The much beloved era of wrestling that birthed some of the most iconic superstars and moments in the history of WWE and its opponent WCW during the Monday Night Wars. As mentioned in previous entries, ECW was directly responsible for Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mick Foley thanks to their time spent there between mildly successful WCW runs and their rises to stardom in the WWE. These were just two talents from a large list that the Big Two stole from the Philadelphia promotion, many of which have gone on to massive success and World Championship reigns but at the time helped create some of the strongest rosters ever boasted by a company. The Big Two were aimed at children but Heyman saw the potential in television's golden 18-34 age range and as such brought a more mature product to the table in ECW. The new audience focus also brought the some of the highest viewing figures either of the Big Two ever had. Heyman's work within the looser confines saw grounded gimmicks, a ramped up sex appeal and taboo subjects such as race were frequently featured. ECW's Gangstas and comedy units the F.B.I. and the Dudley Boyz all featured racial stereotypes and WWE soon picked up on it with The Nation of Domination that helped make a star out of The Rock. Perhaps the most interesting steal comes in the form of religious symbolism. On October 26th, 1996 Raven attacked his rival Sandman and after a beatdown with his Nest followers placed him on a wooden cross, symbolising crucifying him as they carried him out of the building. This actually caused Kurt Angle, who was in attendance that night and had even set-up an angle with Taz earlier in the evening, to turn his back on the organisation he was considering joining and eventually debuting in WWE instead. Ironically, two months after Angle signed his WWE contract, they copied the exact stunt. Undertaker 'crucified' Stone Cold upon his cross-like symbol to close Monday Night Raw on December 7th, 1998. Another major factor of influence that Paul Heyman's ECW had over both WWE and WCW was the hardcore violence. Neither company really reached the levels of ECW, who become renowned for attractions such as Barbed Wire matches (the most infamous of which saw Sabu require one hundred stitches for a gash caused by getting tangled in barbed wire after missing a move against Terry Funk), Singapore Cane matches and the Dudley trademark of the flaming table but they certainly increased the level of violence and gimmick matches in their arsenal. WWE soon started bringing in ideas like Hell in a Cell, TLC matches and the like in an attempt to compete as well as bringing in their very own Hardcore Championship and division. WCW also attempted the same with their mostly ignored Hardcore division, crazy gimmick matches such as the Triple Cage structure and Scaffold matches, not to mention bringing in Raven's Rules upon the former ECW World Champion's arrival in the company. Quite frankly without Paul Heyman, wrestling would not be the same.
