I fought Mike Awesome for the

ECW championship.

Mike was a really cool guy, but he got an offer to go to WCW.

That was a

time

where financially,

You know, paychecks weren't always on time. Checks had bounced. There was

financial tension. Where is the future of the company going?

And I believe he was offered a $100 ,000 bonus to

walk out of ECW, and the plan was that he was going to show up on WCW and throw

the championship down.

They had federal marshals go to Nitro and stop that act from

happening because it was...

possession of ECW. I mean, it was a heavy, heavy deal.

My flip phone rang, and it was Bruce Pritchett, who was a front office guy in

the WWE.

He said, well, you could help, and Vince thinks you're the perfect guy, and so

does Paul.

Paul, we need a favor. I go, no, here you are. I just signed this big contract

with the WWE.

I'm in the company a couple months. What am I going to say? No, I'm not doing a

favor. You know, I mean, really. At the time, what none of us knew was that

Vince McMahon had invested $500 ,000 into ECW,

had a vested interest in seeing it survive.

So Paul called in a favor and asked for tax.

I fly to Indy. Me and Tommy get together this morning. We got to go to this

hotel. I go, bro, the show's about to start in 10 minutes. I go, where's Mike

Lawson?

Paul didn't want him in the locker room. We had to meet him in a hotel.

We walked into this room, and there's Mike Lawson with some other guy in a

and then there's this other guy in a suit that I recognized, and it was the

Doug Dillinger, who was the head of security for WCW. I'm like, oh, I see

up. We had armed people there because they thought we were probably going to

to kill Mike.

We sit down. I looked at Mike. He looked at me. He shook hands. I said, how you

doing? I go, how you doing?

He goes.

He goes, listen, bro, I don't want to be here right now.

I said, neither do I.

Mike Awesome and WCW agreed that he would lose the championship.

It was pretty cool to have Taz come back after what he'd done for the company

and gone away to come back on a surprise basis, take the title and kind of make

things right. It was good.

The match was simple.

All leading up to that and having federal marshals and the way it worked

again, that ECW magic.

He left the way he came in. He went over the guardrail, and he went out the door

with WCW security, and he got dressed back at the hotel, and that was the end

Mike Awesome in ECW.

We've got a new ECW World Heavyweight Champion, and it's Ted!

A WCW -contracted wrestler lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship

to a WWE -contracted wrestler in an ECW ring.

Crazy. I knew it then it was crazy.

It

was

beyond chaos.

It was just so unsettling.

People got up and walked out.

The only time I think ECW crossed the line.

Raven crucifying the Sandman was a night I won't forget because it's probably

the only night in ECW history where we ever had to apologize for what we did.

I thought, what can I do to really make a statement?

I thought, man, what if I crucify him? But I feel your pain, and I feast on it.

Raven's always saying, feel my pain.

that I'm a martyr for society's dysfunction.

Well, I wanted Sandman to feel my pain, so I'm going to crucify him and make him

a martyr for society's dysfunction.

Oh, we have been waiting to see this.

It's Raven!

It's Raven!

Oh, my God.

Sandman was a carpenter, so he actually built that crucifix.

All of a sudden, I remember...

They picked up the cross with Sandman on it, and this feeling

that I got, my body heated up.

What in God's name are they doing? It was like, this is so wrong.

This is so wrong.

There's dead, silent anger from what I believe was a predominantly Catholic

audience. in blue -collar South Philadelphia.

There was a groan in the ECW arena. The people were just like, that was just

a little nudge.

It made me mad, very mad.

We had a guest backstage, and that person was Kurt Angle. And Kurt Angle

nuts.

Here he is, first ECW show, and you think about getting involved, and there

are, crucifying a human being in front of a practicing Catholic.

Oh, my God.

Go ECW. He said, I don't ever want to see you people again. I'm leaving.

So Paul immediately goes to the back, and Raven comes back out and apologizes.

hope you show Raven's apology, because it is the least.

heartfelt apology ever. It's like, eh, I did it. Sorry. Bye. And apparently I've

offended quite a few people in the audience.

And so for the people who I deeply offended, I apologize.

