The Sandman crucifixion angle angers crowd and wrestlers.

On October 26, 1996, Raven was set to return to the ECW arena and defend his title against the Sandman.

The feud between the two had been going on for over a year, involving such characters as Tommy Dreamer, the Blue Meanie, Stevie Richards, Nova, Brian Lee, the Sandman's wife & son (Lori & Tyler Fullington) among others. Since the feud had lasted such a long time, Raven & Sandman said in interviews that they knew they had to "step it up" and Raven came up with the idea to crucify the Sandman.

The Sandman was the one who actually built the cross, and on the night of the crucifixion, Raven went further with the idea by place a crown of thorns made of barbed-wire on Sandman's head.

On that same night, Kurt Angle debuted in ECW with an olympic hero, clean-cut character. Angle told Paul Heyman & Todd Gordon, the owners of ECW, that he did not want his character involved with any angles or storylines that were portrayed in a negative light.

When the initial incident happened, Kurt Angle snapped backstage and started yelling at several of the ECW workers & employees, including Joey Styles, who, like Kurt Angle, is a Christian. Kurt Angle approached Paul Heyman extremely upset and quit ECW right then & there, telling Paul Heyman that if his name or character was heard or seen on the same program as the crucifixion, Heyman "would be hearing from his attorney."

Heyman claimed innocence about the whole thing, telling Angle he had no idea Raven & Sandman had planned this. Many of the wrestlers involved with the storyline say otherwise, claiming Paul Heyman knew all along but denied it just to appease Kurt so he would work for ECW.

The well-known, very vocal, ECW crowd, who would invent obnoxious and original wrestling chants, were dead quiet during the whole thing. Raven claims it was "that quiet Japanese heat" though several other ECW employees will tell you simply: "That angle did not get over."

To further try and appease Kurt, Heyman made Raven break character and apologize to the ECW crowd in the ring. Raven and Sandman felt this was totally unnecessary and Raven gave a "sincerely insincere" apology.

The footage was never released on ECW home video officially (though several internet tape traders had the footage) until WWE made The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD.

On a side note, 2 years later when Kurt Angle joined WWE in 1998, a very similar incident happened between Undertaker & Steve Austin when the Undertaker crucified Austin on his "symbol." On the original broadcast, Jim Ross stated that "Austin has been crucified," though later it was changed to "Austin has been tied to Undertaker's symbol" due to the original quote angering several viewers. Regardless, Kurt Angle remained on the roster from 1998 to 2006.

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