The wrestling industry was booming in the 90s, as the inflow of more exciting entertainment made for the war between the major wrestling promotions in WWE, WCW and ECW, which all had their own share of followers. Extreme Championship Wrestling had its own hostile, hungry crowd in Philadelphia as Paul Heyman’s brainchild was basically adding that much more violence into wrestling and utilizing the athleticism of his wrestlers. He added these elements to create something gory yet extremely entertaining as some of the hardcore spots won over the fans, who queued up day in and day out to watch these talented wrestlers put their bodies on the line.

ECW had soon attained a cult status among the fans, as the Viking Hall, which was later renamed as the “ECW Arena,” was jam packed with demanding, volatile fans who provoked the wrestlers to fight stiff, violent matches and enjoyed watching them suffer through the pain of being hit by weapons and taking hard bumps. With the eccentric genius of Paul Heyman, ECW saw an incredible increase in popularity as a result of the death-defying stunts that its wrestlers were performing. Be it convincing storylines, athletic matches or even some controversial violence in the shows, ECW was fighting the big boys in WCW and WWE toe-to-toe for quite some time.That is until they struggled to expand as a business and went bankrupt in 2001, at which point they were bought out by Vince McMahon. This resulted in many of their stars losing their jobs, as they had to look elsewhere and the WWE was obviously the most attractive option. While some others had jumped ship before ECW went down, some of the original wrestlers stuck through the dying days and only joined after ECW was taken over by the WWE. While some succeeded, most of the ECW guys found it difficult to excel in the limited environment of WWE and couldn’t play by the rules. Their failures pushed them out of the company, as they had to look elsewhere for work or move to other careers.

Here are 15 examples of ECW wrestlers who failed to make it in the WWE, and here's what they're up to now.

59 15. Tazz (then)

via wrestlingnews.co
via wrestlingnews.co

Tazz was probably one of the most brutal and intimidating wrestlers of ECW, where he found success in his early years, going onto win the ECW Tag Titles and ECW Television Title. Tazz found immense respect form his colleagues and Paul Heyman when he fought through a career-threatening injury, after which he returned as the “Human-Suplex Machine” delivering his trademark Taz-Plexes. His popularity reached the roof, as he went onto win the ECW World Title twice in his career and staying at the top of the company for quite sometime. He joined the WWE in 2000 because he wanted a new option, but had an underwhelming wrestling career which took away all the respect he had gathered in ECW. In 2002, Tazz started to serve as a color commentator(even though he would have a short tag title run with Spike Dudley) and was drafted to the Smackdown! brand. He wrestled sporadically, but was mostly doing his commentary duties before being let go in 2009.

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57 15. Tazz (now)

via tnamecca.com
via tnamecca.com

Tazz appeared in TNA’s Victory Road PPV in 2009, siding with Samoa Joe and the Main Event Mafia. He soon became a color commentator for TNA as well, where he was mostly the heel commentator who would side with the bad guys in TNA. In 2012, he started to appear as a judge in TNA’s “Gut Check” segment on Impact Wrestling. Later on, Tazz would appear as a groomsman at Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan’s wedding, later on revealing himself as a part of Aces & Eights, while continuing his work as a commentator. Tazz continued to work as a commentator after the stable was disbanded, before leaving TNA in April 2015. Since then, he has been hosting his own online podcast show called “The Taz Show” which features news in the world of sports and wrestling, as well as appearances from Jim Ross, PWInsider writer Mike Johnson and several talents from the wrestling business.

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55 14. The Blue Meanie (then)

via wwe.com
via wwe.com

The Blue Meanie was a major part of the “Blue World Order”, a spoof of the New World Order which ruled WCW, as the Meanie would be the side-kick of Stevie Richards who would be the side-kick of Raven. The group dressed in blue and fooled around a bit, but the Meanie had problems with his weight. He returned to ECW after a shot hiatus in 200, having lost a 100 pounds with an arrogant behavior. During his first hiatus from ECW, The Blue Meanie went onto join WWE as part of Al Snow’s J.O.B Squad and named himself Bluedust, as a mockery to Goldust. He even managed Goldust for a while, before returning to ECW. The Blue Meanie returned to WWE in their version of ECW One Night Stand in 2005, where he was legitimately beaten up by JBL. This forced WWE to reform BWO for a while, as The Meanie got his revenge on JBL after beating him on Smackdown. But after this was passed, he and BWO got limited opportunities and The Meanie was released.

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53 14. The Blue Meanie (now)

via youtube.com
via youtube.com

After being released from the WWE, The Blue Meanie went back to the Independent scene as he wrestled a “comedy match” at a Hardcore Homecoming event. He was diagnosed with empyema in 2006, and had to undergo surgery for that. He returned in 2007, as went onto become champion for many Independent promotions in the next couple of years. Last year, The Meanie reformed the Blue World Order with Stevie Richards and Nova, in Chikara’s King of Trios Tournament. The Blue Meanie currently wrestles for a wrestling promotion called “Monster Factory” and also is a trainer for the promotion, as a return to a prominent wrestling company seems dim for him.

