The Story of ECW Holiday Hell 2000, and the Final ECW Arena Show

Two weeks ago, on this channel I made a video about one of the bigger events in ECW’s early history, the first Holiday Hell event in 1993. That got me thinking about the last one, which occurred in 2000, and was one of the last shows that the company ever held. While December ‘93 was an optimistic time for the still young Eastern Championship Wrestling, December 2000 was a very dark time for those involved, from the wrestlers to those behind the scenes.


In this video, we’ll look at ECW Holiday Hell 2000. We’ll look at the state of the company going into it, the card that was put on that night, and the wrestlers who were involved. We’ll also look at what the newsletters were saying at the time.


Over this year I’ve covered a lot of ECW. I’ve talked about the high points, and a lot of the lows, but never really end very end. Watching a lot of ECW from 93 for my last video, I got the idea to look at one of the last shows, one under very different circumstances.


Background


On December 23rd 2000, ECW presented the final Holiday Hell event at the ECW arena, the same place where the first was held back in ‘93. Things weren’t looking good though, as ECW was several weeks behind in paying their roster. They were at risk of not having enough footage recorded to air on TV having cancelled shows, and they were about to run their final event in the building they called home for many years.


As time went on, shows were held at the ECW arena less and less. At its peak, there would be up to seventeen shows a year, such as in 1995 and 6. Later on there were just nine events in ‘99, only six in 2000 and none would follow in 2001. This is because of two things, the promotion touring more, covering more states in 2000, and even their first show in Canada, than in any other year previous. The other reason is that ECW needed bigger venues in hopes of generating more revenue to sustain itself. There were thoughts around the time that the Hammerstein Ballroom, which the company had only started hosting events at a few months earlier, could become ECW’s new regular home, given that its capacity was around double the ECW arena, and much bigger than their New York home the Elks Lodge. Whether this would have worked especially by December 2000 feels unlikely, but there must have been a feeling that the company needed to make some changes.


It seems that other promotions were noticing this trend as well. On November 18th 2000, months before the company would close it’s doors, Jersey All Pro Wrestling would present their first ever event outside New Jersey. Their third anniversary show would be at the ECW arena, also known as “South Philly Invasion.” As if to add insult to injury, the main event on this night was Sabu vs Axl Rotten, two former ECW wrestlers, one of which had left on very bad terms. Jersey All Pro would run more events there after ECW closed, including one on February 3rd 2001 “The New Beginning,” clearly a jab at ECW, also including The Sandman, one of their last World champions.


As we get into December, morale was low as you might expect. There were things to be positive about though. For their last pay-per-view, November to Remember, the company had packed four and a half thousand fans into the Odeum Expo Centre in Illinois, and they were set to add a new special event to the calendar. Massacre on 34th Street took place on December 3rd, at the Hammerstein Ballroom, where the company had sold out twice that year already. Two and a half thousand fans were packed in, making for a third sellout. Between this show and the November to Remember, there was evidence supporting the idea that there was still some fan demand for ECW.


Massacre on 34th and the Elks Lodge


Massacre on 34th Street is not considered the strongest of ECW pay-per-views, but there are some memorable things to take away from it. A brutal match for the television title took place between Rhino and Spike Dudley, who had been fighting for weeks on television with Rhino getting the upper hand. This would end up no different, with Spike left laying in a puddle of his own vomit, as a result of Rhino choking him out. The show would also include one title change, a coronation of sorts for two genuine ECW originals. Two of the very few graduates of the House of Hardcore training school, Danny Doring and Roadkill. The unlikely tag team would win their first championships from the Full Blooded Italians, Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke, and would hold them until the end of the promotion. In the main event, Steve Corino would defend the World title against two men who had also been first time champions that year, Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible. After Corino retained the title, The Sandman would attack, and would steal the World title belt. This is worth remembering when we get to Holiday Hell.


Backstage at the show, Paul Heyman gave each wrestler their cheque, promising that things weren’t going to change any time soon. I assume he meant that positively, but you could also read it as Paul admitting that his roster was still going to be behind on payments. “At the meeting, Heyman admitted that the company is going through a frustrating financial time, but added that it will not go out of business. He described the company's problems as short-term, but fixable, and vowed that he will not bankrupt the company.” I give Paul quite a lot of leeway in these videos sometimes, but the idea that the company’s financial problems were ‘short term’ is laughable. If you’ve seen my video on the start of ECW on TNN, I talked about financial problems dating back to mid ‘99, when Paul was trying to get deals that would hopefully save the company like the one he landed for Acclaim to make ECW video games, and loan the company some money. On the subject of Paul making deals, It’s also noted that Paul was still trying to get new national television following the collapse of the show on TNN. ”USA Network, FX, and Fox Sports Network” are all named, but nothing was near set in stone.


ECW’s next event would take place two weeks later on December 15th, from the Elks Lodge in Queens, which was added to the schedule as a way to improve ECW’s money problems. The company charged higher than usual ticket prices to try and raise funds to pay debts, and for this elevated ticket price presented a one off appearance by Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley, as well as a surprise appearance from Tazz. They were also hoping to use as much of the show as possible to produce more content for Hardcore TV. Unfortunately for ECW, the show sold out of seated tickets, but didn’t overspill like most of the shows there did, and so the result was ultimately disappointing.


If the wrestlers weren’t already unhappy, they were even more so coming out of this night. “The wrestlers did not receive their scheduled paychecks at the Queens event, leaving most of them seven weeks behind in pay. Heyman did not hold a meeting in Queens to address the matter, but some wrestlers claim that he told them the checks will be sent to them during the week.” To make things even worse, “there were reports that the company cancelled a few checks they had issued to the wrestlers during the previous pay period.” The same edition of the Torch reported that “rumors have spread that a few wrestlers have discussed the idea of boycotting the Dec. 23 show at ECW Arena.” While no specific wrestlers are named, Wade Keller claims that some were threatening this, while others were laughing at the suggestion.


As the final episode of Hardcore TV would air one week later, none of the December 23rd show would be used for television, though fan cam footage exists, so we are able to see the event. While it’s alleged that at least two completed lost episodes weren't aired, it's not clear whether these would have included footage from Holiday Hell, or if they were still using the December 15th show from the Elks Lodge. What is clear though, is that the footage from this event seems to have been intended for TV, because in 2013 RF video released a much better quality version of the show, including commentary by Tommy Dreamer and Danny Doring. Dreamer actually notes at one point that he booked this show, and alludes to having some creative influence throughout, presumably with Paul Heyman having final say. This version of the event includes unedited footage of Joey Styles and Joel Gertner filming an intro for Hardcore TV, one that would never make it to fans screens.


Undercard


So now we get to the show itself, and for the sake of brevity, I’ll divide it into the Undercard, and the main matches later on. In the opener of the night, Da Blue Guy faced Chilly Willy. While the Blue Guy was very familiar to the fans in the ECW arena, he looked very different in this run with the company, having lost over a hundred pounds near the end of his time with WWE. Chilly Willy however was a relative newcomer to ECW, having made his debut in February of 2000. In the RF Video commentary, Tommy Dreamer says that to his mind, Chilly Willy would have become a mainstay in the company had ECW stayed open longer, also noting that he was signed to a WWE developmental deal afterwards. He worked in OVW, but never made it past a couple of dark matches on main WWE shows. There’s not a whole lot to say about the match, as I’ve already talked about both guys for longer than it actually lasted. After just thirty seconds, Rhino runs in and blasts Meanie with a gore. He has a bit more trouble with Chilly Willy, but hits him with a piledriver. Rhino is not done there though, as he hits Meanie’s manager Jasmine St. Clair with a terrifying looking piledriver off the second rope, and gives one to referee HC Loc through a table off the apron. While it was good to see Rhino, it’s slightly gutting that he had no match on this card. He would wrestle again in the venue many, many times over the following years though, for quite a few promotions from Jersey All pro to quite a few for TNA. His last match in the building was earlier in 2025, where he challenged for the NWA World title, a belt he held twenty years ago.


The rest of the undercard continues with a parade of ECW’s more unusual gimmicks, starting with the two remaining Baldies. Of all of the Baldies that ECW had, from Red Dogg, also known as Rodney Mack, to Vito LaGrasso to PN News to perhaps most infamously Vic Grimes, the last two left in the group were Tony Devito and Angel. They would face the new tag team champions who won at Massacre on 34th Street, Danny Doring and Roadkill. This match is the first of only two defences they would ever make of the tag team titles, also retaining them against Hot Commodity at Guilty as Charged a few weeks later. The two teams would essentially have the real opening match, with a very quick pace where the popular team won.


The third match on the night featured an interesting looking Muppet show of a group, fronted by Elvis impersonator, Bilvis Wesley, formerly known as Beautiful Bill Wiles. He would be accompanied by House of Hardcore trainee the Prodigy, as well as the Prodigette who was trained by Dusty Rhodes, and Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy graduate Chris Krueger. That's quite a collection of names all in one place there. Danny Doring on commentary notes that Wiles hated the Elvis gimmick that Paul Heyman gave him, but it’s worth noting that he kept using it after ECW for at least a year after the company closed. Bilvis faces Balls Mahoney in what is essentially a handicap match, but one that's somehow in the favour of Balls and his chair, as he handily outlasts the whole group to win the match. The Pro Wrestling Torch would add in the following week that “Krueger bladed severely and blood gushed from his head. He was later taken to the hospital.” Dreamer and Doring dispute this, saying he got cut for real. Tommy also says that Kruger used to drive from Texas for his ECW bookings. A twenty five hour drive to get bludgeoned by Balls and a visit to the hospital doesn’t sound like the most fun of ways to spend a weekend. While I’m being quite flippant, it’s not at all fair to compare many of these names to the mainstay ECW talent who had been there longer, as Bilvis and his crew among others were still finding their footing. It’s very difficult not to though, when ECW in years past would have many more established stars on their shows. Many of those stars had either moved on to bigger companies, or fallen out with ECW, but fortunately they still had some names in the building.


