Raven had a very successful first year in ECW in 1995. But 1996 would be even better as 1996 would be the "Year or the Raven, Nevermore!" On January 27, 1996, Raven defeated Sandman, who held the title for most of 1995, to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship and would hold the title for most of 1996 going into 1997.
Raven had a thrilling feud with arch nemesis Tommy Dreamer in 1995 and while he defended his title successfully against Dreamer several times in 1996, as Dreamer still couldn't beat him, Raven mostly feuded with The Sandman in a violent and personal feud.
In early 1996, Raven and Dreamer's rivalry went to new heights when Raven's girlfriend and valet Beulah McGillicutty announced she was pregnant and the father was none other than Dreamer. This incensed Raven who went after Beulah only to be saved by Dreamer.
Raven brought in a new valet Kimona Wanalaya (the best play on words maybe ever "Come on I wanna lay ya!") to replace Beulah. Shane Douglas, who returned to ECW in January after the disappointing stint in the WWF, told Dreamer that Beulah was not pregnant and had been cheating on him.
Dreamer wanted to know who she was cheating on him with, figuring it was Douglas. Kimona then shocked everyone by saying it was her as she kissed Beulah to the mat!! This was the first lesbian angle in pro wrestling history. Dreamer than grabbed both of them and said "I'll take them both, I'm harcore!" and kissed them both.
Raven's lackeys Stevie Richards, The Blue Meanie, and new comer Nova began entertaining the crowd by imitating wrestlers from other organizations as well as imitating rock bands, most notable The Jackson 5 and their famous parody: KISS. Buh Buh Ray Dudley (Mark LoMonaco) mentioned to them a great idea that they parody WCW's New World Order (nWo).
After clearing the idea with Paul Heyman, they formed their version of the nWo called the Blue World Order (bWo). They wore blue t-shirts printed "bWo" on them. Richards was "Big Stevie Cool" (Kevin Nash), Meanie was "Da Blue Guy" (Scott Hall), and Nova was "Hollywood Nova" (Hollywood Hogan). Others came in and out of the bWo but the trio remained the same as this was friggen hilarious!!
Another hilarious gimmick created in 1996 was that of the "Full Blooded Italians" otherwise known as "F.B.I." They were a group of guys portraying the stereotypical Italian gimmick with Italian accents, sayings, mannerisms, and even hand gestures.
The 5'7 Little Guido was perhaps the best known F.B.I. member. What was funny was that guys who had been a part of the stable except Little Guido (who had Italian ancestry) had no Italian in them whatsoever.
The gimmick was started as part of a comedy where African American wrestler J.T. Smith fell and suffered "mild brain damage" and thought he was Italian and nicknamed himself the "Italian Stallion" J.T. Smith. Southern white wrestlers with no Italian Blood whatsoever in Tracey Smothers and "The Big Down" Tommy Rich.
In the middle of 1996, Raven "brainwashed" Sandman's wife Lori Fullington and then-7-year-old son Tyler Fullington as they turned on Sandman and joined forces with Raven. Raven told Tyler that his parents divorce was all Sandman's fault and had his son deny Sandman as his father which made Sandman break down emotionally one more than one occasion. Tyler began dressing and acting like Raven and even doing Raven's signature "Crucifixion" pose.
On October 5, 1996, Sandman won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship when he teamed with Tommy Dreamer to take on Raven's henchmen Brian Lee and Stevie Richards, who subbed for Raven who no-showed the event. Since Sandman pinned Richards, he was awarded the ECW Title.
This led to the "High Incident" show on October 26 at the ECW Arena in one of the most controversial moments in pro wrestling history. Star amateur wrestler Kurt Angle, fresh off of winning the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, was in attendance even doing commentary as he was convinced to attend the event by fellow Pittsburgh native Shane Douglas. This was about three years before he joined the WWF/E.
At the event, Sandman and son Tyler reconciled before Raven came from behind and nailed Sandman with the Singapore Cane as this was a setup. He piledrove Sandman through a table and knocked him out. Raven's lackeys Stevie Richard and The Blue Meanie came out with a wooden cross.
They would tie Sandman to the cross and put a barbed wire crown on his head and "Crucified" him much to look like how Jesus Christ was crucified. They carried him out of the ring on the cross. The ECW Arena was stunned and silent as perhaps even ECW went to far if you can imagine that. Many of the ECW staff and wrestlers were Christian or Catholic and they were outraged by this.
One in particular was Kurt Angle, who was angry and offended by the incident. He told Paul Heyman to not air this with Angle being shown or his name was associated with this in any way otherwise he would sue Heyman and ECW so the incident never aired on TV.
