Who was the backbone of the original ECW?

[CM Steel]

Extreme Championship Wrestling: 1995-2001

Tommy Dreamer was the heart & soul of ECW.
Paul Heyman was the brains behind ECW.

But who was the backbone of the original ECW?

If I had to give my opinion I'd say that it would have to be...Taz. Taz was ECW's answer to Bill Goldberg over in WCW. Taz was a short guy with a heavyweight character. And he was the true heart & soul of ECW in my eyes back then! FTW, fuck the world!

But in your own opinion. Who was the backbone of the original ECW?

 

[B.Ware]

Really tough question. It's a short list of wrestlers in reality but it's a list full of honourable mentions. Tommy Dreamer, Sandman, Raven, Shane Douglas, Taz, Sabu and Terry Funk should all be mentioned in this thread.

For me it has to be RVD. He worked his way to the top with some pretty incredible matches, winning the TV Title and Tag Title. The feuds he had with Sabu and Jerry Lynn are still so clearly memorable to this day. His rise to the top was gradual and allowed the fans to really get behind him, he always seemed to perform at the top of his game on the PPV's and has gone on to have quite an incredible career. Like many of the others I mentioned there has been some low points but for what he achieved in ECW I have to chose "Mr Pay Per View"!

 

[TheBadGuy92]

Just my personal opinion, I always popped for Sandman. I dont know why, he was the Stone Cold of ECW and I was and still am a Stone Cold mark. So he is my choice for the backbone for the reason of him being the reason I watched the show.

 

[dman1373]

Extreme Championship Wrestling: 1995-2001

Tommy Dreamer was the heart & soul of ECW.
Paul Heyman was the brains behind ECW.

But who was the backbone of the original ECW?

If I had to give my opinion I'd say that it would have to be...Taz. Taz was ECW's answer to Bill Goldberg over in WCW. Taz was a short guy with a heavyweight character. And he was the true heart & soul of ECW in my eyes back then! FTW, fuck the world!

But in your own opinion. Who was the backbone of the original ECW?

first off how can taz be the answer to goldberg when the taz gimmick came way before goldberg?
But non the less i would choose sandman. He was the man that was ecw's biggest babyface for the longest.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I would have gone for Tommy Dreamer, but you have stated he was the "Heart & Soul" so I will go with someone else.

I have 2 picks:

Sandman He was the original face of ECW. The hardcore, beer-drinking, singapore cane swinging lunatic was everything a professional wrestler was not supposed to be, and the alternative icon. He held the ECW title more times than anybody else and was always one of the most overs stars on the roster. His iconic entrance, classic storylines such as Raven stealing away his family, and the "blinding", Sandman WAS ECW. He simply would never have had the same success elsewhere, and the image he portrayed represented 1 side of ECW very well.

or

Rob Van Dam

RVD made his name in ECW with his consistently top-class matches. Van Dam held the ECW TV title for close to 2 years before having to give it up due to an injury and in that time he had so many great matches. It wasn't the RVD we see today, this was Va Dam at his absolute best, he just hardly had a bad match and was producing the best work on the card night after night. Fans knew they were in for a great match whenever RVD came out, and he was THE man in the promotion as it was starting to struggle financially.

He was easily the most over guy on the roster and I have no idea why Heyman never put the World Title strap on RVD instead of guys like Credible. An RVD v Lynn feud over the World Title for several months would have been incredible, we all know how good those 2 work together.

 

[waylonmercy]

Paul Heyman was the backbone of ECW. He was the only person in the company who was not replaceable. His vision was what made ECW what it was. He took undersized wrestlers like Tazz and made him look like a monster. Seeing him in aces and 8s today shows how smart Heyman was whereas in aces and 8s he looks like a midget! Heyman took a surfer dude in Sandman and turned him into a cult icon for ECW. He turned Johnny Polo into Raven, Tommy Dreamer was just your average wrestler and turned him into the storyline backbone of ECW. Of course good talent takes the ball and runs with it and its the wrestlers who can take their gimmick to the next level, however Heyman was very genius with wrestling related elements of ECW. He is one of those people who "got it"

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

There is no one guy because things changed up for ECW during its run. Originaly I would say it was Shane Dougas. He was their original main eventer and top draw. Then somwhre in 97 it changed and became Taz. He surassed Douglas as the top draw. Then after he left for the WWE, I would go with RVD. Although he was neve their champ (big mistake on their part) he was the most over guy they had and thus became their top draw.

 

[King Patrick Star]

I agree with the OP. Dreamer was the heart and soul, Heyman was the brain, and Taz was the backbone. Now, this doesn’t apply to everything, but I always felt like whenever a Professional Sports Wrestling Entertainer gets a custom Championship Belt, it means they are “special”. They are above the majority. Well, not only did Taz have an Orange ECW Title with the word Taz on the main plates, but he also had the FTW Title. That says a lot about how ECW felt about Taz and vice versa. To me, Taz was the Stone Cold Steve Austin of ECW.

