10 Wrestlers Who Hated Working For ECW

ECW has grown into legendary status/significance in pro wrestling post-closure in 2001. It’s extraordinary given its humble beginnings were events held in a bingo hall (compared to WWF/WCW’s massive arenas). Former ECW performers often look back fondly in interviews with nostalgic joy on the Philadelphia hardcore promotion, recounting the rush of adrenaline they got from rabid crowds and participating in matches/angles that would influence/revolutionise the business. It seems the legend of the violent creativity that was the Paul Heyman-led ECW grows with every passing year.

Taz has commented on the original ECW: “People will remember ECW as a bunch of guys that nobody really wanted and Paul Heyman was a genius for using that as a motivation. There were times when our checks wouldn't clear and we'd still go out there and give 150 percent.”

Extreme Championship Wrestling did wonders for the careers of certain wrestlers. It revived and reinvented castaway wrestlers like Steve Austin, Mick Foley and Terry Funk. It gave a platform to new performers like Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero that would catapult them to mainstream success in larger promotions. It made headliners out of the overlooked and underutilized in Raven, The Sandman and Sabu.

But there are wrestlers who don’t look back so affectionately on their time in the third promotion/brand for a number of troublesome reasons.

Here we’ll look at 10 in particular who loathed their time in ECW in his heyday and later when it was resurrected by the WWE: