ECW and the Hammerstein Ballroom

Of all the famous wrestling venues in the US, few have a more iconic look than the Hammerstein Ballroom. Every arena in the world tends to look the similar after a while, but if a show has come from the Hammerstein, there is no mistaking it. The ballroom has hosted wrestling since 2000, and in that time only eight promotions have ran in it. In this video we’re going to take a look at the Ballroom’s history with pro wrestling. As in my video about the 2300 arena, I’m going to focus on the ECW years, or year.


In 2000 despite the company seeing better days financially, ECW toured all across the US, and even ran in Canada. Gone were the days of them only running in the ECW Arena, and occasionally elsewhere for bigger shows. They even had multiple venues in New York, with some events coming from Elks Lodge in Queens, and others coming from the Manhattan Centre.


The first time ECW ever ran the Hammerstein was a two night event on August 25th and 26th 2000, known collectively as Midtown Massacre. Parts from these events would air as episodes of Hardcore TV and ECW on TNN from the 1st to 15th of September. All together, five episodes of television came from these two events. As early as July the shows were being reported as tentatively happening in the Wrestling Observer. In the July 3rd 2000 issue Dave Meltzer reported that a tag team tournament was being planned for one of the shows. This would be for the vacant ECW tag team titles, as Justin Credible forfeited his title when he became ECW World champion, with his partner Lance Storm also soon to be leaving for WCW. Interestingly, in the same issue Dave noted that the ECW arena, now known these days as the 2300 Arena, had a “for lease” sign out front. The plans were confirmed a month later in the August 14th issue, along with scheduled participants for the tournament, and the plan for three title matches to happen on night two.


On the first of the TV episodes, which aired on TNN on September 1st, they begin the build to the World title match which would air in two weeks. The challenger Steve Corino would come through the crowd, along with Billy Corgan of the NW- Of the Smashing Pumpkins. This Steve Corino is a far cry away from the one that would confront Limp Bizkit and take a beating on stage in the previous year. To find out more about that change, I have a video on this channel about his entire feud with Dusty Rhodes. Billy Corgan would actually get physically involved too, attacking Justin Credible with his own cane, but he would get hit from behind by the Network’s consultant Lou E. Dangerously. The rest of the episode would feature semi final matches of the tag team tournament, including Jerry Lynn pinning ECW World champion Justin Credible, which would foreshadow Lynn beating Justin for the World title at the next pay per view, Anarchy Rulz in October. The main event of the show would be the tournament finals, in which The Unholy Alliance, featuring ECW mainstay Mikey Whipwreck and Yoshihiro Tajiri would defeat Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger, as well as Tommy Dreamer and Jerry Lynn to win the titles. Simon and Swinger would use the Problem Solver to eliminate Dreamer, leading to Whipwreck pinning Simon Diamond to claim the titles.


ECW Hardcore TV airing on September 2nd opened with an in ring confrontation between the voice of ECW Joey Styles, and Cyrus, the evil representative of TNN, who ECW had a rocky relationship with to say the least. Cyrus is known to modern AEW fans as Don Callis. Here he would shove Joey Styles to the ground, but Joey, just like he fought back against JBL back in the day, chased Callis out of the Hammerstein. On the rest of the episode they would air matches from the tag tournament that they had already aired the finals of on the previous night on TNN. One significant thing though, is that in the main event they aired Jerry Lynn pinning Rob Van Dam, meaning that he pinned the ECW World champion and his most famous rival in the same night.


On the second TNN episode which aired on September 8th, and it would begin with a major angle that took place on night two of the tapings. Cyrus would come out to interrupt the introduction of the show by Joey Styles and colour commentator Joel Gertner, and he would cancel ECW on TNN. While he does this, the ECW fans loudly chant USA. While I at first assumed they were heckling the Canadian Cyrus, writing of this angle in the Observer Dave would note that “the feeling in the company seemed very positive regarding securing a cable outlet after the TNN cancellation with the final show on 9/22. Most of the talk revolves a two-hour late Saturday night time slot on USA Network, although no deal has been finalized at press time and a favorable ruling by the court of appeals could be unfavorable for ECW.” It should be noted that Raw was at the time leaving the USA network and set to move to TNN on September 25th 2000 just days after ECW was set to go off the air. This was just one of the many things that caused bad blood between them and ECW, who would not get another major TV deal with any channel.


The angle then ends in spectacular fashion, as Cyrus claims that a New Yorker couldn’t stand up to him, leading Paul Heyman himself to come out and crack him on the back of the head with a cell phone, much like he used to do as Paul E. Dangerously in WCW. This brings Rhino out, who gores the owner of the company through a table. It then looked like a fan was trying to get into the ring as police swarm into the ring. I have no idea how real this was though, as Rhino then gored a police officer. The locker room then empties, and a wild brawl takes over. Kid Kash then makes his entrance, and body surfs over the crowd of wrestlers, and the television title match between he and Rhino begins. Just when it looks like the ring is clearing and the match might actually happen, the Sandman’s music hits. Sandman hits Rhino with multiple cane shots, but Rhino gores him too. Kid Kash does an amazing springboard dive into all the wrestlers brawling, and we get back to him and Rhino, who gores Kash. It’s still not over though, as Rob Van Dam comes out next. RVD hits a VanDaminator, then with the help of his manager Bill Anfonso, hits the Van Terminator into a chair, thats the move Shane McMahon nicked and called the coast to coast. He and Kash do stereo dives onto Rhino, and an official comes in to count three, and crowd Kid Kash the new Television champion. All of this madness happened in one flowing segment, and it was the intro to the show! In the main event, Mikey Whipwreck and Tajiris tag title reign would last just one day, and would be over before it even aired on TV. Taped on night 2, the Full Blooded Italians, little Guido and Tony Mamaluke would take the titles off the Unholy Alliance, though this would air on September 8th, so the reign in storyline would last a week.

