The Network (professional wrestling)

The Network was a professional wrestling stable that was formed in 1999 when ECW began to broadcast nationally on TNN.

The Network
Tag team
MembersSee below
Debut1999
Disbanded2001

History

The Network was a professional wrestling stable that was formed in 1999 when ECW began to broadcast nationally on TNN.

TNN did not give ECW much money to produce their program, yet expected ECW to have high-quality production values like WCW Monday Nitro and Monday Night Raw. Also, TNN poorly advertised and promoted ECW, producing barely any press releases or TV ads, even though ECW was TNN's highest rated weekly program at that point. The only real time that TNN actually advertised ECW was during the ECW program itself. In fact, during ECW broadcasts, there were actually commercial ads for the archrival WCW's programs, such as Thunder! Heyman decided to recruit Don Callis, who played the part of Cyrus, to serve as a metaphor, so to speak, for the real problems between ECW and TNN at that point. Callis played a representative for TNN/The Network, who constantly criticized the violent nature of ECW programming, and commentator Joel Gertner in particular for his sexually-loaded commentary and ring introductions. Callis would threaten to replace ECW's programming with episodes of RollerJam.

Cyrus was joined in his quest against ECW by Steve Corino, the self-proclaimed "King of Old School", who got heat railing against hardcore wrestling. Corino brought with him the wrestlers he managed who then became "The Network"; Rhino, Yoshihiro Tajiri, and Corino's own manager and old school wrestler Jack Victory. When Corino turned on Justin Credible, the group slowly imploded until only Cyrus, Rhino and Jerry Lynn remained allies, up until the point where Cyrus managed Rhino to the ECW World Heavyweight Championship and Jerry Lynn against the returning Rob Van Dam at the final pay-per-view.

Members

Championships
  • ECW World Heavyweight Championship (3 times) – Rhino (1 time), Steve Corino (1 Time), and Justin Credible (1 time)
  • ECW World Television Championship (3 times) – Rhino (2 times), and Yoshihiro Tajiri (1 time)
gollark: No, analogising it that way is ridiculous.
gollark: It's some sort of neural-net-type thing with weird extra communication between components running on weird hardware.
gollark: What if someone is, say, simulating the entire physical universe including my brain?
gollark: I would also still consider me to be me if my brain is somehow shut down for a bit then turned back on, as long as it doesn't lose any (much?) data while off.
gollark: I an going to go to sleep soon. When I wake up after being unconscious for a bit, I still consider it me.

See also
  • Impact Players
  • Unholy Alliance

References
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