Review of Tod Gordon’s “Tod is God”
by Alan Wojcik
If you believe everything written online or spoken by the “historians” over at the company called World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the sole owner of the deceased Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was the current counselor to Roman Reigns; Mister Paul “E. Dangerously” Heyman. They will also tell you TOD GORDON was the just commissioner of ECW and left to care for his family and business outside of wrestling in the late 90’s and was a mole who funneled ECW talent to the other competitor to WWE at the time World Championship Wrestling (WCW.) With the exception of a couple interviews on various platforms, Mister Gordon has remained quiet. That changed with the release of his autobiography TOD IS GOD: THE AUTHORIZED STORY OF HOW I CREATED EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING which is co-authored by SEAN OLIVER (Formerly of Kayfabe Commentaries now host of KLIQ THIS with Kevin Nash) with a foreword by wrestling legend Terry Funk (Permuted Press, 280 pages.)
If you ever listened to my defunct podcast (Kayfabe Wrestling Radio) or ever met me at wrestling events, you know I NEVER watched ECW despite growing up on Long Island and living there until June 1996. I knew of the product but preferred WWE/WCW and couldn’t understand the “hardcore extreme” style ECW produced in addition to normal matches. So it wasn’t until I began doing interviews with former ECW stars in 2002, I even knew of Mister Gordon. I really learned about the ECW product from Mister Oliver’s company doing a TIMELINE HISTORY OF ECW series (Mister Gordon is in the 1992-93 release) plus the WWE produced “RISE AND FALL OF ECW” DVD release. More on them in a moment.
With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s talk all things Tod Gordon, the owner of Carver W. Reed, the Philadelphia jewelry and pawn institution founded in 1860, which he inherited from his father. Just like you and me, Mister Gordon was a fan of wrestling. Through listening to Philly based radio station WIP, Mister Gordon was introduced to Joel Goodhart who ran Tri-State Wrestling Alliance (TWA) and you will read how things went sideways and EASTERN Championship Wrestling came to be. Mister Gordon/Oliver cover lots of ground in the book. Especially how the arrival of Mister Heyman into ECW 1.0 came to be, the infamous Shane Douglas/NWA World title belt controversy, Sandman being nailed to the cross, the Mass Transit incident and much more. They also cover the traveling posse that included Woman, 2 Cold Scorpio, Sandman and Bill Alphonso and other members of the eclectic ECW locker room.
You will also learn of the real financial struggles ECW endured and how they spent $24,000 a month to be on MSG and Sunshine Network without recouping anything in advertising promised by Mister Heyman. If you believe Mister Heyman’s appearance on the WWE/ECW DVD, he never took a dime from Mister Gordon or WWE (then called WWF) while working with ECW. That and other musings from Mister Heyman are debunked in this book. I commend Mister Gordon for running a successful family business while raising his children, helping run several charities in Philadelphia and running ECW on a literal shoestring budget. I am astonished he survived the partying and stress of the business.
Enjoy this book and learn how much true and false exists in the world. Thanks to Mister Oliver for the advance copy of the book you can by online or through www.seanoliverbooks.com Alan Wojcik’s coverage of wrestling/sports entertainment can be followed through @MyNameIsWojcik on Twitter and www.facebook.com/KayfabeWrestlingRadio
My review of "Tod is God" by Tod Gordon (from @TantorAudio), with excellent narration by @KayfabeSean. The #audiobook is will be released on August 15th. #ECW #ECWArena #paulheyman #audiobooks #review #recommended #wrestling #prowrestling #terryfunk #NWA #Philadelphia pic.twitter.com/yxZuXyqsus
— Gerweck (@gerweckradio) July 29, 2023