Show four from the Hammerstein would be the September 9th episode of Hardcore TV. This show mainly acts as a recap for the highlights of the previous episodes, where they replay the entire wild segment from TNN the night before. Joey Styles repeatedly refers to it as “fourteen minutes that changed the course of ECW history.” In the main event on this one Rob Van Dam would defeat Scotty Anton, whose gimmick is that he will give you the clap. I’m not kidding. This was a rematch from the recent Heat Wave pay per view. Rather hilariously, Anton attacks and powerbombs Bill Alfonso before the bell, which Van Dam doesn’t even notice because he is too busy posing still. This makes for a different match, as Alfonso had grown to be a big part of RVD’s act in ECW, routinely throwing chairs in on request, and being annoying as hell with his whistle. Van Dam would beat Scotty Anton, and post match would get gored by Rhino, ahead of their upcoming match at Anarchy Rulz.


On the fifth and final episode to come from the Hammerstein, the September 15th ECW on TNN, Steve Corino would finally get his ECW World title shot against Justin Credible. On the night of the tapings, this actually happened third from the top, followed by the RVD vs Anton match, with the taped main event being the fourteen minutes that changed history, with Kid Kash winning to end on a high note. As best I can tell, the only match that didn’t air on tv at all in either highlight form or the full match was Psicosis versus Tony Devito, which was described in the Observer as “said to be an atrocious style clash that obviously will never see television”. On the September 15th show they start with a recap of the fourteen minutes segment, then a match airs from earlier in the tag tournament, with the Unholy Alliance defeating Julio Dinero and EZ Money. The rest of the show, more than half of the hour is dedicated to the Credible vs Corino match, which features run ins from Francine, and the returning Dawn Marie, and ends with Justin retaining the title.The show, and run of tapings closes with Styles and Gertner plugging Anarchy Rulz, where Jerry Lynn would challenge Justin Credible for the World title in his home town.


Prior to the events, in the Observer Dave would note that the shows were expected to sell out at approximately 2500 fans per night. This is according to many sources the capacity for wrestling in the Ballroom, though Game Changer Wrestling would claim to have broken the attendance record in 2022 with 2025 fans. To be clear, I’m not claiming that GCW didn’t sell out the Ballroom, but all of the reporting from the time claims a larger number than they did in 2022. I know what you might be thinking though, Paul Heyman by all accounts didn’t have the best track record with the truth back then, but Ring of Honor also claimed two thousand three hundred for their debut show in the ballroom in 2008. In the following weeks issue, Dave would claim that the shows were a complete triumph. “In what was described as the greatest weekend in the history of ECW, the promotion put on what was reported as two of the best shows in its history at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan on 8/25 and 8/26 so sellout crowds of 2,500 each night, and even got front page color photo coverage the first day and a follow-up article after the first show in the New York Daily News.” Dave’s final note on the weekend was that there were already plans to return to the Hammerstein. “The feeling is that the Hammerstein Center is almost the perfect building for ECW because of the look, the location and the crowd reactions and will likely host a PPV at some point in the next year.”


The next time ECW would run the Hammerstein would be December 3rd 2000, for the event called Massacre on 34th street. This would end up being the company's penultimate pay per view. In the September 18th edition of the Observer, Dave Meltzer would report that “The long talked about plan of moving from doing bi-monthly PPV shows to going monthly appears on the books as they are doing 10/1 in St. Paul, 11/5 in Villa Park, IL and 12/3 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.” The October and November dates he listed would be the annual Anarchy Rulz, moved from September, and November to Remember events, and the December pay per view, would be added to the schedule. By the time we would get to December though, it was clear that ECW was in trouble. In the December 4th Observer Dave would report that “The house shows scheduled for 12/8 and 12/9 in Dallas and Houston were canceled.”


On the pay per view, which despite being near the end of ECW would draw over two thousand fans, the tag titles would change hands again as Danny Doring and Roadkill would defeat the FBI. Doring and Roadkill would hold on to the titles right to the end of the company, making them the last ever ECW tag team champions. In the other two title matches, first Rhino would retain the TV championship against Spike Dudley, which Rhino would win by choking Spike out. In the main event, Steve Corino would retain the ECW World title against Justin Credible and Jerry Lynn. Moments after Corino wins the match, the Sandmans music plays. He attacks Corino, and steals the world title belt. While he would leave with the belt on this night, he would win it officially the next time ECW was at the Hammerstein, but would he be able to hold on to it?


As well as the pay per view, the pre main show matches would also air on the December 17th Hardcore TV, featuring HC Loc defeating Danny Daniels, and New Jack beating Angel, both in short matches. The December 11th Observer leads with an overall positive review of the pay per view, although not ignoring the other problems ECW had at the time. “Amidst rumors of the company being down for the count, Extreme Championship Wrestling put on a strong PPV show on 12/3, but more importantly, everyone was paid for one pay period (meaning everyone is now five weeks behind in pay). Nobody quit the promotion, which some had talked about doing if they weren’t paid again.” Dave also noted that Paul Heyman told the talent that night that he was looking to make the Hammerstein their home base, presumably with the ECW arena up for lease as noted earlier, and he had two upcoming shows that were paid for by local promoters in Missouri and Arkansas. The latter from the Pine Bluff convention centre would end up being the last ever ECW show.


By this time, ECW looked like it might not be long for the world. The Observer throughout the entire time frame I’ve talked about in this video constantly refers to wrestlers not getting paid this week or that, or lower carders not being booked to save money. By the time of Massacre on 34th street, shows were getting cancelled and less and less were coming up. In the December 4th issue, Dave notes that with barely any shows booked for December, “There is a PPV on the schedule for 1/7, but there is no building booked and no new house shows are on the schedule.” This January show would be the Guilty as Charged pay per view, which would also be held at the Hammerstein, their last pay per view.



