ECW Dealt Some Hardcore Hardships

On January 29th in Orlando, Florida, ECW Television Champion Rob Van Dam (Robert Szatkowski) suffered a cracked fibula in a title match against Rhino. Van Dam suffered the injury attempting a baseball slide on his opponent, when his ankle rolled underneath him. Despite noticeably favoring one leg, Van Dam miraculously finished the match, using a five star frog splash to retain the title.

The injury will keep Van Dam out of action for ten weeks, removing him from the March 12th "Living Dangerously" event in Danbury, Connecticut. The company also learned that the ankle injury suffered by Jerry Lynn was worse than originally thought, and is expected to also prevent him from working the pay-per-view.

The injury suffered by the company’s top star was just a prelude to other incidents that have plagued ECW boss Paul Heyman.

On February 4th, the WCW web site announced that hardcore icon Sabu (Terry Brunk) was in negotiations with the Georgia based promotion. Reports indicate that Sabu, 36, and WCW came to terms on a contract two days prior.

Sabu, who has captured every title in ECW, vented frustration with the lack of upward mobility, realizing his role would be to put over the company’s rising stars.

ECW claims Sabu is signed through January 15, 2003, with an option to renew the contract for additional two years if they match any outside offer. Heyman is not opposed to releasing Sabu from his contract; however, he is seeking compensation from WCW, either a buy out and/or a talent exchange.

Sabu informed WCW that his ECW contract was breached when the Philadelphia based company fell behind making payments to him for pay-per-view appearances. It appears that since he did not file the proper paper work, the contract with ECW remains in tact.

By the end of last week, WCW officials were back peddling from using Sabu. The question may ultimately be, if Sabu is unable to get out his contract, will Heyman take back an employee that would prefer to be elsewhere? At press time, attorneys from ECW and WCW are in discussions to settle the matter.

The same night WCW posted the story about Sabu’s negotiations with WCW, Heyman and Raven (Scott Levy) had a dispute backstage in Jacksonville, Florida, which lead to the two-time ECW champion not being used on the television taping.

Three days later, the Pro Wrestling Torch’s web site reported that rumors indicated that Heyman may have offered Raven his release.

The following day, Raven responded to the rumor on the same web site: "The question of whether Paul E. (Heyman) offered me my release is ludicrous after all of the pressure that he put on me to sign my contract as rapidly as possible, which I did. Paul E. never offered me my release, nor would I have taken it because I gave my word both written and orally that I would stay until August 25 and I would not reneg on that."

All signs point to Raven departing for WCW or the WWF as soon as his one-year contract with ECW expires this summer.

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