 

[The Butcher]

Stand back, I'm a Dr.

Now, if I recall correctly, a "backbone" is a spine. A spine, however, isn't one bone but many adjoining bones working in concert. So, using my anatomically correct version of this metaphor, I'd say that all the wrestlers who influenced ECW and held up that HeymanBrain would be the correct answer.

The contributions of Terry Funk, RVD, Shane Douglas, Taz, Sandman, Raven, and many others were all vital to the company, but not necessarily all at the same time. So, like the spine, each part helped prop-up ECW; one after the other, working in concert.

In other words, I can't pick just one.

 

[Trance Metaphor]

Guys like Shane Douglas, Raven, Sandman and Rob Van Dam could all very well be the backbone. They all set their own personal milestones.

My personal pick is Taz. He made the ECW World Heavyweight Championship seem like a big deal and it was during his reign that PWI finally gave the belt World title status. I know this probably doesn't mean much to anyone else, but it's because of Taz that I started taking the ECW title seriously and I still consider it a World title. He beat all challengers and had his own FTW title belt during his feud with Shane Douglas. Both he and Bam Bam Bigelow put each other over in that company and came out looking like top WWE quality wrestlers (Bam Bam already was, but I'm saying he didn't lose his credibility) even in a smaller company. He showed his passion for ECW by returning to wrestling even after breaking his neck and only going through rehab. Taz also had a slew of promos where he'd shoot on other wrestlers in the business and looked believable while doing it because of his in-ring performances. He had the look, the mic skills and the wrestling skills. It's a shame what he has become.

 

[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.

 

[sahawkes]

All good answers so far but I thought I'd just toss my two cents in. In my opinion, the backbone of ECW was not a who but a what. That what is the feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven. Again, this is simply my opinion, but that feud is the most amazing feud in the history of professional wrestling. With all the twists and turns, all the Beulahs and the Kimonas, all the 'Prime Time' Brian Lees and the Vampire Warriors and all the Stevie Richards, this feud carried ECW for a very long time until Tommy was finally able to get that one pinfall victory over Raven that he had been trying so hard to get for so long.

 

[braveh]

Shane Douglas because he was the only one who kept up the in-ring quality to a bearable level. Until good workers like Sabu and RVD arrived.

 

[AhSpicyDrop]

All good answers so far but I thought I'd just toss my two cents in. In my opinion, the backbone of ECW was not a who but a what. That what is the feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven. Again, this is simply my opinion, but that feud is the most amazing feud in the history of professional wrestling. With all the twists and turns, all the Beulahs and the Kimonas, all the 'Prime Time' Brian Lees and the Vampire Warriors and all the Stevie Richards, this feud carried ECW for a very long time until Tommy was finally able to get that one pinfall victory over Raven that he had been trying so hard to get for so long.

Great feud, yes. Best feud in ECW all-time? No.

Raven's feud with Sandman was way more personal than his with Dreamer. I think some of Raven's best promo work came from his feud with Sandman, and hell, he even upped Sandman's game in that feud. But even that's not the greatest feud in ECW's history.

The greatest feud in ECW's history is Taz vs. Sabu, followed closely by Jerry Lynn vs. Rob Van Dam. Both of those feuds put tons of new asses in seats for ECW.

Taz vs. Sabu was built for an entire year before they ever even touched each other, partly because of Paul E and partly because of Sabu NOT wanting to work with Taz. When they finally clashed they produced two of the best matches in the history of ECW PPV, and filled highlight reels with some of the insane spots they did together. There's still people making highlight videos of Taz hitting tons of different neck-wrenching suplexes on Sabu.

Jerry Lynn vs. Rob Van Dam was so good that it even continued over into WWE, so that speaks for itself.

 

[dman1373]

Shane Douglas because he was the only one who kept up the in-ring quality to a bearable level. Until good workers like Sabu and RVD arrived.

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.

 

[AhSpicyDrop]

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.

Douglas was a good worker in his younger years. He carried quite a few piles of shit to good matches. I remember seeing him make Curtis Hughes look good on a couple of occasions... That's unheard of. He had a couple of really good matches with Kevin Sullivan back in 1993 as well. The three-way dance with Sabu and Terry Funk was a great match. The night ECW turned on the NWA he had a really good match with 2 Cold Scorpio.

Douglas' ring work was never the issue, it was his sense of entitlement and feeling like he should always be the center of everything in ECW. He felt like the company owed him something for cutting the promo to break away from the NWA.

