The significance of Extreme Championship Wrestling in the 1990s cannot be understated. At a time when WCW and WWE were sanitized, cartoonish, and struggling to hold the attention of wrestling fans, ECW was delivering a product that felt new, exciting, and even dangerous by comparison -- so much so that even WWE imitated their style when it pivoted to the Attitude Era.
That said, there are times where fans might feel that ECW actually crossed the line in trying to deliver an “edgy,” “hardcore” presentation of pro wrestling -- and not just at their event The Night The Line Was Crossed. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some incidents where Extreme Championship Wrestling may have been too extreme for wrestling fans.
10 The Branding Iron Incident
Terry Funk is nicknamed “The Hardcore Legend” for a reason. By 1995, Cactus Jack and Terry Funk had already put on some of the most violent matches in all time, but in this particular ECW match, Funk delivered a unique finish to their seemingly never-ending feud when he attacked Cactus with, of all things, a flaming branding iron. If that wasn’t enough, the finish of the match would involve Funk delivering a piledriver onto the iron. Nasty stuff.
9 The Taipei Death Match Incident
Axl Rotten and Ian Rotten used to be a tag team called Bad Breed, but they had a contentious in-ring breakup that would lead to a popular feud in 1995. This would culminate at the ECW event Hardcore Heaven that same year, when the two would finally settle things in a specialty match that may make some fans squeamish. It was a Tapei Deathmatch, where the competitors taped fists would be dipped in glue, and then the glue would be dipped in broken glass. Needless to say, the result was an incredibly bloody affair.
8 The Mass Transit Incident
Wrestlers who introduce blood into matches typically do it by surreptitiously cutting their forehead in an act called Blading. While usually this is (relatively) done safely, sometimes the chaos of a professional wrestling match -- especially in a promotion as chaotic as ECW -- can result in blading going horribly wrong.
At a 1996 ECW house show, New Jack was wrestling a newcomer with a bus driver gimmick named Mass Transit. Transit had never bladed before, so he asked New Jack to do it, but he inadvertently cut too deep, slicing open a couple of arteries in his head and requiring medical attention. To make matters worse, Mass Transit turned out to be a 17-year-old who lied his way onto the show, and a lawsuit ensued.
7 The Vic Grimes Incident
New Jack is at the center of several ECW controversies like the infamous “Mass Transit Incident,” but this one is a great example of one of ECW’s crazy high spots going wrong. At the appropriately titled Living Dangerously in 2000, Vic Grimes and New Jack were supposed to make a 15-foot fall off of scaffolding through some tables, but a miscue resulted in both men hitting the concrete. New Jack sustained brain damage and lost sight in one eye, and would retaliate by (allegedly) trying to kill Grimes by intentionally going off-script during another scaffold spot in the ECW-imitator Xtreme Pro Wrestling.
6 The Born To Be Wired Incident
The No Ropes Barbed Wire Match is a common gimmick in Japanese deathmatch wrestling, but most Western fans remember it best from 1997’s Born to Be Wired, where Sabu took on Terry Funk in the main event. The match is considered one of the most gruesome in ECW history as the two found themselves so inextricably wrapped up in barbed wire that they had to get in a quick pin to finish the match. Billed as “too extreme even for ECW,” this is the match where Sabu tore open his biceps on the barbed wire and resorted to taping his arm back together in the middle of the bout. Truly hardcore.
5 The Stairway To Hell Incident
Months after the insane barbed wire affair with Terry Funk, Sabu took on The Sandman in a ladder match called Stairway to Hell in the main event of House Party 1998. For many fans, this is THE ECW match, a brutal brawl full of insane spots, crazy bumps, and lots of blood and violence. But for some fans, this may be too much to watch, as Sabu sustains a broken jaw in the match and has to fight through it.
4 The Crucifixion Incident
Before he got wider exposure in the late 1990s WCW, Raven was one of the highlights of ECW -- a great wrestler and charismatic talker who had one of the hottest storylines in the promotion going on against Tommy Dreamer. In 1996, however, he contributed to one of the ECW’s most controversial moments when Raven and his henchmen literally crucified The Sandman, complete with a crown made of barbed wire.
The repercussions were instant. The typically vocal ECW audience was stunned into silence but quickly got loud and hostile. Kurt Angle -- who was there to check the promotion out -- lost his mind and threatened to sue. To smooth things over, Raven came out and delivered an apology so insincere that “half-hearted” is actually an overstatement.
3 The Flaming Chair Incident
When it comes to deathmatch wrestling, fire is probably the riskiest weapon in a match. Glass and barbed wire can lead to some nasty injuries, but at least they’re relatively stationary, unlike fire. At a 1995 event, Cactus Jack and Terry Funk had a match where Jack tried to hit Funk with a chair wrapped in a flaming towel, but the towel came loose and ended up setting Funk on fire. The fire spread faster than anticipated. A fan tried to help put out the fire, burning his hands, and would later attempt to sue ECW over the incident.
2 The Bill Alfonso Nearly Dying Incident
At 1997’s As Good As It Gets event, a tag match between Tommy Dreamer/Beulah McGillicutty and Rob Van Dam/Bill Alfonso turned into a singles match between two non-wrestlers when Dreamer and Van Dam were kayfabe knocked out. The result was a straight-up brawl, and notably one of the bloodiest matches in ECW history, as Alfonso accidentally cut an artery while blading. Reportedly, Alfonso may have lost a third of his blood in the process and could have very possibly died.
1 The Pitbull #2 Incident
ECW fans were more “smarky” and in tune with the backstage gossip than the typical WWE and WCW fans of the day, making them akin to modern-day AEW fans, but even this incident got them worked. In 1996, a DDT gone wrong had Shane Douglas inadvertently breaking Pitbull #1’s neck. He healed up okay but returned to television still wearing the halo brace for storyline purposes. When Douglas started grabbing Pitbull by his brace and started jerking him around, the crowd -- not knowing that Pitbull had fully healed at this point -- turned hostile, forcing Douglas and his valet, Francine, to escape the arena before things got real ugly.