WWE Network "ECW Exposed" Show Review!

As part of WWE’s attempt to build up the network during its free month, they announced ECW week, kicked off by Paul Heyman and Joey Styles doing a live “ECW Exposed” show on 11/10 immediately after Raw.

It was mainly Styles asking Heyman some questions, as well as taking fan questions, and then the show abruptly ending at midnight for regularly scheduled programming even though Heyman was in his element and clearly wanted to go on a lot longer.

There was a lot of talk about how ECW would have been the hot thing on social media had it existed in that day. They pushed the idea that the term “Extreme” in culture in the late 90s came from them and they were the forerunners of it. Heyman tried to also push they were ahead of the curve producing shows in a basement (Ron Buffone’s house) because some of the biggest names today now have studios in their basement. Well, there is a difference in working out of a basement because they are so rich they can have the studio built for them, as opposed to not being able to afford it in any other way, and it’s not like Heyman didn’t say that as well.

Styles noted that there are parental warnings on the new ECW Hardcore television shows because of language. They went through the firing and hiring of Sabu, and how Sabu vs. Taz worked because in real life the two couldn’t stand each other so it brought believability into their feud.

Styles pushed the idea that ECW was important in the big picture because it was where Steve Austin first cut his teeth doing his own promos. ECW was the first place where Austin’s personality really shined, as in WCW, he was a very good worker with a good look, but didn’t show the personality that made the difference between being a star and a big-time superstar. Still, even with that, his time in ECW was short, on the way to WWF, where whatever he showed in ECW was forgotten when he was given a new Ringmaster character. But the fire in his promos did come across when he came up with the badass character that made him the biggest short-term draw in wrestling history.

They also talked a lot about Brian Pillman appearing on ECW TV when he was under contract to WCW, with Heyman admitting that the entire time he was running ECW he was always in contact with Kevin Sullivan, and that he finalized the Pillman deal through Eric Bischoff.

At the time it happened, Heyman was always denying he was working with WCW, because he pushed that WWF (who he also had even closer relations to during that period) and WCW were the mortal enemies and they were the underground movement that through hard work could compete with more well-funded competitors. He always portrayed it as Pillman coming to them, which was true, since everything regarding Pillman in ECW was a collaborative effort of Heyman and Pillman, but Pillman was WCW talent, as much as everyone went to almost ridiculous lengths to show that wasn’t the case.

WCW gave Pillman to ECW for free with the idea they thought it would convince their audience that Pillman had really been fired for being a loose cannon, doing and saying things on the air and behind the scenes that cost him his job. The idea was to fool everyone and eventually build for him to return.

This was actually all Pillman’s idea and he convinced Sullivan and Bischoff of it, and told them to keep in between them and not let anyone else know. There were very few he kept abreast of what he was really doing, limited likely to Kim Wood, his father figure and assistant coach with the Cincinnati Bengals when he played on the team in 1984; and to a degree, Bruce Hart, who he started with in Calgary as his tag team partner; and Terry Funk, because of Funk’s creativity when it came to out of the box angles.

Pillman’s master stroke was working the people who thought they were the only ones working with him into giving him a legitimate release. The idea was if he had the full legal release, the word would get out from the WCW office and people would buy his firing as legitimate and not storyline. The funny thing is that it didn’t actually make a difference. Most people in wrestling in time figured out what was up.

But for Pillman, the idea ended up being brilliant. Pillman, with his release, then started negotiating with WWF legitimately, double-crossing Bischoff and Sullivan on their agreed upon angle. For Sullivan and Bischoff, especially Bischoff, the idea of the angle was to fool everyone else. For Pillman, the idea was to get himself hot, become a free agent, play both sides against each other, and appear on ECW where he’d have the most leeway to do his thing and get over while he negotiated the two against each other. His goal was to get a Lex Luger level contract.

Pillman always resented that he believed he was so much more talented and creative than Luger, but Luger made so much more money and was pushed harder than he was. It wasn’t any personal dislike for Luger, but of the system and mentality of those in charge in pro wrestling at the time.

In particular were times years earlier when Luger would laugh at him when he’d try to learn different styles of wrestling and study tapes to get better in the ring.

Heyman noted that Pillman became so hot during that period that WCW wanted him back quicker for the Triple Decker cage atrocity they were planning on a PPV. In actuality, Pillman thought returning to get leg dropped by Hogan (it was Hogan who asked for Pillman

in the match because Pillman was getting so hot underground) was the last thing he wanted for his return match. So Pillman, who needed surgery from time-to-time because of polyps that continually returned in his throat, scheduled a surgery. In reality, and I’m pretty sure Sullivan knew this (Pillman at least thought that way), Pillman could have had the surgery at any time, but scheduled it to where he wouldn’t be ready for that PPV, thus avoiding being leg dropped and pinned in what he thought would be (and was) one of the worst PPV main events in history.

Heyman noted that the original idea was for Pillman to wrestle one match in ECW, to lose to Shane Douglas, because Heyman needed to rehab Douglas after a failed stint in WWF. But that never transpired in 1996 because Pillman got in a humvee wreck that put him out of action for a long time.

That was 18 years ago, but the only thing not accurate was Heyman’s time line, saying that Pillman signed with WWF, and WWF was going to allow Pillman to do the match with Douglas, and then he got in the humvee wreck. Actually, Pillman signed with WWF after the wreck.

Pillman never had any intention of going to WWF. The goal was always to stay in WCW, particularly since he thought by having Sullivan and Bischoff as the only ones in on his angle, that they’d take care of him thinking they all pulled something off together. But he did want to get the leverage high, feeling also, that if he got $450,000 a year (main event money at the time) that by getting that contract Sullivan and Bischoff would book him as a main eventer and not a mid-carder.

