WRESTLING 20 YEARS AGO PODCAST

Listen to our December 1995 ECW podcast, reviewing Sandman regaining the ECW title by pinning, of all people, Steve Austin.

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Sandman was an awful wrestler. I mean, really, really bad. He had little co-ordination, few moves and, when he started his run in ECW in 1992, a sketchy surfer character complete with a horrid wrestling singlet. But within the space of three years, with no discernible in-ring improvement, Sandman became the most popular act in front of a group of fans who valued and knew how to spot talent. How?

"Island of mis-fit toys" is the line you'll hear peddled around when talking about the ECW roster. They accepted guys deemed unfit for purpose within the WWF or WCW, and it shaped a very fluid base of talent that included guys on their way up (Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko), guys spat out by one of the two (Cactus Jack, Steve Austin, Matt Borne, Raven) and a bunch of guys just from the local area hoping to have their star burn brightly for their 15 minutes of fame (see The Public Enemy, Tommy Dreamer and many others).

Sandman, perhaps more than any others, fit the final category. Playing a generic surfer gimmick that was forgettable even with the benefit of hindsight, he seemed destined just to be a forgettable under-card act as the likes of Sabu, Shane Douglas and Terry Funk started stealing the headlines within ECW. On the night of the fabled three way dance in February 1994, Sandman teamed with Tommy Cairo against Rockin' Rebel and the Pitbull (this was before there was a second one) in a five minute match.

Around this time it had been suggested to Sandman that he move away from the surfer gimmick into, well, less of a gimmick. Sandman was a smoker and beer drinker backstage, so why not just do that out in the open too? Out went the wetsuit, in came the loose tee and pajama bottoms. Sandman, critically, had taken a step to become more like the people he was performing in front of. ECW's almost entirely male audience could live vicariously through someone who, in all honestly, probably couldn't wrestle any better than they did.

It was Cairo that represented Sandman's first memorable feud within ECW. Cairo had aligned himself with Miss Peaches (the real life wife of Sandman), and defeated Sandman during a match in April 1994. During the post match angle, Sandman DDT'd Cairo before getting hold of Peaches, out came Woman (aka Nancy Sullivan) and whipped Peaches. After the match aired on TV, we got a promo from outside Sandman's house with Miss Peaches and Cairo, Cairo said he had been drinking Sandman's beer. They previewed the next step in the program – a "Singapore caning" mixed tag match, where the loser would be on the receiving ends of several lashes of the now-"Singapore" cane.

It wasn't quite the caning angle between Sandman and Tommy Dreamer that would happen a few months later, but this was one of the first feuds that represented a significant change in direction for the promotion. For the time being, they were still "NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling", but the elements of Extreme were starting to become more and more frequent on television – with the Public Enemy now making tables and arena wide brawls part of their everyday arsenal.

It was the Cairo feud that spawned one of Sandman and ECW's most famous hours, as Cairo and Tommy Dreamer found an neutral enemy, giving Sandman a new person to feud with. The feud lead to another Singapore Caning match, this time a singles between Sandman and Dreamer. Despite Dreamer being screwed out of the finish thanks to interference (a finish that Tod Gordon even offered him an out on), Dreamer opted to take defeat like a man.

Woman offered Dreamer a way out, a way of salvaging his safety – Dreamer declined. Much like a lot of the feuds in ECW this was one designed to get both men more over as a result. Sandman, as this maniacal prick, Dreamer as this gutsy/never-give-up hero wanting to prove he was more than just a pretty boy to the regulars in Philadelphia by taking a beating. It was, and still is, one of the strongest segments ECW had ever pulled off with Sandman's lack of remorse really came across. The pairing between he and Woman – with Woman as the driving force in the post match angle, really worked well nicely. The angle, paired with the Shane Douglas NWA title angle on the August 30th 1994 Hardcore TV made the entire thing one of the most memorable the promotion ever pulled off.

Of course, what followed is well known in ECW folklore – the pair re-matched a few weeks later, Dreamer stubbed a cigarette into the eye of the Sandman, bringing the bout to a sudden halt and causing battle lines within the ECW roster to temporarily cease as good guys and bad tended to the fallen man. When Sandman retured a few weeks later with bandages over his eyes (having not been seen around Philadelphia in the meantime), he ripped the bandages off and took advantage of Dreamer who was distracted by Woman – striking him with a vicious cane shot across the head to an explosion of noise from the ECW fans in attendance. It was this moment, quite possibly, where the man of the people anti-hero Sandman was first born. In spite of all his despicable acts, there was something quite relatable about the beer drinking, chain smoking, cane swinging Sandman that ECW fans could really latch on to.

