The Night XPW Invaded ECW

As wrestling fans, an unspoken idea we all have is that of the ‘fantasy booker.’ We all want to see our favourite wrestlers battle against those in other promotions. In 2021, the “Forbidden Door” has been opened with relationships formed between different companies, most notably at the moment is that of AEW, IMPACT Wrestling, and even New Japan. If you go far enough back, territories used to work together by exchanging talent, but would also, famously in the words of Robert Fuller (better known as Col. Robert Parker in WCW), territories would be taken over at gunpoint. Then we have the wrestling boom of the late ‘90s and early 2000s. At the time, three major promotions existed, ECW, WCW, and the WWF. While we had the previous worked “invasion” by ECW on WWF programming, at this point in the history of the business, things were relatively set in their ways. So, what would happen when a renegade promotion run by a porn mogul decided it was a good idea to invade and attempt a takeover of an ECW pay-per-view? In the summer of 2000, Rob Black’s XPW, a knock-off ECW at best, attempted to invade Heat Wave 2000, resulting in one of the strangest wrestling tales of the time.

The year 2000 was a banner year for the World Wrestling Federation, despite their biggest star, Stone Cold Steve Austin, being on the shelf for most of the year. The same cannot be said for their competition. WCW was heavily on its way down the drain, especially following the departure of the men who became known as The Radicalz (Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko) early in the year. Ongoing management and creative changes were sadly dooming the company to a point where Vince McMahon could buy them a year later for pennies on the dollar. As for ECW, they were unfortunately in a similar position going down the drain fast. Many established stars had already departed for greener pastures, with both The Dudley Boyz and Tazz having made their WWF debuts. More than ever, ECW was truly the island of misfit toys they always referred to themselves as. Following the controversial departure of ECW Champion Mike Awesome to WCW, ECW was in a rough spot, and the events that would unfold at Heat Wave 2000 put them in the headlines, and it was a crazy event.

Heat Wave 2000

Ahead of the show, which took place at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, rumours began to abound that wrestlers from Xtreme Pro Wrestling were planning on attending the event, which was being held in their ‘backyard’ of Los Angeles. In an interesting twist, the tickets themselves were purchased by XPW producer Kevin Kleinrock, who would go on to be the creator of the doomed Wrestling Society X (read more about WSX here). Knowing that XPW was planning to invade the Pay-Per-View, ECW enlisted the help of former porn star, Jasmine St. Claire to help point out XPW invaders as fans began to enter the arena. St. Claire had previously worked with XPW but was now on the ECW roster as she was dating The Blue Meanie. Black had promised that none of his contracted wrestlers would cause any disturbance, and seeing as they bought their tickets like any other fan, they couldn’t simply be turned away. ECW instructed building security to ensure that any XPW signs or shirts were to be confiscated or turned inside out as they entered the arena, with the wrestlers being escorted to their seats, which happened to be on the ‘hard cam’ side, so they were not immediately on camera. XPW talent that would be present at the show included stars The Messiah, Supreme, Homeless Jimmy, Kid Kaos, announcer Kris Kloss, and valet/porn star Kristi Myst. Throughout the event, there were no disturbances caused beyond a few fans of the other promotion asking the wrestlers and valets for autographs and pictures. Following a match between Rhino and The Sandman, Rhino took a can of beer, chugged it and then whipped it in the direction of the invaders, essentially firing the first shot. Following the penultimate match of Scotty Anton (the former Scotty Riggs in WCW) and Rob Van Dam, the XPW crew decided it was time to make a name for themselves at the expense of ECW. Kristi Myst removed her top to a big pop from the crowd (she was still wearing a bra, so no nudity was exposed). This caused friction with Francine, who had planned a similar spot during the main event, a Stairway To Hell match (a fancy, more extreme name for a ladder match) between Justin Credible and Tommy Dreamer.

According to The Messiah, he realized now was essentially a ‘do or die’ moment for the XPW crew.

“We were all looking at each other like, ‘Rob is gonna be fucking pissed off’ because he spent all this money on front row seats and the shirts didn’t get on. The main event came and we said ‘if we’re gonna do it, let’s do it now.’ So we did, we showed our shirts’”

Before the match began, the XPW stars decided to flip their shirts inside out, showing off the XPW logo, and got rowdier, which resulted in Tommy Dreamer leaving the ring on camera and heading toward the crowd. A massive chunk of the ECW roster and crew members would immediately back him up. While this happened, Joey Styles did his best to cover up for the skirmish, stating that an unruly fan grabbed Francine.

This would escalate the battle as the XPW wrestlers were removed from the building, with Paul Heyman spitting on some of the XPW crew. After being removed from the building, Messiah claimed they began handing out fliers for the upcoming XPW show, featuring former ECW stars Sabu and Terry Funk in the main event. This was when the battle escalated as several ECW stars came barreling out of the building leading to a full-on battle between ECW and XPW. The XPW crew, already stated, were quickly outnumbered by ECW wrestlers, including Mikey Whipwreck, Amish Roadkill, the huge bodyguard of the FBI Sal E. Graziano, New Jack, and even Paul Heyman himself, all. At the same time, the main event continued back in the arena.

In an interesting twist, there were several Los Angeles Police Department members watching the battle, which they believed was just another part of the show, given the way it all went down. In the end, the XPW wrestlers would retreat, and while ECW remained silent about the situation, Rob Black would not do the same.

Black went on the syndicated XPW television show and proclaimed innocence in the situation, and at the end of his rant, he promised that XPW would outlive ECW. Interestingly, this would become the truth as ECW would file for bankruptcy the following year before being purchased out of it by Vince McMahon and the WWF. XPW would survive for a few years longer, eventually running shows out of the old ECW arena while employing several former ECW stars that the World Wrestling Federation in the later years didn’t pick up. 

In the end, while it seemed like it could have potentially been the beginning of something bigger, the XPW invasion of ECW just turned out to be another interesting footnote in the history of wrestling. One has to wonder what could have been had some working relationship between the two “Extreme” companies had come to be, but that is simply all we can do.