10 Wrestlers Who Really Never Saw It Coming
4. Rhino
So passionate about ECW was he, Rhino was caught blindsided by the close of the promotion.
As he explained in WWE's excellent The Rise and Fall of ECW documentary from 2004, the Man Beast simply did not believe that the Land of Extreme was going out of business. Sure, he'd experienced the missed paychecks, he'd seen major stars depart to WWF or WCW, and he'd been told that the end of ECW was nigh. But still, Rhino was adamant ECW would continue to operate.
The final ECW show - at least until WWE revived the company's letters - took place on 13 January 2001, with Rhino at that time both the ECW World Champion and the ECW TV Champion. On that night, the monstrous heel decimated poor Spike Dudley in the second-to-last match on the card.
On headlining duties for that show, there was Justin Credible vs. The Sandman, which was technically stretched out to two matches and then followed by the ECW roster sharing a beer in-ring to toast to the company. For Rhino, he was absent from that beer bash, for he still believed ECW would live to fight another day.