10 Wrestlers You Didn't Know Were HUGELY Influential
7. Mikey Whipwreck
If you're a fan of a certain age, you'll be aware of Mikey Whipwreck.
ECW's resident underdog, for a promoter criticised for indulging excess even at his peak, what with the relentless plunder and profanity, Paul Heyman nailed the Whipwreck character with a patient discipline.
Whipwreck also worked in contrast because he wasn't hardcore. He was in completely over his head, and the usually bloodthirsty denizens of the ECW Arena, in a rare display of sympathy, might have seen something of themselves in him. Deliberately framed as unskilled, with a resignation that he was going to get his ass kicked and badly, Heyman took that as far as he could, but it went far. He won the belt!
Best remembered as one of the best one dimensional wrestlers ever, there was nowhere for Whipwreck to go after that - his was a cinematic arc in an episodic world.
He boasts a more quiet but indirectly influential legacy: he was an incredible trainer, a pillar of the New York indie scene who trained Matt Cardona, Bryan Myers, Jay Lethal, Tony Nese, and John Silver among others. He was so instrumental and skilled at the role that he trained the trainers: Create A Pro, the preeminent training school in the US, is part-owned by Myers. Myers in turn trained MJF.
The New York scene and really the complexion of the entire US scene looks markedly different without Whipwreck's input.