In the January 8th newsletter, it is confirmed that Guilty as Charged would take place at the hammerstein, as well as a full card. In the same issue *** Dave also notes that there are big plans for Rhino at the pay per view, and that he was set to be positioned as a top star in the company moving forward. It feels worth saying here that if you saw Rhino before he went to WWE, you’ve seen a very different Rhino. An unstoppable monster similar to what Brock Lesnar would become in WWE a couple of years later. I know that might sound like an odd comparison, but trust me. Part of this might be because Rhino was under six feet tall, and dwarfed wrestlers like Spike Dudley, but didn’t compare as favourable in WWE, long referred to as the land of the giants. Another former ECW World champion, Mike Awesome had a similar problem when he moved on to WCW. He was immediately put into a feud with Kevin Nash, and therefore already looked smaller with his new opponents than in ECW.***


The Guilty as Charged pay per view would go ahead as planned from the Hammerstein with another big crowd, however the reception wouldn’t be as favourable as the other shows. “Guilty as Charged on 1/7 before a sellout crowd of 2,500 fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York was the usual ECW show. It came across, with the exception of the return of Rob Van Dam, as more of a regular house show than anything special on PPV.” As Dave writes, RVD’s surprise return in the main event was a big deal, mainly because he had been writing about Van Dam holding out on appearing until he was paid money he was owed. The other major headline coming out of the show was despite him not being part of the ECW World title match, Rhino would leave the night as the new, fresh, world champion, taking the title from the Sandman which kept their feud going. Sandman would win a tables, ladders and canes match, taking the title from Steve Corino and also beating Justin Credible, but Rhino would attack afterwards, leading to a second title match and Rhino leaving as champion. This had actually had a pretty long build to it, as Rhino has attacked and hospitalised Sandman’s wife Laurie at Living Dangerously 2000, and piledriven her through a table at Hardcore Heaven. Rhino threatened to go after his family again if he did not agree to a title match despite not being physically able. A prone Sandman, lying on the mat yelled “ring the bell”. Clearly Paul Heyman had creative plans lined up, plans that sadly wouldn’t pan out. Word coming out of the show from backstage wasn’t good either, “Wrestlers received half pay at the show, leaving them seven weeks behind. The morale was said to be very bad, with the news getting around that, despite claims to the contrary early in the week, that ECW had lost its TV on MSG in New York, its key market and the show didn’t even air the night before the PPV in that market.” The final Hardcore TV would air on December 31st, with more still in the can that never made it to TV, and the New York fans would have to wait four and a half years to attend wrestling at the Hammerstein again.


The next time the Hammerstein Ballroom would feature in the Wrestling Observer would be in December 2004, when it would be discussed as a possible venue, and Paul Heyman’s pick, for the next wrestling event to be held in the venue, ECW One Night Stand 2005. WWE using the ECW branding would promote the reunion show to massive success, so much that the brand would return to television in the following year to, let’s say mixed results. The final of these three shows, the ECW television taping on August 1st 2006 is especially notorious, as it featured as it’s main event of all matches Batista versus the Big Show, to which the ECW fans would chant “change the channel” loudly. As you can probably imagine, WWE wasn’t happy with the crowd that night at all, “particularly the swearing chants where WWE production turned the crowd audio down super low because Sci-Fi doesn’t want that language on the air. The feeling was that the fan base there is smart enough to know that, but still did the dirty language chants not even caring.” Dave also noted that this likely led to the upcoming December pay per view being moved from the Hammerstein to Chicago. This would end up being the ill-fated December to Dismember which would be moved to the James Brown centre in Augusta Georgia. Besides that, I doubt they’d have got the Elimination Chamber in the ballroom anyway.


In 2008, Ring of Honor would begin promoting shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom with an event called ‘A New Level’. In that same year they would also have two of their most important events on the calendar there, Death before Dishonor VI in August and Final Battle in December. Ring of Honor would go on to hold twenty more events over the years, with the twenty fourth being the 2024 Final Battle event, the first there under Tony Khan’s ownership. I always wondered why, given how ROH ran many more events there, the venue is still so linked with ECW. I hope in this video, I’ve managed to answer that question. Even in ECW’s dying days, the few shows they had at the Hammerstein felt like successes. They felt like triumphant moments, where otherwise their TV was getting cancelled, their wrestlers weren’t getting paid and other events were dropping out of the diary. To watch any ECW show from the Hammerstein, you wouldn’t know any of that, even the very last one, with a young fresh face taking the ECW World title from a veteran of the company. In time I may come back and revisit more of the Hammerstein’s history, but for now, those are the ECW years.



Sources:

Wrestling Observer July 3rd 2000, 1st mention of HB: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-3-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-wins-lawsuit-go-viacom/

Wrestling Observer August 14th 2000, HB confirmation: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-14-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-turmoil-hall-fame/

Wrestling Observer August 28th 2000, sell out expected: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-28-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-hall-fame-issue-97206/

Wrestling Observer September 4th 2000, Midtown Massacre report: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-4-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-fantastic-wwe/

Wrestling Observer September 18th 2000, Massacre on 34th announced: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-18-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-rawnitro-ratings-war/

Wrestling Observer December 4th 2000, Trouble for ECW: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-4-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-ecw-turmoil-wcw-mayhem/

Wrestling Observer December 11th 2000, Massacre on 34th review: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-11-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-ecw-massacre-34th/

(money quote) Wrestling Observer December 18th 2000, Dudleys and Money troubles: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-18-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-armageddon-reviewed/

Wrestling Observer January 8th 2001, GAC01 announced, Heyman considers selling: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/january-8-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-paul-heyman-considering/

Wrestling Observer January 15th 2001, GAS01 review: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/january-15-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-2000-year-end-awards/

Wrestling Observer December 20th 2004, plans for ONS 05: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/december-20-2004-observer-newsletter-brock-lesnar-returning-wrestling/ Wrestling Observer August 7th 2006: WWE not happy with ECW fans: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-7-2006-observer-newsletter-more-on-wwe-smackdown-roster-noah-budokan-hall/

The Story of Mankind fighting seven Santa Claus' in a Boiler Room

I think we all know that one person in our lives, that one insufferable person who loves Christmas just a bit much. That person in this story is Mick Foley, whose love of Christmas is well documented. This video isn’t going to be a deep dive of Mick Foley and Christmas, because I’m pretty sure it’d take me until Easter to research that alone. In this video I wanted to talk about a specific match that took place on the December 20th ‘99 episode of Raw. Why it happened and what happened next. It’s a not often talked about part of the long and violent history between all three of Mick’s wrestling personas, and one of his most fierce rivals, Triple H, and I also wanted to go over the feud to that point, as in my opinion, it’s overlooked when we talk about long running WWE rivalries.