Main Show


While watching the rest of this show one thing is very clear. Even though things weren't looking good for the company, there was still a mindset of building up new talent for the future, or at least changing direction for some who had been around a bit longer. After the third match, Joey Styles and Joel Gertner come out and the show really feels like it’s getting started. Joey has some fun with the crowd, before they tape an intro to Hardcore TV, starting with Joey’s trademark “hello everyone and welcome,” and a dirty limerick from Gertner. The two are quickly interrupted by Cyrus, who comes out to introduce not just Jerry Lynn, but the heel “simply the best” version of Jerry Lynn. The turn to the dark side for Jerry came after his brief run as ECW world champion had ended, losing it after just a month and a few days at November to Remember to Steve Corino, another who was being built up into a top level star in the company.


On November 11th 2000, days after the pay per view, We find Jerry Lynn sitting in front of a mirror, no doubt for dramatic effect. Cyrus enters the frame, to which Lynn at first reacts with hostility. Cyrus manages to calm the former champion down, and convinces him that he got screwed out of the World title, and Jerry begins to hear him out. The following week’s episode begins with Cyrus listing the various ways that Jerry has been overlooked and underappreciated by ECW. He’s looking into the camera, but he’s talking only to Jerry, a bit like how I imagine he pitches joining the Don Callis Family to people today.


I talked about the company having plans for the future, and the next few matches definitely show that. First, Jerry Lynn would defeat Spike Dudley in what might well have been the most technical wrestling match of Spike's entire ECW career, then CW Anderson would beat Super Crazy, who himself had been pushed earlier in the year, winning the TV title after RVD gave it up due to injury. Next on the card though, a newer addition to the roster would get a big win over a veteran, and like with many things in ECW, it’s not quite that simple.


The match was originally set to be Nova vs EZ Money, who Tommy Dreamer notes is someone that Paul Heyman was a big fan of. EZ had joined the company in June, and would quickly become a regular on shows. He would wrestle with Nova for a few minutes, before blood started pouring from Nova’s ear, and the referee would call for the bell. Danny Doring says on the RF Video commentary that Nova was quote “doing a burst eardrum gimmick.” The Observer also notes that this was an angle, but explains that it stems from a real ear injury that Nova was dealing with. “The angle was done because if Nova needs surgery on his ear, he’ll be out six weeks, although it won’t be definite about the surgery until an exam on 1/4.”


After the match ends, Tommy Dreamer, along with two more relatively new ECW talents, Christian York and Joey Matthews, come out to check on Nova, EZ as well as his Hot commodity teammates Chris Hamrick and Julio Dinero go after them, and a six man tag breaks out. Dreamer on commentary says that he in particular was quote, “a huge fan” of York and Matthews, and said that he thought of them as the next top tag team act. Matthews would achieve quite a bit of success in WWE in a different team, with Johnny Nitro as MNM, while it would take York a fair bit longer to eventually get signed by TNA in 2012. The six men have an absolute brawl of a match, with even Tommy Dreamer attempting a dive, and catching his feet on the top rope on the way over. The match would end with EZ Money getting a pinfall victory over Dreamer, but not without interference from CW Anderson, Tommy’s next opponent at Guilty as Charged.


The Main Event


Perhaps the most notable of all the matches that night was the main event, which was originally set to be Justin Credible challenging Steve Corino for the ECW World title. There’s just one problem though, ever since Massacre on 34th Street, Sandman had possession of the title belt. After a very long entrance which as usual got through the whole of his Metallica song, Sandman gets on the microphone and demands that the match be made a three way dance. He does make a valid point, how are the other two going to fight for the belt if he is wearing it?


When I told you about Sandman stealing the belt at the last pay per view, I said that it would be worth remembering for later. I was referring to a very nerdy detail that I actually first noticed when making my ECW arena video last year. On June 8th 1993, the very first episode of television from the ECW arena aired, and on that night Don Muraco would defend the ECW title against the Sandman. Fast forward to the final ever ECW match in the same building, and the Sandman is challenging for that same, albeit different looking title. This time though, he was wearing the belt to the ring despite not being the champion. I did say it was a nerdy thing to point out.


The match itself is actually fairly short for a main event, with Justin Credible getting eliminated not very long in. Steve Corino takes a scary looking superplex onto a guardrail propped up by chairs. After this, Justin attempts to whip Corino into the ropes where Francine, who he wasn’t getting along with, was set to crack Corino with a cane. Steve reverses the whip though, and Francine hits her own client, leading to another caning from Sandman, and old school expulsion from Corino to take Justin out of the match. On his way out of the arena, Francine can be heard shouting at Justin that he screwed it up.


It’s almost fitting in a way that this match and the night ended with a callback to a classic ECW moment. The Sandman, much like Terry Funk did at Hardcore Heaven ‘94, would request chairs be thrown into the ring, and the fans would gladly oblige. Luckily for Steve Corino though, he was more fortunate than poor Rocco Rock who took the brunt of it by laying in the ring while the chairs flew back in ‘94, and he had the good sense to get out of there until the chairs stopped coming.


Afterwards he and Sandman are left with a big stack of chairs in the ring, and spend the final few minutes staggering and slipping on them. Sadman misses a Rolling Rock, diving off the top rope and crashing into the pile of chairs. When he gets up, Corino hits Old School expulsion, a sort of variant on the Twist of Fate. After a distraction from Jack Victory, Corino hits Sandman with a cowbell, which he carried as a reference to his brutal bullrope match with Dusty Rhodes earlier in the year. He then pins Sandman to win the match. Corino wouldn’t get his belt back though, as Justin comes back to Corino, and Sandman gets the upper hand in the end with his cane. All of this was planned to build towards Guilty as Charged, but for now the show ends quite fittingly with Sandman celebrating with the fans, world title belt in one hand and his cane in the other. Clearly from the optimistic booking plans ECW, weren’t expecting this to be their final show there, but what an appropriate ending knowing that it was.


Aftermath


After all the talk from some wrestlers about boycotting the show, it’s not clear if anyone actually did, though some wrestlers weren’t there for other reasons. The Observer (Jan 1st) notes that Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger, Jim Mitchell, Dawn Marie weren’t there as they were at Swinger’s wedding, and New Jack wasn’t because he had a falling out with Paul Heyman. It had been reported a week earlier that the dispute had come over New Jack working the Jersey All Pro show at the ECW arena. He would effectively be gone from the company, with his last ECW match being against Angel on the non-pay per view portion of Massacre on 34th Street, which would also air on Hardcore TV. The other notable name that Dave mentions is Kid Kash, who had suffered broken ribs at the Elks Lodge show, and was advised not to work.


While the company technically sold out seated tickets for Holiday Hell, they were disappointed by the turnout afterwards. As reported in Figure Four Weekly, “It was said to be a full house, but attendance was down a bit since there weren’t people standing around everywhere.” The Observer would report that this was “similar to Queens in that every seat was packed, but there was no overflow, with the crowd estimated at about 1,000.” Critical reception seems to have been best summarized by Bryan Alvarez, who said he had heard it called “a decent show with nothing spectacular happening save for a chair-throwing incident in the main event.”


Backstage at the ECW arena, the wrestlers did in fact get their cheques this time, however there would be a catch. “The wrestlers were given paychecks covering two weeks on Dec. 23. The checks were post-dated to Dec. 27, meaning the wrestlers weren't allowed to cash them before the Christmas holiday. Even with the latest checks, the company is still six weeks behind on paying the wrestlers.” While the wrestlers would again get paid at Guilty as Charged, this would still leave them several weeks behind on pay, as they would be until the company closed. Tommy Dreamer on the RF Video commentary made sure to point out that these were very difficult times for many on the ECW roster, but the best they could do was continue to hope that the company would pull through the difficult times, like they had done before.


On January 6th, the Torch would report something that really began to spell the end for the company, as “a spokesperson for MSG network says ECW’s syndicated show is not scheduled to air on January 6th. ECW has paid a fee to air the show throughout it’s run,” While at the time Heyman was telling people that it would all be resolved, this would mark the official end for Hardcore TV, as the December 30th show would be the last to air anywhere. The timing of this was particularly awful, as it meant that their episode set to air the day before the next pay per view wouldn’t air. While this might not have much of an effect on Guilty as Charged itself, as Bryan Alvarez put it, “I think if ECW fans tuned into MSG Saturday night and found a George Foreman Grill infomercial, they’d still buy the PPV the next afternoon, but the perception issue is what is really important. Not having a show in that slot would just reiterate to fans that the company is in such bad shape that they couldn’t even afford to air their TV show the night before a PPV in the market the PPV is airing from.”


The future would continue to look bleak for ECW, but there was one last big show before the end came. On January 7th, the company would return to the Hammerstein Ballroom, selling it out one final time for Guilty as Charged. Two and a half thousand fans would see the Sandman win the ECW World title officially, only for it to be ripped away from him by a challenger he had been in a heated feud with all year, when Rhino defeated him for that title. Also on the show, Tommy Dreamer would have what he called in 2013 one of his all time favourite matches, defeating CW Anderson in an I Quit match. On the RF Video commentary for Holiday Hell, Dreamer says that Anderson was quote, “the next guy in line to get a push,” and sadly this wouldn’t come anywhere else for the then thirty year old Anderson.


Ending


I’ve been trying hard to find a way to not end this video on a depressing note, and the best one I can find is that for the average fan viewing on pay per view at least, ECW went out with a bang at Guilty as Charged. For one final night, arguably until One Night Stand, ECW felt like a hot promotion with dedicated fans, and a roster who was ready to show the world who they are. This was helped immensely by Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn closing the show not with a classic like they had before, but with a match that made the fans happy.

On screen, ECW was still presenting the product that they always had, with the stars they had left and a new crop of wrestlers that Paul Heyman had hoped would take them into 2001, many of whom would go on to have long careers. Despite my covering of some quite bleak times in this video, RVD’s reception as he walked into the Hammerstein is the positive side of how we can remember the end of ECW, with a roaring crowd, loudly shouting obscenities at Cyrus.


