The Rise & Fall of ECW2004

Paul Heyman:
[about ECW's financial straits] The wrestling business at that stage became almost like the... the dot com industry, in that it was an inflated bubble. It had to burst. And... the pay scale just went off the chart. And it became very difficult to afford talent. And these guys are turning down... hundreds of thousands of dollars to go elsewhere just to stay with us. And there comes a time where that's not fiscally responsible to your own family. So we had to step it up. We had to get licenses, we had to get advertisers, we had to get sponsers and the only way to do that is to be real enough to be on national TV.

Matt Hyson:
It-it was a struggle. I mean, that was when we... a lot of the guys were starving, you know? That was when you were eating tuna and then rice seven days a week. Uh... so it was tough because the veterans that were there, uh, that couldn't put up with it quit. And these were the guys with the... the rest of the locker room looked up to. And, you know, here I was going "What the hell? Bam Bam Bigelow just walked out." Because he says this place, you know, isn't worth it. And I'm going, in my mind, I'm thinking "Is he right? Am I, you know, trying to stay on a sinking ship? I mean, it's obvious my checks are bouncing. Why should I be loyal to this guy now?"