Prior to late ‘99, Foley and Triple H had feuded through the summer of 1997. That time their dispute stemmed from the King of the Ring finals that year, where Triple H would finally get his win that he was meant to have the year prior. As I’ve talked about in an early video on this channel, Triple H has said over the years since that he hated being King of the Ring, more specifically, he hated wearing the oversized gaudy looking crown, and would break it whenever possible. Usually by hitting Mankind with it. The still blue blooded Hunter Hearst Helmsley would take the crown with the help of Chyna, and their grudge would lead to a steel cage match at Summerslam ‘97. This match took place in Madison Square Garden, where Mick famously hitchhiked to, to see Jimmy Snukka jump off the cage onto Don Muraco, and so Mankind paid tribute to this by dropping an almighty elbow onto Helmsley.


The feud would perhaps peak with a very famous Monday night Raw moment, which also took place in Madison Square Garden. On September 22nd ‘97, one of Micks other personas Dude Love Triple was supposed to face Triple H in a hardcore match, but Dude instead appeared on the titan tron. He explained that hardcore matches aren’t really his thing, and so would introduce Mankind. Foley would actually interview himself on the screen through editing magic, but neither of them wanted the match with Helmsley. They would finally introduce to WWE audiences, Cactus Jack, and Triple H would react like he’d just been told he was being sent back to development. Cactus and Triple H would then have a belter of a hardcore match, ending with a vicious looking piledriver on the stage. I wonder if thats where Triple H’s aversion to them comes from nowadays?


Foley and the Game would meet more over the coming years, such as in August ‘99, where Mankind would win the WWE title in a triple threat match with he and Steve Austin at Summerslam. On the next night, Triple H would threaten to break the arm of Jim Ross unless he was given a title shot against Mankind, which he would win later that night to earn his first world title. It would be at the end of the year though that their feud would really get heated again, starting with Santa Claus, kind of.


On an episode of Foley is Pod talking about his match at the 2000 Royal Rumble with Triple H, Mick Foley detailed that around this time his active career was coming to an end, but he didn’t yet know when or how. He notes that he had a meeting with Vince McMahon in early November where he described how his body was wearing down, and how he couldn’t even play sports with his kids. McMahon wanted him to retire right away. There is a world where realistically, Mick Foley’s last match could have been Mankind and Al Snow versus Hardcore and Crash Holly from the November 4th 99 Smackdown. Not exactly Sting’s retirement at Revolution is it? Better than Flair’s though.


By this time we were in McMahon-Helmsley era, which took over WWE in late ‘99 into the year 2000. On screen Triple H and Stephanie McMahon Helmsley were in charge, and they took great glee in punishing anyone who defied them, especially Mankind. They also took a great deal of joy in punishing us the viewers, as the regime seemed to come out on top week after week. Earlier in the night, Mick had come out to save Jim Ross, who Triple H was again threatening in the ring, much like he did in August. Mankind tells Triple H and Stephanie that the McMahon Helmsley era quote “kinda sucks”, then tells Stephanie off for disparaging the good name of Santa Claus by wearing a Santa hat. Instead of fighting Mankind himself, Triple H books him in a boiler room match, but doesn’t tell him who his opponent will be. Mick would find out who his opponent was moments before heading into the boiler room for the match.

To this point, this would only be the fourth boiler room brawl match, and Mankind had a winning record in them. In the first one he defeated the Undertaker at Summerslam 1996. In that match the two fought out of the boiler room, and took part in the slowest chase scene in history on their way to the ring. To win, they had to enter the ring and take the symbolic urn from Paul Bearer, but when Undertaker dramatically posed for Bearer to hand the urn over, he turned around, literally turning his back on him. Paul would laugh as Mankind applied the mandible claw, then hit ‘Taker with the urn, cementing his turn to the dark side. No pun intended there.


In the second boiler room brawl Mankind would defeat the Big Show, in a very violent match where Mankind would bleed profusely out of his hand, after smashing a glass frame over Show’s head. As you might expect from a hardcore match between these two, Mankind took an absolute beating, coming back with clever use of weapons, like hitting a pipe to make steam shoot out a Show, and in the end burying him under a stack of metal pipes. This might be my favourite of the boiler room brawls, because someone actually thought to turn the lights on.


Boiler room match three would take place on the September 23rd ‘99 edition of Smackdown, episode number six of over one thousand three hundred to this point. In this one Mankind would lose to Triple H, who was taking part in a five matches in one night, to try and earn his spot in the WWE championship six pack challenge at Unforgiven, a match he would win for his second world title. Being the fourth of five Triple H matches one a two hour show, and the second Mankind match as he would lose the tag team titles with the Rock earlier in the night to the New age Outlaws, this one is very short at just under five minutes. At the end Mankind wanted to dive off a roof, much like he did in the cage match against triple H at Summerslam, but a pipe would knock him off and through tables and debris, allowing Triple H to leave the boiler room and win the match. It was never explained who pushed mankind, but there are many theories, such as it was the same mysterious figure who raised the briefcase in Steve Austin’s ladder match for control of the company at King of the Ring ‘99, though I’m pretty sure this was explained to be the Big Bossman.


