The Rise & Fall of ECW (34 page)

“I was in Club ECW, a special fans list. If you buy tickets in advance for the next four shows, you could get in early through a special entrance. I think they did that in 1998. The shows would start at eight at night. We used to get there at two in the afternoon, and there would already be two hundred people lined up waiting. One time we got in line early, this fat guy, about 300 pounds, takes his shirt off and starts charging people $1 to go up to him and give him a little Ric Flair chop. If somebody did that at a WWE event, one or two might take him up on it and the rest of the people would back off. Well, this guy must have had fifty people waiting in line to take a chop at him. His chest was beat raw by the time they were done. And it was about 20 degrees outside that day.

“The same people would always be at the shows. There was this one guy we used to call Team Tazz Guy, because he always wore a Tazz shirt. He would show up before the show, and this guy was about 6 feet and maybe 140 pounds, and he would stomp around in the parking lot like he was going to beat somebody up before every show. He was the most animated fan I had ever seen. As soon as we would get there, we would see where this guy was sitting and just watch him for a while, because he was so funny.”

Paul Carboni: “I was a diehard wrestling fan growing up. One time I caught ECW on SportsChannel Philadelphia, and went to my first show in December 1994. I think it was the debut of Stevie Richards. He fought JT Smith. Shane Douglas had declared himself ECW World Champion three months earlier. He had started the campaign against Ric Flair. I remember 911 chokeslammed two Japanese guys, dressed in all white with white hats. That was an ECW promo intro video for years. It was at a high school gymnasium. Tazz was doing his Tazmaniac gimmick. And Jason, the sexiest man alive, he was managing the Pitbulls at the time. That was my first ECW live show.

“I remember the television program was so edgy. They did a thing where Shane Douglas piledrove Sensational Sherry, and the pop that he got. He was doing the ‘it is cool to be a heel’ gimmick two years before Steve Austin was doing it mainstream. Shane Douglas, one time, in the television program, did more or less an hour-long history of wrestling, and he downplayed all of them, Bruno Sammartino, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan. This was a guy who was just carving his own niche in the industry. It was incredible. It was this long rant, but it was coherent and made a lot of sense, on how the industry was about to change, and he was totally right. I was captivated by the athleticism of Benoit, Jericho, Guerrero, all the international talent they brought in. That made me think this was the next big thing. When you are a 14-year-old kid, and they are bleeping words out, something you wouldn’t hear on WCW or WWE, it had such a profound effect.

“I was at the ECW Arena in February 1996 for
Cyberslam.
I was going to get a slice of pizza, and the lights went out. When they came back on, Brian Pillman was standing in the ring. He cut a really wicked promo. He was doing this gimmick where he was the loose cannon, and you were supposed to believe that he was still under contract to WCW—it was called a work shoot, where it was fake, but you were led to believe it was real. He was chased from the arena by Shane Douglas. Later on that night, when the show was over, I saw Pillman in the parking lot, and I was egging him on. I was a 15-year-old fan, and he came after me, and he scared the shit out of me. He probably wouldn’t have done anything.

“In August 1999, the Dudley Boyz has just signed their contract with the WWE. This was their last show. The fans had a real bad reputation for being hard on the wrestlers that were leaving, and this was at the point where the Dudleyz had an edgy gimmick where they were egging the fans on. They would curse at you and get really bad. The fans started throwing things at them. We were ducking down because bottles and cans were flying, and my buddy poked his head up to see what was happening, because it was mayhem, and Bubba Ray Dudley had a bottle of blue Powerade, and threw it back in the crowd. Just as my friend poked his head up, he was hit in the forehead by the bottle of Powerade, and fell off the bleachers. Things like that, the crowd interaction, was surreal.

“Everyone knows the code of the business, that the wrestler can’t touch a fan and vice versa. The Dudleyz would come out month after month after month, and say the most vulgar, terrible things into the microphone. They would pick out one or two people from the crowd, and you literally thought they were going to hop the guardrail and take a swing at the fans. As smart as we all were, they made you suspend your disbelief because they were so good at inciting the crowd.