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51 13. Super Crazy (then)

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via tumblr.com

Super Crazy was definitely both “super” and “crazy” in the ring as the extremely talented lucha libre specialist found a definite home in ECW for a couple of years, where he could not only show his amazing style of wrestling but also get the taste of extreme. Crazy was brought in ECW after spending years traveling around the world wrestling, and was pit against smaller wrestlers in the promotion which made for some memorable matches. Crazy was the definition of ECW’s own Cruiserweight Division, as he slowly saw a huge rise in popularity because of his stunning moves. He won the ECW TV title in his tenure, and stuck to the company till its end. He was snatched up by WWE in 2005, and put in a stable of “The Mexicools” with Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera. Crazy was definitely the shining one of the group, surviving more years in the company where he wasn’t really given any opportunity to shine. After years or having to put over other guys, he left the WWE in 2008.

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49 13. Super Crazy (now)

via cyberspaceandtime.com
via cyberspaceandtime.com

After leaving the WWE, Super Crazy went back to his home in Mexico where he wrestled a bit for Perros del Mal Producciones. Super Crazy continued to travel around Mexico to feature in their prominent wrestling promotions, going on to wrestle for the International Wrestling Association in Puerto Rico. He also went onto wrestle for Pro Wrestling Guerrila and AAA. Crazy travelled to Japan to wrestle for All Japan Pro Wrestling to participate in their Junior League, where he went to the final, only to lose to Shuji Kondo. Super Crazy returned to Pro Wrestling Noah in 2012 and wrestled for a promotion for about a year, in different stints. In 2014, he and Mistic Azteca formed their own wrestling promotion, World of Unpredictable Wrestling Mexico and continues to look after it, even though he rarely wrestles anymore.

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47 12. Kid Kash (then)

via wrestlingforum.com
via wrestlingforum.com

Kid Kash saw his wrestling career start on the wrong foot, as the wrestler almost found a position in ECW before making the mistake of trying it in the WWE, where he wrestled as a talent enhancement and broke both his ankles in a match. After recovering from the injury, Kash debuted in the ECW with this rockstar gimmick but was under heat for the beginning of his career. But Kash quickly showed his grit, as he continued to wrestle despite having two broken jaws and this impressed Heyman and the wrestlers of ECW. Kash went onto wrestle many tag team, cruiserweight matches and even challenged for the ECW World Title, but was in vain. Kash would win the ECW TV Title once in his career, sticking with the promotion till it was bought up. After a couple of years at TNA, Kash debuted in the WWE and even won the Cruiserweight Championship quickly after debuting, but lost it a month later. Kash then teamed with Jamie Noble for a while, before being released in 2006, surviving a mere year in the WWE.

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45 12. Kid Kash (now)

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via alchetron.com

Kash returned to the Independent circuit after being released by the WWE, as he travelled around Europe to wrestle for many of the European wrestling promotions. He returned to TNA in 2010 for an ECW Reunion show, where he was defeated in a six man tag team match. Kash was drafted into the X-Division of TNA and tried a lot to win the X-Division title, competing in every of its qualifying or No #1 Contender’s match but was unable to win the gold. Kash even tried to win the TNA Tag Titles with Gunner, but was unable to do so. He was released by TNA in 2013, as he went onto wrestle in the Independent scene. Kash wrestled his final match last year in December against Chase Owens, where the stipulation was that if Kash won Ricky Morton would retire and if Owens won, Kash would retire. He hasn’t reappeared in the wrestling circuit after that match, as he probably needs a break from the pressure of wrestling.

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43 11. 2 Cold Scorpio (then)

via board.psd-dreams.de
via board.psd-dreams.de

2 Cold Scorpio was another wrestler who really jumped ships during the 90’s, having stints at WCW, ECW and WWE. While he found decent success at WCW, he really found a strong ground in ECW where he would attain quite a bit of success. Scorpio would be built as a strong mid-carder who was the ECW World Television Champion 4 times in his career, as well as winning the ECW Tag Team Titles once with The Sandman. He had some compelling feuds with the likes of Taz, Shane Douglas and Sabu in his time at ECW. His impressive performances brought a call from WWE in 1996, where he went by the name of “Flash Funk” who was accompanied by a group of girls. This didn’t hit well as he was soon a member of the J.O.B squad, and went onto compete in WWE Brawl for All Tournament. He was released in 1999 when he wanted some time off, and returned to ECW for a bit.

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41 11. 2 Cold Scorpio (now)

via en.wikipedia.org
via en.wikipedia.org

After doing some shows for ECW, including one where he challenged ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mikey Shipwreck in a match, Scorpio signed on with Pro Wrestling Noah. During his time at Pro Wrestling Noah, Scorpio won the GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship and GHC Tag Team Championships. Scorpio returned to WWE in their developmental Deep South Wrestling in 2006, later on going to make a one night appearance in the 15th anniversary of RAW. Later in 2007, Scorpio went onto wrestle for Booker T’s Pro Wrestling Alliance promotion, before wrestling in TNA’s ECW reunion show in Hardcore Justice. 2 Cold Scorpio made his Chikara debut in 2012, when he Jerry Lynn and Tommy Dreamer defeated Team WWE in the first round, but were eliminated by team ROH. Scorpio continued to wrestle in many ECW reunions, and last appeared in a Fighting Wrestling Evolution show in March this year.

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