I started watching ECW in late 94 and as someone with zero inside knowledge at the time Douglas seemed like the biggest star in the company by far. At the time due to the wrestlers who had been pushed in the Big 2 we were conditioned to see someone like Shane as a big deal. Heyman has basically admitted this.
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Random EC F'N W Bullshit
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Big Papa Paegan
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Even when I started watching it regularly in the build to Heat Wave '98, it was clear that Douglas was the most "superstar" type they had. How he wrestled, how he talked, that he was the World champion, etc.
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Guys I forgot had an ECW run...PCO!
Weird thing is this is probably why WCW decided to bring him back for a few weeks in August '00. I'll have to find the episode of Hardcore TV on Peacock where he gets an ECW World Title shot.
Really though he probably showed up to ECW a year too late. Throwing PCO into the mix with Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka? Woah baby!
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Weird thing is this is probably why WCW decided to bring him back for a few weeks in August '00. I'll have to find the episode of Hardcore TV on Peacock where he gets an ECW World Title shot.
Really though he probably showed up to ECW a year too late. Throwing PCO into the mix with Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka? Woah baby!
Big Papa Paegan
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It wouldn't surprise me if that influenced his epic Montreal indies run in the 00s (which gave us Steen and Generico).
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A lot of the folks who hate on Douglas don't really understand (in context) just how important he was to ECW. Yes, you had your Raven vs. Dreamer feud; your Sandman stuff; Cactus Jack being Cactus; Austin's very brief run + the Pillman brief run; Rob Van Dam's long TV Title run; Taz vs. Sabu... but at the end of the day, Shane Douglas was usually the ECW Champion for a reason. He was one of maybe a legitimate 3-5 guys in the entire company's history that had that real Star Quality.
To me, he was the equivalent of a Semi-Pro baseball team's 4 Tool player who stands out head & shoulders above the others but looks average compared to the real MLB talent out there.
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John Arezzi's podcast this week is recapping his show from October 10th, 1992, where his main guest is Todd Gordon. They discuss the start of Eastern Championship Wrestling and his fallout with Joel Goodhart. Seems like it'll be interesting af.
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Big Papa Paegan
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That's why I regularly consider Sabu one of the best US workers of the 90s. He'd put one over on the smartest guys in the crowd.
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Man, I am glad he didn’t live long enough to have Bubba Ray cut a promo on his amputated foot.
Big Papa Paegan
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...I'm not. Imagine the HEAT with using Kerry's prosthetic as a weapon against him.
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Imagine the HEAT when Bubba tells Kerry “I GOT MY BROTHER D’VON WITH ME! MOST OF YOUR BROTHERS ARE DEAD!”
BruiserBrody
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This Ad brought a flood of memories back. I mentioned the plugging of a Sabu/Al Snow 20 foot ladder match a few weeks ago here somewhere and here be the ad for it!
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I was likely today years old when I realized that was Lynn and not Sabu.
I think I still own that game? My video games are all in tubs waiting or me to get smart enough to sell them instead of hoarding.
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This week's Mandela Effect. I was about to post yesterday about how an underrated reason why ECW went under is they over expanded and were doing monthly PPVs in '99-'00 when it was absolutely unnecessary and they didn't have the roster to support.
They had 6 in '99 and 7 in '00 (up from 3 in '97 and 5 in '98)…which is still probably too much for that roster. They should have kept it at 2 to 4 a year. I don't think doing less PPVs would have changed much but ECW being slow to receive PPV revenues one of the reasons they went under?
They had 6 in '99 and 7 in '00 (up from 3 in '97 and 5 in '98)…which is still probably too much for that roster. They should have kept it at 2 to 4 a year. I don't think doing less PPVs would have changed much but ECW being slow to receive PPV revenues one of the reasons they went under?
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Big Papa Paegan
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They were running more PPV to make more money, otherwise they would have stuck at 6/year.
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Spending more money to make more money to save your failing company is a strategy that usually works in wrestling.
Big Papa Paegan
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IIRC, it was something about an allotted advance on each PPV payment, and that income was what kept the doors open in the last few months before bankruptcy is the only option.
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It's hard to properly explain how seeing these pictures in PWI blew minds in 1995 as the WWF was still full circus and WCW had Hogan wrestling a group of goofy monster heels.
Big Papa Paegan
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I don't think they ever topped $20. I remember that being a big selling point on my folks letting me get all of them, because the WWF was already hitting $40 a show around that time.