Who was the backbone of the original ECW?

[itbewilly]

Originally Posted by AhSpicyDrop

The only viable answer is: Terry Funk.

Funk was the only guy that Paul E could count on in a drawing sense to not let his ego get in the way of doing good business. Heyman himself has credited Funk to being the main reason ECW was able to make it to cult status and become something of a household name. Funk was willing to put people over when other "ECW Legends" wouldn't...

Taz wasn't the backbone, he was in it for himself to the max. He never did a damn thing for anyone until he got signed to the WWE and he came back to drop the title that he left with. Taz had a lot of good matches in ECW, but the fact that he rarely if ever put anybody over is a lot of the reason ECW started going downhill when they got their network TV deal.

Shane Douglas was probably the only person more selfish than Taz. He held the ECW title hostage a lot of times, but if you hear him tell it in shoot interviews he was the "saving grace" of ECW.

Tommy Dreamer wasn't the backbone, but he was the most loyal. He never drew a dime unless he was working with Raven or Sandman, but he stayed the course, and did whatever Paul E asked him to.

But honestly, nobody made more stars in ECW than Terry Funk. Go back in the history books. He single-handedly made guys like Raven, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, Sandman and hell even Stevie Richards look like main-eventers when he worked with them.

ECW wouldn't have made it without Terry's love and understanding for creating stars.. Shane Douglas would have ran the company into the toilet by exhibiting the same selfishness that he always accused the Kliq of.

Sabu is another honorable mention for being the backbone based on the fact that he would literally do anything for the sake of entertaining the fans. There's nobody that split more blood or injured themselves more for the company than Sabu.

You mean the Title Taz won from Mike Awesome after Mike Awesome appeared on WCW Nitro Live with it? Taz never left with a title. He dropped it in a triple threat with i think Mike Awesome and Tanaka being the first one eliminated after being power bombs and covered by both men. WWE allowed him to go back and represent ECW after what Awesome did to them with their title. Taz then dropped it to Dreamer which lasted not long at all before Justin Credible beat him they same day for it.

Backbone of ECW. Hard to say really. Im surprised Bubba Ray hasn't been named. He was one of the main guys working in the back helping come up with matches and finishes. Im guessing Taz is a good choice for backbone but like others have said there are just too many contributing people to name just one.

[AhSpicyDrop]

Originally Posted by itbewilly

You mean the Title Taz won from Mike Awesome after Mike Awesome appeared on WCW Nitro Live with it? Taz never left with a title. He dropped it in a triple threat with i think Mike Awesome and Tanaka being the first one eliminated after being power bombs and covered by both men. WWE allowed him to go back and represent ECW after what Awesome did to them with their title. Taz then dropped it to Dreamer which lasted not long at all before Justin Credible beat him they same day for it.

If you remember Taz carried the belt around in WWF for a while before dropping it to Dreamer. This is because Vince was trying to reach out to Heyman and make amends for stealing his talent instead of carelessly raping the talent like WCW and Bischoff were doing. Vince had proposed that Taz could work for ECW, but on a limited basis. Heyman eventually said no, and that's when the plans were laid out for Taz to drop the belt to Dreamer. And he did so in a half-assed way.

And yeah, Dreamer lost it to Credible, which was just another nail in the coffin for that company. Credible was boring as dogshit after The Impact Players split up, and he made the ECW title pointless. They could have ran with Dreamer's title run for quite a while, the fans were way behind it.

Backbone of ECW. Hard to say really. Im surprised Bubba Ray hasn't been named. He was one of the main guys working in the back helping come up with matches and finishes. Im guessing Taz is a good choice for backbone but like others have said there are just too many contributing people to name just one.

I won't debate Bubba... He did a metric shit ton for ECW backstage. It went beyond just booking matches; he literally booked the buildings and helped truck the ring equipment for a long time as well. Not to mention he pretty much got himself over in spite of everyone else.

But people seriously have way too much adoration for Taz. Yeah, he was a great wrestler... But he took so many liberties with guys back then, and many people were legitimately terrified of him because of the rants and threats he'd throw around backstage. To me to be a backbone it means you're carrying the company in a way that expands it for everybody, not just yourself. Taz was all about putting Taz over, and once he got the rub from Sabu, Shane Douglas, and Bam Bam he wasn't about to let anybody else have the spotlight until it was time for him to go make "big bucks" with WWF.

[Papa Pillman]

I think this thread question requires more clarity on just what you mean by the "backbone".

From a worker in a company perspective, what is the difference between the "heart and soul" and the "backbone"?

To me the backbones of ECW were Heyman, Styles, Dreamer, and to some degree Gabe Sapolsky.

Throughout the time the compnay existed, those guys wore every hat that needed to be worn. Aside from being the "booker", the "lead commentator", a "wrestler", or the "top assisstant", these four guys also shared in everything else that was needed to keep the company floating like marketing, promoting, booking venues, PR, etc.

Perhaps one of the things that made ECW great was the family atmosphere, and how "all-in" many in the lockerroom were. Guys would go far beyond their normally expected duties to try and keep the company afloat.

