Danny Doring Recalls Checks Bouncing In ECW

ECW infamously had periods of financial trouble where talent weren’t able to get their checks cashed, something that Danny Doring recently looked back on. Doring was part of ECW from 1996 until the company’s end in 2001, and he saw the famously lean times when Paul Heyman was having issues paying talent. ECW was of course eventually sold to WWE after it closed down.

Doring looked back on the stories of checks bouncing in ECW during a guest host appearance on Rob Van Dam’s One of a Kind podcast. He recalled that it was not as bad as the stories suggested. You can check out the highlights, as sent along by the show, below:

On Bounced Checks In ECW:

“A lot of people will assume that that was like we just worked for free for five, six, seven years when the bounced check thing was not like it was. It happened, but it wasn’t like this. This overall thing that dragged on for like a year. It was a short year. It was a couple months. I mean, like a month or two and, and some guys got some – some guys got double. It was like the people act like we were just like traveling the country on our own dime and we weren’t getting paid at all.

“And it was always a joke, like, ‘Guys, you guys work for free all the time.’ Like it wasn’t really that long. And who knows? The well ran dry. I guess they were saying, ‘borrow from Peter to pay Paul,’ or whatever. So like some guys got paid some weeks, some guys didn’t.”

On Being Questioned About the Matter:

“I had a conversation with a very respected guy once. He goes, ‘What were you guys thinking?’ And I said, ‘Well, what are we supposed to do? Like we’re on the third biggest brand. Some would argue number two at the time or whatever, however you want to look at it (ECW homer would say number two) what are we supposed to do? Go work at the VFW hall?’

“We’re on TV, like you don’t balk at that opportunity. Was there some tough times? Sure, but my lights never turned off in my house, you know, I mean never turned my water off.”