Angle mentioned during the 2005 ECW One Night Stand reunion produced by WWE that he came and left ECW in a shoot. Ironically, he would join ECW the next year when ECW came back full-time under the WWE before he left for TNA.
Many wondered why Angle wasn't offended when before he was in the WWF in 1998-1999 when The Undertaker tied Stone Cold Steve Austin to his symbol and Austin did the same to Undertaker and Undertaker tying Vince McMahon's daughter Stephanie. Yet, Angle still joined the WWF. Angle believed it wasn't a crucifixion to resemble the crucifying of Jesus Christ.
Many in ECW believed Paul Heyman knew of this, but he claimed he didn't and said he would not approve of such an angle. Heyman ordered Raven to go back out there and apologize to everyone, which he did as he did not seem to be too sorry in his apology. Both Raven and Sandman were mad that Raven had to go out and apologize.
Many believed that Raven used his own religious beliefs as he is Jewish along with Heyman and Tod Gordon as he deliberately used the crucifixion as an "anti-Christian" statement. Raven says he did not do this to insult Jesus Christ but to mock The Sandman "by using religious iconography to convey an artistic standpoint."
Raven defeated The Sandman in December to win back the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in a bloody Barbed Wire match. Eventually, The Sandman reunited with his son Tyler and wife Lori after Raven turned on them.
On November 23, 1996, one of the most notorious events in professional wrestling took place known as the "Mass Transit Incident." The event took place at an ECW house show in Boston. D-Von Dudley was scheduled to team with Axl Rotten to take on The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa Saed). However, Rotten could not make it due to a family emergency.
17-year-old Eric Kulas told Paul Heyman that he was 23 years old and was trained to wrestle and had been trained by Killer Kowalski. Heyman told him to go out there then. Kulas went by the name "Mass Transit" as he was a bus driver wearing a bus driver's uniform.
Before the match, Kulas told New Jack to blade him since he never did it and New Jack agreed. During the match, New Jack hit Kulas with many objects including crutches, a toaster, and others. When it came time for Jack to blade Kulas, he used a surgical scalpel and cut Kulas too deep and it severed two of Kulas' arteries in his forehead. It caused blood to gush out extensively and him to pass out.
The Gangstas continued to beat on the badly bloody and injured Kulas, causing Kulas' father Stephen Kulas to scream "Ring the fucking bell!! He's only 17!!" While medics rushed to the ring to tend to young Eric, New Jack got on the microphone and cut a promo that was anti-white and anti-Boston and saying he didn't care if he died.
The event was not televised due to it being a house show, but "Extreme Fan Cam" was on hand and recorded the event on a camcorder, which would be used later as evidence in legal proceedings. Heyman and ECW were anticipating their first PPV but that was pulled on Christmas Eve due to this incident. Eventually, Heyman got his first PPV in April 1997.
New Jack was acquitted on all criminal charges and later found not liable to the serious injuries in a civil trial. You can read more about the incident and legal ramifications here. Sadly, Kulas would pass away in 2002 with complications from gastric bypass surgery.
ECW signed Chris Jericho early in 1996. The long blonde haired somewhat pretty boy was actually very popular with the bloodthirsty ECW fans due to his high-flying style and especially his ability to take serious bumps, like one particular vicious one from Taz.
Jericho had success early on as he defeated Pitbull #2 to win the ECW World Television Championship in June. He lost the title a month later to Shane Douglas. Jericho soon left ECW for greener pastures to go to WCW in August.
At the In Your House: Mind Games PPV in September held in Philadelphia, ECW's Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman were shown sitting in the front row of the event. They were causing trouble as fans in attendance shouted "ECW!" The Sandman spit his beer at Savio Vegas as Sandman and Dreamer were escorted from the arena.
This marked the first time the WWF and ECW did a cross-promotion and started a working and talent relationship between Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman. McMahon first noticed the popularity of ECW when at the 1995 King of the Ring, held in Philadelphia, heard the fans shout and chant "ECW!" and would do so at other shows.
Taz started in ECW in 1993 as "The Tazmaniac" and was even put in a tag team called "The Tazmaniacs." He eventually teamed with Kevin Sullivan and later Sabu until Sabu was legitimately fired in April 1995 for no-showing. This would cause an eventual feud between Taz and Sabu.
Taz suffered a broken neck in July 1995 when Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio botched a spike piledriver. Accoring to Tommy Dreamer, the hospital staff could not believe Taz walked to the hospital how bad his neck was. Taz says Paul Heyman still paid Taz despite Taz not being able to work per Heyman's oral agreement. Taz has loyalty towards Heyman for this.