As for the others...
Shane Douglas was the first face of the in-ring product, but he was also a notorious lockerroom cancer that ECW didn't need.

Sabu, Sandman and Taz were the other unique longstanding guys along with Dreamer who took up spots wherever needed across the card and remained over with the fanbase for basically the entire duration of the company.

And others like Raven, Whipwreck, Terry Funk, Beula, Axl Rotten, Mahoney, James Mitchell, Bill Alfonso, RVD, Jerry Lynn etc. along with any number of "Dudleyz" also played many important roles for the company for a long period of time.

A special mention should also be made of the elite workers who came through the company during the '95/'96 time range, when ECW was blessed with some of the industry's greatest performers ever if for only a short time frame. Many were just looking for a place to get their feet wet on a bigger stage, a stepping stone to a larger company, or any other number of reasons. But no matter why they were there, their presence helped to truly legitimize the company in its early years. Those names included: Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, Jericho, Mysterio, Pillman, Foley, and Austin.

So again, without clear terms on what you're looking for, its hard to narrow the field. ECW was always in many ways a true "group effort".

[braveh]

Originally Posted by dman1373

First off shane douglass was very average in the ring, Pauly was able to make him seem more than that beacause he look like a guy that could work in the ring. And secondly sabu got hired to ecw around the same time as the franchise.

Obviously I don't agree. I'm no expert on ECW and Shane Douglas. Shane Douglas had a grip on psychology and he was in many excellent matches.
Compare that to Lance storm who looked like a heartless, emotionless performer in the ring. Sure maybe he some great moves and whatever but I never saw Lance Storm in a great great wrestling match.


Point taken on Sabu.

Sabu and Douglas were just worlds apart from Raven, Tommy Dreamer and New Jack. The former represented what I liked about ECW, the good wrestling matches.

[Papa Pillman]

Originally Posted by braveh

Compare that to Lance storm who looked like a heartless, emotionless performer in the ring. Sure maybe he some great moves and whatever but I never saw Lance Storm in a great great wrestling match.

You apparently haven't seen this match...

Also...
Everything he did in ECW in '99 was pretty awesome. Starting with the match he had against Jerry Lynn at November to Remember '98, and then stretching through '99 he was on fire as far as match quality. Especially his match with Credible against Lynn/RVD at Heatwave, and against Lynn again at Anarchy Rules. He also had a really good one with Edge in '01, and against Jericho at One Night Stand to name some other standouts.

[ShinobiMusashi]

Sabu was the backbone of ECW, and gave it it's edge.

New Jack was the balls, Shane Douglas was the dick, and Justin Credible was the asshole. Any questions?

Lance Storm was awesome in ECW.

[braveh]

Originally Posted by Papa Pillman

You apparently haven't seen this match...

Also...
Everything he did in ECW in '99 was pretty awesome. Starting with the match he had against Jerry Lynn at November to Remember '98, and then stretching through '99 he was on fire as far as match quality. Especially his match with Credible against Lynn/RVD at Heatwave, and against Lynn again at Anarchy Rules. He also had a really good one with Edge in '01, and against Jericho at One Night Stand to name some other standouts.

That was like a good NJPW-match without the emotions and zero charisma. Lance Storm doesn't understand how to convey emotions. He doesn't get it. To be fair Daniel Bryan has improved tenfold in that regard since that match. He is pretty good at it these days.

[BaconBits]

You're all missing the boat. It wasn't any one wrestler who was the "backbone" of ECW, because, to be honest, none of them were all that spectacular.

The "backbone" was the crowd at the ECW arena. Long before the TNN deal, when they were on public access at 3:00 AM what made ECW special wasn't the wrestling, because more often than not, it was a total clusterfuck. It was how the fans reacted to that clusterfuck. They just had an energy that now other wrestling crowd in history had. They made you believe you were seeing the greatest thing ever.

I mean, those fans STILL chant ECW at events. Over a decade later.

[HBsam31]

Originally Posted by BaconBits

You're all missing the boat. It wasn't any one wrestler who was the "backbone" of ECW, because, to be honest, none of them were all that spectacular.

The "backbone" was the crowd at the ECW arena. Long before the TNN deal, when they were on public access at 3:00 AM what made ECW special wasn't the wrestling, because more often than not, it was a total clusterfuck. It was how the fans reacted to that clusterfuck. They just had an energy that now other wrestling crowd in history had. They made you believe you were seeing the greatest thing ever.

I mean, those fans STILL chant ECW at events. Over a decade later.

I hve been looking at this thread for a few days now, and as a follower of ECW in its day I couldn't really put together what I thought was a good answer. Then I read this post. There were a lot of guys in ECW that held the promotion together. Sandman, Douglas, Sabu, Taz, to name a few. They were all big stars in the company, but to me one never really stuck out over the other. It took all the parts to make a good show. I totally agree with BaconBits that the ECW arena fans were the backbone of the company. Like he said, they were the ones that made every match, every show, every ppv look like it was the greastest thing ever on tv. The had passion. ROH fans are the only thing I could compare them to today. Without the fans I think ECW would have came off as just another run of the mill show. To this day they still chant for ECW. They were great fans, and indeed they were the backbone of the company.