Sources:

Dec 3rd

PWT Dec 9th Meeting after 34th https://members.pwtorch.com/torchbackissues00/torch631/T631ECWNews.html

PWT Dec 23rd Not paid in Queens https://members.pwtorch.com/torchbackissues00/torch633/T633ECWNews.html

Dec 23rd

PWT Dec 30th 2000 Wrestlers paid poorly, show review https://members.pwtorch.com/torchbackissues00/torch634/T634ECWNews.html

WON January 1st 2001 - Show report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/january-1-2001-wrestling-observer-newsletter-candidates-wrestler-year/

FFW Jan 1st Show report https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w288-brief-history-recent-backstage-fights-january-1-2001-88731/

PWT Jan 6th Last HTV

The Story of ECW Holiday Hell 1993 - Funk vs Sabu, Bad Explosions and more

 

When I say the letters ‘ECW’ and the word ‘December’, I know what likely comes to mind first. And no, we’re not covering that here. Beyond the agonizing December to Dismember put on by WWE’s version, ECW had a few of their own memorable events in this month, and I wanted to highlight a few of them this December.




They never really did a Christmas show, and so this isn’t exactly a Christmas video either. It’s a deeper look into one of the bigger shows of ECW’s early years, the not quite extreme yet years. It’s a closer look at the first Eastern Championship Wrestling presented Holiday Hell.




In this video, we’ll look at Holiday Hell 1993, also known as the Body Count. We’ll look at some of the more notable matches on the card, the wrestlers who were involved, and all of the stories that surround this event, including two very bizarre stipulations on the card.





1993




The first Holiday Hell took place in the ECW arena, just six months after the first ever wrestling card at the now famous venue. This event is also just over two months into Paul Heyman's time as booker of ECW, after he took over from Eddie Gilbert in mid-September.

By the time of December 1993, ECW was starting to get more coverage in the newsletters, which Tod Gordon was aiming for, as it gave the company more exposure outside of ECW’s local area. The Pro Wrestling Torch was reporting ECW updates in their ‘regional’ section among other promotions of a similar size like Smokey Mountain Wrestling, while the Observer would print what Dave Meltzer calls in the January 3rd 1994 edition, “sketchy reports” from attendees of the shows. As time went on Tod would grow to despise Dave and the Observer specifically, because Tod perceived him as burying the company at every opportunity. I haven’t read enough Observers to know how true that is, but Dave and Wade Keller are both fairly critical in the later years, especially of the pay per views. Not long after Holiday Hell, it seems that Tod would get a measure of what he wanted, as the January 8th issue of the Torch would lead with an interview with Tod Gordon on the front page, where he talks in detail about Holiday Hell ‘93, and ECW more generally. The interview would actually go out in several parts, and no doubt gained ECW some of the attention that Tod wanted. I’ll keep referring back to this interview, as Tod has some interesting things to add along the way. Of Holiday Hell 93, Wade Keller writes that the show was ECW’s biggest to date, with the Observer clarifying that it drew twelve hundred fans, their second biggest crowd yet, with the highest being the first November to Remember a month earlier. As Dave points out though, many of those fans didn’t leave happy at all, largely due to the ‘Body Count’ match near the end of the card. Before we get to that though, what ECW would later become was being formed early in the card.




Debuting stars




The first match of the night, which would also be the first to air on TV, featured two relative newcomers. The rather generic looking and named Chad Austin would score a quick pinfall over The Pitbull. Yes the Pitbull, as in only one Pitbull. When this aired on TV, Matty in the House, the show's host of sorts would call this a debut, but that's not quite accurate. Gary Wolfe, later known as Pitbull number one, had appeared in ECW very early in the company’s history, in April and May of ‘92. His most notable match was a battle royal on April 25th to determine who would compete to become the first ECW heavyweight champion, won by Jimmy Snuka that same night. As best I can tell though, this may have been Wolfe’s television debut for the company, as his early appearances pre-date Hardcore TV.




In Tod Gordon’s Torch Talk interview in January, when asked about what fan reactions surprised him, Tod comments on something that happened after this match. When Chad Austin gets the surprise pin, the Pitbull goes right back to attacking him, leading the Sandman to come out and make the save. According to Tod, the fans didn’t quite react how he expected them to. “He made the save and the entire audience started yelling "Sandman sucks." This is one of our babyfaces here who's been around forever. He's got a female valet who they all love. He came out and they wanted to see this guy keep beating the jobber up.” Tod’s explanation for this at the time appears to be that it’s the Philly crowd, and they’re different from all the others. ”Sometimes, I say to myself, wow, even I didn't think they were that vicious. It's a different kind of town. You can't book Philadelphia the way you book the rest of the country. It just can't be done.” While he says this in the interview, it seems as though Tod recognised that something needed to change with the Sandman. At Tod’s suggestion, this would eventually lead to him vastly changing his character in 1994, really kicking off in February while feuding with Tommy Cairo, and separating on camera from his real life spouse Peaches.




Going from a TV debut to an actual debut, the next match would include a future ECW World champion, who had spent some time in WCW, but had also spent a lot of his young career in Japan. He was most known in Japanese promotion FMW as The Gladiator, but was making his name in ECW as Mike Awesome, or as the PW Torch’s reviewer calls him “Awesome Mike”, so he clearly made an impression then. To be fair though, the ring announcer refers to him after the match as “Awesome Mike Awesome,” so that might be where the reviewer got it from. Early in his career, Mike had used that name in USWA in Memphis, and even for a few matches with WCW, apart from one match in 1989, where he is weirdly billed just as ‘The Pro’.




On this night, Mike would have a ten minute match with Randy Starr, which wouldn’t air on television in full, but a music video set to Dive by Nirvana would show highlights of Awesome destroying Randy Starr. Mike would stay in ECW for a few more matches before heading back to FMW, including a Television title match in March. After a handful more appearances, Awesome Mike wouldn’t return to the US until a WWF tryout in December 1996, where he would face another future ECW heavyweight champion in Justin Credible, kind of. He would have another handful of matches in ECW in early ‘97, but he wouldn’t become a full time part of the roster until around Summer 1998.




ECW Heavyweight Championship




Jumping ahead on the card to third from the end, we would have the Heavyweight title match, where Terry Funk would become the eighth ECW champion. Airing on December 28th, Funk would defeat Sabu for the title, in a match that was lauded as the best of the night. For reasons we’ll get into soon, that’s a lower bar than it sounds like. First let’s briefly go through the events that led to Sabu defending against Funk.




Sabu would wrestle his first match in ECW on October 1st 1993 against the also debuting Tazmaniac. He would be shot straight to the top of the card, becoming the Heavyweight champion the very next night, beating Shane Douglas thanks to a distraction by Paul E. Dangerously. When this aired on Hardcore TV, Heyman vowed to dominate ECW, but Tod Gordon would start throwing spanners in the works straight away. He announced that at November to Remember, their next major event, Terry Funk’s Television title and Sabu’s Heavyweight title would be on the line in a dream partners tag team match, with someone losing their gold. On the night Sabu would team with Road Warrior Hawk, and Funk with King Kong Bundy, who would turn on Funk giving Sabu and Paul, both of ECW’s singles titles. This would lead to a one on one rematch with no disqualifications being set for Holiday Hell between Terry Funk and Sabu.




You might also be interested to know that apart from their tag team match, Funk and Sabu had met in the ring two previous times not that much earlier. In August ‘93 Sabu and Funk had what may have been their first meeting for FMW in Japan. In a Stretcher tag team death match, Funk would team up with Tarzan Goto to defeat Sabu and his Uncle, The Sheik. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that this match is, frankly, insane. For a start, before the opening bell rings the Sheik walks to the ring with a torch that’s already alight, and is waving it around pretty indiscriminately. Despite this, Funk brings the fight to him, while Sabu and Goto fight, quickly making it out to ringside too. Weirdly, the safest place in the whole building is the ring. Eventually some order is restored, and there is a big cheer when Funk gets tagged in to face Sabu, which brings the Sheik in with a fork. Sheik throws one of his famous fireballs at Terry, but it seems to hurt Sabu too who was standing behind holding Funk in place. The match ends after only a few minutes, when Funk hits Sabu with two DDT’s and a piledriver onto a chair, and the referee decides that he can’t continue. Nothing is resolved however, as all four men take the fight into the crowd, the terrified looking crowd.




The next time Sabu and Funk would share the ring would be a bit more reserved, just a bit, mainly because the Sheik isn’t there. On November 6th, the two had a one on one match in the main event for American Commonwealth Wrestling in Steelton Pennsylvania. The short lived ACW was as the Observer notes, an NWA territory, which ran in Philadelphia and even booked ECW talent, with Shane Douglas also working for them. It's worth noting that at this point ECW was also an NWA territory, as the breakup would happen later in 1994. In Tod's Torch interview, he talks about a recent dispute between he and President of the NWA Dennis Coraluzzo, where he claims that Dennis broke “a gentleman’s agreement that I would stay out of Jersey and he would stay out of Philly when we first got started.” To be clear, Tod doesn't say that this is ACW, only mentioning “a card in Philadelphia here and he’s using someone else as a front for him.” ACW is noted in the newsletters as NWA affiliated, and so it could well be the same. To make things more interesting, the first time singles meeting of Funk and Sabu would actually be a front page story in the November 13th Torch, a fact that Tod was also not going to like. “So of course I got angry. There was some heat there and then Dennis apologized and we sort of worked things out. Now I think he’s doing a lot of out–of–state work, such as in Minneapolis and other places.” Tod does note though that if any other promoter had started running near him he wouldn’t have had as much of an issue, it was more because he and Dennis had an agreement that he felt had been broken. As noted, this would take place several months before ECW would officially break away from the NWA, and Shane Douglas’ would throw down the NWA World title belt in the ring that August, but if this is part of the story of ECW breaking ties with the NWA, it's a less talked about part today.




On the night of December 26th, Paul E Dangerously would bring both of Sabu’s titles to the ring, while the champion himself is wheeled out on a trolley, unchained and allowed into the ring. Unlike at November to Remember, Terry Funk comes to the ring with backup that he can trust. Over the weeks prior he had formed an alliance with Axl and Ian Rotten, who he calls his ‘few good men’, who were there to provide him some support if things got out of hand. The match begins and is chaotic from the opening bell, with Sabu chasing Funk, and going on the attack very early on, though Funk quickly outfights him. We aren’t shown the full match, only highlights mostly of Sabu looking dangerous. Things start to go out of control when Sabu throws the referee into a table and attacks Terry’s few good men, even doing a moonsault on them to the outside. With the referee still down, Shane Douglas comes in to get some revenge on Sabu, allowing Terry Funk to win the match and the championship. This would also begin the set up for February’s big main event, but we’ll get to that at the end of this video.




