CW Anderson On His Return to Wrestling, ECW’s Legacy, NWA Powerrr Stint

CW Anderson is returning to wrestling, and he discussed his initial retirement last year and more in a new interview with Wrestling Epicenter. You can check out some highlights below, along with the full video:

On his emotional farewell video and decision to return to pro wrestling: “Without getting into too many details, those who know already know, I was in a very dark place over the summer to where you would only hear the bad news from the other wrestlers. You know, I know some people believe in God, some people don’t. I was one that didn’t. I believed the Bible was a book of myths. But, the day I posted that (retirement announcement) video was kind of my own cry for help. A local preacher reached out to me a few days after that and that is when things changed for me. The reason I did it, again, is I was in a real dark place and I was listening to others and I thought it was the thing to do to make others happy but at the end of the day, it was supposed to be making me happy. I realized after a few months, I made a big mistake. I wanted to walk away from wrestling on my own but when I felt I had nothing left to give. For people that know me, I just turned 50 years old. I get called Benjamin Button. (laughs) The older I get, the younger I look! If you look at me in ECW, and January 7th was the 20 year anniversary of the (ECW Guilty as Charged) I Quit match on my 30th birthday, I look better now than I did then. I’m in better shape, I move faster… I get called, yeah, that I’m Terry Funking it. But, after this, when I do decide to retire, it will be when I have nothing left but there won’t be another one of those emotional videos. The dnight after that video, I collapsed. It was bad. It was really bad. But, sicne then, things have done nothing but gone upward. I was talking to my fiance, my girlfriend at the time, she used to be my valet and she still will be when we get back going again. She told me to do what makes me happy and she knows that wrestling makes me happy. I knew it wasn’t going to be like it was before with this pandemic but to get back in the ring again, man, it is like my home! It is something that I’ve been doing for 27 years.”

On the retirement video endearing him to people: “I’ve had several people message me and tell me it was hard for them to watch – Even some who weren’t fans and maybe didn’t know me. When I decided to come back, I went on Instagram and deleted it because I never want to see it again. At that time, I was under 200 pounds in weight! It was really bad. I hadn’t been under 200 pounds since high school!”

On ECW’s legacy being changed by Jim Cornette & Eric Bischoff’s podcasts: “I’ll start out with Jim Cornette. I was a huge fan of Jim Cornette. I still am! I listen to snippets of his podcast every week. I have nothing but respect for Jim Cornette and his opinion. I’ve always valued his opinion. Eric Bischoff? I think I met him on on a couple of occasions. But, I don’t really know him like that. But… Some people don’t like the stuff that we did in ECW. I get it. It wasn’t their forte. They didn’t grow up with it. They like a more old school wrestling style. To others, it didn’t make sense and didn’t tell good stories. We were ladders, tables, and chairs. But the “hardcore” wrestling wasn’t about tables, ladders, and chairs. It was about us going out there and wrestling our ass off knowing we weren’t getting paid! Knowing we were back-dated pay and owed checks. Knowing we were wrestling injured – For instance, one night I had to wrestle Raven and New Jack on the same night and my back was out on me. I remember Paul (Heyman) and Bill Wiles carrying me to the Gorilla Position, my music hit, and I went out there and wrestled Raven and then Nw Jack, I came to the back and collapsed and Road Kill put me in the back of his van and took me to the airport. That is the hardcore style that I remember. Guys from WCW, guys from WWE would never have wrestled like that without getting paid. They were spoiled! They were used to getting catered and used to making six figures when I was making $75 a night paying my own way. The legacy to me and the fans, you know, I can’t get in the ring now, 20 years later, without the crowd chanting “ECW, “ECW!” Most, I won’t say most but some of the fans were either very young or weren’t born yet. Hey, that’s thanks to the WWE Network who still airs us. A lot of the older guys don’t like us. That’s OK. That’s their stuff. But, there is a volume of fans that do because of the cult that we were. We were like the Rocky Horror Picture Show of wrestling! You don’t hear people go to shows chanting “WCW” or “WWE”. But, every show I go to, you hear “EC-Dub, EC-Dub!” and that is because of the Hardcore, the heart and the soul that we put into it.”

On the documentaries about ECW that have come out since it closed: “Everybody that watches the documentaries, and not that BS documentary that WWE put out about the “Rise and Fall”, that was such a BS documentary because you were seeing it from the view of the people that WWE took care of – Like, that Paul took care of. How about interviewing guys like myself, Danny Doring, Chris Chetti, Roadkill, Mikey Whipwreck… The ones that were left behind. The ones that had to go somewhere else, that had to go get real jobs. Some guys just quit wrestling over not getting paid and the lies we were told by Paul. I remember one night we had the biggest house show the company ever had in Canada. I remember because I wrestled Rob Van Dam. Paul told us he coudln’t pay us because it was in Canadian! I remember he gave us this speech and I still went out there with Rob Van Dam, I don’t remember if we were main event or not, and we went 45 minutes and I separated my shoulder for the ECW fans. That’s the hardcore. That’s the legacy – And people aren’t going to agree with me and that is OK. But, people that went to the shows know the blood, sweat, and tears we poured into this company when we were getting lied to by Paul Heyman and still going out there and performing for fans.”

On ECW wrestlers deserving more credit for being good talent: “There was a guy from ECW who went on to be a long time champion in WWE – He wrestled Steve Austin, Ric Flair, and a lot of top guys, and he told me that I was one of the best guys he was ever in the ring with. Dave Hebner once told Steve Corino and I, “You guys are my favorite guys to ref.” We were like like, “You mean nowadays in this promootion?” He was like, “No, ever!” I know my talent speaks for itself. So, again, Jim Cornette. I respect that. That is his opinion. Midnight Express? Bobby Eaton was and still is my idol! He is the guy I patterned my style after – It wasn’t Arn. It was Bobby because I wanted to be able to go out there and wrestle Ric Flair or a broom stick and have a 5 star match!”

On his stint with NWA Powerrr last year: “I loved working NWA Powerrr! I knew Billy Corgan from ECW. He brought me in to do some stuff and I had some really good matches. I knew most everybody there. It was the closest to the ECW locker room that I’ve seen in a long time. Everybody was there to help each other out. You had agents there like Homicide, Trevor Murdoch, Simon Diamond, Crimson… Guys I think of the world of who were agents plus wrestling and still there to help everybody else. That is the kind of thing that I like. When you’re out there to get yourself over and you come back and still help everybody else, that is what I love about this business. If Billy (Corgan) decided to bring it back and do something with it (the NWA), I would want to be one of the first ones there! I absolutely loved working with Billy, Dave Lagana, and all of those guys.”

On COVID impacting independent wrestling: “You’re 100% right, it did suck because it took everything away you look forward to. Before it hit, there was a string of like 6 months that I was working every single weekend. Sometimes 2 or 3 times a weekend! And then, overnight, there was nothing. Then, all the personal stuff in my life hit, I was in a black hole!” He continues, “I’m tired of going to Walmart every day just to walk around! (laughs)”