In being the most willful of con-man schemes (pro wrestling basically involves cheering wildly and being actively engaged in a "competitive" match with a predetermined finish), pro wrestling is nothing short of being one of the world's biggest lies. As a promoter of pro wrestling, the need to base the lie in truth (while oftentimes still telling a lie) is important. For the purposes of Paul Heyman's hyper-realized Extreme Championship Wrestling, the need to lie was based in the idea that the action in the promotion oftentimes appeared so "real" that the ability to slip in a lie every so often was much easier to do there than in any other promotion in history. Guys were really bleeding, women were really naked, bones were really broken, and yes, that absolutely was barbed wire. But, with a promotion so often based in truth, there existed numerous times wherein Paul Heyman absolutely lied, ultimately because one lie wrapped inside of nine truths equals ten ideas that are all equally believable. In a situation as unique as what existed in ECW, shamelessly lying to the fanbase added to the promotion's mystique, and ultimately allowed ECW to separate itself further from WWF and WCW, companies still stuck presenting pro-wrestling as either "lock-up and arm drag" battles or cartoonish buffoonery. Here are ten of (the many) times ECW purposefully lied to the fans.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
