I like going back
and watching 2000-era ECW shows in no small part due to Rhino’s rise to the top
that year. He began his ECW run as Steve Corino’s unpolished rookie monster,
but it was not long before he came into his own as an unstable, psychotic heel
capable of committing acts of incredible violence. Rhino’s feud with the
Sandman was particularly brutal. He seemed to find new ways to destroy the
Sandman with each encounter, driving the ECW veteran through tables with one of
the best spear tackles in the business that Rhino dubbed the Gore. Rhino even
tormented the Sandman by abusing his wife Lori Fullington, repeatedly Goring
her through tables and even piledriving her through one at ringside during the Hardcore
Heaven 2000 PPV!
Rhino’s future
looked bright at ECW’s Guilty as Charged 2001 PPV. He interrupted a tag
team match between Balls Mahoney & Chilly Willy vs. Simon Diamond &
Johnny Swinger, destroying everyone involved with Gores. Porn star Jasmin St.
Claire even felt the Man-Beast’s wrath! Rhino piledrove her through a ringside
table, claiming that doing so was a bigger turn-on than a sexual encounter with
the onetime gangbang queen! Rhino continued to make his presence felt after the
main event, in which the Sandman won the ECW world heavyweight championship in
a hard-fought three-way TLC match against Steve Corino and Justin Credible. Sandman
had been through quite a battle to regain the belt; Rhino took advantage of the
brand-new champion’s beaten and bloodied state to issue an impromptu challenge and
win the ECW world title. Rhino was also the ECW world television champion at
the time, making the Big F’n Deal the first wrestler to hold both of ECW’s
singles titles simultaneously. ECW had lost their TV deal with TNN several
months before Guilty as Charged, prompting Rhino to relinquish the
television title belt. “We’re not even on fuckin’ TV,” the Man-Beast growled as
he tossed the championship belt to the ring canvas.
Rhino never lost the ECW world heavyweight championship—Guilty as Charged was the promotion’s last PPV and ECW’s final live event took place later that week. Rhyno would then show up in the WWF, aligning himself with Edge & Christian and assisting them in defeating the Dudleys and the Hardys for the tag team titles in a memorable TLC match at WrestleMania XVII. Most of us probably had no idea that Rhyno was part of the THUG Life stable with Edge & Christian on the Canadian indie circuit years before signing with ECW. Rhyno would become a three-time WWF hardcore champion in 2001 and showed some promise in a feud with Chris Jericho, in which the Man-Beast Gored Y2J through the stage set on an August episode of SmackDown. Unfortunately, Rhyno had to undergo cervical fusion surgery for two herniated discs in his neck in November of 2001. He would be out of action for sixteen months. Rhyno returned to WWE in February of 2003, but was never taken seriously as a main event threat again.
Personally, I never really felt like Rhyno fit in very well in the WWF/WWE. His place was most definitely in ECW where he was free to rampage through the roster in a psychotic fury. Rhyno looked smaller and less formidable in the WWE rings where he was routinely dwarfed by men standing over six feet tall. I was disappointed to see Rhyno slide down the card into irrelevance when he had been positioned as a top heel in ECW just a few years prior. WWE released Rhyno from his contract after WrestleMania XXI, freeing him up to regain some of his edge in TNA. Rhino would briefly hold the NWA world heavyweight championship while in TNA, trading it with Jeff Jarrett.
When WWE opted to bring ECW back under their umbrella, Rhino went on TNA television to make an open challenge to anyone involved with ECW’s current incarnation for the world heavyweight title that he never lost. He produced the old ECW world championship hidden in a burlap sack, stating that WWE threatened him with legal action if he showed the actual belt on TV. Rhino then proceeded to toss the sack into an oil drum, setting it on fire in disgust with the direction of the new ECW. Perhaps Rhino was saying what many of us were thinking at the time.
