9 Worst Botches In ECW History

At the Living Dangerously event on March 12th 2000, the notorious, violent hardcore wrestler known to the industry as New Jack suffered actual (non-kayfabed) brain damage and lost the sign in his right eye, when he and his opponent stepped off a scaffold twenty-five feet in the air, to land in an ungainly pile of limbs on the concrete floor, completely missing the tables set up to complete the stunt (and legitimately break their fall).

When interviewed for the Forever Hardcore documentary in 2005, New Jack was under no illusions as to the culprit behind the botched fall, acknowledging that he’d inadvertently pulled his opponent Vic Grimes down from the scaffold too early. People often make the mistake of thinking that New Jack is a cartoon nutjob, a scary-crazy-gangster of a man who people should give a wide berth… in point of fact, he’s an intelligent, articulate man who just happens to have a violent, unforgiving temper and the capacity to hold a grudge longer than a Middle Eastern government. When New Jack heard that Grimes was taking the credit for his injuries, he knew that payback would have to be a complete b*stard.

In a rematch between the two men for Xtreme Pro Wrestling, New Jack would through Grimes from yet another scaffold thirty feet in the air, this one placed above the ring (learning from the mistakes of the previous incident). Yet again the fall didn’t go as planned, Grimes only landing on two of the twelve tables beneath him, dislocating his ankle in the crash. It was assumed that New Jack had tried to kill Grimes – and the man himself certainly claimed that was the case, saying he’d deliberately thrown him far enough to hit the ring post – but the video from the incident clearly shows Grimes making the initial push off the scaffold.

Whatever the case… guys, a rubber match is absolutely not necessary. Can’t we just call it a draw?