Much deliberation happens within wrestling circles as to what the greatest promotion of all-time was, and for many of those debates, Extreme Championship Wrestling is right at the top of the list. Although it was relatively short-lived, ECW was a hotbed of international talent and featured some of the best writing and plotting in pro wrestling thanks to its mastermind Paul Heyman. The company folded due to myriad of issues from other companies poaching talent, to TV syndication problems, and even financial woes.
Despite the troubles in their latter years, there’s no taking away from ECW’s throng of high-level talent, and many of the promotion’s best stars went on to bigger stages. For this list of its best performers, we’re imaging if ECW were the only promotion that ever existed — that means that the wrestlers listed here are only considered for their contributions to ECW. So, if they went on to become the best or worst wrestler on the planet after their ECW stint, it doesn’t matter. (For instance, Rey Mysterio Jr. would have ranked higher had he stayed with ECW longer and had more great matches.) Also, for a wrestler to be considered, they have to had made at least a strong contribution to the company, not just one or two special appearances (e.g. The Steiner Brothers). And, finally, some tag teams were considered as one entity if they rarely wrestled apart.
Criteria for ranking is based on character, popularity (i.e. getting over), match quality, promos, and contribution to the ECW product. With that said, here’s a hardcore ranking of the best ECW wrestlers ever.
50) Axl Rotten
Rotten started off his ECW run with a blood feud with Ian Rotten, but he eventually formed a tag team with Balls Mahoney as the Chair Swinging Freaks. Ian was popular with the crowd — a brawler who employed various weapons in his matches. Rotten, and Mahoney as well, recently passed away this year.
49) Tony Mamaluke
The slim Mamaluke was brought into ECW as a member of the F.B.I., and he and tag partner Little Guido had some excellent matches with Mikey Whipwreck and Tajiri, especially in the finals of the Tag Team Title tournament. Mamaluke was fun to watch, bumping his ass off all over arenas and using a Curt Hennig-like selling style where he bounced around the ring like a pinball.
48) C.W. Anderson
Had ECW ran a little bit longer, C.W. Anderson would have likely been a major player. In the final days of the organization, Anderson and Tommy Dreamer engaged in a bloody war that saw the former beat the latter at one of ECW’s final shows. Anderson liked zeroing in on his opponent’s body parts, and used a diverse move set to pick apart his foe. Despite not looking exactly like a superstar, Anderson was adept in the ring, and was a key figure during the organization’s final stage.
47) Roadkill & Danny Doring
Doring and Roadkill started off as singles wrestlers in ECW, but when they formed a duo, they were one of the most interesting tandems of their time. Roadkill, sporting an Amish gimmick, was a stark contrast to the flamboyant Doring, but both men had sharp movesets and they fit in perfectly with the counter-culture of ECW.
46) Juventud Guerrera
Guerrera was brought into ECW during the mid-’90s, when Konnan helped Paul Heyman deliver an influx of Mexican talent that included Rey Mysterio and Psicosis. Like Mysterio, he was a high-flying masked luchador, and his matches with Mysterio helped the Mexican contingent migrate to WCW in its heyday.
45) Louie Spicolli
Spicolli, who passed much too soon, could have been an exciting player in whatever organization would have him. In ECW, he worked his way up from the undercard and then engaged in a feud with Tommy Dreamer, even inserting himself into the end of the Raven-Dreamer war. Using a Death Valley Driver as his finisher, Spicolli was a talented performer who would have been a main-eventer in the Philly-based organization had he not left for WCW.
44) 911
Before Sid invaded ECW and chokeslammed and power bombed everyone in sight, there was 911, whose primary gimmick was chokeslamming the sh*t out of someone every night in the ECW arena. As Paul Heyman’s bodyguard, 911 wasn’t as much of a wrestler as he was an attraction, but he was very over with the crowd and his finisher remains one of the most devastating uses of the maneuver.
43) Psicosis
A larger-sized luchador, Psicosis’ series of matches with Rey Mysterio in ECW arguably made the two men stars in the U.S. Psicosis was played the role of the heel in his matches with Mysterio, but the crowd loved the two men no matter what tactics were used. He didn’t stay around that long before getting plucked by WCW, but he’s involved in some of the most breathtaking bouts in the company’s history.
42) Simon Diamond
Diamond was a classic heel — smarmy, arrogant, slick, and willing to use devious tactics and outside interference to get the win. A throwback to someone like Tully Blanchard, Diamond was a great hand in the mid-card, using sound technical wrestling skills against his opponents. He later formed a formidable tag team with Johnny Swinger during ECW’s latter days.
