“What If?” was one of the most popular Marvel comics of the 1970s and ’80s. It’d tell hypothetical stories across the Marvel universe, like what if Spider Man joined the Fantastic Four or what if Captain America had been elected President. Professional wrestling has its own set of what ifs. For the rest of this year, we’re going to talk to Paul Heyman about some of the alternative ideas he had while running ECW.
Welcome to, ECW WHAT IF?
When Peter Senerchia started wrestling in ECW in 1993, he was The Tazmaniac, a silent, face-painted, wild-man brawler. However, Heyman saw something different. “He was always part of the of the crew that was in the car with me from New York to Philly and from Philly to New York,” the former ECW headman says. “And always very quiet on the way down to Philly, always just venting about other people on the show that deserved criticism on the way home.
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“Not only the level of anger that he could display, but how articulate he could be in his venting just made me realize, if positioned and showcased correctly, he could be one of the five best talkers in the entire industry, if not the best. And certainly one of the most credible, if not the most credible.”
Taking inspiration from the burgeoning Ultimate Fighting Championship, The Tazmaniac became Taz, the human suplex machine. “He was the first UFC-style character in all professional wrestling,” says Heyman. “The first to win his matches via tapout, and he was instantly the most credible promo in the entire industry at the time. And it propelled him to the top even before we were ready to put him there.
“We would have him take old-school routines of how spots and matches would go in professional wrestling, and [then] break them, so that it could be demonstrated that everyone else is working a certain style, but he’s working one that’s unique and exclusive to him and him alone.”
One idea Heyman had to boost Taz’s credibility at the time was to get an on-air endorsement from Lou Thesz, the multiple-time wrestling world champion of the 1950s and ’60s, and someone who was long considered one of the most formidable “shooters” (real-life tough guys) in wrestling history.
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“We saw Lou at an awards ceremony in New Jersey, and Lou actually came up to Taz and said, ‘I really like what you’re doing. I really like the credibility that you’re bringing to the presentation,'” Heyman recalls. “And I had known Lou for a few years and said, ‘I’d love to get this to happen on television.’ And he said, ‘Great, call me.’ We had a couple of messages back and forth and the dates just never worked out. And by the time we could actually put it on the schedule, it was when we were going deep into the heeldom of this character, so I didn’t feel Lou Thesz’s endorsement was going to benefit the character of Taz. Unless Taz suplexed him and choked him out, which was never going to happen.”
Heyman had another plan to legitimize Taz — bringing in a big star from the world of MMA.
“Before Taz became the ECW World Heavyweight Champion, I had a trajectory for the title, to where Frank Shamrock would be the one to beat Shane Douglas for the title,” Heyman says. “And we would build up to Frank Shamrock versus Taz for the title, and Taz would take the title off of Frank.”
Shamrock, the adopted brother of UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock — who was a star in the WWF at the time — was one of the most dominant MMA stars of the sport’s early era. A former King of Pancrase, he’d taken UFC by storm, beating Olympic champion Kevin Jackson in 16 seconds to win the UFC middleweight championship (now considered the UFC light heavyweight championship). He then went on to clear out the division before retiring from the UFC undefeated in 1999.
Frank Shamrock (right) was one of MMA’s greatest, most well-rounded fighters in the sport’s early era.
(Jon P. Kopaloff via Getty Images)
“I firmly believe, first day in the door, Frank Shamrock could have been one of the top performers in this industry,” says Heyman. “He understood the business. Every time I’d spoken to Frank, he had a true knowledge of, number one, connecting with the crowd, and number two, the concept of drawing money, becoming an attraction, how to sell a fight. If you just look at Frank’s work in Strikeforce [from 2006-09], and if you watch him promote his fight with Cung Li, you watch him promote his fight with [Cesar] Gracie, you watch him promote his fight with Nick Diaz — Frank knew how to sell fights.
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“He understood crowd psychology. Even in the shoot environment of a fight, he knew how to work a crowd. If anyone who never spent time in the genre of professional wrestling could have transitioned over into professional wrestling and been a No. 1 top star, it’s Frank Shamrock.”
ECW would have presented Shamrock as someone outside of the bounds of pro-wrestling. “Much like we did with Taz, the whole thing was going to be: ‘Everybody else can do what they do. What I do is much different,'” Heyman says. “Without ever saying the words … ‘Everybody else is fake and I’m real,’ going as close to that as possible. Just letting you know, ‘Everybody else does their thing. What I do is a completely different definition,’ and then demonstrating that in the ring — which is what we did with Taz.
“At the time, Chris Candido was helping out a lot in several aspects behind the scenes, and Chris had a good relationship with Frank and was discussing it with him. And I believe [currently incarcerated wrestler and then-girlfriend of Candido] Tammy [Lynn Sytch] got involved a couple of times on the phone call and completely turned Frank off to any involvement in ECW, and it just all fell apart from there.
“By the time I called Frank and said, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can get this back on track,’ his answer was something along the lines of, ‘Nah, I kind of got a taste of what’s going on. I’m just going to respectfully bow out,'” Heyman continues. “I don’t know what went on in that conversation or two, but it completely turned Frank off to working for us — and probably for working for anybody in professional wrestling.”
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Taz ultimately went on anyway to win the title directly from Douglas and hold the ECW World Heavyweight Championship for nearly a year, feuding with Sabu and Candido, before signing with the WWF and dropping the title in a three-way match with Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka. It was a dominant reign, but a Shamrock feud would have gone along way to establishing a directed stylistic difference.
If anyone who never spent time in the genre of professional wrestling could have transitioned over into professional wrestling and been a No. 1 top star, it’s Frank Shamrock.
Ironically enough, Heyman used a similar presentation later in his career with WWE star Brock Lesnar.
“There is an expression that I love using and instilling in young talent: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” he says. “I can’t throw a dropkick. I guarantee you, I can’t get three inches off the ground. I have no leaping ability whatsoever. But even if I could throw the most picture-perfect dropkick in the history of professional wrestling, I guarantee you I never would. And I would never admit that I even could, because it doesn’t fit the character, nor would it add to anything that I could possibly do in the position that I’m cast. So just because I can doesn’t mean I should.
“It’s what we did in WWE with Brock Lesnar once he conquered ‘The Streak’ [Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania record in 2015]. Because then we had the leverage to do it. If you watch any Brock Lesnar match after he conquered ‘The Streak,’ he never whipped anybody into the ropes, he never was whipped into the ropes, he never threw anybody into a turnbuckle. It was a very mixed martial arts presentation. Brock didn’t do traditional pro wrestling things after we conquered ‘The Streak,’ because we wanted his style to be completely different to where the ring would become the Brocktagon. When Brock Lesnar came out, you knew — this will not be a typical pro wrestling match. We did it with Taz, wanted to do it with Frank Shamrock.”
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Taz’s most memorable matches in ECW were always styles clashes, where it was interesting to watch how a shootstyle performer would perform against a wild brawler like Sabu or an agile giant like Bam Bam Bigelow. But how would the trajectory of American wrestling have been different if the ECW title was contested between a pair of MMA-inspired wrestlers at the height of ECW’s popularity?
With the way ECW set the tone for the other companies of the era, would wrestlers like Kurt Angle and Bobby Lashley have leaned more into their legitimate credentials in their wrestling presentations if they had an ECW world title feud leading the way? More than three decades later, what if Shamrock had said yes — might we have seen WWE World Championship matches that more closely resembled MMA fights?
