Some Insights On Stevie Wonderful During The Early Eastern Championship Wrestling Era
Stevie Wonderful had several roles in Eastern Championship Wrestling during its early years (1992 & 1993). He held roles on-camera as an interviewer, he was a manager, served as color commentator and he even participated in a six-man tag match in 1993: https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=21702&page=4
Here are his roles in ECW according to IMDB:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5011984/
The IMDB mention and this post (https://gvwire.com/2018/04/05/hardcore-wrestling-it-all-started-with-ecw-25-years-ago/) mention Stephen Truitt (Stevie Wonderful is his wrestling name) as the sound guy. He likely helped produce the original music used for Eastern Championship Wrestling in 1992's video and pilot TV episode.
A five-plus-hour interview he did with ECW alum Chubby Dudley (formerly EZ Ryder) can be seen at the top of this post.
Wonderful appeared as the interviewer in the first TV-made show for ECW, which aired in August 1992 before the main ECW pilot show in October 1992. After Tod Gordon and Bob Smith appeared in the studio, they cut to Stevie Wonderful interviewing Salvatore Bellomo. This can be seen at the 2:28 mark of this video:
Interestingly, Tod Gordon gives credit to wrestler Larry Winters, ring announcer Bob Artese, and Stevie Wonderful for encouraging Tod to start ECW. https://southphillyreview.com/2023/07/24/like-fans-say-book-says-tod-is-god/
This would have been in the days right after the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance folded in January 1993. Tod was an investor in the TWA, so that is why he chose the Sports Bar in Philadelphia and similar venues where TWA ran shows in prior years. Eastern Championship Wrestling's first show was in February 1992, roughly 1-1/2 months after TWA announced it was closing its doors:
https://americanhardcoretheatre.weebly.com/roots-bloody-roots-the-tri-states-wrestling-alliance/roots-bloody-roots-the-tri-states-wrestling-alliance
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ProfessionalWrestlingHistoricalSociety/posts/781247761922718/
Here is the Sports Channel pilot episode from November 28, 1992 which was the precursor to long-running (401 episodes) ECW Hardcore TV - which had its first airing in May 1993.
Stevie Wonderful kicks off the show with TV announcer Jay Sulli. A lot of the "grunt work" in the early days of ECW's history was done by Stevie Wonderful, so that is why this post is made to help wrestling fans understand a little bit more of ECW's origins.
Oh, I'm going to have to watch these videos when I get a free second! So cool to see the early pilot of what was yet to even form.
In those early videos you even can see some of the longtime fans in the crowd! This video from Japan shows Fujinami's only appearance in ECW:
It took place during the summer of 1992 at the Sports Bar in Philly, and you can see Hat Guy in the crowd.... and his hat actually was a baseball cap!
That's funny to see the evolution of that
Great write up!
I always heard that Ecw existed in wwe with the commentators giving brief histories of the wrestlers, where they came from so I could find out :b
This is an amazing slice of wrestling history. :)
Thank you for appreciating it! His interview with Chubby Dudley shows a good degree of emotion and some "hidden history" of ECW + the surrounding history such as ties to the TWA days in Philadelphia.
https://x.com/jewellery_all/status/1935668067234947346
#hive
Old vids like these bring back lots of childhood memories!
Thanks for appreciating it! I want to do more on the "unsung" names tied to ECW who helped grow the promotion in the early days in addition to the in-ring athletes. As time goes on I will do what I can to find some cool history on the fans, TV production/camera team, behind-the-scenes office members, and others who helped lay the foundation for the later eras of the company.
I always enjoy the moment when people share nostalgic pictures, especially about wrestling.
Great article!