Terry wouldn’t be the ECW champion for long, losing it to Shane Douglas in a War Games match in March, but in the process he would bring prominence to a new type of match, and would help towards making credible main eventers out of Shane and Sabu. Terry Funk was perhaps more valuable to the ECW locker room than he was in their ring, as Tod Gordon explains in the Torch. “One thing about Paul. He is smart enough to know that he doesn't know everything. And he won't hesitate to announce before every show when he gets the boys together, "Hey, Terry Funk's in the dressing room, Kevin Sullivan's in the dressing room. Jimmy Snuka's in the dressing room. If you have a question about anything about any of your matches, go ask them, learn from the masters." And you know what, those three guys will spend an hour talking to anybody, whether they know them or not. They'll go over the psychology of a match.”




Body Count




And now we get to perhaps the most infamous bout of the night, the Body Count match between Pat Tanaka and Rocco Rock. This match was part of the ongoing feud between the Public Enemy and Bad Company, with a bit of a weird twist. The match would come about after the rivalry had become so intense that the law was involved.




The November 16th episode of Hardcore TV ends with Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka being viciously attacked backstage by the Public Enemy. Paul Diamond is strangled by Grunge with a coat hanger, while Rocco Rock injures Pat Tanaka with a crowbar, in a way that makes it deliberately hard for us to see what's going on clearly. On the next week’s episode, we’re shown the Public Enemy getting arrested and taken away. While Johnny Grunge is being loaded into the police car, he can be heard requesting the cell next to Vince, who was in the midst of the steroid trial at the time. Next we see a statement given by a police officer who claims that Tanaka suffered three broken ribs and a fractured tibia. Incidentally, the police officer is standing in front of a world map that looks very similar to the US map that Tod Gordon would sit in front of at ECW headquarters. Instead of looking like a police statement, the segment made him look like he was a guest act on Weekend Update.




Later in the same episode, Matty in the House announces that fans who call the ECW Hotline would get a chance to vote for the main event of Holiday Hell. He specifies that it can be any two wrestlers except the Public Enemy because quote, “as of right now, we do not know their legal status.” This would be a strange thing to promote anyway as it’s near impossible to put together, but it’s especially odd given that the main event would end up being a battle royal anyway. A week later Joey Styles on special assignment delivers what is quite frankly a pretty well done promo. He states that the attack on Bad Company went beyond what is reasonable to expect in professional wrestling. He says that ECW simply does not know how to handle the situation, hinting that something unconventional will be coming. The aim of what Joey is saying is simple, the situation has already gotten dangerous, and that whatever is coming next, you won’t want to miss.




On December 7th, ECW airs a warning that the following graphic footage was shot in Pennsylvania state prison, and that parental discretion is advised. What follows is a grittier version of the Public Enemy than fans more familiar with their later career would be used to. In the video, Rocco Rock promised that the two will be free before Christmas, and lays out the challenge for the Body Count match, noting that it is the name for a showdown between two prisoners. To quote the TNA legend Scott Hudson, the rules are really quite simple. As Rocco Rock is the one who injured Tanaka, the match itself would be between those two, while the tag team partner of each man, Paul Diamond and Johnny Grunge, would be locked in cages that were set to blow up after fifteen minutes. Whoever won the match before that time would earn the key to unlock their partner's cage, which was the only way to save them, and doom the opponent's partner. From here on, the Body Count match was advertised a great deal on Hardcore TV in the weeks leading up to the event. Strangely though, there wouldn’t be a lot of mentions of the match after the event, or any at all frankly. I wonder why?




On May 3rd 1993, Terry Funk and Atsushi Onita took part in a very famous exploding barbed wire death match in Japan, one that would cause many a US promoter, as I’ve talked a bit about on this channel before, to want to recreate it in America. The Body Count match may be one of the earliest attempts of doing this, and quite frankly, it didn’t go well. As stated on the website Lost Media Wiki, a site which records the existence of media that we know exists but isn’t publicly available, “Because of the universally negative reception among fans in attendance and ECW personnel, the match and aftermath were never aired on ECW television, despite being planned to air, and was never mentioned again. If footage still exists, it most likely is located somewhere within WWE's vaults, as WWE purchased ECW's assets and tape library in January 2003.” That probably means that we can expect to see it on the WWE Vault channel someday. According to those sketchy reports in the Observer, while the fans were expecting some sort of FMW-like explosion, what they got was very different, described as “flares set off like in every major AAA ring entrance, and a tape played over the p.a. of an explosion.” Dave also notes that many fans were angry, and apparently wanted refunds. They essentially got flash paper, the kind wrestlers have used, and occasionally botched to create fireballs. The Torch doesn’t say much about the match, other than calling it a slow paced brawl. Of the post match, Chris Forbes’ live report just says “The cage explosion was a joke.”




Tod Gordon gives a quite detailed explanation of what went wrong to the Torch, blaming it on a police officer ruining the special effects. He says that he thought it would add to the drama if a real police officer placed Johnny Grunge in his cage, but in doing so, the officer “stepped on the bowl of gunpowder and shot it completely across the floor. He destroyed what could have been a very nice explosion and turned it into nothing more than a pretty large flame.” Tod goes further in explaining what it felt like for the stunt to go wrong, and to be at ringside while it happened. He was even the one who led the countdown. “I realize you can’t bat a thousand, but the fans were undoubtedly and rightfully upset. I had no comeback.” Perhaps benefitting from having a few weeks to reflect on what went wrong, Tod at least had a good attitude going forward. He displays confidence in his product that the fans they disappointed would come back next time. “Unfortunately, everybody walked away remembering that. Then again, if they’re watching TV, they’re reminded of the good from the show. They’re realizing, even if I did mess up, we’ll make it up. We’ll keep giving them consistently a good product.” We’ll see whether they did or not, but first it’s time for the main event of the show.




Lights Out




The Body Count match wasn’t the only bout on the night with an interesting stipulation, and by interesting I mean ill advised and never done again. The show would close with a Light’s Out battle Royal, where the winner would win a very seasonal prize for right after Christmas, a Turkey stuffed with hundred dollar bills. If you ever wondered where Tony Khan got the idea for all those prize money matches from, it could well be right here. According to Tod in his Torch interview, this match has a very interesting back story inspired by a mishap at November to Remember, and the quick thinking of Paul Heyman in a crisis. During the show, the ECW arena would suffer a power failure, and “Just like that, that quickly, Paul with his creativity started sending out wrestler after wrestler while the lights are out. Next thing you know, we have 30 people in the ring with chairs killing each other and when the lights came back on, the place went crazy.”




All of this would play out on the December 14th episode of Hardcore TV with the show going to static. When we came back, Joey Styles in the eagles nest was panicking because even his lights had gone out. I assume his segments were taped some time after the show somewhere not in the ECW arena, and if you think that then this comes across as quite funny. We were supposed to see a match between Chad Austin and Mr. Hughes, but the next time we see the ring again a multi man brawl has erupted. The whole scene is prolonged mayhem, and the show goes off the air with no resolution to it. There are however, plenty of interactions between wrestlers that were set to face off at Holiday Hell, most notably Mr. Hughes and the Sandman, as well as Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas.




Unlike the modern use of the term “lights out”, another way of saying “unsanctioned”, the lights in the ECW arena were literally turned off for the match, while a spotlight gave hints at the chaos going on. Generally speaking, this doesn’t make for great TV, which is likely why this never aired. It did make me wonder if in the building it was anything like if you ever went to a WWE arena and saw the likes of Undertaker or Bray Wyatt make their entrance, where due to the nature of arenas and safety rules, it isn’t quite as dark as what comes across on television. If this is the case, maybe the fans in the building maybe had more of a clue what was going on than we would watching on TV. This does, admittedly, feel like a bit of an anticlimactic ending to Holiday Hell 1993, but thankfully, the future was brighter for ECW in 1994. Do you see what I did there? Brighter? Sorry.




Aftermath




As I mentioned earlier, a lot of fans left the ECW arena that night not happy, mostly due to the failed promise that was the Body Count match. I was interested to know whether or not this had an effect on attendance for the next show, a television taping set for January 7th, which promised a big main event of Shane Douglas challenging Terry Funk for the ECW title, but it turns out we’ll never know. In the week following this event, the Torch describes terrible weather conditions on the night, so bad that the show ended up taking place a day later. It was no doubt harder to inform fans that the show had been delayed than it would be today, and while ECW tried to do this mainly through their hotline, the Torch says that “several hundred fans showed up.” I assume that Wade is referring to fans who were there on the wrong day, because this conflicts with the Observer saying that the turnout for the following night's taping was a lot lower than this. “ECW had to move its TV taping from 1/7 to 1/8 because of bad weather, and the result was taping before 150 fans, reportedly less than 100 paid.” To look at the episodes that were taped on this night, the ECW arena looks emptier than it ever has since.




Fortunately for Tod Gordon and the company, their string of bad luck would end with their next event at the ECW arena on February 5th. Attendance shot back up from the disaster in January, with thirteen hundred fans reported, which if true tops Holiday Hell and is similar to the record holding November to Remember. The show is also significant as it would become known as ‘The Night the Line was crossed,’ with a main event of Terry Funk versus Shane Douglas versus Sabu, the first ever three way dance, a match ECW would become famous for.




On February 14th, Tod received more of the attention he had wanted from the newsletters, as ECW would for the first time be Dave Meltzer's cover story of the week’s Observer. Initially it may seem like this was not of their own merit, with Dave opening by pointing out that that week WWF was on tour in Europe with all of their television pre-taped, and WCW had no major events to speak of, leaving ECW arguably number one by default. Dave does note though, that the promotion’s February 5th show had really made a good impression, calling it “the best house show from any promotion in years in Philadelphia , and what seems to have been the most highly regarded house show in North America so far this year”. If you’re curious like I was about the house shows in Philadelphia part, that claim covers thirty two WWF events and twenty by WCW in just the 90’s up to that point. Meltzer then downplays this by saying it’s fainter praise than it sounds, and I’m starting to see Tod’s point of view about the Observer a bit more. Dave then moves on to write about the other major American promotions and their house show business, but makes a point of how highly praised the Funk, Sabu and Douglas Three Way Dance was first.




