10 Wrestlers Who VANISHED When ECW Died
Those lost faces from ECW's final few years, ranging from African Dreams to Queens of Extreme...
When Eastern Championship Wrestling was rechristened Extreme Championship Wrestling, a vast array of professional wrestlers stepped into the spotlight, their legacies soon to become legendary.
Tommy Dreamer and Raven produced one of the sport’s greatest rivalries that remains iconic even today. Their personal hatred for each other felt real, something that is rare to find in today’s wrestling.
Rob Van Dam and Sabu, meanwhile, transcended the cruiserweight style, their work - particularly that of the former - can be found in many of today’s gravity-defying wrestlers. The Dudley Boyz did the same for tag team wrestling. Their body of work in ECW was pivotal to their eventual success in the WWF.
New Jack was, well, New Jack. The Sandman, Taz, the Public Enemy, Rhyno, Jerry Lynn, and countless others created this aura around ECW that made it a viable alternative to what the WWF and WCW were producing at the time.
Not all of these names stuck around in the mainstream world, though. The following ten names may not have necessarily retired, but their final run in the spotlight came via ECW.
Not everyone can be an extreme icon, you see, particularly when your surname shares its spelling with literal phallus’…
10. Chilly Willy
Chilly Willy! It’s funny because it could mean a man’s genitalia is feeling a cold breeze!
He’s not officially retired, as his Cagematch profile lists him as an active professional wrestler, with his most recent outing coming against fellow ECW alum CW Anderson for the Raleigh, North Carolina-based GOUGE Wrestling company in July 2019.
Since ECW folded, though, there’s not been much for Chilly Willy to sink his teeth into.
He joined Paul Heyman’s federation with just eleven matches under his belt, the most recent of which saw him capture the Heavyweight Title of the Southern Championship Wrestling (also operating out of Raleigh) company. You’d be forgiven for not remembering him, as just fourteen of Willy’s fifty-three matches under the ECW banner were ever televised. The rest came by way of untelevised live events.
He did, however, unsuccessfully challenge Rhino for the ECW World Television Title on an episode of ECW On TNN, while the 2000 November To Remember pay-per-view saw him involved in a flaming tables bout alongside Balls Mahoney. Guilty As Charged 2001 would ultimately mark Willy’s final in-ring appearance on any televised wrestling product, as he and Mahoney (Chilly Balls, anyone?) went to a one-minute no contest with Simon Diamond and (Johnny) Swinger.