Right before the ad break before the match, Triple H would announce from his locker room, that Mankind’s opponent for the fourth boiler room match would be none other than Santa Claus. Though it’s been common knowledge for many years at this point, Mick’s fascination with Christmas was first made public in his first autobiography, Have a Nice Day. Back then the concept of a wrestler writing a book, never mind hand writing it himself, was so novel that it was even factored into WWE storylines. Michael Cole even noted this as he interviewed Mankind right before his match. To make sure that the reluctant Mankind entered the boiler room, the Mean Street Posse would attack him, and throw him into the room to start the match. That could quite possibly be the first and only time the Posse got the upper hand on anyone, and Mankind even quips this once in the room. Mankind, still not wanting to fight Santa attempts to reason with his hero, suggesting that he should just walk out of the door and win. Mankind’s attempt to convince Santa Claus are interrupted when he is attacked by three more Santa’s. It’s not clear who these are, though the wig of one of them kept falling off. Mankind made quick work of all three before being attacked by two more Santas, thats six now if you’re keeping count. Unline the last three, these two Santa’s had some pretty distinct mannerisms. At one point the beard of one slips, relieving Billy Gunn underneath, and the other moves a lot like Road Dogg. Despite them putting Mankind through a table, the New Age Out-Clauses are beaten up by Mankind, who picks up a frame with glass in it. As he goes to attack one of the Santas, a seventh and final Santa appears, swinging his sack and smashing the glass into Makainds face. Not a sentence I thought I’d ever write. The final boss of Santa’s starts berating Mankind, and from his voice it is clearly Triple H. He leaves the room and referee Teddy Long announces Santa to be the winner. The next time we see Triple H in his locker room with Stephanie, he is still wearing part of the Santa costume, just in case you didn’t recognise himah from his voicah, earliah.


This might shock you, but the Wrestling Observer nor the Torch covered Mankind’s match with Santa Claus in much more detail than recapping what happened on screen. Reading between the lines while listening to Foley talk about this time in his Podcast, and looking at the story between he and Triple H leading to the Royal Rumble, a lot of story was told outside the ring. In the Santa match Foley never actually leaves his feet until getting clobbered by Triple H at the end, and while he has twenty five matches between November and the Royal Rumble, they are all either tag matches with he Rock, or short singles matches. On Foley is Pod Mick also noted that “Triple H was operating with somebody in me, my self confidence had been eroded a little bit. I did my part to get into much better shape… …but I still needed somebody to push me, and thats what Triple H does”

Following the boiler room brawl, the McMahon Helmsley regime weren’t done messing with Mick Foley. On the December 27th episode of Raw, Mankind would be booked in a match with the Rock, a man who he had entered 1999 engaged in a bitter feud over the WWE title with, but since then a friendship had grown. An odd and sometimes turbulent friendship, but one nonetheless. This wouldn’t be an ordinary match though, as the two would be forced to battle in the first and hopefully last ‘pink slip on a pole match’ where the winner would retrieve the pink slip and keep their job, while the loser would be fired. Right after Christmas mind, thats a Vince idea if ever I heard one. While both fought hard to keep their spot, it would be the Rock who would keep his, and Mankind who would be fired.

In the coming weeks, the McMahon Helmsley regime would continue to humiliate Mick Foley, by hiring Mideon as a fake Mankind to make him look completely pathetic. On the January 6th 2000 Smackdown, this fake Foley, which I just learned was actually played by Mideon, thankfully with his clothes on, would sulk around Universal Studios Florida, while lamenting his life. In one particularly sad segment, Mideon is sat on the Jaws ride ranting about how he used to be someone when the Undertaker threw him off the Hell in a Cell, while the park visitors around him either look bemused or ignore him completely. If you've ever been on the Jaws ride as I did as a kid, you like me must have been wondering where the tour guide was. At least Jaws did make a cameo, looking more real that he did in the 1975 film.


While the fake Mankind was moping around Universal Studios, at Smackdown which was also in Orlando that night, police were stationed at the arena entrance in case the real Mankind showed up. Little did they plan for Mick Foley's well documented love of theme parks, as he actually showed up late in the episode at Universal to beat down Mideon. Foley destroys his doppleganger outside the Back to the Future ride, which by the way is sadly no longer there. Can you tell I have fond memories of Universal Studios? Sorry for the plug I have a video about wrestling at Universal Studios too by the way.


The December 20th Raw would really heat up Triple H’s feud with Mankind, and would eventually lead to one of the greatest Smackdown moments ever, when Mankind would become Cactus Jack again, but also one of the greatest matches in the history of the Royal Rumble, though I’m a bit biased as it’s one of my favourites of all time. The feud would come to an end at No Way Out 2000, where Cactus Jack would lose a title versus career match. Speaking of favourites, the Jim Ross call to close the show has stuck with me all these years. “Goodbye my friend, thanks for the great memories buddy.” Mick Foley would wrestle again a month later but forget that for a minut- Admittedly, this video strayed quite a long way from originally being about Christmas. Still, Happy Christmas from me, and happy new year.




Sources:

Summerslam 1997,

Raw September 22nd 1997,

Smackdown September 23rd 1999,

Raw December 20th 1999,

Raw December 27th 1999,

Smackdown January 6th 2000,

The Story of the USWA Christmas Creature

 

Wrestling’s had it’s fair share of holiday themed characters. The New Years Baby, the Easter Bunny, the Gobbledy Gooker and more. We’ve even had several Christmas characters, from good santa to bad santa to jaywalking santa to the baby Jesus himself. In 1992, Memphis based USWA might have booked the most fearsome, or the most hilarious one of all, with a famous face under the hood. Introducing the Christmas Creature.



The monster was actually created by Jerry Lawler’s son Kevin, who was a wrestler in his own right through the 1990’s, and he also promoted USWA shows in smaller towns for Jerry. According to his own social media, he’s still involved in wrestling to this day, working for Tommy Rich’s Wild Fire Wrestling.


The man under the mask has become a bit of a recurring character on this channel, but in this video we’ll be looking at the very early career of Glenn Jacobs, way before he became Kane. In his 2019 autobiography, Glenn Jacobs goes into more detail about how the Christmas Creature came about, and really puts into perspective how early in his career he was. He got into Memphis based USWA through training with Jeff Jarrett, who was running a class on Saturday mornings in Nashville at the time. He says he “drove the five hours to Nashville every weekend to train with around fifthteen others in the class.” “Getting in front of Jeff did help me establish a relationship with USWA management, which led to my first appearance on TV.” The management he’s referring to are USWA co-owners Jerry Jarrett, Jeff’s dad, and Jerry “The King” Lawler.