These were definitely important times for the still young ECW. While ‘93 had been a mixed bag of an ending, they were only going to grow bigger in 1994. The new year was looking up, and the February 5th show, The Night the Line was Crossed, turned out to be just the start.







Sources:

1993

PWT Dec 25th 93 results https://members.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/1993digitalpdfnewsletters/article_77313.shtml

WON Jan 3rd 94 sketchy report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/jan-3-1994-observer-newsletter-flair-beats-vader-starrcade-93-huge/

PWT Jan 1 94 Live report, Chris Forbes https://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/members/uploads/8/260TorchNewsletterPDF.pdf




PWT Nov 13th Sabu vs Funk https://members.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/1993digitalpdfnewsletters/article_76311.shtml




PWT Jan 8th 94 Tod Gordon interview https://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/members/uploads/8/261TorchNewsletterPDF.pdf

PWT Jan 15th interview P2 https://members.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/1994pwtorchnewsletters/article_78274.shtml





WON Feb 14th Cover story https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/feb-14-1994-observer-newsletter-first-ever-ecw-cover-story-new-wcw/

Eddie Guerrero's Timeline: From Early Career to ECW

 

Just over twenty years ago, we lost a legend in Eddie Guerrero. A wrestler that to me, had versatility and range beyond anybody else. He could be deadly serious, or the funniest person on any show. He could convincingly embroil himself in an intense custody battle, a violent fight in a car park, or even shoot poo at the Big Show. He could also inspire many who came after him, by defeating personal demons to come back and raise the WWE championship above his head. Those are Eddie’s latter years, but what about his early career?




In this video, we'll look at the timeline of Eddie Guerrero’s career, up to the point where he worked regularly in the US. We’ll look at the newsletters to see what was reported about him at the time, and his autobiography published in 2005, and his RF Video shoot interview from 2001. I’ll point out any interesting stories and quotes that I find along the way.




This video was originally going to be similar to others I’ve made on this channel before, all about how Eddie got to ECW. The more I read and watched though, the more I wanted to cover, so we’re going a bit further back to when Eddie first started getting noticed internationally. It’ll be a potted history with some gaps, but hopefully there’ll be some things you didn’t know before.




Cracking America

As far as the major promotions in America, beginning his career in 1986, Eddie hadn’t had much exposure yet by the 1990’s. The closest he’d come was a match for WCW which took place at Center Stage in Atlanta, against Terry Funk in 1989. In trying to find out more about this match, I noticed that around this time Eddie’s family members, Mando, Hector and Chavo were all working for the AWA, but Eddie never did. Being the youngest of the four by quite a large margin, and having started his in ring career a decade after his brothers, it could be that Eddie was sent out to paddle his own canoe when it came to larger companies. He did work with his brothers though, winning trios titles with Chavo and Mando in ‘89, his first of many titles. In 2001 he described this as a great way to gain experience. “I learned a lot about the business, I learned a lot about wrestling. My brother Chavo taught me a lot about psychology.”




Having taken a year away from the ring, not wrestling at all in 1988 while nursing a back injury and also doing some acting work, yes, including Road House, this was actually one of Terry Funk’s first matches back, and his first for World Championship Wrestling. Jim Ross on commentary makes sure to point out Eddie’s family lineage, with all of his brothers having wrestled there before Ted Turner bought the company. As the match begins, the crowd loudly chants for Ric Flair, who Funk had brutally attacked a few days earlier at Wrestle War ‘89. While Eddie gets to look impressive, evading Funk in flashy ways and even hitting some lucha influenced offence, including a dive from the top rope to the floor, the match is designed to make Funk look like as much of a villain as possible. Terry at one point picks up Eddie, and launches him over the top rope to the floor, leaving Jim Ross wondering if the referee is too intimidated to disqualify Funk, as would have been the rule at the time. Similar to what he did to Ric Flair, Funk hits a piledriver on the floor, throws Eddie back into the ring, and then pins him with a big smile on his face. Despite looking good in the match, Eddie is in the role of the enhancement talent here, the same place many of the greats start their career, but nothing more would come of this for him.




In 1991, Eddie would make his only other appearance for WCW before joining properly in ‘95, a dark match before the Wrestle War pay per view from Phoenix Arizona. He would compete in a tag match, teaming with Ultraman, against Huichol and Rudy Boy Gonzales. It seems that for the live crowd, this match wasn’t as well received as it could have been, and it may not have been the fault of anyone in the ring. “There was a collective groan when the match started among the fans. On all the local TV and radio ads, they plugged a “lucha libre” match to draw the Hispanic population but without listing any names, I can’t see how that drew anyone.”




This dark match isn’t even mentioned in the Pro Wrestling Torch’s coverage of the event, and it seems that we only have a live report in the Observer because Dave Meltzer attended the event live. He claims that the match got off to a patchy start. “However, as the match progressed, there were enough hot moves that the people got into it and it turned into a very entertaining match.” Eddie would get the pin to win the match following a frankensteiner, and “All four got a very nice cheer when it was over.” This end remark might sound a bit patronizing if not compared to the groan that Dave perceived at the start. Wrestle War ‘91 would turn out to be an impressive card for Eddie to have been on. As well as being very well received by fans, it would actually win Best Major Wrestling Show for that year in the Observer awards. I don’t normally draw any attention to these, but they’ll become more important later. One more thing to note about Eddy’s early career is something I’d wondered about for a long time. Sometimes you see this spelling of his name, and he says in his book that his dad Gory told him to spell it differently to make him stand out. Eddie adds that he actually preferred it being spelled this way.




New Japan




In 1992, with nothing coming after the well received dark match, Eddie would go on to achieve some success in New Japan Pro Wrestling, completing regular tours there. In his book Eddie stresses that he always had ambitions to go there. Between them his brothers had wrestled for FMW, All Japan and New Japan, but the reason was nothing to do with them. “Growing up I dreamed of going to Japan. I knew that for smaller wrestlers like me, the World Wrestling Federation wasn’t even a possibility. I had accepted in my mind that I wasn’t going to wrestle in the United States. If I was going to have any success as a wrestler, it was going to be in Mexico or Japan.” He says that it was Negro Casas who was the most supportive of him going there, as he would favourably compare Eddie’s style to the likes of Jushin Liger, but it was New Japan mainstay Black Cat who got him into the company. “Negro Casas recommended me to Black Cat, who was working for New Japan at the time, Cat put me over to the office, and they decided to give me a shot in Jushin Liger’s annual Best of the Super Juniors tournament.”




In an interview with RF Video in December 2001, Eddie says his brothers were supportive in their own way ahead of his first tour in Japan. “My brothers scared me, they said “man you better get in shape and you better do this and that.” So I was running about three miles a day in the desert, not even on the road through the dunes and stuff, and working out every day like a mad man.”




Initially using his own name, Eddie didn’t fare brilliantly. He would win only two matches in the tournament against Too Cold Scorpio and Koji Kanemoto, leaving him with four points at the end. As Eddie notes, (p75) this is pretty normal for newcomers to the tournament. Many a wrestler who went on to be a big star, like future IWGP champion and G1 Climax winner Tetsuya Naito for example, would also end with four points in both of his best of the super Juniors in 2007 and 8. In the year after he would return under the mask of Black Tiger II, and would do much better scoring twelve, the second highest points, and he would repeat this in 1994, the first year it would be known as Best of the Super Juniors.




While Eddie would never win a championship in New Japan nor win a tournament. According to him though he gained something that he valued much more. He was able to have matches with, and gain experience from, some of the best wrestlers from around the world who competed at a similar size and style to him. “New Japan drew from everywhere. They’d get the best wrestlers from Japan, from Mexico, from Europe, from America. When you’re given the opportunity to work with the finest wrestlers in the world, it forces you to reach deep into yourself to rise up to their level.” Among the amazing wrestlers he shared the ring with in Japan, one man that he would become very familiar with was Dean Malenko, who Eddie would wrestle for the first time in the ‘93 Best of the Super Juniors, and would face many more times all over the world, including in their famous exit from ECW.




In his book, Eddie writes about how Japan was a massively positive influence on him personally, saying that the (p77) “experience really elevated his (my) confidence.” It also had a very useful effect on his career. (p77) “All of a sudden, doors started opening for me. In Mexico, it’s a huge deal to have worked in Japan. It says to everybody “this guy must be good.” The fact that I was working for New Japan made it even more of a big deal. I wasn’t just working for some small-time promotion. That elevated my status even higher.”




In September 1993, Eddie would be given an interesting new gimmick. In his RF video interview, he notes that the character came about because of the third person to portray Tiger Mask, Koji Kanemoto. “At that time they were having Kanemoto do the Tiger Mask, and they just wanted to bring back some of his old rivals.” He also notes that they wanted someone else originally, Fit Finlay, who would be more in keeping with the original Black Tiger, English wrestler Mark ‘Rollerball’ Rocco. Finlay apparently turned the booking down, and so Eddie was chosen as he says he had great chemistry with Kanemoto.




In March 2002 during Eddie's brief time away from WWE, Eddie would be part of a rather odd visual, as he would team up with Silver King, who took the mantle of Black Tiger after Guerrero. Seeing the two standing next to each other before the bell is hardly like seeing two Doink the Clowns, or Mick Foley's gimmicks stood next to each other I’ll admit, but an interesting pairing nonetheless. While Eddie would comment in his book that he loved his time as Black Tiger, both due to the quality of opponents he faced, and the gimmick itself, it wasn’t actually the first time he’d been given a mask to wear, and the first time he wasn’t quite so keen on.