Even before the humvee wreck, Pillman’s body was starting to fall apart. He had back problems and he was an undersized lineman who played football through college, where at a legitimate 5-8 3/4 and juiced up to 223 pounds (his actual wrestling weight was between 198 and 202 pounds in shape), he was a Division I-AA First Team All-American noseguard.

He felt the pressure to make big money for the next several years, figuring his career had a finite time left, and he was supporting five children.

If the truth were to be told, that was more of his motivation for coming up with all of his crazy ideas than anything else.

He went to WWF instead, because after the wreck, Bischoff would not give him a no-cut clause in his contract, I guess for fear of Pillman not being able to perform as well and being on the hook for years for a big-money deal. Pillman knew, after the wreck, that physically he was done, but told nobody of that (he even kept that from me until just before he died) for obvious reasons. To show the level of paranoia at that point, Sullivan thought Pillman worked the wreck at first and was really in the hospital to get facial reconstructive surgery so he would look exactly like Michaels, and that he was going to WWF to feud with Michaels. I had been pushing Pillman to go to WWF. He would always argue against it, feeling in the end, WCW would pay more than WWF. He felt once WCW paid him main event money they’d push him as a main eventer to justify the contract.

I felt WWF’s main event side was far thinner. Michaels was their top guy, who at the time needed a fresh opponent, and that Pillman’s size, which was the only thing that held him back

from being a top guy, wouldn’t be an issue against Michaels, but would be for the top of the WCW roster.

Plus an advantage was Jim Ross running talent relations, as they knew each other and were friends from WCW, and Ross liked hiring credentialed athletes. Ross and McMahon agreed to the no-cut clause on his contract and that’s why he went, as Bischoff’s guarantee was higher. I don’t know if Bischoff was sincere about this, because it was at Pillman’s funeral that he told me, but he said his biggest regret was not closing the deal on Pillman, maybe feeling that if things were different, maybe he’d have lived.

In 1997, when Heyman was planning that year’s November to Remember, and by this time Pillman was wrestling regularly in WWF, Douglas pitched to Heyman about seeing if WWF would agree to let Pillman wrestle him at the November to Remember show that year. Heyman told Douglas that Pillman, whose drug issues had gotten bad (some of that was due to trying to wrestle in so much pain because of a destroyed ankle from the humvee wreck, but it’s not as though there were no issues before the wreck), wouldn’t be alive in November. He never told that part of the story on the air for obvious reasons.

Pillman died that October.

Styles asked Heyman who on today’s roster, if they were transported back 18 years, would have done well in ECW. He mentioned Brock Lesnar first, as well as Dolph Ziggler (who he said reminded him of Douglas and Shawn Michaels), Cesaro (who he said was underutilized in WWE), Daniel Bryan (he noted that they used Michael Shane, a Michaels school graduate and had ECW continued probably would have used Bryan and thought Bryan may have attended an ECW show at the end with Shane), and that if ECW had continued a few more years, that C.M. Punk may have been its flagship star. He also put over John Cena, talking about his work ethic and longevity at the top, comparing his tenure as the top guy to people like Bruno Sammartino and Lou Thesz.

They aired videos of Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko talking about their time in ECW and their final match.

Heyman talked about his seven different lawsuits against WCW (which always ended up in settlements where WCW would let him use talent for big shows).

When asked what was ECW’s biggest flaw, Heyman said not having an ad sales team.

Heyman defended using New Jack when asked about it, saying he was one of the most fascinating characters in pro wrestling history, and was worth it even with the lawsuits and legal fees, and talked about how he came off as legit.

When asked about money WWF gave ECW, Heyman said that the $1,000 per week was an agreement he and Vince made when Vince took Too Cold Scorpio away from ECW and it cost ECW $1,000 per week in a sponsorship deal with Tommy Boy Records. He said WWE agreed to pay the company that money to replace the lost sponsorship, but he was not himself on the WWE payroll. Those in WWF always described it at the time as Heyman being on salary as a consultant. He noted the $500,000 (give or take a little) loan in 2000 was an agreement to keep ECW from suing them since WWF was negotiating with TNN (now Spike) while ECW was on TNN. From the WWF side, I was told about the loan that they

believed ECW was going out of business, wanted to avoid any legal complications since TNN was offering five times what USA was and WWF wanted to take the deal, plus they worked into the loan that they were a secure debtor which gave them the leg up if the company went bankrupt to own the intellectual property.

I was told at the time that they never expected to get their money back from Heyman when they loaned it to him. That was one of the best investments WWF ever made, because as a secured debtor, they ended up being able to buy all the ECW intellectual property for a ridiculously low amount in the big picture.

When people used to knock ECW as far as it being something that had a lot of talk but never made any money, the reality is, it made a huge profit in the end, but it wasn’t Paul Heyman or those in business with him who made any profit. The person who made the most profits off ECW were WWF, in marketing DVDs and using the footage in other ways. They could have made tons more if they had marketed ECW merchandise, particularly in 2005 when ECW nostalgia went through the roof.

The last $88,000 loan Heyman said was because WWF knew ECW was about to die, and at the time WWF wanted to keep it alive because they were in talks of buying it and didn’t want it closing. Shane McMahon wanted WWF to buy the company and for him to run it, and Shane McMahon always wanted to run a company by himself. I had never heard that, but the timing does sound accurate. I did know Shane wanted WWF to buy ECW and for he and Heyman to run it at one point. In the end, Vince wouldn’t buy the company, which is the same thing that happened when Shane wanted Vince to buy UFC at about the same time, and in 2006 when Shane wanted Vince to buy Pride. Once Vince made that call, WWF let it die, and picked up its assets later in 2001 in bankruptcy court.