Read More: The Sandman vs Tommy Dreamer

After this we really were at the races. Sandman, with reactions growing ever stronger, quickly found himself as one of the most in demand acts in the company, feuding with relative-major names like Cactus Jack before getting involved in the World Title picture with Shane Douglas. With four major ECW singles acts in Sabu, Taz, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko tied up in a three way tag team feud (the one that ended up with Sabu being fired), Sandman went from an unthinkable World champion option to being probably the one that made the most sense. With Shane Douglas in negotiations with the WWF for what felt like about four months, Sandman won the ECW title in April 1995. ECW's worst in ring performer (by some margin, and widening) was now its top title holder.

That really, was always the story of the ECW World Title. ECW's roster was too fluid to have any kind of hierarchy, especially once the Monday Night Wars began ECW had to be content with the fact they were quite regularly going to lose talent. Douglas, in that sense, had been an excellent foil throughout 1994 – a name guy from WCW who could hold up his end of the deal and hold credible headlining matches at shows against guys like Ron Simmons and Tully Blanchard. Douglas was all over Hardcore TV as a World Champion, but largely just cutting promos. He was being used as the main focal point while Paul Heyman could build up ECW's fledgling undercard.

When the time came to move the title on Sandman had one thing going for him – he was over. Boy, was he over. He came out to the ring with Woman, underscored by "Enter Sandman" by Metallica with entrances that could often last four or five minutes. He'd get to ringside then just soak up the atmosphere ("atmosphere", in this case, a can of beer), while Woman posed with his title belt.

The match quality was often bad. Usually matches quickly broke down into arena wide brawls that involved all manner of weapons. In a world where unco-ordinated was normal Sandman's irregular in ring work was often downright scary to watch. His top rope leg flop put both his opponent and him in a lot of danger – he would often land with his "other" leg tucked in a hurdling position.

But while he had his Singapore cane, everything was right with the world. As 9-1-1 was moved into a more ordinary program, Sandman became to the go to guy when a ring needed clearing following a sub-par opening match (there's even a suggestion, one not too farfetched, that people were told to go out and have a bad opening match, as the crowd would inevitable call for Sandman to run out and clean house). This set piece became a frequent feature of the opening 15 minutes of shows, and often generated some of the biggest pops of the night.

Perhaps one of the biggest disappointments is that Sandman was ECW Champ around the time that both Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit were around. There was never any impetus on Sandman to have great matches, but it would have been a lot of fun to see the likes of those three, who were having world class matches by any standard or any era, could've got out of him. Sandman was left with a feud with Cactus Jack and then, perhaps improbably, one with Mikey Whipwreck.

Whipwreck's rise was almost as improbable. Starting out as this incredibly limited worker, fans were able to watch this underdog rise through ranks, initially alongside Cactus Jack in a tag team, but later as a scrappy, battling, never-say-die babyface. He would often win in flukey fashion having taken one hell of a pummeling, it was a strategy that would take him to the ECW Tag Titles and the ECW Television title, could it take him to the world title too?

After a memorable six man cage match, where Mikey became an honorary member of the Public Enemy facing the team of Sandman, New Jack and Too Cold Scorpio (standing in for Mustapha). Mikey finished the match with a splash from the top of the cage (a brave spot given the build quality of the cage!) and pinned Sandman. A month later, after Steve Austin basically railed over the entire ECW operation, Mikey was champion defeating Sandman in a ladder match.

Read More; Superstar Steve Austin Lights Up ECW

It was the end of Sandman's second title run (having previously held it in 1992), by the end of his ECW run Sandman had held the title five times (only Shane Douglas, 4, had more than two) and a combined length of 446 days (Second only to Douglas – 874). For someone so incredibly limited in front of an audience that appreciated good wrestling more than most (and shat on bad wrestling WAY more than most), it's a testimony to how often ludicrously popular the character was, and because (barring a short run in WCW as Hardcore Hak in 1999) his character and ability wasn't really wanted by anyone else. If the ECW Arena was anyone's home, it was probably Jim Fullington's. 

We could've selected any of the ECW podcasts from 1995, but listen to our September 1995 podcast to hear some of Jack's tremendous ECW promos. 