“Terry Funk and Shane Douglas were fighting in a sixty-minute Iron Man match once at the arena. It was the main event. It was fifty minutes into a sixty-minute match. There hadn’t been any pinfalls yet. The place was going nuts, and everybody was on their feet. A guy brought his girlfriend to the show, and she just drops. She faints from the heat. Another person looked over at the guy and said, ‘Yo, man, your girlfriend just fell over. I think you better take care of her.’ The guy looked at his girlfriend on the ground, lying in a heap, and said, ‘Fuck her, this is Shane Douglas and Terry Funk. She’ll be all right. Give her ten minutes.’ And he watched the rest of his match and didn’t help his girlfriend.”

Security guard Joe Wilchak: “Before the show, we would see the people in line. Coming into the show, we would check them out, their bags, and check for weapons. We even took the tickets half the time. We got to know people and would talk to them. They get to know who you are. There were times when we had to get pretty physical, and we developed a reputation that you don’t mess with the guys with the black suits [Atlas Security].

“It would always amaze me sometimes when we would have problems with people in one show, and we would come back to that area again, and the same guys would say to us, ‘Yeah, you whipped my ass the last time you were here.’ It was great. They thought it made them part of the show. Even if it got a little rough, people didn’t think they were getting beat up. They thought it was part of the show.

“The worst fans encounter was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at the Farm Show Arena. The promoter there had wooden folding chairs. They used to sometimes have different guys help them do the promotions in different areas. On this night, the Dudleyz got everyone riled up, like they always did, and this was a time when everyone was throwing things into the ring—it was acceptable at the time. Well, the wooden chairs started flying. That was really dangerous. People were getting hit with chairs. You just get in the middle, try to see where the main problem is, and break that up, and the rest kind of dissipates on its own. A year later I was at a mall in Harrisburg. That same promoter had an autograph signing with Edge. A kid came up to me and talked to me for about forty minutes. He was waiting in line for an autograph. Finally, he said, ‘Can I shake your hand?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I shook the guy’s hand. And he said, ‘I had to shake your hand. You really kicked my ass at the Farm Show Arena last year. Remember with the chairs? You whipped the shit out of me. It was great.’ That was a typical reaction. I’m sure in their minds it was bigger than it really was, because usually you are just grabbing guys and dragging them out. For some reason, it is some great triumph for them.

“The Dudleyz were the ones who got the crowd riled up the most. Bubba could really incite people when he got on the microphone. They were pretty wild, and they would laugh, and they just liked to see if they could get the crowd going. We had a good relationship with everyone. They would play with us like they did with each other, with the practical jokes and things.

“The worst was in Columbia, South Carolina. It was a building with a stage, and there was grandstand seating. It wasn’t very big. The people would get riled up and come down out of the bleachers and up to the rail, trying to push the rail back to get at them, and we used to have to hold them back. And D-Von would be in the ring laughing. But that is what our jobs were.

“The crowds, for the most part, knew how much they could be involved and what they could do. They had their part in the show. The theatrics the fans would do were as much a part of the show as anything. They knew how far they could push it without going over the line and have something happen, except when large amounts of alcohol were involved. But even then, it was a lot of fun.

“Once I hyperextended my elbow. Spike Dudley was getting thrown out of the ring and into the crowd. We were supposed to be in the area to make sure nothing happened. I reached over the rail as Spike came down into the crowd and he landed on my elbow, and I hyperextended it. But that was a dumb move by me. I didn’t know Spike would be doing stuff like that for the next five years. He knew what he was doing. I didn’t.

“The Dudleyz came in for the main event, and I am trying to hold the crowd off with one arm. Then Big Dick Dudley got arrested. I think someone threw something in the ring and hit one of them, and Big Dick caught the guy in the door as he was going out, and Big Dick wound up getting arrested. It was at the Sportsplex in Staten Island.”

