The Secret History Of ECW | Wrestling Timelines
October 1, 1994 - Blinding
In the return match, held under ‘I Quit’ rules, ECW presents a staged mishap.
As the referee hands Tommy the microphone, asking if he intends to give up, Tommy pushes it out of the way. The lit cigarette dangling from the Sandman’s lips catches him in the eyeball. Threatening the realism somehat, Sandman’s other eye is “blinded” when Dreamer cracks it with a cane.
Woman, it can’t be overstated, approaches genius in her performance. She was gleeful in the original cane angle, berserk, so lost in the act that she was impervious to the vibe in the building. If there was an actual elephant in that room, she’d have told Sandman to cane it, too. Here, she looks shattered. Vacant. The ref looks at both Dreamer and Sandman as if he doesn’t know what to do. There’s no script to follow; it’s just been burned to ash.
The Sandman is rushed backstage where, about a year and a half before Brian Pillman blurs the lines in WCW, outwardly calling wrestling fake by referring to the “booker man”, heels and babyfaces alike break kayfabe to express concern over the Sandman’s condition. Even a look into the backstage area is another innovation. Commissioner Tod Gordon sells it as something that should not be happening, demanding the camera operators get the hell out of there.
Sadman sells the angle by staying at home for a month and refusing to drink in the bars he frequents and would be spotted in. He does not answer his door. On TV, he is treated like Hulk Hogan, almost, as fans are invited to offer well wishes. Some fans are smart to it all, but this schmaltz is so thick and so damaging to his aura that it might actually be “real”.
It isn’t - Sandman swerve-turns on Dreamer during his retirement ceremony at November To Remember on November 5 - but what an all-time great angle. ECW fans aren’t insulted, after a while. They’re impressed. They’re not supposed to get worked anymore; they’re too knowing for all that.
ECW is miles ahead of everybody: the fans and, on a pure creative level, the competition.