Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: The ECW Invasion — WWF, 1997
History
Extreme Championship Wrestling’s popularity had been growing in leaps and bounds since Shane Douglas renounced the NWA title in 1994. The word was growing about the late-night television show that would wind up changing the wrestling industry with its mix of high-flying and hardcore wrestling.
Something major happened for ECW on the February 17th’s Raw. Jerry Lawler had had enough of the ECW talk. He got up from the commentary table and ripped an ECW sign out of a fan’s hands, then got a microphone. He went on a tirade against the company, and then issued an open challenge for ECW to show up the next week.
As promised, ECW was out in full force the next week. Their first appearance saw Paul Heyman bringing out the Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) who left a ring attendant lying.
Heyman began introducing the next match, and Little Guido came out. His opponents soon followed – Big Stevie Cool (Stevie Richards), who was accompanied by fellow Blue World Order member Da Blue Guy (the Blue Meanie) as well as Raven. Big Stevie Cool won easily.
A bit later, Heyman brought out the next ECW match. Taz faced off against Mikey Whipwreck. The match was briefly interrupted as Sabu scaled the large Raw sign in the background, dived off, and tried unsuccessfully to hit the ring. Taz wound up winning the match.
Later still, D-Von Dudley took on Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer won the match, which brought Bubba Ray Dudley out. He was rapidly followed by the Sandman. As this was going on, Lawler and Heyman (who’d been sniping at each other all night) got into a full fledged verbal battle at the announce table. Vince McMahon couldn’t do anything but try to keep the two separated as the ECW wrestlers (as well as several fans) joined in the argument on Heyman’s side.
The next week ECW was absent (likely due to the fact that Raw was taped in Germany that week, and the WWF wanted to keep ECW on live shows). Lawler offered up another open invitation for ECW to show up the next week. Heyman called in later and mentioned the upcoming ECW pay-per-view (Barely Legal) and then said that ECW could show up on Raw at any time.
Everything was going normally the next week until Taz jumped the rail and headed for Lawler. Sabu then dove from the ring through a table.
Later in the show, Lawler and Heyman were scheduled for a debate, and Heyman had the Eliminators in his corner. The debate soon degenerated into a verbal brawl, as both men began shooting on each other (Heyman even bringing Lawler’s son Brian Christopher into it). As the ECW wrestlers started climbing into the ring, Lawler called for his friends from the back to come teach them a lesson. Unfortunately, because Lawler didn’t have any friends, nobody came and the King wound up clearing out.
And that was it”¦ for a while. The WWF presented Wrestlemania a couple of weeks later, and ECW’s Barely Legal aired in April. However, this wasn’t over. June 6th saw ECW’s Wrestlepalooza `97 event. Tommy Dreamer took on Raven for the final time (Raven was departing for WCW) and finally won. He didn’t get time to celebrate, though, as Jerry Lawler showed up. Lawler joined forces with Sabu and Rob Van Dam to obliterate Dreamer.
On the June 9th Raw we saw Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer taking seats in the stands. The reason why was soon revealed as it was announced that Rob Van Dam would be making his Raw debut later in the night. Meanwhile, Lawler was backstage with RVD, saying what he would do if Heyman and Dreamer tried anything.
Later in the night Van Dam took on Flash Funk (2 Cold Scorpio) as Dreamer and Heyman made their way to the ring. RVD wound up getting the win. That caused Heyman and Dreamer to jump the rail and hit the ring. A mass of officials came out to keep the four men separated.
The next week Lawler and Van Dam teamed up to take on the Headbangers and wound up defeated and out of the tournament for the tag team titles.
The next week Sabu took on Flash Funk. Sabu was accompanied by Bill Alfonso, and Paul Heyman joined the commentary team. Sabu finally put Funk on an outside table and dove through it onto him.
That was the end of ECW’s appearances on Raw, but Heyman didn’t let the angle drop. At July 19th’s Heat Wave, Lawler teamed with Van Dam and Sabu to take on Dreamer, the Sandman, and Rick Rude. The match ended in a no contest.
The final battle happened at the next big ECW show — August’s Hardcore Heaven. Here Dreamer finally got the big singles win over Lawler.
Analysis
It’s surprising to see how much better this invasion went than some of the WWF’s later efforts (namely, the WCW invasion). The full intent of this angle was to showcase ECW’s best, and the invasion allowed them to do that. The fans were rapidly introduced to the hardcore high-flying of Sabu, the ever-popular BWO, the silent but dangerous Taz, and the Eliminators in the first night. The exposure was extremely important due to the fact that ECW’s first-ever PPV was coming up shortly, and helped to ensure that the show was a success.
Where are they now?
ECW would continue operating until 2001 when the company shut down, adding to the year’s chaos in the wrestling business (with the buyout of WCW).
In 2005, the WWE presented a reunion show for ECW called One Night Stand. The show was an incredible hit.
The same weekend, Shane Douglas presented an ECW reunion of his own called Hardcore Homecoming. While some talent did work both shows, the primary difference was the fact that while the WWE show occurred at the Hammerstein Ballroom (site of the last ECW pay-per-view), Douglas booked his show at the ECW Arena (New Alhambra) with a main event of himself, Terry Funk, and Raven in a barbed-wire match.
Hardcore Homecoming would run another show called November Reign with a main event of Justin Credible vs. Jerry Lynn in a steel cage match. It appears at this time that this will be Hardcore Homecoming’s final show.
Also, both sides presented their views on ECW. The WWE released a DVD called The Rise and Fall of ECW, wherein WWE-contracted talent shared their memories about the company’s life. The group who would become Hardcore Homecoming released their own version — Forever Hardcore, which contained thoughts from many important ECW personalities who were not under WWE contract, such as Shane Douglas, Raven, and Tod Gordon (the promotion’s original owner).
In early 2006, WWE issued a second ECW DVD called Bloodsport: The Most Extreme Matches. This DVD has also had high sales.
In 2006, the WWE presented another One Night Stand PPV, which also did extremely well. Following these successes, the WWE restarted ECW in mid-2006. The promotion (being run as a third brand in addition to Raw and Smackdown) currently airs on the Sci-Fi channel on Tuesday nights.
Next week
Paul Bearer has a secret”¦
