6 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (October 15)

Ups...

6. Shout-Out To The Local Guys

Ronda Rousey Security Guards
WWE.com

Every so often, we see the staple of no-name security guys getting beat up on Raw. Not much is mentioned of them, other than “Thanks for coming” as they all get pummeled like ninjas, attacking one at a time.

But when you actually recognize the security because they’re local wrestlers from a nearby independent promotion, well that deserves a shout-out here.

The “security guards” the Bella Twins employed were wrestlers from ECWA (East Coast Wrestling Association), a Delaware-based (New Jersey as well) promotion that has been around for 50+ years. The wrestler who Ronda Rousey manhandled was former ECWA champion Chris Wylde.

ECWA’s annual Super 8 Tournament has featured some of WWE’s biggest stars before they really arrived, including current talent Daniel Bryan, Matt and Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, Brian Kendrick, TJP, Xavier Woods, Tommaso Ciampa (who won in 2011), Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Tony Nese and Lio Rush.

Whew. Yes, all of those current stars have competed in ECWA’s Super 8 Tournament. This writer saw Styles, Roode and Jamie Noble in 2002, and Charlie Haas and Davey Richards in 2006.

So just a shout-out to the local promotion and its wrestlers getting some facetime on Raw.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.