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When Cactus Jack departed WCW in 1994, the time perhaps represented a cross-roads in the career of the then 30-year-old. His size and bodyshape was something that very easily could’ve been mishandled had he have immediately sought out Vince McMahon and the WWF. Fortunately commitments in Japan gave him some choices and an emerging promotion in Philadelphia gave him a place to find his groove once again. By the time he’d left nearly two years later, he departed for the WWF as captivating as ever and with a catalogue of promo work that could genuinely stand up to anyone in history.  

Foley’s latter run in WCW was an odd one. When the project started he was in the middle of those infamous amnesia angles, having being powerbombed onto the floor by Vader (the bump was very real, but the amnesia was fake). The storyline they produced would probably leave Mick Foley wishing he’d had amnesia so he could forget the entire thing, but the overriding point was the angle was a main event angle. Foley returned as was plugged back in to a main event program with Vader towards the back end of 1993.  

It would be overly-simplistic to say Cactus Jack’s demise in WCW was as a result of the arrival of Hulk Hogan. 1994 heralded a change in direction for the company – originally one that was actually meant to crown Sid Vicious as the top dog. Instead, after a fight with Vader in Blackburn, Sid was fired and Ric Flair was the man chosen to lead the company into 1994. Flair gave Vader his rematch, then turned his sights to Ricky Steamboat before essentially laying the paving for Hulk Hogan’s arrival. Jack was pushed aside as others were prioritized, but his set of matches against The Nasty Boys were a highlight across the board in 1994, a series of tag team matches that offered a preview of the style of what was to come 3-4 years later.  

Jack had actually already started appearing in ECW before his departure. The famous promo when he threw down the WCW Tag Team Title belt actually came nearly four months before his WCW exit. It's not clear what gave him scope to work both at the same time (most talent exchanges from that year were part of other business deals). Jack threw down the WCW title, bemoaning the "titles" he deemed more important (like "Most extreme wrestler"). People within WCW who heard about the promo without actually seeing it weren't happy. 

But his WCW departure lead more to two things. Firstly would've been his salary; WCW were shuffling numbers around trying to accommodate not only Hulk Hogan, but also the raft of people that seemingly came on board as a result of his arrival: namely Jimmy Hart, Earthquake and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. Struggles in levelling their wage salary would force (in one way or another)the departures of Dustin Rhodes, Barry Darsow, Steve Austin and others in the coming 18 months.  

The other thing that worked against Foley was his in ring style. The wrestling world was changing, but in 1994 it was actually regressing into a safer style. Both companies were cutting back due to political pressure surrounding violence on television. Foley often seemed to be a danger to himself: in his final match in WCW against Kevin Sullivan he pulled off a number of unnecessary bumps, all in the name of trying to get life out of a crowd that didn't care about the loser leaves town stipulation. 

But he didn't leave WCW scot free. Earlier in the year during a tour of Germany in a match against Vader, Foley did a hangman spot in the ropes that he'd done many times before, catching the top and middle ropes around his neck in a spot that (in theory) looked pretty brutal but actually wasn't. But the ropes weretoo taut and in attempting to stop himself from being strangled Foley tore off the better part of his right ear.  

One of his most famous contributions early was winning the ECW Tag Team Championship with Mikey Whipwreck. The whole thing only came about after Terry Funk no showed an event, Whipwreck had only been an active character for a few months and barely an active wrestler for longer than that. He was pitched as an underdog that got the piss beaten out of him but by hook or by crook still won. Whipwreck was chosen as Jack's stand in partner but also picked up the fall against The Public Enemy.  

While perhaps his most famous program in ECW should probably be recorded as Cactus Jack vs The Fans, his on screen feuds like the bulk in ECW were many and fluid. He was used as a guy who could always be trusted to feud with the bigger names but was never relied upon to be the top guy – in part because of his Japan dates and latterly for his impending departure to the WWF (early reports of which could actually be traced back almost six months prior to when he debuted on Raw in April of 1996). 

After a memorable program with The Sandman in early 1995, one which (like many in Foley's career) helped elevate Sandman to the level where a lot of ECW fans bought him as a credible challenger to the Heavyweight Championship. That triangle, that included champion Shane Douglas (who was on his own farewell tour ahead of a gig in New York), was ECW's top program in that part of the year alongside the Tommy Dreamer and Raven feud.  

