9 Worst Botches In ECW History

On 5th November 1994 at the November To Remember event, Chris Benoit would face Sabu in what would become one of the most replayed matches in ECW history.

The scene in question came when Benoit chose to perform a flapjack on his opponent, launching Sabu high into the air with the intent that he would come down to the mat face-first. If you watch the clip closely (from around 1:25) you can see Sabu attempt to flip himself over so that he’d land on his back and shoulders in a standard back body drop instead.

Unfortunately, Sabu appears to have seriously mistimed this flip, misjudging how long he had to perform the manoeuvre safely, and didn’t have time to completely rotate around, landing on the side of his head and breaking his neck.

Pau Heyman being Paul Heyman, he used this horrific accident as impetus to get Benoit over with the gimmick of a legitimate shooter. He was already being referred to as ‘the Crippler’ on occasion: Heyman could see that this was the time to push the character on television, and Benoit’s star began to rise even further in the company.

When he returned to WCW in October 1995, Chris ‘The Crippler’ Benoit was renamed ‘the Canadian Crippler’, but was stymied from the main event push he deserved by the nonsensical backstage politics in the company. Heyman, however, has gone on record as saying that had Benoit stayed with ECW, he would have been pushed as the top heel for the eastern promotion, and the long term world champion.