Part of the reason that ECW fans were as passionate as they were about their promotions product, and part of the reason that a failed wrestling promotion is still talked about over a dozen years after collapsing through bankruptcy is the level of audience participation that was considered the norm: and nowhere was that more evident than in the Bring Your Own Weapons match. Crutches, a two-man kayak, a Leonard Cohen vinyl record, a VCR, a SNES console, a full-sized stop sign, household furniture and kitchen utensils like the infamous cast iron skillet that Cactus Jack used to beat the Sandman were the norm for matches of this type, the fans often purchasing them from a dime store near the venue for just that purpose and offering them to the wrestlers during the match. It was the skillet that clinched it: after Foley nearly brained the Sandman with the genuinely heavy iron pan, the Bring Your Own Weapons gimmick was terminated with immediate effect.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