41) Kid Kash
As an undersized guy, Kash was able to light the crowd on fire with his high-flying moves, specifically his flipping dives to the outside and a top-rope hurricanrana that was just majestic to watch. Kash had some fine matches against Rhino, and he was embraced by the tough ECW crowd by being a no-nonsense performer who risked life and limb to entertain.
40) Chris Chetti
One of the few graduates of ECW’s training program, Chetti was also Taz’s cousin, giving the agile wrestler a great pedigree. He was a bright spot on ECW’s mid-card, and employed a variety of triple jump kicks and top rope moves.
39) “Prime Time” Brian Lee
Similar to 911, “Prime Time” was a monster of a man who gave very little in the way of selling, but ECW was always short on big guys — Brian Lee filled a very important spot. His feud with Dreamer was memorable for some dangerous high spots like a toss off the Eagle’s Nest, and then the infamous scaffold match that saw Lee tumble to the ring from the ceiling.
38) Little Guido
In the mid-card, Guido was an excellent worker who could put on a good match with just about anyone. Worth remembering are his three-way bouts with Super Crazy and Tajiri, which usually stole the show on whatever card it was placed on. Guido also had a great run as a part of the F.B.I., winning the tag titles on two separate occasions.
37) New Jack
There’s being over, and then there’s New Jack. Possibly one of the most popular acts ECW ever featured, New Jack’s “Natural Born Killaz” theme always brought the crowd to its feet in expectance of his arrival. Never one to trade holds with his opponent, Jack preferred to smash his enemies with computer keyboards, chairs, and shovels. ECW featured a lot of frightening dives from high areas, and New Jack was the perpetrator of many of those spots.
36) Mikey Whipwreck
The ultimate underdog, Whipwreck was notable for his runs as a ECW World Champion and Tag Champion. The ECW fans were firmly behind Whipwreck due to his propensity to get wrecked (no pun intended) and still keep moving forward. If you want to see the ECW crowd absolutely lose their sh*t, seek out the clip of Whipwreck winning the World Title — it’s an amazing reaction.
35) The Pitbulls
Similar in stature and gimmick to the Road Warriors, Pitbulls No. 1 and 2 were an exciting tandem, finishing off their opponents with a top-rope power bomb combination that always pleased the faithful. Some of their best moments occurred while feuding with Shane Douglas. In one scene that caused a riot-like atmosphere, Douglas grabbed the surgically implanted halo of Pitfall Gary Wolfe and tossed him to the ground.
34) Al Snow
During his brief run in ECW, Al Snow became one of the most popular acts in the company. For his entrance and matches, the crowd paraded around styrofoam heads, an homage to Snow’s gimmick of talking to a disembodied mannequin head. He also was a great in-ring talent, having stand-out matches with Sabu — which ended with a vicious looking hurricanrana through a table — and Shane Douglas.
33) Balls Mahoney
For a big man, Balls Mahoney was an agile fellow, incorporating top-rope splashes and super kicks into his repertoire. He was also an alluring attraction — with torn jeans and tattered tank tops, Balls was known for leveling his foes with a chairshot, but when it came time to perform, Balls always brought the goods. His battles against The Dudley Boyz — with a variety of tag partners — were always entertaining affairs.
32) Public Enemy
On paper, it seemed like Public Enemy wouldn’t work: two white adults who carried the hip-hop banner and culture into the ECW arena. But, for some reason, they caught on like wildfire on the way to becoming arguably the most popular tag team in the company’s history. Only The Dudley Boyz surpassed their record of four tag title runs, and the duo even graced the rings of WCW and WWE. Not technically sound in any respect, Public Enemy brawled their way into the hearts of fans.
31) Chris Jericho
The only thing that possibly holds Chris Jericho back from being in the discussion for one of the best wrestlers of all-time is his size, but even when he was in ECW, it was evident that the Canadian native had boatloads of talent. In the mid-’90s, when the ECW TV Title was passed around by some of the hottest wrestlers in the industry, Jericho got his hands on the championship before losing it to Shane Douglas in a four-way match.
30) 2 Cold Scorpio
It’s said among many in the wrasslin’ business that 2 Cold Scorpio is one of the best high-flyers that ever lived, and that’s because he really is. Scorpio was not a small man, but he flew through the air with an ease that made smaller wrestlers look like sticks in the mud. A four-time ECW TV champ, Scorpio put on high-flying clinics against Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and other masters of the mat.
