During the glorious age of the 1990s, WWE and WCW were the companies leading the boom period and between these two juggernauts, more than 10 million viewers tuned in weekly, setting records that remain untouched to this day. The rivalry between WWE and WCW was the talk of the town, but the hardcore promotion in Philadelphia was the cult favorite.
ECW was a unique existence in the pro wrestling landscape. Paul Heyman did not have the sponsors, capital, or connections to take his brand to the next level of notoriety but the essence of ECW was just so unique that the little promotion gained a cult following and these followers chanted the name of the promotion in almost every pro wrestling arena.
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In 1997, Heyman contemplated a possible partnership with the two bigger promotions as the idea of promotion warfare in kayfabe was regarded as a dream scenario. Around that time, WCW was in the lead and much more financially secure than WWE but Heyman ultimately choose the promotion in Stanford as his departure from WCW was not too pleasant.
ECW Invaded WWE In 1997
Heyman chose the partner with Vince McMahon and the catalyst for the WWE versus ECW was Jerry “The King” Lawler. WWE fans had never heard of a foreign wrestling promotion being mentioned live on air but in 1997, Lawler began ranting about how crappy ECW was, seemingly out of nowhere.
This continued for a few weeks and eventually, Paul Heyman himself phoned Lawler while he was busy commentating a random match. During the call, Heyman challenged Lawler to show up at Manhattan Center and said that he would be bringing along a few ECW wrestlers.
Lawler accepted the challenge and on the next episode of Monday Night RAW, Heyman joined the commentary table. And after a whole show of bickering back and forth, Heyman and Lawler threw hands and the episode of RAW came to a close with WWE and ECW personnel brawling against each other.
The true highlight of this saga was the “Extreme Debate” between Lawler and Heyman. The segment was a worked shoot and while current fans remember Lawler as being a mediocre commentator, the King back then was a truly gifted talker, and he had no problems hanging on the mic with Paul Heyman.
Fun fact but the invading force were presented as the babyfaces and the crowd was firmly behind them. Jerry Lawler was the heel in this feud as he came across as arrogant and egotistical, continually bashing ECW and calling the promotion an inferior product.
Jim Ross was the host and as soon as Paul E Dangerously entered the ring, the semi-shoot was underway. These two gentlemen shot from the hip as Lawler went on and on about how the wrestlers in ECW were talentless and only resorted to mutilating each other as they were capable of actually wrestling a match.
In response, Heyman brought up the son of Jerry Lawler, Brian Christopher, and said Christopher was too embarrassed to wrestle under the family name.
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As this continued, ECW wrestlers began filling up the ring and at the very end, Dreamer challenged Lawler to bring out his friends but since Lawler was the heel in the feud, not a single wrestler from WWE showed up to his aid. The King then left the ring in defeat, aware that a very extreme beatdown was in his store for him.
Heyman And Lawler Had Real-Life Hatred
That was the end of this segment and while the inter-promotional saga continued for the next couple of weeks, with ECW invading WWE and vice-versa, this particular segment really captured the hype of the ongoing war between two promotions. The fact that Lawler and Heyman were the ones leading the charge made this storyline a lot more authentic.
Unknown to the majority of the people, Lawler and Heyman did have legitimate hatred for each other. Lawler complained that Heyman had copied the style of Memphis wrestling and that hardcore matches were a staple in Memphis even before any of the ECW originals were even born and that he himself had competed in hardcore matches The bad blood between these two was so vile that Lawler intentionally broke Heyman’s jaw during a spot an even admitted as such.
Remember when Jerry Lawler used to call Heyman a walrus about a thousand times in a single episode of RAW? Now you know why. This legitimate animosity is what made the debate so great and intriguing and upon watching can see that Lawler and Heyman genuinely detested each other.
