Remembering The Last Days Of ECW
In ECWs dying days you have to feel for some of the talent they attempted to get over. Chilly Willy, a legitimate tough-man, debuted in mid-2000 as one of ECWs hot new singles stars. When ECW closed down Willy, real name William Jones, didnt impress in a WWF tryout match and joined the army. His brush with the mainstream wrestling scene lasting a matter of months.
Even more unfortunate is the tale of EZ Money. Jason Broyles had seen the writing on the wall in ECW and left the promotion after their final anticlimactic show in Pine Bluff, Missouri on January 13 2001. Promptly signing for WCW, as Jason Jett, only for WCW to go under after hed wrestled a mere five matches there.
That final show in Pine Bluff saw a 1,300 strong crowd see a solid card featuring future WWE talent such as Nova (Simon Dean), Joey Matthews (Joey Mercury), Super Crazy, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Tommy Dreamer, Danny Doring, Little Guido (Nunzio), Rhino, Spike Dudley, Justin Credible and The Sandman compete. Even at the end ECW had a strong roster and was drawing good houses.
However Paul Heyman, the mastermind who made ECW what it was, was nowhere to be seen. He was busy, behind the scenes, trying to find a new network. Heyman had taken on too much and wasnt a capable enough businessman to recover from it. There was no back up fund to go to.
Heyman had lived on the edge and needed the television money to survive. In business there is often no reward without risk but ECWs risks had been too frequent and too large. With no major source of income, in the form of television money, the company was doomed.
At the end of the Pine Bluff show the roster went to the ring to say goodbye. Rhino refused to do so, not believing it was over. Even six weeks later there were ECW fans hoping that it wasnt over, despite a planned final PPV being cancelled, and that the company would be able to emerge, like a phoenix from the flames.
Those hopes were dashed on the March 5th edition of Monday Night RAW when Paul Heyman strode down to ringside to join Jim Ross on commentary. It was the final nail in ECWs coffin but it was apropos that Heyman got to commentate on a litany of former ECW talent that night. Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Stevie Richards, Lita, The Dudley Boyz, Al Snow, and even Steve Austin.
The company may have died but the legacy would live on, through the talent that wrestled there and the fans that still remember it.