Kayfabe! – Timeline: The History of ECW 1997 as Told by Sabu

KAYFABE!
Timeline The History of ECW 1997 as told by Sabu

As with the WWE timeline series, the set up for this shoot is simply Sean and Sabu in the studio talking about the various goings on in ECW, both in the ring and in the locker room. I think this series lends itself much better to ECW since ECW ran far less shows than the WWF/WWE, so there’s not nearly as much to cover in a given year, which in turn allows Sabu to go much more in depth with his memories and stories.

That’s the other great thing here. Whereas Sabu was (by his own admission) a bit bashful and soft spoken in his 2009 YouShoot, he’s great here. He’s not going in blind so to speak, he knows perfectly well that he’s there to talk about ECW in 1997, not to field questions where anything can come up.

One thing there’s no shortage of from Sabu is funny stories. Sabu talks a great deal about his friendship with Louie Spicolli, for starters why Sabu got him hired in ECW. It was because he accidentally got him fired from FMW in Japan. In FMW, the boys traveled by bus and Spicolli had to stop and piss a lot, so he finally started pissing in a bottle just so the bus wouldn’t have to stop. During one stop, he’s emptying the bottle out the window and Sabu, jokingly, says that he’s pissing out the window. Well, FMW didn’t see the humor and they fired Spicolli. Spicolli wound up in Paul’s doghouse for being late to shows and the result was him doing a 31-second job to Taz. Sabu was pissed when he heard about it, but Spicolli was cool with it, because that meant he was only working 31 seconds that night. Also, Spicolli wanted a raise, and Sabu asked Paul on his behalf and was told no. Sabu, not wanting to see his friend quit, gave Spicolli a $150 raise out of his own pocket.

The subject of his, rather infamous, match with Sandman at November To Remember 1997 comes up, and Sabu tells the world exactly *why* the match was so horrible. You may not be surprised to hear that Sandman was loaded. But he was loaded on acid! He took two hits of acid and apparently thought Sabu was Godzilla and throughout the match, Hak was saying “Here lizard, lizard, lizard!” like the Taco Bell Chihuahua calling for Godzilla in those old commercials.

There’s a brief discussion of Lance Storm, who made his debut in 1997. Sabu knew him before and knew that he was a good worker. But Lance came off as a real nerd to the locker room. He also talks about Candido and how he felt he was seriously underrated. He says he was every bit as good as Benoit, and even better because working him didn’t hurt nearly as much. He also remembers an angle where Gary Wolfe attacked Shane Douglas (in retaliation for his broken neck the year before). Wolfe didn’t even know his neck was broken for a few weeks. He was on a lot of pain pills at the time for other injuries. Sabu sums it up by saying “tough guy” to which I disagree, “stupid guy” is more like it.

How big of a dick was Paul Heyman? There are tons of stories on that too! Such as how the ECW/FMW relationship was almost over as soon as it started. Sabu had put the deal together because he and Onita went back a long way. The first tour was pretty successful for both parties and FMW asked for a different team than the Dudley Boys. There wasn’t heat on them or anything, but they just wanted someone else. Well Paul, being Paul, flipped his lid and said that if the Dudleys didn’t go then the deal was off. Sabu, brokered a compromise where the Dudleys *and* another team went over and flew the Dudleys over on his own nickel.

Longtime ECW fans will remember the famous promo where Paul fired Sabu in ‘95. Well it’s now told that Sabu planned on making that show! He had his match in Japan and planned to fly directly into the U.S. and head right for Philly. But his plan was too late, and Paul cut the famous promo and buried him. He was also supposed to get a cut of ECW’s merchandise sales, both shirts and videos. Being Paul E. I’m sure you know how much of that he actually saw.

There’s also quite a bit of talk about the WWF/ECW working arrangement, specifically how Paul knew that the fans didn’t want to see ECW guys working WWF matches, they wanted to see the ECW guys working ECW matches in the WWF. The famous dive off the RAW set was improvised, they wanted him to dive off the balcony, but he’s afraid of heights. So he had Bubba and D-Von hold the ladder for him to jump off the RAW set instead. When he worked with Scorpio, Paul told him to not tell the agents what he was going to do, otherwise they’d tell him not to do any of it. Instead Sabu got to work a Sabu match that night, and the next time they were all “You can’t do this, this, and this!” There’s also some talk about the ECW/USWA working agreement, which I’d known about, but didn’t have any specifics. Including, what sounds like, a hot angle with Tommy Dreamer showing up at the WMC studio in Memphis and trashing it, while the fans chanted “ECW!”

That right there pretty much sums up why KC is doing a timeline series just for ECW. Because, at their peak, they were one of the most recognizable names in the business. Ten years after they’ve gone out of business, people still chant “ECW!” on occasion. They sure don’t chant “USWA!” or “GWF!” This was a great way to start out this series, and I eagerly look forward to the next edition.

The 411: KC had once again, knocked one of out of the proverbial park. This is a must-have for any ECW die hard.
Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]