To give you an idea of what was going on in Memphis at the time, at the start of December ‘92 Jerry was in a feud with Koko B. Ware, who was defending the honour of the WWE. Koko would even defeat Lawler for his USWA unified world heavyweight title on December 7th, but the King would regain it one week later. If you’re thinking that sounds odd, between December 1988 and August 1997, Jerry would have twenty seven separate reigns as Unified World champion, with some lasting seven of those lasting less than a month. He’s also credited as a fifty one time AWA Southern Heavyweight champion, with many of those being very short reigns too.


Of the origins of the Christmas Creature gimmick, Glenn Jacobs is his book says “One afternoon after work, I arrived home to a message from Jerry Lawler, asking that I call him. Butterflies filled my stomach. I anxiously thought this is the break I’ve waited for. Well not quite. This big break was as generic and bland as it gets.” You see, the call Glenn got wasn’t to be the Christmas Creature, a dentist or any other of Glenn’s more famous gimmicks. “Jerry told me that he wanted me to don a mask, and team with another big guy from southern Missouri , and portray Russian wrestling champions, complete with gold medals.” That’s right, Kane’s first gimmick of note was a masked Russian. He is referring to the Russian Unified Team, consisting of two unnamed wrestlers who appeared to have wrestled a handful of matches in August 1992.


While this gimmick went nowhere in itself, it did lead to him getting a phone call later in ‘92 from Kevin Lawler. “Like his father, Kevin was a talented artist. He sent me a rendering, the picture looked like a cross between a christmas tree and a swamp thing.” Looking at the costume, it kind of reminds me of the swamp monster who was around in Chikara back in the day. According to Chikara roster member Chuck Taylor, many different people put that costume on over the years, but as best I can tell there’s only one dressed up for Christmas. In an episode of Table for Three produced for the WWE Network in 2022, Kane notes that he did the Christmas gimmick because he was doing nothing else at the time, but there was an important other reason to play along with Kevin’s creation. “It was all kinds of ridiculous, but it gave me the chance to wrestle against Jerry Lawler, which I knew was a big step in the right direction.”


On the December 19th ‘92 episode of USWA television, the show would begin with Santa Claus greeting the children in the TV studio when he would be interrupted by Bert Prentice. Bert would chase Santa away even attacking him, leading Jerry Lawler to come to his aid. The King would stare down the Christmas Creature, who would get into the ring for his match. In a very one-sided contest, the Creature would destroy his opponent Trey Keller. As Kane would note in an episode of table for three on the WWE network, he wasn't that good a wrestler at this time, moving awkwardly around the ring, and at one point trying and failing to lift Keller up. The creature would finish Keller off with a familiar move, lifting him up for a choke slam much like he would as Kane for many years.


A few days later on December 21st at the Mid-South Coliseum, early on the card Santa Claus would defeat Bert Prentice, getting his revenge for what happened on the previous Saturday. Also on the card, Jerry Lawler would defeat the Christmas Creature. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage of this match, but the it is listed on sites such as cagematch and wrestling data, and it was also advertised at the end of the December 19th TV show for the Mid-South Coliseum card on the following Monday. These events weren’t typically televised, though highlights would air on the Saturday television show, the idea being that the television show was meant to draw fans to the Coliseum on Monday. On the next TV episode, they would show the end of a six-man tag main event that also took place on the 21st involving the Moondogs and Lawler fighting the Harris Twins and Mike Miller. Mid match the Christmas creature returns to attack Lawler, along with what looks like a thousand other wrestlers in what becomes a wild brawl.


You might think then that this might be the end of the Christmas Creature, but you'd be mistaken. On the December 26th episode of Memphis wrestling television, the Christmas creature accompanied by Bert Prentice would get back in the ring against Ricky Hays. Much like in his previous match, the creature would quickly destroy Hays, finishing things with a chokeslam. Later on the same broadcast, the creature would be part of a drawing to determine entry numbers Royal Rumble style, for the Moondog battle royal which was taking place at the Coliseum on Monday December 28th. It's a fairly odd site to see the wrestlers all pulling out their numbers, especially the Christmas Creature politely waiting in line for his turn.


At the end of this show, we see another absolute brawl with all the participants in the battle royal. The Creature runs in and goes straight after Lawler, while the commentator's note that the two have an upcoming match where the Creature's mask will be on the line against Lawlers USWA world title. Lawler would win this title versus mask match which took place on December 28th, and presumably unmasking the Creature, maybe even revealing a Russian’s mask underneath. Sadly, again there appears to be no footage of this match available, and it also seems to be the last appearance of the Russian Unified Christmas Creature.


Speaking of masks, Jerry did actually manage to tie the Christmas Creature into the feud I mentioned earlier with Koko B. Ware and the WWE. On the December 19th show, Jerry talked about wanting to unmask the creature, because he thought an invading WWE star was under it. He even guessed that Sid was the man sent to go after Lawler. While Sid was a good guess considering the Creatures size, and arguably wrestling ability, he wouldn’t be in USWA yet. He would later become the Unified World Champion though, holding the title twice between 1994 and ‘96.


In the Table for Three episode that I mentioned earlier and in his book, Kane noted that his Mother made the Christmas Creature suit for him, which makes me think of Homer Simpson dressing Lisa up like Florida. Glenn said “it was extremely high tech because she integrated Christmas lights into it. We had a battery pack, so it was way ahead of it’s time.” Whether the lights don’t show up on TV of if they just didn’t work I don’t know, but they aren’t obvious in the two televised matches he had. If you’ve ever seen WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures, you’ll have seen that its sometimes remarkable what items collectors have gotten hold of over the years. With that in mind I wondered what might have become of the Christmas Creature costume. According to an interview Glenn did with WBIR news in 2019, he thinks it’s in his parents attic. Not the investigative swerve I was hoping for but you can’t always find them.


