5 Forgotten WWE Debuts Of ECW Icons

Justin Credible as an ECW performer was a breath of fresh air for fans of the man behind the gimmick, Peter Polaco.

Often overlooked as a performer, Polaco travelled a long road to get to the top of ECW. A graduate of the Hart Brothers Training Camp, his run as ECW Champ was well-deserved and validation for the hard work he had put in over the previous decade.

Before that could happen though, Polaco found himself in the World Wrestling Federation, where he is often remembered for his stint in 1994 under the infamous yellow, jockstrap-like mask as “The Portuguese Man O’ War”, Aldo Montoya. However, what many may not know is that Polaco had actually debuted on WWF TV a year prior to that.

Wrestling as PJ Walker, Polaco would appear throughout ‘93 and ‘94 as a jobber to the stars, clocking around 30 appearances on TV between March of ‘93 and June of ‘94; the first of which came against Lex Luger on only the seventh edition of Monday Night Raw. The bout is everything you would expect from a squash match on Raw in ‘93, lasting just over three minutes with very little upside for the future Impact Player.

After making a name for himself in the original ECW, Polaco would return to the WWF after a four year absence in early 2001, joining X-Pac and Albert as the short-lived stable, X-Factor. After becoming a background player in the Invasion storyline, he would quietly disappear from WWF TV in 2002 before making a brief return in WWE’s ECW of 2006; memorably taking a brutal headbutt from Kurt Angle and serving as the opposition for CM Punk in his ECW debut.