In ECW, no one embodied the spirit of the promotions bloodthirsty, anarchic style than Spike Dudley, the perennial underdog, human crash test dummy and victim of his own (kayfabe) familys weird redneck abuse. The real life Matt Hyson would be thrown literally in over his head when he faced the Beast From The East, Bam Bam Bigelow in August and September 1997. Bigelow had six inches on him and weighed over twice as much. Beginning the series with an upset win, ECWs Giant Killer would lose to the tattooed monster on every subsequent occasion, despite valiant attempts at offence. At their last outing at As Good As It Gets though, something captivating would happen. Twice, between flurries of frantic offence by the scrappy contender, Bam Bam would signal to the crowd that hed throw Dudley out of the ring. The second time, he lifted his opponent over his head in a gorilla press and then ran towards the ropes, hurling Spike not only out of the ring, but over the guard rail and straight into the crowd. But Dudley would not go down. The ECW faithful refused to let their little hero fall, and caught him, holding him high in the air, and then crowdsurfing his barely conscious body around over their heads. Eventually, Spike would make his way back to the ring, where Bigelow would pin him for the final time to end their rivalry.
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.