This of course wouldn’t be the last horrible gimmick that Glenn Jacobs would portray. He would return to USWA nearly a year later as Doomsday, the name he would also use in Puerto Rico wrestling for Dutch Mantell. Around this time in late 1993 there was a chance for Glenn to be brought up to WWE, and much like the Undertaker, his debut would have taken place at Survivor Series. According to Bruce Prichard on a 2018 episode of Something to Wrestle, Glenn was considered for the role of one of Shawn Michaels’ masked knights, in his elimination match against the Hart family, Bret, Owen, Bruce and Keith. Unfortunately Kane didn’t make the cut, as ultimately the knights would be Greg Valentine, Barry Horrowitz and fellow USWA wrestler Jeff Gaylord. Prichard noted that Glenn lost out because he was too young and quote, “greener than the Christmas tree outfit he wore.” He also noted that one of USWA’s owners, Jerry Jarrett was very positive on Glenn, and compared him to a young Sid. Maybe that’s why Lawler suggested that Sid was under the hood on screen during their brief feud. One other interesting this that Prichard said, was later on when Glenn was in WWE, any time a picture of the Christmas Creature costume might resurface, it would be posted up all over the locker rooms as a rib. As ribs stories from the attitude era go, thats at least a pretty tame one. From there he would be Unabom for Jim Cornette in Smokey Mountain Wrestling, while the real unabomber was still at large mind. Then we had Dr. Isaac Yanken DDS, the original wrestling dentist, and the fake Diesel. As you can likely tell, I’m no Tennessee resident, so I wouldn’t be the one to tell you if his current gimmick, mayor of Knox County is any better.




Sources:


Table for Three: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF_t1gOTRPU

Mayor Kane: My life in wrestling and politics, 2019,

Memphis wrestling December 5th, 1992, Koko picks a fight with Lawler

Memphis wrestling December 19th, 1992, Christmas creature debuts

Where the costume is: https://411mania.com/wrestling/wwe-news-kane-recalls-christmas-creature-gimmick-identity-of-santa-on-raw/ Knights: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2019/12/kane-recalls-his-christmas-creature-gimmick-in-uswa-664012/

Who is Xanta Klaus? The Story of WWE's Bad Santa

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. The list of sources is below and the video can be found here: https://youtu.be/z4MPKA29OZQ

At In Your House 5 on December 17th 1995, one of the stranger WWE debuts in history occurred. As you can imagine, that covers a lot of ground. We start at ringside where Savio Vega and Santa Clause are throwing out presents to children in the crowd. Already in the ring though is the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, who goes on a rant about Christmas, and how anybody can be bought. When DiBiase specifically mentions Savio, he jumps into the ring bringing Santa with him. Ted gets Savio to tell us all that he believes in Santa, which turns out to be St. Nick’s que to attack Savio, ending with Santa and DiBiase putting the boots to him. The point of this was apparently to prove that everybody has a price for the Million Dollar Man.

If you were to go to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter from that week expecting a trashing of this segment as I was, you might be in for a surprise, a Christmas miracle even. In the Observer, Dave Meltzer actually praised the segment largely because quote “You could see this coming a mile away but for some reason I always enjoy Santa Claus angles.” Further proof that this mans opinions cannot be trusted.

On Raw the next night, Ted Dibiase would be interviewed by Brother Love. He would explain that the man who attacked Savio Vega wasn’t actually Santa, but Xanta Klaus. DiBiase claims that Xanta was from the South pole, and that instead of giving presents, he quote “takes everything he can get his hands on”, and that he is officially part of the Million Dollar Corporation, one of the less popular groups in WWE history even by mid-90’s standards. On the very same night, WWE would tape three more episodes of Raw including the January 15th ‘96 airing show, which would feature another new member to DiBiase’s group, Steve Austin making his WWE debut as the Ringmaster. The fact that DiBiase announced Xanta’s membership implies that there were more plans for him, which is an ambitious thought just one week before Christmas. Ted even tells us that Xanta “would claim victory after victory” over the other superstars, but that would mean he would have to have more than one match.

On the December 23rd edition of Superstars, which was taped on December 19th, days after the pay per view appearance. Xanta came through the curtain with a unique look you could say. Gone was the red and white, in favour of black and red jocks to further announce his heeldom. His Heeldom? His heelness? I dunno… On the back of his new costume was the name ‘Xanta Klaus’, spelled with an X, for some reason. If you know why please let me know in the comments because I couldn’t find anything. At these tapings Xanta would compete and be victorious in a one and a half minute long match with Scott Taylor, who was enhancement talent at the time, but would go on to become known as Scotty 2 Hotty. Xanta would win the almost entirely one sided match with a very high angle suplex, followed by a Camel Clutch for the submission victory. This would be Xanta’s only televised match, and he would not appear again on screen, not in this persona at least. He also wouldn’t appear on any of the Christmas to New Year house shows WWE held, with Savio Vega wrestling Triple H on those, not even a Million Dollar Corporation member.

On the episode of Ted DiBiase’s excellently titled Everybody’s got a Pod podcast that was released on December 22nd 2023, Ted and his co-host Marcus D’Angelo cover In Your House 5. When speaking about Xanta turning on Savio, Ted doesn’t offer much insight beyond saying “it wasn’t the greatest thing that the Million Dollar Man was involved with”, which is a bold claim given that he once hired an evil twin referee to end Hulk Hogan’s four year WWE title reign at The Main Event. Ted elaborates saying “I was just rolling my eyes. Not with the guys, but with the guy who was going to be producing that segment. I said whose Idea was this anyway and they would say well, Vince. And I said okay, you’re not gonna argue with the boss.”