Kurt Angle wouldn't have been there and nobody would have said a thing. And I

wouldn't have had to go out and apologize later.

And the most insincere, sincere apology ever. That's probably the only time we

really offended people to a level which I had never seen.

Hell of a visual to see the Sandman crucified on that cross, though.

The NWA was on its last leg, and they're having this big tournament to announce

the new NWA champion.

This title was at one time the richest prize in all of professional wrestling.

It is now being resurrected here.

Shane Douglas has captured the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight

Championship!

Shane Douglas had signed contracts to become the NWA champion and go defend

title all over the country and all over the world.

Thank you.

This is it tonight, Daddy.

God, that's beautiful.

And Rick Steamboat.

And they can all kiss my ass.

What in the hell is he doing?

And when he threw it down, it was like, whoa.

I didn't know that was going to happen. I don't think most of us backstage knew

that was going to happen.

And when he threw down that title and picked up the Eastern Championship

Wrestling title.

The new ECW Heavyweight Champion of the

World!

I was shocked.

It was a genuine, oh my God, moment.

I want to say my favorite part of that is you can see the NWA president in the

corner, and he's literally biting his nails as it's going down because he's

witnessing this happening.

They screwed him over. The representatives from NWA had no idea

to happen.

We have set out to change the face of professional wrestling!

It was...

It was beyond groundbreaking. It created a lot of buzz. The group of people who

came to support us became even more dedicated because of that act of

That put us on the map of, oof, we're different.

So tonight, let the new era begin.

The era of the ECW.

The course of professional wrestling history has been altered permanently.

You talk about ECW called, you know, hardcore wrestling, blood, guts. That

such soap opera stuff.

And the fact that the fans bit into it was, oof, it was cool.

At that time, you know, two hot chicks kissing was, you know, was a big deal.

And they went for it, too. Like, it wasn't just a, it was like a makeout

session.

I'm a 23 -year -old kid, two hot women in the middle of the ring.

I'm just as intrigued as probably everybody in that ECW arena.

What do you have to say, Dreamer?

I'll take them both. I'm hardcore.

As far as I was concerned, Dreamer was my hero from that point on.

Boy, at the time...

It was unheard of, and it was not met with a warm response by the television

stations we were on.

Girl on Girl Kissings was deemed too extreme for television.

We didn't even actually show the kiss. The kiss happened in the arena.

We actually stopped the video and froze before Beulah and Kimona

kissed and just let the audio run.

And that was still so shocking.

that we got thrown off most of the television stations that we were on.

ECW was the precursor to the Attitude Era, no doubt about it, and the fact

they just did so many things that you've never seen before.

ECW always put the envelope.

They did things that other wrestling companies would not do.

That's what made ECW so different.

That was just another one of those moments that kind of set us apart from

everybody else.

Everything leading up to the payoff was just tremendous, mind -bogglingly

tremendous.

Oh, my God!

We encouraged audience participation, and we may have encouraged it a little

much. Terry Funk versus Captain Jack for the first time in history. This one

ought to be a clash.

Terry and I were in our first singles match in ECW, which was a pretty big

The fans here in the ECW arena are being treated to what is truly a great night

of wrestling.

It ended by disqualification when the public enemy hit the ring.

The public enemy is assaulting Terry Funk.

I vividly remember Terry saying to me, ask them for a chair.

And I said to the audience, give me a chair.

I'm not exaggerating when I say it was raining chairs.

I remember seeing it backstage. I'm like, oh boy, this is not good.

You hear the announcer screaming, please stop throwing chairs into the rain.

Please do not throw chairs into the rain.

The funker asks for a chair and he gets cold cocked and he just goes and falls

down.

Terry dropped before I did. I think I gave the bang -bang, and then I got hit,

and then I was gone, and then it was just the public enemy alone with 300

chairs. It's one of the most iconic moments in ECW history, and it's one of

most dangerous things I've ever seen.

It kind of was a representation of what ECW was.

Fan interaction, insanity.

Unpredictability. All these adjectives fit it. It was a spectacle like nothing

had ever seen before.

It's a moment that will never be replicated.

Nor should it be.

I'd

like

to take this moment to thank you for watching ECW.

... ... ...