10 Wrestling Facts We Didn’t Know Last Week (August 2)

8. Midcard WCW Wrestlers Laughed At ECW's Product

In 1998, Johnny Swinger was working regularly on WCW's Saturday Night show and hoping to be featured heavily on Nitro and Thunder going forward. He was still in his early-20s, and it's not like Saturday Night was a bad spot; back then, the show was pulling in ratings that fluctuated between 2.0-3.0, which proves how hot wrestling was back then.

Swinger agreed the industry was on fire, but he did get a right good giggle at ECW.

He told 'Interactive Wrestling Radio' that a few WCW lower-card workers would gather together in hotel rooms and watch ECW on the Sunshine Network whenever they could. They weren't scouting the competition though. Nah, they were belly-laughing at the product and saying they'd "never" work there.

Two years later, Swinger was in ECW, and he got a different perspective on the brand. Raven was the one who recommended he call Paul Heyman post-WCW. At first, Swinger wasn't into it, but he realised his options were limited, so he began working for a company he'd previously poked fun at.