10 Shocking Moments When Wrestlers Risked Losing Their Jobs
8. Defector
Former referee Bill Alfonso had become a despised heel in ECW during the mid-1990s thanks to a subversive role that saw his fastidious use of the rulebook favour heels and rob the Philadelphia natives of their beloved cocktail of violence and intensity.
The crowd had spent years baying for his blood, and got it in the most unexpected fashion when he salvaged his livelihood during an unconscionable war with Beulah McGillicutty.
The match was due to be Alfonso's last after being caught up in a devastating scandal that threatened to rip the heart out of ECW. Paul Heyman had discovered that company founder Tod Gordon had been working alongside Fonzie with WCW's Kevin Sullivan and Terry Taylor to broker deals for certain ECW talents to make a move to Atlanta.
Gordon was gone immediately and Alfonso was set to leave right behind him, but first had to work a mixed tag team match alongside Rob Van Dam against Tommy Dreamer and Beulah. The match quickly broke down, with the two non-wrestlers left to fight it out in what turned out to be one of the company's most brutal exhibitions.
Alfonso took an unholy beating in the fray, with his blood splattering his opponent and ringsiders alike. As per wrestling's curious philosophies, the respect he earned from the beating saved his job.