29) Spike Dudley
One of the smallest men to ever grace the land of extreme, Spike Dudley more than made up for his size with a willingness to utterly destroy his body in the name of great entertainment. There was almost never a match where Spike didn’t get absolutely buried, but when he did make his comebacks — against the likes of Rhino and Mike Awesome to name a few — they were glorious. The dichotomy of his silly character and the sheer violence of his matches made his appearances memorable.
28) Rhino
The man-beast was the last reigning champ of the organization. Rhino had a great look, and was truly believable as a man who would stop at nothing to destroy his opponents. One of his most extreme moments occurred when he speared The Sandman’s wife through a table, making him the bane of the extreme faithful. In the latter days of the company, he was a top hand, and his placement at the forefront of The Network helped drive the final narratives of ECW.
27) Bam Bam Bigelow
Bam Bam became a big star in the ’80s, but he experienced a resurgence in his career when he landed in ECW. Bigelow had some great matches and brawls with the likes of Rob Van Dam, Taz, and Shane Douglas, and he even held the World Championship on one occasion. There was an animal magnetism about Bigelow that made him both feared and revered, and his place will forever be cemented as one of the best “big men” that ever competed.
26) Steve Austin
Between his stints in WCW and then WWE, Steve Austin — dubbed the “Superstar” — made a stop in ECW and cut one of the best promos that’s ever been recorded (see above). Austin didn’t stick around for long, and the plan was for him to win the World Title and run with it for a while. That never happened — Austin was called into WWE where he became arguably the greatest superstar of all-time. Although his time in the promotion was limited, Austin made each appearance a much-hyped affair, and he cut his teeth on the “Stone Cold” character that would make him an international phenomenon.
25) Chris Candido
When you talk about the best wrestlers in the game, you usually focus on the all-around performer — someone who can talk, perform in the ring, and draw people in with their character. Candido was one of those performers, a slick throwback to the golden era of ’80s wrestling when a heel was despised for his tactics but respected for his skill. As a part of Shane Douglas’ Triple Threat faction, Candido was a pure antagonist and one of the best hands ECW ever had: on any given night he could steal the show (e.g. his matches with Lance Storm).
24) Cactus Jack
With his ECW run cut short due to commitments to WCW and WWE, Mick Foley never really got the chance to truly flourish inside of Heyman’s playground. Still, with the little time that he did spend there, Cactus Jack cut some of the most memorable promos of his career, and his program with Mikey Whipwreck — where they won the ECW tag titles — was a highspot in the company’s history. Foley fit right in with the ECW product, and it certainly influenced his latter years (as did his time in Japan) in WWE where he became the top champion with a reckless, daredevil style.
23) Stevie Richards & The BWO
There were a lot of acts in ECW that were “over,” but it can be argued that Stevie Richards and his Blue World Order — a comical send-off of WCW’s New World Order — was perhaps one of the most over things in the promotion’s pantheon of talent. Richards was no doubt the star of the group, and outside his interactions with the Blue Meanie and Nova, he had some fantastic moments as Raven’s lackey, and then, main-eventing the very first ECW pay-per-view. Stevie never reached the heights of his ECW run in other promotions, mostly due to the fact that his neck was broken in a match with Terry Funk, but there’s no taking away from his charisma and impact in the land of extreme.
22) Jerry Lynn
Lynn was never the most charismatic, charming, or magnetic human being to step inside the squared circle, but damn could the guy give you great in-ring action. His matches with Rob Van Dam are some of the best bouts in ECW’s history, with both men putting together highly impressive sequences and maneuvers. In ECW’s twilight, Lynn stepped up and became one of top hands in the promotion’s narrative, and if you were to make a list of the top five in-ring performers in ECW, Lynn would certainly be in that discussion.
21) Super Crazy
After he was released from his WWE contract in 2001 following an arrest for drunk driving, Eddie Guerrero hit the indy circuit, and there was one guy he was dying to wrestle: Super Crazy. (They locked up at a Ring of Honor show.) That’s because Crazy was one of the most entertaining wrestlers on the planet during his run in ECW. Sporting flawless moonsaults — which he routinely performed from various parts of the arena — Crazy and rival Tajiri had a terrific series of matches that helped redefine ECW’s in-ring content when a bevy of superstars left the promotion. His run in the ECW TV Title tournament was also memorable, pinning Rhino in the finals.
20) Chris Benoit
It’s incredibly difficult to rank a man who murdered his family high on a list of anything, but there’s no taking away from Benoit’s immense talent. Possibly the best in-ring talent that ECW ever saw, Benoit was fearless and fearsome, and his ability to dish out violence was a beautiful spectacle.
