The Secret History Of ECW | Wrestling Timelines

August 28, 1994 - Singapore Cane

It really is astonishing, how much infamous ECW lore is densely packed into the late summer of 1994. You could make the argument that ECW peaks as a creative force before the WWF first rips it off. That’s the negative slant. The positive slant is that ECW is an incandescent explosion of creative expression - a narrative, stylistic and philosophical big bang that reorders the very universe.

The wildly unremarkable cornball Tommy Dreamer, whose very ring name elicits groans, takes Tommy Cairo’s place in a programme with the Sandman. Deriving inspiration from a shocking international incident, in which an American teenager had received four lashes of a cane to his buttocks as punishment for vandalism upon moving to the United States, a ‘Singapore Cane’ match is set.

The idea is to get Dreamer over as a spirited babyface who refuses to say die. It’s a different finish to the legendary events of WWF WrestleMania 13, in which Steve Austin turns babyface, but the dramatic principle and character-building is similar. Also: what WWE will later designate a kendo stick becomes as commonplace as the steel chair and the table in mainstream wrestling’s arsenal of weapons. Dreamer loses, and takes 10 shots with the cane in a moment that inspires no fewer than three famous wrestling moments; Cody Rhodes taking 10 lashes of a belt highlights the critically adored build to AEW Revolution 2020.

A later programme between Tommy Dreamer and Raven will garner much acclaim - but Dreamer’s real best work is against the Sandman, who is as vile as heels get before he becomes the beer-drinking cult hero backed to the ring by Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’.

The beating is a horrific aural nightmare. Even the hardcore Philly fans are unsettled. They want violence, but this is too real, too agonising. Guilt cloaks the arena; Dreamer’s masochism is an awkward overcorrection, and they are to blame.

Besides Sandman, there is one person in that building who wants to see more: his valet, Woman, who is absolutely sensational. She is on the verge of frenzy as Sandman lays in the shots. At nine, Dreamer says “Thank you sir, may I have another?”

Dreamer, frankly, is not as inherently cool as the real faces of ECW’s Mount Rushmore - Taz, Sabu, the Sandman, and Terry Funk - but this works.