In 1997, ECW was rocked when it was discovered that Tod Gordon was conspiring with WCW's Terry Taylor to recruit a bunch of ECW talent and jump ship. While the only person to go to WCW as a result of this was Perry Saturn, referee and manager Bill Alfonso was apparently the most enthusiastic about the proposed jump. When the plan was discovered by Paul Heyman, the decision was made that Fonzy would have to leave the company. At ECW: As Good As It Gets in October '97, Tommy Dreamer and Beulah McGillicutty faced off against Rob Van Dam and Bill Alfonso, with the plan being for Dreamer and RVD to take each other out and the match left in the hands of, essentially, non-competitors. What happened next was, what Paul Heyman described on Talk Is Jericho as "Five of the most intense realistic minutes in ECW history." During those five minutes, Alfonso was accidentally cut along an artery and lost and unreal amount of blood. Heyman said in the same interview that Fonzy lost so much blood, he should have died. When the smoke cleared, and it was apparent that Bill Alfonso wasn't going to bleed to death, Paul Heyman conceded that after the performance he just gave, he couldn't in good conscience fire the man and Fonzy kept his job.