But who was the man behind the white wig and beard as WWE’s bad Santa? He was played by a wrestler who had previously wrestled for WWE using his real name, John Rechner. Rechner had appeared a few years earlier on episodes of Superstars, in enhancement matches against the likes of Marty Jannetty, Papa Shango and the Nasty Boys. More recently than that he had been working in Jim Cornette’s promotion, Smokey Mountain Wrestling, there using the name Boo Bradley. Around the mid-90’s many talents came through SMW and made it onto WWE television. Most famously Kane who wrestled for Cornette as Unabomb, but other future WWE stars also such as Al Snow, Bob Holly, D’Lo Brown and the Headbangers among others. So many wrestlers came through SMW and appeared in WWE that according to the Observer wrestlers had to be told that Cornette was not involved in booking for WWE. He would be later, more notably in the attitude era where he would clash with Vince Russo, but not yet while SMW was still going. Before I move on from Smokey Mountain Wrestling, I have to show you this rather weird storyline, and take another chance to show you how much Jim Cornette loves his old school serious wrasslin. Boo was a simple character to put it delicately, and he was being bribed for his services by Sunny to help Chris Candido. At some point Candido apparently killed the cat in the ring the way Earthquake killed Damian Cactus Jack and Damian would hold a funeral for the cat on television, apparently burying it in a field somewhere. Aye, Jim Cornette’s booking there.

Speaking in an interview in 2002, Rechner noted that he got the gig through working for Jim Cornette in Smokey Mountain Wrestling. He spent a year there and described it as the “biggest turning point of his career”, because it “developed him into a complete worker.” According to Rechner, he was working at a gas station when he got a call from Bruce Prichard who had a gimmick in mind for him and wanted a meeting. He said Bruce told him “We’re gonna sign you for two years, we’re gonna give you this Christmas-like gimmick. It might last anywhere from three days (which it did) to three months. Maybe we’ll blow you off at Wrestlemania, then we’ll keep you under contract and keep you under a gimmick.” On the Xanta gimmick he says “They give me three dates, I see the outfit.” “Then three days before Christmas I get a phone call from JJ Dillon, ah well the character’s not working blah blah blah.” JJ goes on to tell John that they will keep him under contract, and he can work indies, but only if he uses the Xanta gimmick, which basically puts him out of work since nobody was going to want to book a Christmas character through the rest of the year. Because there was no guarantee of any work, Rechner requested and was granted his release with no ill feelings on either side.

So what happened after his very brief WWE stint? Where else might you have seen Xanta Klaus for the rest of the year? Throughout 1996 John Rechner would wrestle using one of his earliest gimmicks, Abbudah Singh. It was in fact, a very different time. According to Rechner speaking in 2002, “Larry Sharpe didn’t know what to do with me, but I learned how to breathe fire in college.” Sharpe then came up with the rest of the gimmick from there. Larry Sharpe was Rechners trainer at The Monster Factory, the same school that graduated wrestlers like The Big Show and Bam Bam Bigelow. John also describes the outfit he wore as “like Sabu’s outfit before Sabu.” Rechner would get a break in his career by the end of ‘96, ironically in December, where he would adopt a new name and persona. John Rechner would join ECW and become known as the hardcore chair swinging freak, Balls Mahoney.

Balls would debut in ECW on December 7th 1996 at Holiday Hell, where he would be victorious against Devon Storm, the wrestler later known in WCW as Crowbar. He would first appear on ECW television on the Christmas Eve episode, taking part in a seventeen man battle royal the would be won by Sabu. From here Balls Mahoney would become a mainstay in ECW until the bitter end, wrestling on 89 of ECW’s 94 shows in 1997. In ECW Balls would become a three time tag team champion, once with Masato Tanaka, twice with Little Spike Dudley, but never with his regular tag team partner, Axl Rotten. His theme song, a cover of Big Balls by AC/DC would always get the crowd hyped up as they sang along loudly.

The next time John Rechner would appear on WWE television would be on the June 6th 2005 episode of Raw. As Balls Mahoney, he would disrupt the show along with a crew of ECW originals in the build up to the ECW One Night Stand pay per view. On the night Balls wouldn’t have a match, but he and Axl Rotten would with many others run in during the main event of the show, attacking the Blue World Order. Balls and Axel would receive tryout matches with WWE at Raw tapings in July 2005, wrestling two dark matches but ultimately not being hired.

Balls would be brought back to WWE in 2006 for the build up to not just One Night Stand 2006, but the launch of ECW on Scifi. He would have his first televised WWE match since appearing as Xanta Klaus on the one off special show WWE vs ECW Head to Head, in a battle royal consisting of members of the Raw, Smackdown and ECW rosters. This match would be won by Raw’s Big Show, who would turn on his brand, relieving that he had joined ECW, a massive red flag for any fans of the ECW originals. Balls would have a near two year run with WWE, being released in April 2008, by way of the words every WWE wrestler dreaded seeing on the home page of WWE.com.

Had Balls not joined ECW in the following year, who knows if Xanta Klaus could have made an annual appearance, much like the Boogeyman still does at Halloween. Xanta Klaus went on to a very memorable rest of his career. Wrestling not just for WWE, but also for TNA, and all over the indie scene after ECW folded. While Xanta might have been short lived and forgettable, Balls Mahoney was certainly not.

Sources:

Wrestling Observer December 26th 1995 - In Your House 5 review: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/dec-26-1995-observer-newsletter-madusa-throws-belt-trash-dan-severn/

PW Torch December 23rd 1995 - In Your House 5 review: https://members.pwtorch.com/torchbackissues95/torch366/Torch366.shtml

DiBiase Pod Episode 33: https://open.spotify.com/episode/661tbD7a4emr3o4grsZ6C3

Superstars December 23rd 1995 - Xanta vs Scott Taylor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVwQd3k4Oos (1:41:42)

ECW Holiday Hell 1996: https://archive.org/details/ecw-dec-17th-1996

ECW December 24th 1996 - TV debut: https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=47377

WWE release: https://www.wwe.com/inside/news/ballsmahoneyreleased Balls shoot interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8m5TkS6az4