Taz came back at the end of 1995 and had a new attitude and was a heel, aligning himself with crooked referee Bill Alfonso. Taz claimed Alfonso was the only person who looked after him while he was out with the broken neck, not even Heyman, which was storyline as Heyman legitimately paid him while he was out.
Taz had a new look as he was not the barefoot wildman known as "The Tazmaniac" as he was now simply known as Taz. Unlike the Tazmaniac gimmick where he did not speak, Taz cut angry, profanity-filled promos as he portrayed surly, pissed off son of a bitch. Alfonso would annoying talk trash to people because he knew he had Taz backing him up.
Taz would be more intense as he would throw his opponents all over the ring with different suplexes dubbed "Tazz-plexes" by Joey Styles. He finished his opponent off by locking him in the Tazmission/Kahatajime submission hold.
His opponents would tap out to signal the submission much like they do in mixed martial arts/UFC instead of saying yes or nodding their head. Soon after, the WWF/E and WCW soon adopted this method of submission. Taz became the first MMA/UFC style fighter in pro wrestling.
Taz spent the entire year undefeated and choked everyone in sight with the Tazmission including being the first one to choke out 911 as well as choking out Bam Bam Bigelow. At Hardcore Heaven on June 22, 1996, Taz took on UFC fighter Paul Varelans in what was supposed to be a "legitimate shoot fight." It was a work, however, as Vareleans agreed to tap out to Taz's Tazmission.
Taz was upset that Sabu had been brought back to ECW after being fired and spent the whole year calling out Sabu, which Sabu would not answer the call. Then came the 1996 November to Remember event, one year which saw Taz turn heel and align himself with Bill Alfonso and also the return of Sabu.
At the event, Taz came out at the beginning of the show to say that Paul Heyman was working on a match between he and Sabu at what would be ECW's first ever pay-per-view event. Later that night, Taz again cut an anti-Sabu promo where Tod Gordon came out only to be put in the Tazmission.
Heyman also came out but it did no good either as he was given a Tazplex and also put in the Tazmission when the lights suddenly went out. When they came back on, Sabu was standing in the ring as the two finally were in the ring face-to-face. The lights went out again and when they came back on, the ring was empty.
Perhaps ECW's most talented and most popular wrestler ever, Rob Van Dam (RVD) joined ECW in 1996. He made his ECW debut at the House Party event at the ECW Arena on January 5, 1996, where he defeated Axl Rotten with his thrilling split-legged moonsault. Van Dam worked the Indy circuit in America, minus his brief stay in WCW as "Robbie V" in 1992-93 as well as getting fame for working in All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Van Dam was popular early on due to his laid back attitude and high-flying martial arts style of wrestling. Van Dam had some awesome variety of high-flying moves as well as flying martial arts kicks. Van Dam's early finisher was his split-legged moonsault and then to the Five Star Frog Splash.
Van Dam was also well known for his use of the steel chair which really got him over with the blood thirsty ECW fans. Van Dam used the chair as a springboard for some of his high-flying moves as well as using the steel chair to kick it into his opponent's faces which he called the "Van Daminator."
Van Dam soon started a feud with his best friend Sabu, who trained to be a pro wrestler alongside Van Dam in their home state Michigan for Sabu's uncle The Sheik (Ed Farhat). The feud was over respect, which Van Dam would not show to Sabu, causing Sabu to be wrestle him. RVD and Sabu faced off in a series of thrilling, high-flying matches throughout the spring and summer of 1996.
RVD beat Sabu in a "respect match" where the loser had to shake the winner's hand and say "I respect you." As Sabu was about to, RVD did not shake his hand and called him a piece of shit. Sabu defeated RVD in two brutal matches where finally RVD respected Sabu and the two soon became a tag team.
"The Franchise" Shane Douglas returned to ECW at the House Party event in January 1996 after a horrible stint as "Dean Douglas" in the WWF. Douglas feuded with Cactus Jack after Jack renounced ECW and its hardcore ways and praising the WWF, where he would soon join. Douglas ripped him since he came from the WWF and it was horrible. Douglas also joined forces with Tommy Dreamer in his feud with Raven.
Douglas won the ECW TV Title twice in 1996. The second time, he defeated champion Chris Jericho, 2 Cold Scorpio, and Pit Bull #2 in a Four-Way match. Douglas accidentally broke Pit Bull #1's neck and The Pit Bulls' manager Francine turned on them and helped Douglas win the title. Late in 1996, Douglas reformed the Triple Threat with Chris Candido and Brian Lee along with manager Francine.
1996 was no doubt an exciting year for ECW. They had no way of competing financially with the WWF and WCW but it was no less exciting. 1997 would see big things on the horizon for ECW such as "invading" the WWF as well as their first ever pay-per-view event called Barely Legal.
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