Even before the “E” in ECW stood for “Extreme,” Eastern Championship Wrestling debuted its weekly TV show, ECW Hardcore TV, in 1993. Running for over 400 episodes until the very last day of the year 2000, Hardcore TV offered house show matches, highlights from bigger ECW shows, and original promos and interviews.

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Such a long run means lots of matches, which in turn means lots of one-off appearances and brief runs from wrestlers fans have certainly heard of, but whose ECW stints have gone completely forgotten. So let’s take a look at the forgotten wrestlers featured on Hardcore TV, which includes Japanese deathmatch legends, lucha libre stars, and old-school icons.

10 Jimmy Snuka

Jimmy snuka

It’s an odd bit of ECW history that the promotion’s first World Heavyweight Champion was Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, and by the time Hardcore TV started airing, the 1980s WWE star was already a two-time ECW Champ. But his appearances on the weekly show started with the very first episode, as Snuka took part in a tournament for the vacant Television Title. He would win the tournament on the third episode and would later defend it on the show against Terry Funk and other stars.

9 Scotty Riggs

Scotty Riggs

Scotty Riggs is best remembered by fans for his run in WCW, where he tagged with Buff Bagwell as The American Males and later became a member of Raven’s Flock. But he ended up in ECW in the year 2000, working under the name Scotty Anton.

The former Riggs had a couple of appearances on Hardcore TV against Pitbull #1 and Steve Corino, but his most notable contribution to ECW would be his notoriety as the first guy to eat RVD’s Van Terminator.

8 Ricky Banderas

Ricky Banderas

These days he’s known as Mil Muertes of Lucha Underground (now in Major League Wrestling) and as El Mesias in Mexico’s AAA, but before that, he was known as Ricky Banderas. While many may point to his stint on MTV’s short-lived Wrestling Society X as his big exposure to the wrestling world, he actually had a shot on ECW Hardcore TV.

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Banderas’ only appearance on the show was on the 1/30/2000 episode, where he lost to Super Crazy in five minutes. Curiously, this would be Banderas’ only ECW match, including house shows.

7 Ivan Koloff

Ivan Koloff

The early years of ECW featured lots of appearance from recognizable talent from the previous decade, including Ivan Koloff, former WWE Champion and one of the great foreign heels of the 1980s. Koloff wrestled a few matches by the time he made his first appearance on Hardcore TV, where he defeated The Sandman in a singles match. From there, Koloff took part in a tournament for the Tag Team titles alongside the little-known Vladimir Koloff, where they were knocked out of the semi-finals.

6 Stan Hansen

Stan Hansen

One of the great gaijins of the Japanese pro wrestling scene who was never quite as popular in the US, Stan Hansen was a cowboy with a devastating lariat whose influence can be seen in more recent stars like JBL. Hansen wrestled four matches for ECW in the early 1990s, three of which were on Hardcore TV. His first effort would be a DQ win over Jimmy Snuka for the TV Title, his second a handicap match, and the third a tag bout alongside Tito Santana against Don Muraco and Shane Douglas.

5 Psicosis

Psicosis

Before “Cruiserweight” was part of the pro wrestling fan’s lexicon, Psicosis (or Psychosis) competed against Rey Mysterio Jr. in several legendary matches for ECW, putting themselves and the high flying lucha libre style on the map. Less remembered, however, is that Psicosis showed back up in ECW in 2000 after leaving WCW, and had a couple of appearances on Hardcore TV. While one of those is a short singles loss to Mikey Whipwreck, but on the 8/27/2000 episode he fought Yoshihiro Tajiri in an underrated gem of a match.

4 PCO

PCO Pierre

One of the stranger careers in modern wrestling goes to Pierre Carl Ouellet, more commonly known as PCO. For a long time, Oulette was “Pierre” of the early 1990s WWE tag team The Quebecer or pirate-themed singles star Jean-Pierre LaFitte, but ended up reinventing himself in the late 2010s as PCO, an absurd Frankenstein character whose notoriety led him straight to Ring of Honor.

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As Jean-Pierre LaFitte, the future ROH World Champion had a brief stint in ECW, where a series of house show matches led to an unsuccessful World Heavyweight Title shot at Justin Credible on Hardcore TV.

3 Mitsuhiro Matsunaga

Mitsuhiro Matsunaga

Nicknamed “Mr. Danger,” Mitsuhiro Matsunaga is a legend of the Japanese deathmatch scene, having innovated the infamous Piranha Deathmatch that ends up in myriad “crazy match stip” listicles. While not as known as contemporaries like Mr. Pogo, Matsunaga engaged in some classic bouts for Big Japan, W*ING, and Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. Shockingly, his only televised ECW appearance was in 1993 -- before ECW went full hardcore -- losing a five-minute tag match as he teamed with Miguel Perez Jr. against The Headhunters.

2 Super Calo

Super Calo

A pseudo-ironic fave for many WCW fans, Super Calo didn’t accomplish much in the Cruiserweight Division but is fondly remembered for his absurd hip-hop-themed mask with sunglasses and hat attached, not to mention his superhuman ability to land directly on his head no matter what move he was doing. Less remembered, however, is his two appearances on Hardcore TV in December of 1999: a loss to Super Crazy and then a loss to Little Guido.

1 Jim Neidhart

Jim Neidhart

The 11/16/1993 episode of Hardcore TV is mostly a clip show put together in the wake of the recent November to Remember card, but it does have a single match on the show, recorded at said event. The bout is a pretty absurd matchup, too, as The Sandman took on Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart in a six-minute match that ended in a double pin. This would be Neidhart’s only televised match for ECW, and he’d be back in WWE the following year.

NEXT: The 10 Most Underpushed ECW Wrestlers Each Year In The 1990s