7 Behind The Scenes ECW Stories That’ll Shock You
4. WWF Worked Their Own Locker Room In 1996
Pictured above is an innocent-looking scene. Paul Heyman, Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman were guests in attendance for the WWF's In Your House: Mind Games pay-per-view in September 1996. Their mission? To wear ECW t-shirts and start some promotion in earnest for the promotion's first ever pay-per-view.
Heyman and troops were also instructed to raise a little hell.
Y'know who wasn't told about that? The entire WWF roster. Sandman spat beer at Savio Vega during his pre-show match with Bradshaw (in the old Stan Hansen rip off days as Justin Hawk), and that ruffled some feathers in the locker room backstage. Bruce Prichard and other officials hadn't smartened the WWF crew up on any of this being a work.
In the end, The Undertaker cornered Prichard and demanded to know if that was all part of the plan. It was, which stopped a fight from breaking out. Perhaps rightly, 'The Phenom' suggested that maybe fed management let the roster know in advance so nobody got hurt unnecessarily. Bruce agreed to take that on board, but it'd be a shocker if Vince McMahon cared much.
He was deliberately pushing buttons, and it's hardly like the WWF product was red hot at the time. They needed some counter culture cool from ECW every bit as much as Heyman's group needed the platform only McMahon could provide. Even so, people were less than thrilled that a non-WWF talent had spat alcohol all over one of their team without warning.
Who knows if Savio was even aware that it was a work? Nobody else was.