After wining the ECW Tag Team Championships with Cactus Jack (Mick Foley)
I'm at the Philadelphia Marriott getting out of the elevator and I bump into ECW owner Tod Gordon. "Hey Champ", he says & I responded, "Not anymore". I had lost the ECW Television Title to Jason Knight back in May. Here's the rest of the conversation.
Todd - Oh you don't know?
Me - Know what?
Todd - Terry Funk isn't coming tonight and we need to find Cactus a partner against Public Enemy
Me - Oh man that sucks
Todd - Not for you
Me - Why?
Todd - You're replacing him in his match
Me - Oh no
Todd - Oh yes
He walked away and I stood there shocked and in disbelief. There is no way the fans are going to accept me as a replacement for Terry Funk. I could go into all of Terry's accomplishments in and out of the ring but to put it mildly he was a LEGEND. Here's a link to his Wikipedia page (Terry Funk Bio).
Terry Funk as the ECW Heavyweight Champion
When I got to the ECW arena I was met by Paul Heyman who filled me in on the plan. I couldn't believe this and thought it was a rib (wrestling speak for a prank). Terry definitely wasn't coming and I'd be Cactus' partner against ECW Tag Team Champions The Public Enemy.
The Public Enemy - "Flyboy" Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge
When the time came for the 4 of us to go over the match, all I could think was "this can't be happening". I had been the biggest Cactus Jack fan since I first saw him wrestling in World Class Championship Wrestling in early 1989. Now here I am about to not only team with him but become ECW Tag Team Champions together. At one point, seeing the glazed look on my face, Rocco shoved me on the shoulder and said, "Mikey get your head in the game this isn't fan boy time". I snapped out of it and got ready for the match.
With my character being the scared underdog, I ran back to the locker-room before the match started leaving Cactus in the ring with the Public Enemy all by himself. After a few minutes I came running down to the ring with a piece of wood wall paneling and starting wailing on johnny & Rocco. The crowd was gong crazy. Johnny looked up at me and said, "we got 'em Mikey". Meaning the crowd, had forgotten about Terry and was accepting our plan to make up for him not being there. During the match I was supposed to bleed from a DDT on a chair. Yep, supposed to bleed, on purpose. You've all heard the rumors about bleeding in pro wrestling, it's true, moving on. I never bled before so I wanted this DDT to look devastating, But I made it a little too devastating, I hit my nose on the chair and immediately my eyes started watering. I dropped my bleeding device and when I picked it up I had it held backwards with the "dull" side doing the cutting. When all was said and done, I had about four 3 inch cuts across my forehead with a little drip of blood. Not exactly how I wanted to pop my color "cherry" in the land of ECW. I ended up pinning Rocco for the win and the ECW Tag Team Championships.
After the match, Cactus asked me what happened to my forehead and why there was hardly any blood. I told him what happened. He asked if I wanted him to show me how to do it on my head. I said, yes. I gave him the bleeding device and zip. Instant blood. 5 seconds later we posed for pictures. The picture at the top of this blog is one of them.
I developed quite a friendship with Rocco & Johnny and had some great times in and out of the ring. Sadly both have since passed away. Rocco in 2002 & Johnny in 2006. Cactus and I would go on to have an almost 2 year long storyline and remain friends to this day. I hope you like these stories because between Cactus & Public Enemy I have tons of them.