19) Rey Mysterio Jr.
Before he mastered the 619 in WWE, Rey Mysterio Jr. was already one of the best high-flyers — if not the best high-flyer — on the planet. His initial match with Psicosis is on many top-ten lists of best ECW bouts, and every time little Rey-Rey took to the skies, fans gasped with delight. Another highlight of his time in ECW saw the luchador leap off the shoulders of 911 to deliver a hurricanrana.
18) Masato Tanaka
One thing that you can never say about ECW is that they squandered their international talent. Heyman always made the most of his stars from other regions, and with Masato Tanaka, it wasn’t hard to get him over. Tanaka and Mike Awesome engaged in one of the most death-defying and exciting series of matches over the World Championship during ECW’s TNN era, with both men refusing to quit even after being powerbombed to the floor through bevies of tables. Tanaka won the World Title off of Awesome in 1999, but lost it back to him just one week later.
17) Justin Credible
In 1998, Credible became one of the best heels in the company, and in the following years he stepped up to the plate when a mass of talent left for WCW and WWE. With The Impact Players faction, he and Lance Storm were the focal point of ECW’s narrative, feuding with Tommy Dreamer, Raven, and The Sandman.
16) Steve Corino
Starting off as a scrawny C-level player, perhaps nobody in ECW made quite the turnaround like Steve Corino. Corino was great as a face or heel, but he was best when he played the bloody foil to the top good guys in the organization. In the final days of ECW, Corino helped carry the company across the finish line in the World Title picture, serving as one of its last champions before it went belly up.
15) Lance Storm
Storm, like Jerry Lynn, wasn’t great with a mic in his hand, but when it came time to perform in the ring, there were few that could run with him. Breaking into the business alongside Chris Jericho, Storm eventually went out on his own, becoming one of the top heels in ECW alongside Justin Credible. When Storm was on the card, you could expect a standout match, and his battles with Lynn and Rob Van Dam were some of the best pure wrestling bouts in the company’s history.
14) Eddie Guerrero
Eddie Guerrero was still cutting his teeth on the entertainment aspect of his craft when he was in ECW, but there was no denying his inherent ability in the ring. If you ask Joey Styles, his two-out-of-three falls match with Dean Malenko — which was a send-off for both men before they went to WCW — was the finest wrestling match that ECW ever exhibited.
13) Dean Malenko
Dean Malenko found a fantastic dance partner in the form of Eddie Guerrero while in ECW (and in Japan, too), but really, Malenko was so incredibly technically sound in the ring, that he could have a fascinating match with a broomstick. A two-time TV champ, Malenko found his greatest success in WCW, but his star ascended in Heyman’s playground.
12) Tajiri
There are few talents as exciting as Tajiri was in his prime while in ECW. With green mist and a variety of lethal kicks at his disposal, Tajiri was so electrifying to watch that it was hard to keep him a heel: the crowd just loved him. He was a TV champ, a tag team champ, and even challenged Taz for the World Title, but Tajiri will probably be best remembered for his ability to deliver a stellar encounter with just about anyone on the roster.
11) Mike Awesome
True monsters that can fly around the ring are hard to come by, but Mike Awesome was one of those impressive individuals. Truly scary with his feats of strength and flight, Awesome was a once-in-a-lifetime talent. His battles with Masato Tanaka are some of the best matches in ECW history, and it’s unfortunate that he never reached the heights of his ECW run in other promotions. Awesome sadly passed away at the age of 42 following retirement in 2006.
10) The Eliminators
With one of the most devastating tandem finishers in their arsenal, The Eliminators — John Kronus and Perry Saturn — were possibly the best team ECW ever produced. What made them so effective was their double team offense that used both striking and high-flying techniques. Kronus would later go on to team with other members of the ECW roster when Saturn left for WCW, but in their prime, The Eliminators were one of the best tag teams in the world, winning the tag titles on three occasions.
9) Terry Funk
Funk was already in his twilight when he wrestled for ECW, but he still adopted a moonsault into his repertoire — the use of the move proved that Funk was unwilling to let time pass him by. Two of the best moments in ECW lore are attributed to Funk: when he won the World Title at the first ECW pay-per-view event, and when he and Sabu battled in the brutal no-rope barbed wire match. Funk was ECW’s legend, and he elevated so many members of the roster that the feat deserves its own list.
8) The Dudley Boyz
Heels in the wrestling industry come and go, but none were as abrasive and caustic as The Dudley Boyz. D-Von and Bubba Ray caused riots when they took the mic, and their in-ring work was always excellent. The holders of the tag titles on eight separate occasions, The Dudleys are easily one of the best things to ever come out of ECW, and their success in WWE and other promotions just proves that their ability wasn’t solely relegated to the ECW arena.
