10 Times Wrestling Companies Had To Apologise To Fans
2. Raven Plunges The ECW Arena Into Silence
As Stevie Richards details in WWE's The Rise and Fall of ECW documentary, you know you've overstepped the line when you cause an ECW crowd to go silent.
Those fans of Extreme Championship Wrestling were forever rabid in their passion for the product. Whether that was in their adoration or hatred for a talent, the ECW fans were always vocal. This is a group who had seen flesh being burnt, bodies falling from balconies, sickening scaffolding bumps and so much more.
If they've seen so many wince-inducing, brutal and controversial moments play out and lapped it up, the time you have to be worried is when you cause those fans to sit on their hands.
That was indeed the case during an October 1996 ECW show, with Raven in the midst of a feud with the Sandman that had involved the young son and ex-wife of the beer-chugging Hardcore Icon. Taking things to an entirely different level though, one particular attack on Sandman saw Raven, Stevie Richards and Blue Meanie tie their rival to a cross as part of a barbed wire-laced crucifixion.
That was when the ECW Arena fell silent, as the fans were offended, Paul Heyman and Tod Gordon were offended, and the in-attendance Kurt Angle was so offended that he threatened legal action against ECW. At the behest of Heyman and Gordon, Raven - who had come up with the crucifixion idea - returned to the ring and apologised to "the people who [he'd] deeply offended".