The Secret History Of ECW | Wrestling Timelines
July 1, 1995 - Hardcore Heaven
The ECW arena, to a man - and there aren’t many women, in a promotion rife with misogyny - wave their hands from side to side as the Public Enemy make their entrance, warning anybody who can’t stomach blood to get the hell out.
One of the most popular early ECW acts “wrestle” and defeat the Gangstas, New Jack and Mustafa Saed, making their in-ring debut. It is a frenzied, ultra-heated brawl with 100% more table wreckages than submission holds. New Jack will later develop a fondness for jumping off balconies from a demented height - literally setting the stage for Jeff Hardy, Shane McMahon and, of all wrestlers, the retirement-aged Sting.
Infamous for their appearances for Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling, in which they were not well-liked by that particular audience, Jack and Saed get over in a losing effort. Wrestling has not seen their like before. Borrowing the aesthetic of in-vogue gangsta rap, and entering the ring to Dr. Dre and Ice Cube’s ‘Natural Born Killaz’, they are unapologetically black. In later appearances, the piercing, ominous track will be played throughout their matches to obscure how limited and one-dimensional they are. This is consistent with Paul Heyman’s wider philosophy. He knows that the bulk of the ECW roster is not made up of muscular supermen and world-class technicians. His job, as he puts it, is to “accentuate the positives, hide the negatives”. New Jack is the best example of this genius method.
This does not apply to every wrestler to have stepped through ECW’s doors, and Heyman trots out the line to put his promotional genius over, but that doesn’t make it less true. What he gets out of multiple wrestlers, over a span of several years, is stupidly impressive.
Decades later, AEW owner and booker Tony Khan will lift this device for the spectacular Anarchy In The Arena gimmick; the fans are moved to create a rousing atmosphere for an ultra-violent fusion of wrestling brawl and concert.
Hardcore Heaven is also notable for the Taipei Death match between warring storyline brothers Axl and Ian Rotten. It’s an ugly, short burst of violence unleashed with both sets of hands studded with glass. The thick, gloopy plasma flows everywhere. If you read the unaffiliated magazines of the day, and see these impossibly violent-looking photos, this ECW stuff looks like really scary sh*t.
That’s exactly how Paul Heyman wants it.