6 Things You Need To Know About ECW's Wrestlenomics

2. Money

Among the premiere challenges for the original ECW was retaining their top talent. When you're the number three player, you're already at a disadvantage about attracting the hottest new talent. Additionally, ECW was stuck between two large (and cash-rich) companies in the middle of an expensive promotional war. As expected, it was exceptionally difficult to keep ECW stars from taking better contracts with WCW and WWF. Even when ECW went under, Eric Bischoff had big plans for ECW wrestler Rob Van Dam, ECW announcer Joey Styles and ECW manager Don Callis. He wanted them to join his revamped version of the WCW (should his consortium had bought the company - a business transaction that was halted once Turner cancelled WCW programming on their networks.) Throughout the late 90s, we saw wrestlers bouncing back and forth between companies. As revealed in the "Rise & Fall of ECW" DVD, at this time WWF was paying (and loaning) ECW some money. However, this amount has been greatly exaggerated over time to become "WWF was completely supporting ECW". That was never true. What is true is that WWF did pay Heyman as a "consultant "- but it was a nominal amount (about $1,000/week) which hardly kept the company afloat. In theory, this gave WWF the opportunity to have first crack at recruiting ECW talent. Also, WWF did use ECW as a sort of "development territory", especially for young talent they didn't have a place for - guys like Droz, Al Snow and even Brakkus worked some ECW shows while under WWF contract. At the very end of ECW, WWF did make a substantial "loan" to the company which they never really expected would be paid back. The purpose of this was to avoid a confrontation with Heyman over ECW losing their TNN timeslot when it was clear Viacom wanted WWF programming and also so WWF would have a claim to ECW assets when the company finally went under.

It's an understatement to say that the original ECW had money troubles. ECW's bankruptcy filing lists $8.8M in debts with only $1.4M in assets. Numerous wrestlers were owed money ranging from small amounts ($300 for EZ Money, $500 for CW Anderson and members of the Baldies, $600 for Tony Mamaluke) to moderate amounts ($4,000 to Balls Mahoney, $5,000 for Bill Alphonso/Tajiri/Super Crazy, $7,990 for Justin Credible and $9,000 for Simon Diamond, $12,000 to Mikey Whipwreck) to significant amounts ($25,000 for Little Guido/Nunzio, $47,275 for Francine, $48,000 for Shane Douglas, $50,000 for Rhyno, $50,480 to Joey Styles) to enormous amounts ($100,000 to Tommy Dreamer and $150,000 for Rob Van Dam). To illustrate how inflated contracts grew in the late 1990s during the wrestling wars in the United States, here are some actual salaries and contract figures of ECW wrestlers who joined WCW and WWF: Stevie Richards - earned $30,000 from WCW in 1997 (he ended back in ECW shortly thereafter and then moved on to WWF) Mikey Whipwreck - earned $75,000 from WCW in 1999 Chris Candido - signed a contract with WCW to earn more than $104,000/year Each member of Public Enemy earning $160,000 (1997) to $175,000 (1998) in WCW (Public Enemy's exceptionally short-lived run with WWF was an example of how influential Heyman was at getting people to "buy the hype" of a smoke & mirrors tag team) Perry Saturn - earned $165,000 (1998) to $274,000 (1999) in WCW Raven - earned $120,000 (1997), $250,000 (1998), $190,000 (1999) from WCW; conversely, his WWF contract that begun in July 2000 (after ECW folded and it was clear WCW was dying) was just a minimum guarantee of $75,000 (Y1) /$150,000 (Y2) /$200,000 (Y3) Terry Funk - earnied about $4,000 per appearance in WCW in 2000 Shane Douglas - signed a contract with WCW to earn more than $350,000/year Mike Awesome - signed a contract with WCW to earn more than $350,000/year (was a very controversial departure) Bam Bam Bigelow - signed a contract with WCW to earn more than $400,000/year Sid Vicious - earned more than $800,000 per year from WCW (his ECW run was exceptionally short and expensive) Taz - signed a $250,000 per year with WWF after turning down a ECW offer for $308,000 per year (which was probably best for both companies because Heyman couldn't have paid him that much) The ECW of 2006-2009 was in a very different climate. The biggest American pro-wrestling challenger to WWE in 2006-2009 was TNA which hardly registers as a competitor to WWE. In fact, if anything ECW was competing with Raw & Smackdown for airtime, attention from creative, merchandise and talent. It's telling that ECW on SyFy was replaced with rookies programming NXT -- in many ways that's what the new ECW was, an opportunity for new wrestlers to develop their skills and make their name on WWE television.