Ex-WWE Star Thinks He Would've "Killed Himself" In ECW
This former WWE star wouldn't have trusted himself to behave in ECW's wild west.
Duke 'Dumpster' Droese kinda just disappeared after his WWE run ended in 1996, but did you know that he had several tryouts with WCW and the WWF (yes, again) in the late-90s? Also, Duke logically thought about trying to get some work in the original ECW.
He quickly discarded that idea though.
Why? Well, Droese wasn't in a great place mentally after leaving Vince McMahon's promotion. He told Fightful that he "probably would have killed [himself], overdosed or fell off a building" had he linked up with Paul Heyman's renegade crew anytime between 1996-2001.
Those are strong words, but Droese was struggling through various drug addictions in the late-90s and wouldn't have trusted himself to behave in the wild west atmosphere of ECW. So, as he explained in the interview, Duke decided against contacting Heyman and seeing if he'd be interested in bringing him in for a few dates.
He'd never work a sustained run in one of the top companies ever again. Droese did reprise his garbage man gimmick at WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001, but that was a one-night deal as part of the 'Gimmick Battle Royal' and was never going to lead to anything full-time.