ECW fans had their own familiar chants they would use for certain situations or specific wrestlers. Here are the ones most often heard:

“E-C-W”—when fans felt an extreme or hardcore move was used that warranted recognition.

“Oh my God”—a tribute to announcer Joey Styles’s signature call during a big moment in a bout.

“Sit the fuck down”—used when fans would be standing up when the rest of the crowd would be sitting down.

“Shut the fuck up”—chanted when a heel wrestler talked too much against a babyface wrestler or against ECW during a promo or shoot interview.

“Sweep it up, asshole, sweep it up”—chanted when someone swept up debris from the ring.

“This match rules” or “This is awesome”—yelled when fans are really entertained by a match.

“Philly sucks”—New York fans would shout this against Philadelphia fans in their competition as to who was more hardcore.

“Fuck New York”—the Philadelphia fans’ defense against the attacks by New York fans in their feud over which group was more hardcore.

“This is brutal”—yelled when there were a lot of weapons used and blood spilled in a match.

“Holy shit”—fans would chant this when a wrestler used a move that could have seriously hurt them.

“The Whole Fucking Show”—a tribute to and nickname for Rob Van Dam.

“Tazz is gonna kill you”—the chant for opponents of Tazz.

“What’s your name?”—fans would yell this at Bubba Ray Dudley, who supposedly suffered from a stuttering problem.

“She’s a crack whore”—yelled at female valets.

“You fucked up”—chanted when a wrestler messed up a move and the fans recognized it.

“You sold out”—used to rip ECW wrestlers who were leaving the company.

“He/She’s hardcore”—praise for a performer after a particularly violent act.

Al Snow: “Paul E. was a masterful manager of human relations. He would have his speeches before every show. You just felt like you were part of something. That is what the manager of a company is supposed to do, make you feel that it is as important to you as the company is to him. We all knew that a lot of the time Paul E. was lying, but we felt so good about it and how he made us feel about it. I never got totally swept up in the Kool-Aid speeches, but I would marvel at how good he was at getting everyone involved and swept up in it.”

Bubba Ray Dudley: “Paul E. to me was the David Koresh of pro wrestling. He could talk his way into making you believe that great things were going to happen, and great things did happen. But Paul E. always made the grass seem greener. He brainwashed a lot of guys, but as a boss and as a businessman, he did what he had to do in order to get his wrestlers to perform on a certain level and carry out his story.”

Pee Wee Moore: “I referreed at ECW for eight years, and saw everybody come and go. The thing that ECW did was they played to a hardcore audience, and they responded. WWE and WCW was all corporate. But ECW played to a different audience. ECW and Paul E. gave the fans exactly what they wanted. He knew exactly what they wanted to see, and that is why even when he lost wrestlers, he could still give the fans what they wanted. He was very good at what he did. I learned more from him than anybody. I used to watch him. He knew just what he wanted his people to do and what they had to do. I don’t think any wrestling booker maybe in the history of wrestling knew the crowd better than Paul E.”

D-Von Dudley: “Paul E. is a genius. A mastermind. A terrible businessman, but a genius and a mastermind in running a wrestling organization. If you could take ECW back then, when it was at its peak, and just give the creative part to Paul E., and give the financial part of it to WWE, the ECW would still be around. It was too much for one man to handle. It is the old Steve Austin saying, ‘Don’t trust anybody.’ It’s always been that way in this business. When you are running a company that was rising the way ECW was, it was hard to trust anybody with getting things done, getting things out. Paul E. had that attitude, that he wanted to do it on his own. It was a small company when Paul first took it over, and he was able to do it all. But as it started to grow, at that point he should have trusted other people to take some of the load off him. I think it burnt him out. Then came the bounced checks. But, a man took a no-name company and made it the third largest company in the business, and you can’t put him down. If it wasn’t for ECW and Paul Heyman, WWE attitude probably would not have existed.”