Paul Heyman’s ECW was formed in 1992 and proceeded to revolutionise pro wrestling over the next few years until its untimely demise and purchase by WWE in 2001. ECW was not only the forefather to WWE’s hardcore division but ECW inspired the entire Attitude Era and left its own imprint on the Monday Night Wars.
Although ECW is most famous for its brutal and hardcore style, which was later adopted by WWE and WCW’s hardcore divisions, ECW also had a place for pure technical wrestling whether it be Lucha Libre or Puroseu. Heyman brought future legends like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Rey Mysterio amongst other and gave them a chance to showcase their skills which later got them hired by WCW and eventually WWE.
However, in this article, we’re putting the technical side of ECW aside and focusing on the craziness and mayhem that it’s so well known for as we take a look at the 5 most balls out crazy moments in ECW history.
5: Terry Funk uses a flaming branding iron on Mick Foley
Terry Funk and Mick Foley were already known for their infamous death matches when they faced off on an episode of ECW in 1995 teaming up with Sandman and Shane Douglas respectively. The match itself was brutal with everything from chairs, Singapore canes and even a toolbox full of tools getting used as a weapon.
At one point Funk and Sandman even took one of the steel guardrails at ringside and took it inside the ring, smashing it against Shane Douglas’ back before Irish Whipping him into it for good measure. However, that wasn’t even the most hardcore moment of the match. That came when Funk disappeared backstage before coming back to the ring with a flaming branding iron.
Funk then proceeded to blow fire into Foley’s face from just yards away before outright branding him in the chest with the flaming iron. If that wasn’t enough, Funk then delivered a piledriver to Foley right on top of the flaming iron before pinning him – a holy sh*t moment if there ever was one.
4: Terry Funk and Sabu’s barbed wire match
A wrestling match without ropes? Yes, ECW did that – they decided to replace the ropes around the ring with barbed wire as Terry Funk took on Sabu with disastrous results.
Funk and Sabu met at Born To Be Wired 1997 with the 53-year old Funk defending his ECW Championship against Sabu inside a deadly variation of a wrestling ring with the ropes replaced by barbed wire. The results were brutal with both wrestlers coming close to having their careers ended that night as the unforgivable wire tore through human flesh.
The most gruesome moment of the night came when Sabu had one of his biceps torn open by the barbed wire and ended up taping it back together with duct tape to finish the match. The end of the match saw both wrestlers tangled in a heap of barbed wires, requiring bolt cutters to cut them free with Funk coming especially close to getting blinded.
3: Shane Douglas snaps
Shane Douglas was ‘The Franchise’ of ECW. He was one of the most important wrestlers in the promotion’s history and many believe that the fledgeling promotion would have never taken off without him.
In mid-1996, Douglas severely injured a wrestler called Pitbull #1 with a botched finishing move which snapped his opponent's neck. Later that year in October, Douglas faced Pitbull #1’s tag-team partner Pitbull #2 in a one-on-one match with PB1 at ringside, his neck carefully held together in a metal harness.
Halfway into the match with Shane Douglas gaining control, PB1 threw in the towel on behalf of his partner, possibly with his own horrific injury fresh in his mind which incensed ‘The Franchise’.
Douglas turned his attentions to Pitbull #1, grabbing his metal neck harness and throwing him to the ground. Shane Douglas’ despicable actions towards a man with a broken neck inflamed the crowd and almost caused a riot causing Douglas to need protection to get to his car after the show was over.
2: Mass Transit
One of the most infamous moments in ECW history is the Mass Transit incident which took place at an ECW house show in 1996. ECW legend Axl Rotten had failed to show up on the night and his spot was taken by young wrestler called Mass Transit who lied about his age (stating that he was 19 when he was actually 17) and his experience (he claimed to have been trained by Killer Kowalski but since this was ECW no one bothered to double check) to get on the show.
Mass Transit teamed up with D-Von Dudley to face The Gangstas – one of the ‘Gangstas’ being New Jack. If you aren’t familiar with New Jack let’s just say that he’s one of the most insane and despicable human beings to ever enter the squared circle.
Mass Transit had never bladed before so he made the mistake of asking New Jack to do it for him during the match. New Jack proceeded to beat the youngster with a crutch and toaster, amongst other things, before cutting him in the forehead. However, the blade job had cut too deep and blood poured out of the youngster like a broken tap.
The kid needed immediate medical attention and received 50 stitches to repair the damage. He later sued ECW and New Jack for damages but since he’d ask New Jack to blade him, the case was dismissed.
1: Raven crucifies the Sandman
The single most insane moment in ECW history has to be the Crucifixion angle between Raven and the Sandman in 1996.
The storyline itself begun with Sandman’s wife and son defecting to Raven after the latter won the ECW Championship. Raven got Sandman’s son forsake his father and follow in the footsteps of Raven as he unleashed a barrel of psychological abuse on the Sandman.
During the midst of this heated feud, Sandman and his son eventually made their way back to each other after Tyler (Sandman’s son) helped his father out during a match. However, this feel-good moment didn’t last long as Raven showed up with his Flock and smashed a Singapore Cane into Sandman’s head.
Following this, Flock members Blue Meanie and Steven Richards fastened Sandman to a wooden cross and carried him out of the arena. The fans, most of whom were Catholics, didn’t take to this kindly which led to Raven coming back out and issuing a half-hearted apology for offending their religious sentiments.
Interesting fact #1: Kurt Angle was in the audience that night and considering wrestling a couple of matches by ECW but he was so offended by this incident that he left the building immediately and told Paul Heyman to never call him back.
Interesting fact #2: The Sandman, who was a trained carpenter, had built the wooden cross himself with his own bare hands.
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