10 Stars That Benefited The Most From ECW

As my most recent piece on Terry Funk demonstrates, ECW changed the face of professional wrestling. Well, to be more exact, it busted open the face of professional wrestling...Then it rubbed sandpaper into the gaping wound, but whatever... Now, everybody and his wife have written articles about how, why and when ECW inexorably altered the landscape of the sport we all know and love, but what is a little less considered, I feel, is how career-beneficial ECW turned out to be for so many of its alumni. Like all professional athletes, pro wrestlers strive to make as much money as possible, over as short a time period as possible because, as Rey Mysterio has warned us on every WWE DVD made in the last ten years €œinjuries can happen at any moment€. In addition, there€™s a lot of pride in pro wrestling and, like any €˜legitimate€™ sport, everybody wants to be the best and get to the top of the deck. Every retired wrestler wants to be sitting back in their favourite chair as an old man, with a framed World Championship on their wall, content in the knowledge that even though it hurts, it was all worth it in the end. ECW gave those moments to a lot of wrestlers that, frankly, would not have otherwise gotten that opportunity. If a guy was too small, too rough around the edges, or simply €œtoo damn ugly to be in any cartoon€, he could still become a star in Extreme Championship Wrestling. ...Here€™s 10 that wouldn€™t have made it anywhere near as big as they eventually did, without their time spilling blood in the ECW arena.