But Shane has always been better than average in the ring, unless we're talking about his later years, but even in the later days of WCW he had some good matches with Lance Storm.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Ok... Shane Douglas... This is the man who turned down the HBK gimmick to "look after my sick father...and I wanna go back to Med School" and 3 months later showed up in WCW.... The guy who then used the same schtick to get out of WCW... backbone? more like tapeworm...

You want to know who the backbone was/were.... it isn't one guy... but many... for every RVD or Taz there was a Guido or a 911 - for every Rhyno there was a Mikey Whipwreck as his polar opposite... if I had to pick one person, I would say Spike Dudley... a guy who could be a fricking English teacher and still be one of the best workers, entertainers and talkers/actors in ECW...and THEN make it to WWE for 5 years without changing one thing?

That's your backbone.

 

[satchmokilnt]

I'm with the good doctor on this one. can't pick just one.

heyman gathered some real lightning in a bottle with the ecw roster. you had outcasts, rejects, misfits & those who had been cast adrift by wwf and wcw. but heyman bought them together for what would be one of the finest talent rosters of last 20 years. singularly they may not have been the best. but when taz, rvd, jerry lynn, terry funk, triple threat, new jack, the dudleyz, mickey whipwreck, sandman just to name a few came together some rather special things happened.

they were all each others backbones, helping each other achieve. there's few better examples than the match in which terry funk won the ecw title. a battered and broken veteran who with the help of the sandman, stevie richards, raven and tommy dreamer would confound those who said his days were over.

 

[AhSpicyDrop]

Ok... Shane Douglas... This is the man who turned down the HBK gimmick to "look after my sick father...and I wanna go back to Med School" and 3 months later showed up in WCW.... The guy who then used the same schtick to get out of WCW... backbone? more like tapeworm...

You want to know who the backbone was/were.... it isn't one guy... but many... for every RVD or Taz there was a Guido or a 911 - for every Rhyno there was a Mikey Whipwreck as his polar opposite... if I had to pick one person, I would say Spike Dudley... a guy who could be a fricking English teacher and still be one of the best workers, entertainers and talkers/actors in ECW...and THEN make it to WWE for 5 years without changing one thing?

That's your backbone.

What? I don't think you understand what the term 'backbone' means in relation to the topic...

You're essentially saying that without Spike Dudley ECW would have folded before it did. That makes -zero- sense. Spike Dudley did jack shit in ECW aside from beating up a lot of fat slobs with his Acid Drop finisher. Oh, he got thrown around the ring a lot too, and sometimes OUT of the ring. And Mike Awesome nearly murdered him with powerbombs through tables on the outside of the ring.

I'm beginning to wonder if many of you ever watched ECW before it was on TNN or before WWE revived it as its own bastardized creation. Some of you need to be schooled on the house of Extreme back when it was on the fucking Sunshine network.

Spike Dudley... *sigh*

There's literally only one answer and that's Terry Funk. There's no debate. Terry Funk is literally the only wrestler they had at one point that had a NAME that could put people over. He made Shane Douglas a Main Event act. He made Sabu a Main Event act. He helped get Tommy Dreamer over more after the Sandman feud by teaming with him. Terry Funk turned everything he touched into gold at the beginning of ECW. Raven, Stevie Richards, Sandman, Chris Candido... Did I miss anybody? All of those guys were legitimized with the ECW audience because of Terry Funk either making them look great in losing to him, or putting them over in losing to them.

By the time Funk left they were able to sustain themselves, especially since Funk put Sabu over during Born To Be Wired to the point that Sabu could draw the crowds in Funk's absence.

From there Sabu was the backbone... He got Van Dam started on the right path to becoming a star with their early feud, then later teaming with him. He reluctantly put Taz over and with the help of Shane Douglas got him to a Main Event act(Probably the only selfless thing Douglas did the entire time he was there).

 

[Rulk25]

Actually Paul has talked about why he never gave him the belt (although ironically he was supposed to win it right before he broke his leg) . It was becasue RVD was so over even with secondary title Paul and Rob saw no need to pull the trigger. By leaving him with title they had the chance to have 2 main events in the same night . The world title plus whoever RVD fight

As a matter of fact in some nights the TV title went on AFTER the world title

and that is why RVD is my answer

Rob Van Dam

RVD made his name in ECW with his consistently top-class matches. Van Dam held the ECW TV title for close to 2 years before having to give it up due to an injury and in that time he had so many great matches. It wasn't the RVD we see today, this was Va Dam at his absolute best, he just hardly had a bad match and was producing the best work on the card night after night. Fans knew they were in for a great match whenever RVD came out, and he was THE man in the promotion as it was starting to struggle financially.

He was easily the most over guy on the roster and I have no idea why Heyman never put the World Title strap on RVD instead of guys like Credible. An RVD v Lynn feud over the World Title for several months would have been incredible, we all know how good those 2 work together.

 

[itbewilly]

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]

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]

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]

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.