But memorable most was his feud with Terry Funk. The pair found a good neutral home in ECW, one where they could be shot together to provide promotion material for when Funk vs Jack was a headline show in Japan later in the year. While few of the Jack/Funk bouts in ECW made it to Hardcore TV, we did at least get to watch two of the best in the business bring some fire with a fantastic set of promos.  

The pay off to all of this, of course, wasn't for a bout in front of 1,200 people in Philadelphia, it was instead for the program in Japan, one that culminated famously in the Exploding C-4 Barbed Wire Board match at the conclusion of the King Of The Deathmatch tournament. With the ring ropes replaced with barbed wire, the match was essentially set to "kill off" Funk, in a big ring explosion. After three boards exploded the ring "explosion" was such a let down the two had to use a ladder an improvise a finish. You can read more about the whole saga here.  

Jack returned to ECW turning heel on the fans and Tommy Dreamer. The heel turn was inspired by a verbal agreement between Jack and the WWF, one that would see Jack eventually join the promotion but (much like the Public Enemy's departure to WCW) would enable ECW to tell a proper farewell program and wrap up the story.  

The heel turn, amongst other things, enabled Jack to work a much softer style – the theory going that Jack was no longer willing to put his body on the line just for the ECW fans. Out went (some) of the violent spots, out went the apron elbow drop. In his first match after fully turning heel Jack took his opponent down in a headlock (something he rarely did as a face) and the ECW fans responded by starting a Mexican wave.  

The feud with Dreamer tied in quite nicely with Dreamers program with Raven (one that, after nearly eight months, was seemingly fueled on dragging the entire ECW roster in with it). Jack's motivation as a heel was to try and convince Dreamer to go to WCW (a story fueled by what seems to be some, at best, flimsly reports of WCW's interest in Dreamer – at a time where seemingly everyone in ECW was either going to or being linked with one of the big two).  

In matches against Dreamer, either singles or tags, Jack would wear these amazing shirts with cartoon drawings of Eric Bischoff and the Dungeon Of Doom on them. One memorable spot same Dreamer pull the Bischoff shirt over Cactus' face, striking "Bischoff" as a way of giving his response to the rumours. Once Jack's New York destination was common knowledge, the target changed to the WWF "Tommy – don’t make a liar of me to Uncle Vince". Jack's shirts now read "Join the New Generation".  

His last few months were tied up with programs against Dreamer, former tag team partner Mikey Whipwreck and Shane Douglas – who returned to the promotion after a dire eight month spell with the WWF. In February Jack and Douglas had a fine match by the pairs standards, culminating in Douglas handcuffing Jack before hitting him with a dozen brutal unprotected chair shots to the head. If the angle sounds familiar, that's because it is – Foley as Mankind would do the same thing with The Rock three years later. The Mankind character vignettes would begin around this time in February 1996 on WWF television. 

Jack's final two shows with ECW came down to a fitting farewell. Firstly, in New York, where he took on newcomer Chris Jericho in his first ECW match. The 14 minute match was at the standard that you would expect for these two with Jack, while still a heel, having his working boots on and Jericho adapting his style to mesh with it. Jack, not for the first time or the last, selflessly put over the new charge after an even encounter – immediately establishing Jericho as a piece of important furniture within ECW and setting him up for a match the following night with Taz, who was on his way to being pushed to the moon. 

For Jack's final match he would face off against Mikey Whipwreck. After a whirlwind second half of 1995 – where Mikey would not only rise high enough to win ECW's "World" Heavyweight Title, but also defeat Steve Austin in the process, 1996 had seen him pushed aside somewhat, becoming reluctant two time tag champions with the now heel Jack after Mikey won the titles in a singles match over Too Cold Scorpio, Jack came out and announced he was Mikey's partner. It was the kind of shit ECW would have, quite rightly, called out WCW or the WWF on – but that's by-the-by.  

The match, given Mikey's lack of experience and Jack's style, came across better than anyone could have realistically expected it to. The pair brawled around ringside and into the crowd, Jack was still working a heel but was doing a lot more than he was before, including Jack dropping an elbow drop off the apron for the first time since his turn, and Mikey hitting a big splash off of the eagles nest. Jack hit a piledriver onto the steel chair and won the match. 

But it was his final moment that was perhaps the more memorable part of the weekend, signing off with a post match promo that perfectly balanced not completely breaking character yet having a fitting farewell. Jack said that after all the things he'd said, to get the kind of farewell reaction from the ECW fans was amazing, he made peace with some of the regulars in the front row before signalling out two people in the back that, without which, this wouldn't be possible. He was, of course, on about... Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie. Richards and Meanie came out and granted Jack his wish of going out doing the Fargo strutt. You can hear the promo along with our review of the segment on the March 1996 podcast here. 

