10 ECW Stars Who Died Too Young
Balls Mahoney is just the latest in a long line of tragic ECW deaths...
This week, the wrestling world lost another one when Jonathan 'Balls Mahoney' Rechner passed aware of as yet unidentified causes just a day after his 44th birthday.
When I read the news, I have to say that I wasn't surprised. Although wrestlers dying at a young age is, thankfully, becoming a less frequent occurrence than it once was, it's still not exactly a shock when a performer from a bygone era passes away before they hit middle age.
It's even less surprising when that performer used to wrestle for Extreme Championship Wrestling. ECW was the cultish alternative for wrestling fans who wanted something different than the more polished WWF and WCW between 1994 and 2001.
It was grimy, felt more authentic and, true to its name, was more 'extreme' than the so-called 'big two'. In ECW, the wrestlers took more risks and put their bodies through a great deal in order to entertain their rabid fan base. Many times this resulted in the performers using - and sometimes abusing - drugs in order to mask the pain.
Balls Mahoney worked an incredibly hard-hitting style and frequently took full-on unprotected chair shots to the head as part of his act. He was also a noted drug user and his appearance in recent years had led many to believe he was struggling with a serious addiction.
His is a story not unlike many former ECW stars who died far too young.
Note: this list will not include the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Mike 'Crash Holly' Lockwood and Chris Benoit who, whilst they did wrestle for ECW, did not have lengthy tenures in the company. Although it is interesting that their deaths were early and attributed in some way to substance abuse.