10 Forgotten Wrestling War Moments

3. The WCW-ECW Talent Exchange

Just because Paul Heyman took Ted Turner’s money in 1993 and used it to help fund ECW didn’t mean he was done sending letters to WCW’s legal department. 

A year later, Heyman threatened to sue WCW for copyright infringement after they co-promoted the AAA pay-per-view When Worlds Collide, which was a name ECW had used for one of their big events many months earlier. 

In a bit of irony, ECW had named their show in reference to a talent exchange agreement they had in place with WCW, as they were loaned Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton, with Terry Funk and others working WCW events in return.

The talent exchange agreement fell apart when ECW ran a show in Florida, which WCW claimed was ‘their’ territory.

In order to diffuse tensions due to the When Worlds Collide fiasco, WCW agreed to send three of its contracted wrestlers – Kevin Sullivan, Steve Austin and Sherri Martel – to ECW’s November 18 event.

The injured Austin was ultimately replaced by Brian Pillman, but Heyman agreed not to sue WCW.