10 Greatest Things About ECW’s Final Year

6. Cyrus The Virus

ECW Paul E Dangerously Paul Heyman
WWE.com

While he may have impressed with his commentary work for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and IMPACT Wrestling - with him also spending time serving as an EVP for the Anthem promotion - it's his on-screen alliance with Kenny Omega in recent years that's seen Don Callis fully in the mainstream spotlight.

Serving as a classic prick heel - as Omega's special commentator and pseudo manager - Callis has been able to showcase his ability to truly get under the skin of wrestling audiences. But for those who watched the final few years of ECW, they'll have already been well aware of how effective of an annoying presence the Canadian could be.

From mid-1999 through until the company's final PPV, Callis served as Cyrus the Virus. Pulling his name directly from John Malkovich's murderous mastermind character in 1997's Con Air, Cyrus quickly became the most despised act in ECW.

The reason why Cyrus became so hated? Why, that's because Paul Heyman had the smarts to use Callis in a role that played on the very real frustration ECW had with the TNN network.

At this point in time, TNN was legitimately pushing back on the violence and content of ECW programming, plus the network would often give the Land of Extreme extremely minimal advertising. As such, Cyrus was used as an on-screen kayfabe representative of TNN who would be tasked with shutting down the antics of the ECW faithful's favourite wrestlers.

Forming his own Network faction, Cyrus and his underhand ways would also see him assist both Steve Corino and Rhino - plus technically Justin Credible, too - to runs as the ECW World Champion, whilst the Virus would likewise be kayfabe responsible for cancelling ECW on TNN once it became clear that the network was about to axe the show in favour of WWF Raw.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.