AAA




In November 1992, despite making his career so far in CMLL, Eddie would jump to the relatively new AAA. Earlier in the year, CMLL had Eddie start wrestling under a mask as Mascara Magica. In 2001 Eddie says that he had nothing to do with creating the gimmick, rather it was CMLL who wanted it. After AAA was formed in early 92’, “they wanted personalities, so they had an artist come up with all these designs and that was one of them.” There was just one problem, Eddie absolutely hated it. This was before Eddie would become Black Tiger, and so wrestling under a mask was new to him. In his book he explains why Black Tiger was so different to him, and why he preferred wearing the mask in Japan. “When I worked in Mexico as Mascara Magica, my identity was pretty much an open secret. This time, wearing the Black Tiger mask allowed me to let loose in a way that I’d never done before. The mask allowed me to escape the shadow of my family.” He goes on to describe the mask as giving him a sense of freedom, allowing him to quote (p92) “unleash his inner heel.”




Writing about Mascara Magica, he says, (p78) “I knew I was in trouble the minute I was told they wanted me to work babyface under a mask. It wasn’t like there was a lot to the angle - basically, the mask was supposed to be magical. That’s about it. To this day I don’t know what the hell they were thinking.” Eddie also notes that CMLL’s booker at the time was his cousin Javier (Llanes), but there doesn’t seem to have been any favouritism going on. “Not only did I hate wearing the mask, it felt like I was stuck in the same midcard spot. Despite Javier's promises, I was in the same position that I was as Eddy Guerrero.” He says that he was talked into making the leap by Antonio Pena and Konnan, but it sounds like it didn’t take much convincing.




Over the next few years, Eddie would spend as much as eight months of the year in Japan, returning to Mexico every six weeks or so, all the while living in El Paso Texas. It was here that he would meet and become a tag team with Love Machine, also known by his real name, Art Barr. Eddie describes Art as (p93) “a tremendous performer in every way - a ridiculously gifted wrestler.” However it wasn’t all good, as much as Eddie had nothing but praise for Art as a wrestler, he wasn’t fond of him personally, at least initially. “I thought Art was arrogant, overconfident and obnoxious. He was always bragging about how talented he was or how many autographs he had signed after a show.” This began to change when they began to hang out after shows, being two of the few English speakers working in AAA.




Once beginning their team, Art and Eddie were known as ‘American Machine’, which Eddie wasn’t happy with, saying it (p94) “just showed how Art was the star of our team.” Eventually the name would be changed, initially to ‘La Pareja Del Terror.’ “Then one night, one of the announcers said something like “those gringo’s are loco,” and all of a sudden we had a name that truly fit - ‘Los Gringos Locos.’” It still wasn’t all smooth sailing though, as Eddie notes that the two would disagree fiercely about their matches. (p95) “We were great as a tag team, but as people we just weren’t clicking. We’d have huge arguments after every match.”




Looking back in 2005, Eddie says that there may have been some jealousy there on his part. He saw himself as the better wrestler, but admits that Art was filled with personality, something he himself hadn’t put together yet. “Eventually we came to find peace. I relinquished the starring role in the ring, but in the back, I became the team leader. Art was the charisma and I was in charge of the psychology.” Los Gringos Locos would go on to be a main event act in AAA, even placed near the top of the card at major shows for the company. On November 6th 1994, WCW and AAA would co-promote When Worlds Collide from the LA Memorial Sports arena, the same venue that hosted Wrestlemania VII a few years earlier. When Worlds Collide drew an estimated thirteen thousand fans, not much lower than the Wrestlemania that was there. The night was one that Eddie would describe as (p105) “a special moment” in his career.




Los Gringos Locos would be the semi-main event of the night in a mask versus hair match against El Hijo Del Santo and Octagon. While the whole show was very well received, their match was reviewed as the best of the night, and maybe even one of the best of the year. Dave Meltzer would go even further, calling the match one of the best he had ever seen live. The Torch also praised the match, saying it “This match combined the spectacular, well–executed hot moves seen often in previous matches with a stronger storyline and more drama given the fan heat and match stipulations.” Los Gringos would lose, meaning they would have to lose their hair as per the matches stipulation, and they would cut each others off in the ring while weeping. In reality they weren’t all that sad, as Eddie notes that he haggled AAA up to paying them seven and a half grand each for their hair, though he tried to get ten, telling them that's how much his hair was worth.




Just when it seemed like Eddie and Art were set for big things, this match would be Art’s last. On November 23rd 1994, just over two weeks after When Worlds Collide, Art would be found in his home dead, thought to be from a drug induced heart attack. What makes Art’s death so shocking, is that as Wade Keller wrote, “Barr's death comes at the high point of his career. He was signed to a $5,000 per week guarantee with AAA.” He adds that Art described the match as “the high point of his career” to friends. By this time despite their rough start, Eddie and Art had grown closer, and the loss was a difficult one for Eddie to handle. “It took a long time for me to come to peace with Art’s passing. I cried every night for two or three months straight. I used to call my Mom and cry to her about how much I missed him.”




On a professional level, Eddie credits Art with perhaps one of his greatest skills, something that ended up making Eddie so beloved. In the RF interview Eddie comes across as very shy and reserved, nothing like the loud and expressive version that we saw on television, and Eddie says Art helped him develop this part of himself. “Art taught me that wrestling isn’t just about being skillful in the ring. There’s so much more to it - having a charismatic personality, telling a compelling story with your facial reactions. It was from working with Art that I started opening up and trying to be charismatic.”




Art Barr was just twenty eight years old, and though he was no saint having a very dark conviction in his past that I can’t cover in a YouTube video, many of his peers have made clear their respect for his work and his talent. In July ‘94, just a few months before his passing, Art would go with Eddie on his first tour in New Japan, wrestling under the name American Machine. According to Eddie, Art “He so impressed the office that they offered him a shot to come back and work a program with their biggest star, Jushin Thunder Liger.” According to Art’s obituary in the Torch, the only thing that delayed this was Liger suffering a knee injury. The Torch also adds that Art had served community service for his conviction, and gotten himself clean off recreational drugs, and was hoping to advance in his career, saying that “Barr's life, personally and professionally, was just beginning to hit its stride. Most involved in the business who were around him recently and many fans who saw him regularly believed he was on the verge of being one of the most influential wrestlers in the world.” As I hinted at a while ago, Art is quite a controversial figure, but one that can’t really be ignored in Eddie Guerrero’s story. He did undoubtedly have a massive influence on Eddie, really opening his eyes up to the performance aspect of wrestling and how important that is.




In early 1995, Eddie Guerrero was known to the most die hard US fans, but was by no means mainstream yet. That’s another way of saying he was known by the newsletter readers. In early 1995, he and Art won the ‘94 Wrestling Observers team of the year award by a massive margin. Though you could make a claim that this was due to Art’s passing, Eddie would also be shortlisted for several other awards on his own, including most under-rated, match of the year with the Great Sasuke in New Japan, and readers personal favourite wrestler. Also, when you look at the field under them, I wouldn’t have given it to the Heavenly Bodies either. Around this time in early 1995, there was a slight chance that Eddie could have made a return to WCW as part of a cruiserweight tournament that was being planned. The January 9th Wrestling Observer would claim that “They have a verbal deal with Antonio Pena to send in two wrestlers. Pena is looking to send in Jerry Estrada and Eddy Guerrero, although I’ve heard Bischoff didn’t want Guerrero." Eric might not have been interested, but he would be once Eddie went somewhere else first. Eddie says in his book that at the time he heard a rumour that Paul Heyman had seen Worlds Collide and wanted to bring them in, but he didn’t know at the time how true that was. “All I know is that Art heard about it and got all excited about coming to work in the states. He called me and said “They want us brother, they want us!”




ECW




A week after the awards issue, Dave Meltzer notes that Paul Heyman had in fact already tried to get Los Gringos Locos into ECW in November 1994. “ECW did a short tribute to Art Barr on television two weeks ago at the end of the show. Barr had never worked for the promotion although about one week before he died, Paul Heyman had called Barr up about he and Eddy Guerrero working with Public Enemy.” In researching for this video, I managed to find footage that may well have been Art Barr’s last interview, filmed backstage at When Worlds Collide. In this interview, Art talks about ECW and the Public Enemy, among many other tag teams, perhaps with building future matches with ECW in mind..




It may be the case though that ECW may not have been able to bring Eddie and Art in anyway, thanks to a deal in place with Ron Skoler, president of the IWC, not the internet wrestling community. If you’ve ever watched When Worlds Collide, you may have noticed an IWC logo on the ring apron, and this is because Ron, whose main profession was being an entertainment lawyer, played a part in enabling the show to happen. While it seems that AAA talent were able to go and work for WCW due to a deal the company had with Antonio Pena, Skoler had an exclusive contract to promote AAA in the United States, which seems to include their talent too. In January ‘95, (WON Jan 16th) several talents including Rey Mysterio, Torero and Psicosis were suspended from AAA for working an independent show in California. The report even states that Ron was so mad about this that he “threatened a breach of contract lawsuit against AAA if they weren’t suspended.” By April this deal appears to have ended, and AAA talent were no longer exclusive to shows that the IWC was affiliated with. According to Ron appearing on the 6:05 Superpodcast in 2016, this was because When Worlds Collide hadn’t drawn a buyrate high enough to be considered a success, and he was having trouble getting AAA on television in the United States. A week after Eddie’s ECW debut, Dave would report that “It appears all relations with Ron Skoler are out the window as the two sides failed to meet on terms. The relationship seems to have ended on a bitter note. This frees AAA talent to be able to work independently within the United States such as Eddy Guerrero for ECW.”




It wouldn’t take long after AAA and IWC partnership ended for Paul Heyman try again. Eddie would spend the whole of March on tour with New Japan, and would finally make his ECW debut not long after. His first appearance would come at an event known as Three Way Dance on April 8th 1995, a night main evented by a three way tag team championship match, where the Public Enemy would win the titles in a match also featuring Tazmaniac and Rick Steiner as well as Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko. This is also the night that Paul Heyman would publicly fire Sabu in the ring, because he had prioritized his New Japan bookings where he was in line to win the Junior Heavyweight title, over ECW. Paul had wanted to put this main event on for quite some time, and every time something got in the way like a no-show or injury. Finally Paul had enough, and let Sabu go, for taking a booking with New Japan instead.