Jack was leaving for pastures new, a WWF deal not only signed but also in the run – he would debut on Raw less than three weeks later. ECW, for Jack like so many others, was a place they could showcase themselves in their full, unedited form. After nearly two years as a regular character, Jack had left behind a library of promos that were likely unrivaled in the 1990s until Steve Austin blossomed in the WWF a year or so later. People remember the Cane Dewey promo, but there's a case for almost all of his promos in 1995 as being absolute gold.  
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In his parting promo he said that if ECW could survive without Terry Funk, then they sure as hell could survive without Cactus Jack. And he wasn't wrong – in the mits of the Monday Night War ECW was being squeezed for talent from both sides and was having to create new stars as quickly as they let them go. ECW would survive without Cactus Jack... but it'd be like surviving without a body part, and one much more significant than an ear.  

Listen to our November 1994 podcast reviewing the AAA When World's Collide pay per view. (Review starts 43 minutes into the show after the ECW section)

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You will come across a lot of what ifs in wrestling, and on the days that you don’t it’s not hard to think up a few more. Would Hulk Hogan have ever agreed to go to WCW if Sid Vicious had have become champion in 1993? Would the attitude era have even happened if Steve Austin had have sustained a few fewer injuries? One of the bigger what ifs is that of Art Barr, a man who had quite the life despite passing away at age 28.

Barr found his break in the late 1980s, Roddy Piper took inspiration from a film called Beetlejuice to assign Barr a children’s favourite character of the same name. With flour on his head, and makeup on his face it seemed like an odd choice, but in Pacific Northwest Wrestling in Oregon it worked. There are great videos on Youtube of “Beetlejuice” leading a torrent of children in a dance around the ring.

The character took him to WCW – where for legal reasons he was renamed “The Juicer”. But around the same time Barr got into serious trouble after being accused of raping a 19-year-old girl. Despite pleading his innocence, Barr took a plea bargain which meant he avoided jail. He attempted to restart his wrestling career in America but after bad local press in Oregon and some campaigning towards WCW (he received “rapist” chants in some areans) – it just wasn’t going to happen. So he went to Mexico.

It was there that his career really took off. Now under a mask, and called “Love Machine” (yeah, tasteful), Barr found a place where his perceived lack of size didn’t matter. He got over, big time. He and Blue Panther sold out a 17,000 seat building in April of 1992, losing his mask. The duo rematched in 1993, with Barr this time losing his hair in a hair vs mask match. That match sold over 20,000 tickets in Guadalajara.

But it was a heel turn, and an alignment with Eddy Guerrero that really kicked Barr’s career into the next gear. He and Guerrero formed “Los Gringos Locos” (The Crazy Americans), who came to the ring in Stars and Stripes tights. Guerrero, having honed his skills in Japan, and Barr with his American style changed Mexican wrestling. At theAAA When World’s Collide show, Barr lost another hair vs mask match and he and Guerrero had to be shaved. The show, in Los Angeles at a time when both the WWF and WCW were really struggling, sold out. Maybe it was time for Love Machine to come back to the States?

Unfortunately for Barr he wouldn’t even live to see 1995, passing away three weeks later with no official cause of death ever determined. Relations in Oregon, and in the States, seemed to have been quelled. Given Barr’s success there’s a quite decent case to say that Barr was the biggest American wrestling star in the world at that time, such were the fortunes of the two major American promotions, not that you couldn’t overlook that fact. When Terry Taylor was throwing Guerrero under a bus on a WCW hotline a few weeks prior to the start of the Monday Night War, he claimed that Guerrero “hadn’t drawn in the States”. Which, while hardly even the point wasn’t even true.

It seems inconceivable that Barr wouldn’t have gone on to be a difference maker in the States. An English speaking Mexican star would’ve been a great asset to WCW (WWF would’ve been too slow) at the beginning of the battle. Paul Heyman was reportedly eyeing the pair for a run in ECW – which given the presence of The Public Enemy and The Steiner Brothers could’ve been an excellent watch.

Barr had also started working Japan that year with Guerrero. And Konnan had big plans for them back in Mexico too. Barr passed away aged 28, given his ability and his drawing power at the time, he would’ve had a great opportunity at becoming a big star in the US – or at least a well-known one. Now we can only look at what might have been.