Today John and Chad are joined by a true ECW Original and member of the Extreme Horseman, The Enforcer CW Anderson. From his days training in the WCW Power Plant through his rise through the ranks of the extreme army, CW truly has an inspiring story ready to be told to the podcast world. The full episode can be downloaded at this link.
His good friend Steve Corino joining WWE’s Performance Center as a Coach:
“There are so many times that he shied away from WWE. From being signed when we brought back the ECW thing and doing all the ECW Hardcore Homecoming’s and Extreme Rising he just never really wanted to do it. Steve’s always got the the fire and the fire to compete in the ring as like I do but he does realize what a great opportunity is given to him financially and to show what he actually knows in this business and I had heard he made a great impression when he did the tryout thing he had.”
“Steve was comfortable in Ring of Honor with the commentating and the little bit of wrestling and running the locker room and helping with the production and that is the side that they don’t see that I’ve known for twenty-something years is how smart he is to this business.”
The Final Days of ECW:
I was devastated. I had no idea. We had heard the rumblings even when we were in Arkansas everybody said this was our last thing and on the car ride back I was with Lou (E. Dangerously) and Jack (Victor) and Corino didn’t show up to that show and RVD didn’t show up to that show because they didn’t get paid and they saw the writing on the wall. Not me thought, I was die-hard to the end because I thought this can’t be it and ECW can’t fold because Paul will figure out something to be done. He always told us that he out in California working on a deal with USA for us but we’ve come to find out that he was filming the movie Rollerball.”
“I went into a depression spell after that because I was on a high being in ECW and than there was nothing. There was a lot of us like that and a lot of us weren’t told anything. No phone call, no kiss my ass or anything along those lines we weren’t given anything. It was just rumbles that we were done.”
His own issues with Paul Heyman:
“There was a lot of times that he didn’t show up and it was left to Tommy to run everything and that is where Tommy’s genius came in. He kept us afloat for the longest time. He (Paul) would always have big meetings with us before shows and give us this “ra-ra” speech and still throw it in there even while we weren’t getting paid and we still believed him. Guys would have their own issues behind the scenes by themselves and I think what would have been one of my downfalls as a wrestler is that I’ve never been a confrontational guy. The only time I ever lost it, I had met with him and Tommy one day and broke down because I was riding to the show with the Dupps and the car had broken down and we were in Boston so I had no idea how I was getting home since I was only making $75 a night at the time and was losing money. I said I’ve got to have a raise to continue. He wanted to know how much I wanted and I said I’ll leave it in his hands to pay me what he thinks I’m worth to him. He came back to me again and once I started getting pushed and wanted to put me under contract and guys that I was wrestling were making $3,000 a week and I’m making $400-$500 a week depending on how many shows we had. But he could make you believe anything. That was the gift he had and he knew his stuff when it comes to wrestling and that was his foray.”
Paul still being involved with WWE as a TV character:
“Paul will always have a job in one format or another. He is smart enough and wise enough to be able to work his way into anything like that. He is such a good talker and he is always going to have some kind of job in some format and it is perfect for him. The little weasley manager, you will always need that and Paul fits that role and he will always have some part in wrestling. I don’t think he will do anything booking wise at WWE and I don’t think that will ever be given to him but he is right where he is right now and he don’t have to make any decisions now and just goes out what they tell him from what I’ve seen when I do watch.”
Did WWE not have a full blown vision for the re-launch of ECW:
“I don’t think so. If they would have let Paul and Tommy run with it like they had intended to it would have been a whole lot better. It is hard to run guys from ECW and WWE and have everything form. It they would have let us run the little buildings like we did before we would have thrived and made so much money and instead putting us in those big arenas it just wasn’t ECW. It just didn’t work like that and it proved it didn’t work because it didn’t last long. After the first year they let so many of us go that they just started throwing guys that they didn’t use at WWE for Smackdown and RAW and putting them on ECW and it didn’t work and fans are not stupid. No matter how many times you bring it back, if you call it ECW and you don’t have the originals there it is not ECW.”
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Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