In his first match for ECW, Eddie would wrestle someone he knew very well from their time in Japan together, Too Cold Scorpio. It was a very smart move by Paul Heyman to set Eddie up against someone he had worked with plenty, as it helped to put his best foot forward in his debut. It’s worth adding though that in the RF video shoot interview, Eddie mentions that a different opponent was in place, and even advertised at one point, that being Sabu. This can’t have been for April 8th though, as Sabu was always set to be part of the three way tag team main event, eventually replaced by Rick Steiner, but it could have been for another night. Incidentally, Sabu and Eddie Guerrero would end up meeting in the ring a couple of months later, but not for ECW. On June 12th 1995 in Osaka, Sabu would make his only successful defence of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title by beating Black Tiger in New Japan.




Not only would Eddie win his ECW debut against Scorpio, but he would on his first night win the Television championship. When the match had its television airing on April 11th, it would receive rave reviews from the newsletters, with Wade Keller in the Torch being very complimentary of Eddie in particular, noting that he was really allowed to show off what he can do more than he could in Mexico. “This singles match format really gave Eddy Guerrero a chance to shine, rather than just show glimpses of highspots like in many of the AAA six-man style bouts.” The Observer points out something that Eddie also mentions in his book, which is that the ECW arena fans, already having a reputation for being very knowledgeable about their wrestling, were well aware of who Eddie was before he even stepped into the building. “Guerrero was over strong with the crowd the moment he came out with lots of “Gringo Locos” and “Rudos” and “Eddy” chants.” From Eddie Guerrero’s first night in ECW it was clear that he was going to make an impact, unfortunately from ECW’s perspective, that impact would be noticed after not very long.




Ending

As I’m not covering his ECW run here, let’s end with some stats about Eddie’s time in the land of extreme. Guerrero’s run was very brief, lasting only four months, and in that time he wrestled eighteen matches. He would win the television championship in his very first match for the company, and would walk in as a defending champion in half of all the matches he had there. That's not quite Gunther levels of impressive stats but it’s something. In his short time there, Eddie would wrestle in ten different venues in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Florida and New York, which is a pretty staggering for 1995 ECW. The company wasn’t yet breaking as much new ground as it would in later years. In short, Eddie packed an awful lot into his four short months in ECW.




Over the years that I’ve covered in this video, Eddie Guerrero really began to grow as a performer into what he was by the 2000’s. At the start of the decade he was wearing canary yellow trunks that matched his brother, and by the middle of it he was much more his own man, and also someone else while donning the Black Tiger mask. He wasn’t yet as charismatic as he would become, but he was beginning to show that he could be an excellent in ring wrestler, and his time in ECW would really help to show that to a bigger audience, until WCW came calling at least.




Sources:

WON March 4th 1991 Wrestlewar live review https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-4-1991-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-wrestle-war-review-tons/

WON March 9th 1992 91 awards https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-9-1992-observer-newsletter-patterson-and-garvin-resign-amidst/

WON Jan 15th 95 WON awards and not going to ECW https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/jan-16-1995-observer-newsletter-1994-observer-awards-issues-best-and/

Cheating Death Stealing Life, Eddie Guerrero, 2005

WON Jan 9th 1995 Not going to WCW https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/jan-9-1995-wrestling-observer-newsletter-flash-report-tokyo-dome/

WON Nov 14th 94 Worlds Collide review https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/nov-14-1994-observer-newsletter-savagewwf-relationship-falls-apart/

PWT Nov 12th 94 Worlds Collide review https://members.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/1994pwtorchnewsletters/article_83843.shtml

PWT Nov 26th 94 Art’s death https://members.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/1994pwtorchnewsletters/article_84351.shtml

WON Jan 16th 1995 Ron Skoler https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/jan-16-1995-observer-newsletter-1994-observer-awards-issues-best-and/

WON April 24th 1995 Skoler out https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-24-1995-observer-newsletter-ufc-v-does-20-times-buys-modern-day/

PWT April 22nd 95 Eddie ECW debut review https://members.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/1995PWTorchNewsletters/article_87085.shtml

WON Apr 17th 95 Eddie chants https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-17-1995-observer-newsletter-wrestlemania-tanks-ufc-v-full-report/

The Timeline of Vince Russo's email blunder, and did it cost TNA?

Over the years, people have left wrestling companies for many a, shall we say, creative reason. From being caught smiling at the wrong time, to appearing in the crowd of their opposition’s TV show. Today I want to highlight one of the more bizarre ones, all of which started with an email, and a whole load of lies that were uncovered because of it. I’m talking about the last time Vince Russo left TNA, that we know about at least, because there were many people in the company who didn’t even know he’d been working there for nearly a year.


In this video, we’ll look at the firing of Vince Russo, and the email he sent that made the wrestling world point and laugh at TNA. We’ll look at the timeline of events, and whether or not it made an impact on them leaving Spike TV.


If it makes the prospect of this video a bit more bearable for you, I’m sure you’re expecting plenty of that word to show up, but I promise to only include it just once in the whole video.


In September 2006, Vince Russo was brought back into TNA as the head writer, and many of the most insane TNA matches and moments come from the era that followed. Kurt Angle and the tanning bed, the fish market street fight, and a barbed wire Christmas tree. Not to mention all manner of mad shit involving Abyss. One such match with a ‘last rites’ stipulation gave birth to a chant that would become very familiar on TNA shows, “Fire Russo”. For the next several years, Russo came across as being quite bulletproof. I feel like we all know that person at work who seems to keep failing upwards, well that was Vince. The chants went on for so long that many wondered just how he had lasted for as long as he did, and the answer may be Dixie Carter. We’ll get back to her. Before we get to the email, some background is needed to explain how we got to the situation.


Beginning of the end


The story really begins in October 2011, where after five years of being a leading voice in TNA’s creative, Vince Russo was removed as head writer, and replaced by Bruce Prichard. “Russo is still involved, but unlike in the past, the process is set up for Prichard to make major revisions and set the course for the big storylines and the larger outline of the shows.” Essentially Bruce would act like Vince McMahon, and be the filter of Russo’s ideas, much like it’s been said many times that Russo benefitted from having in WWF. As far as why Vince would accept this change, some theorised that it may have been a self preservation move. “Russo may have embraced a lesser position rather than waiting for TNA President Dixie Carter to completely cut ties with him. Despite negative reviews of Russo for years, Dixie has stayed loyal to him, but he may have feared that loyalty was running out.” Another thing that’s interesting to bear in mind as pointed out by Wade Keller, is that Vince would at least be working under someone he had experience with, and that may have made things easier, as Prichard and Russo worked together in WWF.


The new creative team came into effect with the October 20th episode of Impact, which was the show after that year's Bound for Glory event. This turned out to be a very clever time to implement major changes, as the show being post Bound For Glory meant that it drew over two million viewers. The episode after their biggest pay per view was often the highest rated of the year, but according to Figure Four Weekly, this year drew “the highest number in the history of Thursday nights for Impact Wrestling.” The critical reception to this was frankly more positive than usual, with even Bryan Alvarez, who was a well known harsh critic of the company for years, praising James Storm winning the World title, and beginning a new story with Bobby Roode. It at least felt like a fresh main event storyline to lead with. That's not to say that anything got magically better though. “Prichard’s goal was to slow down the pacing and have less happening on the show with the idea it would mean more. From that standpoint, the television is a lot better, but it’s still most weeks far from a great show. The same problems that were there are still there as a lot still doesn’t make sense.”


One very noticeable change that came in soon after Russo left the head writer spot was that Bobby Roode would become the first long term World champion the company had in many years, holding it for nine months. To put this in context, from the inception of the TNA World title in 2007 to me writing this in November 2025, Roode’s reign is still the second longest in history. The current record holder is Josh Alexander, meaning that for over a decade, Roode was number one. Bobby’s reign began within a month of Russo leaving the top spot in creative, and by the time he would lose, Vince would be gone from the company completely.


While the new writing team would last for a few months, Vince Russo would end up leaving TNA in February 2012. In the week that he left, Russo was the cover story of the Pro Wrestling Torch, but his absence wasn’t as celebrated as you might think. The story they led with made sure to point out that one man leaving wasn’t going to turn the creative around overnight, based on a poor review of that weekend’s Against All Odds pay per view. “So just as many TNA fans who had pegged Vince Russo as the primary problem in TNA over the years were celebrating news of his imminent departure, TNA showed that Russo was hardly the problem. He’s been blamed for a lot, but he can’t be blamed for the overpush of Garett Bischoff. Truth is, he’s been out of power for months.”


Almost like a sign of things to come, a week later the Observer would note that Russo had actually been gone for a few weeks, but it had been kept from the public and even from talent until after Against All Odds. “Nobody could figure out why people at TNA were not denying nor confirming it even though reports were everywhere and most knew, It is believed Russo’s son, who worked in production, also gave notice.” On February 14th at the Impact tapings after the pay per view, Dixie Carter would announce Russo leaving to the world on Twitter, which as you can imagine, was received as well as it was ever going to be.


In the report published in the Observer, Dave implies that this was in the works for quite a while, and his replacement had already been picked, “as when David Lagana left ROH for TNA, we were told specifically it was for a writing job and that he was going to likely end up as the replacement for Vince Russo.” In March 2012, Vince would publish his first official statement after leaving TNA, where he would complain that quote, “not one dirt sheet writer out their” and yes, that’s how the professional writer spelled it, “attempted to call me to get the facts. Everything out there is speculation, and it is so off the mark that it is comical.” As we would soon get confirmation of, those writers would in fact have his contact information, his email address for example.


The Email


It’s here where the story gets truly bizarre. On July 15th 2014, Mike Johnson of PWInsider would receive an email that he clearly wasn’t meant to. It contained notes that were intended for the TNA commentary team, Mike Tenay and Taz. Essentially, Vince emailed the wrong Mike, and he couldn’t have done it at a worse time. On July 15th Mike would publish the following statement. “As previously noted here on the site, Vince Russo has publicly declined to comment on PWInsider.com's story that he is still working for TNA as a creative consultant. Therefore, it was very interesting today that I received an email from Russo, who accidentally cc'd me in, featuring instructions and advice from him to Mike Tenay and Taz on how certain segments of a TNA TV episode about to be voiced over should be handled. That should put to rest, once and for all, any question that Russo is still involved and working for TNA.”


