With all of the fanfare in WCW and the WWF these days surrounding hardcore wrestling, it’s easy to forget which company brought this style of wrestling to the forefront and who’s still the best at it.
Once you see Extreme Championship Wrestling and the ‘Hardcore Icon’ Justin Credible in action, the answer will be clear.
“Credible is a brash young punk who is trying to make a name for himself, whether by hook or by crook,” was how Credible described his in-ring persona for those who have yet to see him wrestle.
What sets the ‘Hardcore Icon’ apart from most wrestlers is that he is a proficient technical wrester who learned his craft in Calgary, Alberta.
“A lot of people don’t know this but Lance Storm helped train me in the Hart Brothers camp,” Credible said. Credible and Storm are currently teaming up to make a run at the ECW tag titles.
“I think there is no competition out there for Lance and I,” Credible boldly declared.
Some in the wrestling world may know Justin Credible from his days in the WWF as Aldo Montoya, the Portuguese Man ‘O War. It was truly one of the worst gimmicks devised this decade. But surprisingly, Credible does not think negatively about his days with the WWF. At least not totally.
“It was a truly great learning experience,” he said. Credible started wrestling for the WWF at the tender age of 19. He was a young guy just learning the ropes.
“The three or four years I spent banging my head against the wall formed who you see today in Justin Credible,” he said.
Credible believes that the timing could not be better for the ECW-TNN partnership. “I see ECW taking the wrestling world by storm,” he said.” We want to completely blow the lid off the pro wrestling world and give the fans what they really want.”
Part of what ECW is counting on is fans really wanting ECW’s hardcore style of wrestling. Be it with multiple tables, garbage cans or canes, Credible can do it all. He managed to take the “Hardcore Icon” title away from the Sandman who now wrestles for WCW as Hak.
“We started a feud and I was getting the better of him and after a while he left for other pastures and the name ‘Hardcore Icon’ and the Singapore cane came with it,” he recalled. “And from there Justin Credible became the ‘Hardcore Icon'”.
Many wrestlers are being injured or having their careers cut short these days by the extremely physical nature of this style of wrestling but Credible said he is not worried. “You have to be smart about what you do and be careful,” he said.
Fans needn’t worry about ECW or Justin Credible changing their style with the debut of ECW on The Nashville Network. The ‘Hardcore Icon’ has promised to continue to do what he does best. “Some of the things I do could be said to be extreme, but for the most part I’ll just go on wrestling as I always have and give the fans what they really want to see.”
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