7) Tommy Dreamer
He was never the biggest or the strongest, nor did he maintain an aura of invincibility, a great gimmick, or flashy moves, but damn it, Tommy Dreamer had the heart of a lion. His feud with The Sandman took him to the top of the card, and his battles with Raven made him a legitimate sensation. Dreamer also took a lot of punishment in his ECW career — his ability to bounce back from the violence made him ECW’s version of Rocky. When WWE invaded ECW with the help of Jerry Lawler, it was Dreamer on the frontlines as the heart and soul of the promotion.
6) The Sandman
Remember how we discussed that New Jack was a different kind of “over?” Well, The Sandman was even more over. Sandman’s entrance was a spectacle onto itself, with the tall blonde-headed bruiser stalking his way to the ring, beer in hand. Sandman was never a great talent in the ring, but he was a good performer, routinely sacrificing his body for the benefit of the ECW product. For that, the ECW fans made him their God, and praying at the alter of The Sandman was just another part of the show.
5) Taz
When thinking about all of the great creations to come out of the mind of Paul Heyman, you’d be remiss not to mention Taz. An undersized grappler, Taz came off on TV as a behemoth of a man despite coming in under six feet tall. What made Taz so spectacular to watch was the aura he maintained: a tough, hard nosed scrapper who could bend his opponents into pretzels. Besides coming off like a legitimate badass, Taz was excellent when it came time to wrestle, and his suplex variations are still being used today.
4) Shane Douglas
With one promo, Shane Douglas changed the landscape of professional wrestling, ushering in the era of Extreme Championship Wrestling. Douglas wasn’t just good on the mic, though… he was damn fine at just about every aspect of the business. Other than Raven, he was the best heel that ECW ever produced. Douglas could rip apart his foes on the mic, then outwrestle them on the mat. If you look at the history of ECW, you’ll see that many of its finest moments involved Douglas; from the battles with Taz, to the Triple Threat faction’s influence on all of the titles, Douglas was there.
3) Rob Van Dam
If this list were based on the inherent athletic talent of an ECW superstar, RVD would have placed at the top, easily. Rob Van Dam was a freak of nature: in one moment he could gorilla-press you, in another, he’s scraping the ceiling of the ECW arena with a mesmerizing splash variation. Without question, RVD is the best athlete the company ever saw, and his feats of balance, coordination, and flexibility are still hard to surpass, even 15 years after ECW folded.
Van Damn had amazing matches with a variety of opponents like Sabu, Lance Storm, and Jerry Lynn, and no matter who he was facing, RVD put 100 percent of his talent into the contest. RVD was also involved in one of the hottest angles in the company’s history, forging an alliance with Jerry Lawler and Sabu to decimate the ECW roster.
2) Raven
Mysterious. Enigmatic. Perverse. There’s a laundry list of words that can be used to describe Raven — the brainchild of wrestling savant Scott Levy — but there’s hardly just one word that can personify how his character effectively connected with ECW’s audience. Raven wasn’t flashy like Sabu, nor did he espouse braggadocios like Shane Douglas — rather, he spoke in poetic riddles, and he was able to make everything he did mean something. That quality — efficiency — is the hallmark of a true wrestling professional, and Raven used that element in violent feuds with Sandman and Tommy Dreamer, becoming one of the characters that ECW fans loved to hate.
1) Sabu
Perhaps no one in the history of ECW embodied the spirit of the company quite like Sabu. The gold standard for extreme excellence, Sabu was willing to risk his life for the chance to entertain the audience. While many ECW superstars mutilated their bodies on any given night, Sabu did it every night, and although his matches were brutal and intense, he glided through hardcore elements with the grace of a barbed-wired ballerina.
Sabu also looked the part of a star, and nary needed a promo to put him over because he was such an impressive performer. What’s also amazing about Sabu is the ease in which he could sway the audience into loving him or hating him (especially during his WWE-affiliated program) without ever spilling a sentence. The list of his stellar matches is endless: the Stairway to Hell with Sandman; the barbed-wire match with Terry Funk; any number of matches involving Rob Van Dam, The Eliminators, and Taz.
Championing everything that was cutting edge about professional wrestling in the ’90s, Sabu was truly ahead of his time. Not only is he the greatest attraction that Paul Heyman ever featured in his programming, Sabu is one of the most fascinating characters to ever don wrestling boots, and he’s truly deserving of the number one spot.