On the day that the news broke, Vince Russo would make a quite bizarre statement on his twitter. It’s no longer online for reasons we’ll get to, but according to PWInsider the now deleted statement read: “WOW---just amazing to see that anybody will print anything as TRUTH without checking into it. Nice to see the SWERVE still works!!!" Russo’s problem here, is that Mike had clear evidence that Vince sent him, and so Russo only looked worse by doubling down on his lie. On top of this, he was also attempting to discredit Mike and his colleague Dave Scherer, which they responded to by threatening to publish said evidence. Russo had lost.


Later in the day Vince clearly recognised this. He deleted his earlier comments and posted a new, more honest statement. He admits that he had been employed since October 2013 as a consultant to work with Mike Tenay and Taz on their commentary. He also says that part of that employment was a confidentiality agreement, which he intended to keep until he couldn’t anymore. In his reporting on the situation, Dave Meltzer notes that Vince still wasn’t being entirely honest, as he was only owning up to the work with Mike and Taz because that is all there was proof of him doing. It would later come out in the Observer that Vince was ordered to do this by John Gaburick, perhaps because enough damage had been done to TNA’s image.


The next day Vince would continue to address things on twitter, this time directly replying to fans, claiming that keeping his employment a secret wasn’t his fault, and admitting that it shouldn’t have been kept quiet in the first place. He also continues to have a back and forth with Mike Johnson. From their conversation, it seems that Vince emailed Mike to apologize, and also did publically. If you’re curious, Dixie never seemed to address it on social media like she had when Vince left in 2012. Unless something has been deleted, her only tweets from around the time concern the TV airing of the recent New York show, where the six sided ring would return, and she herself would be put through a table on Impact.


Initially it seemed that Vince’s biggest crime was creating a conflict of interest. While working for TNA, Vince was also regularly live tweeting his thoughts on shows from the perspective of an impartial viewer, and also commenting on TNA for his own website with more inside information than he was letting on. For example, this article where he praises Slammiversary 2014, and argues for Spike TV to give TNA better production resources. His comments on Spike TV will become important later. Further on in the same week that the news came out, Russo would continue to live tweet Impact, ending his thoughts with this rather galling tweet given that he had creative input in the show. (Jul 18, 2014

Thanks guys--been a blast. Would have done a few things differently---but we ALL would have. Remember--IT'S ALL SUBJECTIVE.) While all of this is deceptive, and you could even say unethical, it doesn’t explain why TNA wanted to keep Vince’s work confidential. The answer to this is because TNA had deals that may have been jeopardised if it was public knowledge.


Following the collapse of their relationship with New Japan, which was Russo’s doing by the way, TNA had built a relationship with Wrestle-1 in Japan, a promotion founded the year before by Keiji Mutoh. In the July 21st Observer, Dave Meltzer would note that Wrestle-1 had suspected that Russo was involved, and was not happy. TNA didn’t help matters at first by trying to dodge the question, “However, John Gaburick later admitted to Keiji Muto that Russo was working there, but assured him that Russo was working underneath him.” Gaburick also claims that Russo “didn’t have final say.” These concerns were caused by the way TNA’s relationship with New Japan ended, and Russo’s booking of among other Japanese talent, Kazuchika Okada, who interestingly, would win his first IWGP title on the same week that Russo left TNA in 2012. At this time, TNA had future IWGP champion Sanada on their roster representing Wrestle-1, and were said to be happy with how he was being used.


Aside from the company’s international partners, Russo could well have had an effect on an important domestic one as well. In August 2014, Dave Meltzer would begin to write about renewal negotiations with Spike TV perhaps not going as smoothly as TNA would hope. He cites two main reasons for this, the first being that Spike had put a lot of money into TNA, and had even paid for individuals like Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff to come in, and may have been feeling that they weren’t getting a sufficient return on that investment. The second reason is that they were lied to about Russo. “That’s why TNA was in such a panic when Russo’s e-mail accidentally was sent to Mike Johnson, because they had denied Russo was working there after Spike had made it clear a long time ago they didn’t want him involved. TNA had evidently figured if they didn’t tell anyone, that nobody would know.” As reported in this issue, on July 30th Vince would leave the company, seemingly forever. Depending on whose story you believe, he would seemingly go out tweeting one more lie. “Officially done with TNA,” later adding “Today they `suggested’ a break. I declined. Finality was better for me.” On August 11th, Meltzer, who likely still resented Russo for all of his terrible writing in WCW, wrote a long and detailed account of all that had happened, noting that Vince had actually been fired by John Gaburick.


Over the next few weeks, now that he was fired and had no confidentiality agreement, Vince would drip feed information out through the subscription service on his website. Here he would get TNA in more hot water with Spike, when he claimed that the network wasn’t as good a partner as they could have been. “Russo claimed Spike never correctly promoted TNA. When TNA said it wasn’t renewing the contract, several reports were that Dixie Carter said the same thing internally, blaming them for not promoting the product the way they promote Bellator (which they own).” These comments would lead to a response by David Schwarz, the then President of Spike TV. “We took TNA from a late night spot on Saturday nights, doing 500,000 viewers, to a two-hour time slot that did two million viewers over time. Spike went out of its way, not in just adhering to its contract, but above and beyond the contract. We paid Hulk Hogan, we paid Eric Bischoff, with our money. We financed many shows. We financed U.K. shows. We helped promote. We gave TNA a prime time slot of Thursdays from 9-11 p.m. I think his comments are way off base.” Schwarz continued by saying of Russo, “He’s somebody who thinks more of himself than really exists. Vince Russo never meant anything to Spike TV. He had nothing to do with negotiations. Nobody cares about Vince Russo at Spike TV. Nobody cares or knows who he is.” I imagine after some of the barbed comments Vince had made, this was likely said to belittle him more than anything else. As the TNA and Spike deal approached the end, you could argue that Russo was becoming a scapegoat of sorts, as there were clearly other factors in why TNA was not renewed, but the whole bizarre situation, and TNA’s attempts to cover it up didn’t help at all.


Even the man who broke the story, Mike Johnson, has gone on record saying that Vince was not a factor in Spike TV deciding not to renew, rather it was Dixie’s handling of the situation, and many more of her blunders. Mike specifically notes that Dixie wanted far more money than Spike was willing to agree to. “One source has told me she was seeking a $26 million dollar deal. Spike refused, wanting a lesser deal (I have heard $14 and $16 million) and Carter refused and held fast.” That's quite a large overvaluation of your company, especially when Spike didn’t agree by at least ten million dollars.


In November 2014, Spike TV would release an official statement about the relationship with TNA ending, now that the final air date of December 24th was scheduled. The statement is very gracious, and wished the company, and Dixie, the very best in their future endeavors very politely. As this article from the time posted on Cageside Seats notes, “It was important to Spike TV that they maintain a healthy image through the end of this partnership and they certainly did much better this time around than the split with WWE years ago.” And ECW if we go back a bit further. It's quite telling then, that they didn’t seem too interested in extending that courtesy to Vince Russo.


Ending


To give you an impression of just how secret Russo’s hiring was, one person who claimed to have not known about his hiring was part of the ownership of the company, Jeff Jarrett. On his My World podcast in June 2023, Jeff is asked about the story, and claims that he, who originally brought Vince into the company in the first place, only found out when someone slipped up in a meeting. Russo had rejoined the company in October 2013, and Jeff would leave in the following January. Jarrett heavily implies here that such deception was a big part of him wanting to leave the company that he co-founded.


I’ve given Russo a lot of flack in this video, but there’s one thing that Jeff points out that is worth bearing in mind through all of this, and it’s the key reason why Russo would have played his part. Vince did after all, have a family to feed, and whatever anyone thinks of his writing, his terrible terrible writing, we can’t begrudge him that.


Looking back all these years later, knowing the highs, and all of the lows that TNA has had since, Russo’s email blunder felt like a giant story at the time, but in the grand scheme of things didn’t end the world. It is however, one of the funnier TNA cock-ups, and certainly a unique one bro. See, only did one in the whole video.


When I started working on this video, this story was effectively Vince Russo’s exit from working with any wrestling company full time. As of early November this appears not to be the case, as Vince, who told the world he was leaving wrestling more times that Terry Funk thought about it, joined JCW. For all the criticism he gets, much of it deserved, I do hope Vince can end his time in pro wrestling on a higher note than the way he left TNA. It’s Vince Russo though, who knows when the next swerve might come.


Sources:


Beginning of the end

PWT October 12th 2011 Prichard coming in https://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/members/uploads/4/1224TorchNewsletterPDF.pdf

Oct 6th 2011 Torch, James Caldwell https://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/TNA_News_1/article_54011.shtml

FFW Oct 26th 2011 Thursday ratings https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/pdf-newsletter-oct-26-figure-four-weekly-rock-return-announced-vengeance-ppv/

PWT Feb 18th 2012 https://members.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/2011torchnewsletterPDFs/article_60109.shtml

WON Feb 20th 12 Leaves company https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/feb-20-2012-observer-newsletter-diaz-saga-continues-drug-test-failure/

March 2012 statement https://eu.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2012/03/01/vince-russo-statement/64264456007/


The secret consultant

PWInsider first reporting July 15th 2014 https://www.pwinsider.com/article/86940/the-final-word-on-whether-vince-russo-is-still-working-for-tna.html

PWinsider second reporting, July 15th 2014 https://www.pwinsider.com/article/86944/the-real-final-statement-of-vince-russos-involvement-with-tna-issued-by-russo-himself.html?p=1

FFW July 19th 2014 - First reporting https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/full-color-pdf-newsletter-jul-19-2014-figure-four-weekly-g-1-preview-more-wwe/

WON July 21st Mutoh https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-21-2014-wrestling-observer-newsletter-kenta-wwe-ppv-changes/

WON August 4th Russo gone, Spike TV https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-4-2014-wrestling-observer-newsletter-whole-story-tna-and-russo/

Not responsible for spike https://www.pwinsider.com/article/88146/spike-tv-vice-president-says-vince-russo-never-meant-anything-to-network-thinks-more-of-himself-than-really-exists.html

Cageside Seats Nov 19th Spike Statement https://www.cagesideseats.com/tna-impact/2014/11/19/7250753/spike-tv-releases-statement-on-tna-leaving-the-network

My World, June 20th 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO5kgtjLcCI