10 Reasons 1997 Was The Weirdest Year In Wrestling History

In early 1997, the WWF were in a bad state in terms of finances and talent.

To put a band-aid on the latter, Vince McMahon reached out to ECW’s Paul Heyman to forge a business relationship. Throughout 1996, Heyman and various ECW wrestlers showed up sporadically in the crowds of WWF events, and even occasionally participating in the action, appearing to “hijack” a match or segment. This was done in cooperation with the WWF as a way to build buzz for ECW. In return, ECW would allow Vince first crack at their talent, most notably 2 Cold Scorpio, who would be rechristened Flash Funk.

This covert relationship eventually became public when, in February of 1997, Vince, desperate for bodies while half his roster was touring in Germany, brought in members of ECW to RAW for their show in the Manhattan Center. Four years before the ECW/WCW alliance, and eight before ECW One Night Stand, the likes of Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, DeVon Dudley, and Stevie Richards were wrestling on WWF television.

Not only that, but to help Heyman promote ECW’s upcoming Barely Legal pay-per-view, the WWF ran an angle on TV where Jerry Lawler feuded with Heyman and “Extremely Crappy Wrestling.” It came to the point where, on the debut edition of “Raw is War,” the newly rebranded Monday Night Raw, there was a segment where Lawler and Heyman engaged in a verbal debate about the merits of ECW.

Keep in mind, this was the debut episode of the new-and-improved RAW, and it was only two weeks until WrestleMania 13. Yet an entire segment was dedicated to hyping up an entirely different promotion and pay-per-view.

Such is the pure WTF that was 1997.