Top Five Extreme Moments from Extreme Championship Wrestling - Part 1

For those of you who know me will know that I absolutely loved ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling). It was a promotion that was so ahead of its time. It was fresh, new and did things that no other promotion would ever think of doing. They were revolutionary. A mixture of high-flying, fast-paced wrestling that was mixed with hard rocking entrances and hardcore wrestling. It truly was something else.

Now, there have been a slew of promotions that have obviously been inspired by ECW, and they have took extreme to a whole new level, but I've got to say, it's just not the same. ECW did it differently, it wasn't just the extreme violence, the guys doing these things were freakin' talented and quite frankly there will never be another ECW. But, with ECW now gone I thought I would share with you my Top 5 Extreme Moments from ECW, which will span into a few parts with five choices within each one, so in reality it may be a top 15, 20, 100! Who knows. In any event here are my first five picks.

5. Rhino vs. Lori Fullington.

Back in 1999 a wrestler hit the scene. Not just any wrestler, a beast, a war machine. His name was Rhino, and his name lived up to his style. He was constantly pissed off. He would hit the ring, mess everyone up and still be pumped for me. It was as if an F-5 tornado had hit the ring. This guy seemed unstoppable.

Upon his arrival he started feuding with The Sandman, a feud that would continue until ECW shut their doors. But there was one time during Hardcore Heaven 2000. It was Rhino vs. The Sandman for the ECW World Television Championship, and Rhino was defending the title.

Now, The Sandman's actual wife, Lori Fullington, returned to ECW after a brief absence to help her husband against The Network, a stable which had none-other than Rhino. At one point during the match, Lori got involved in the match, bad move, and Rhino got a hold of her, took her out to the apron and piledrove her from the ring, through a table to the concrete floor! It was something that I had never seen before and quite honestly I've never seen since. Thankfully, Rhino's thighs are thicker than a tree trunk! So, Lori, thankfully escaped unarmed. But it's still, extreme.

4. Tommy Dreamer vs. C.W. Anderson - I Quit Match.

Tommy Dreamer has been billed as "The Innovator of Violence", often using what ever he can find to inflict damage on his opponent or in some instances being used on himself. But there was one time where Dreamer really became inventive. It was an I Quit Match against C.W. Anderson at ECW's final Pay-Per-View in 2001, Guilty As Charged.

During the match the two had beaten the hell out of each other from using the ring-bell, a hammer, even Christmas present, courtesy of "Towel Boy" which turned out to be a sheet of steel, but there was one more package, one more gift from hardcore Santa Claus, it was some razor wire!

Unfortunately for Dreamer, the razor wire became much more of a hindrance rather than an aid, as Dreamer would be planted onto the wire which then led to the blades piercing his flesh on his back, from which it would stay dangling until it fell out.

But, possibly the most extreme moment from the match and the moment where Dreamer became inventive was when he used a piece of plastic from a broken table and applied it around C.W. Anderson's head and pulled it into his eyes applying as much force as he could until C.W. literally screamed the words "I Quit". In later years, in TNA, Dreamer would almost do the same thing, but this time it was with barbed-wire and it was being pulled around Raven's face at their Hardcore Justice event.

3. Beulah McGillicutty vs. Bill Alfonso.

Back in 1997, ECW held their event As Good As It Gets. The match was scheduled to be Tommy Dreamer and Beulah McGillicutty up against Rob Van Dam and Bill Alfonso. Unfortunately, Dreamer was taken out of the match and could not compete. Instead it ended up being Beulah taken on Bill Alfonso.

I had never seen mixed wrestling before, where it's men versus women of if I did I can't remember. Anyway, if I did it was nothing, and I mean nothing like what took place in 1997. The match was absolutely brutal. From the opening minutes where Beulah planted Bill Alfonso over the head with a sheet of steel, busting his head up almost immediately and from here on out, he would bleed. I mean, the ring was almost covered in blood.

But that's not all, Beulah was on the offence for 90% of the match delivering numerous hits, DDT's, Hurracarrana's and even setting Bill up in the tree-of-woe, perching a chair up against his bloody face and landing with a bloody dropkick, it was intense. I believe, Bill lost so much blood that he could have died, it was that brutal.


Bulah vs Bill Alfonso.wmv by 2cool4you2

 2. Rob Van Dam - Van Terminator.

In wrestling there are some really dangerous moves. Look at the piledriver. A move that has caused so many accidents and injuries that the WWE has banned any wrestler from using it ever again. How about a steel chair to the head? People go on about how wrestling is "fake", you try taking a steel chair to the head, I can guarantee you it hurts, oh, it hurts a lot. How many guys have had concussions as a result of a chair shot to the head? Too many. Guess what? WWE won't allow any chair shots to the head, that's why all you'll see is some shots to the back.

Wrestling is filled with dangerous moves, that's why it takes years of practice to perfect, but there is one move, one move so deadly I'm surprised if no-one has been seriously injured from it. It's an evolution of the Van Daminator, you know, the one where someone holds the chair in-front of an opponents face and RVD hits a spinning kick launching the chair into their face.

Well, take that move, multiply it by about a million! And you've got yourself the Van Terminator. A move where an opponent is perched in the bottom of the corner with a chair held up against their head and RVD jumps from one turn-buckle from one side of the ring to another driving his feet into the chair which in turn hits their face. It's brutal. In fact Shane McMahon has even used the move, he called it "Coast to Coast" and fair play to him for even attempting such an agile move. Granted it didn't involve someone holding a chair, but it's still an awesome jump.



1. Sabu vs. Terry Funk - No Rope Barbed Wire Match.

This was brutal. Who's idea was it to remove the ropes but then add barbed wire in its place? Well, I guess it's better than that time in Japan where they decided to not only have the barbed wire but also have flaming ropes in which the entire ring almost engulfed with everyone inside. It also turned out that you couldn't see anything since the flames where 15-foot high!

In any event, ECW hosted Born to be Wired, a match that was billed as being "Too extreme for ECW", and if you've seen it then you know just how dangerous this one got. So, on one hand you have the homicidal, suicidal, genocidal, death-defying man Sabu, and on the other you have THE hardcore icon Terry Funk and you put both of them in a no-rope barbed-wire match and let them go at it. The end result? Utter brutality. These guys lost so much blood in this match, it's insane how they ever managed to get through the match, but they did.

Possibly the most extreme moment of the match was when Sabu tore a huge gash in his bicep after attempting a corner splash on Terry Funk, but instead got violently tangled up in the barbed-wire and tore a 10-inch long gash in his bicep. Now you'd think that would be it. You'd think the match would be over. How could you even possibly continue this match after such an accident? Well, Sabu being the homicidal maniac that he is, asked for some tape and simply tapped up the huge gash and continued the match!

Insane! Anyway the end result is both are tangled in barbed-wire and Sabu scores the win. But, they are both so badly tangled in barbed-wire that ring technicians needed wire cutters to free them from their barbed-wire cocoon. Since then, ECW never did another no-rope barbed-wire match.

So there you have it. Five of the most extreme moments from ECW. But this, this is just a small selection of the action that took place in ECW. Stay tuned for more and be sure to let me know what your top five moments are?