When All Elite Wrestling held a six-show residence at Philadelphia’s 2300 Arena beginning in late August, it marked a return of televised wrestling to one of the industry’s most famous locations.
From 1993 to 2001, the building served as the home base of Extreme Championship Wrestling. Dubbed simply the “ECW Arena” during its heyday, the facility played host to a number of the promotion’s most (in)famous matches and angles, including the loser-leaves-town match between Tommy Dreamer and Raven at Wrestlepalooza 1997, a two-out-three-falls bout between Rey Mysterio Jr. and Psicosis in 1995, and the legendary trios contest from Barely Legal 1997 that saw Japanese stars The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada and Masato Yakushiji take on Dick Togo, Taka Michinoku and Men’s Teioh.
The return didn’t elicit only good memories for everybody, though. For former AEW World Team Champion Big Bill (William Morrissey), it was coming back to the site of what he calls “maybe the lowest point of [his] life.”
At the 2300 Arena in 2018, in the midst of alcohol withdrawal, Morrissey had a seizure during a House of Hardcore show. The medical episode was the impetus for Morrissey to change his lifestyle. Sober now for more than five years, coming back to the building was bittersweet.
“Going back there and seeing the spot where I fell and all that, it’s a reminder of what once was, which is a sour reminder, but at the same time it’s also a look at how far I’ve come, going to a place like that and seeing the spot where I had the seizure,” Morrissey told TSN.ca.
“There were a lot of people who, after that, had kinda written me off and thought I would never, ever come back to wrestling and thought I was done for. To come back to wrestling, with AEW, in that building on live television being seen all around the world, it was really big for me because it’s a sign of how far I’ve come, where I’ve come from, and the progress I’ve made to get to where I’m at and a reminder of the hard work I’ve had to put in to get to where I’m at.”
A 39-year-old native of Glendale, NY, Morrissey is something of a rarity in the wrestling industry. Morrissey has never been shy about discussing his mental health and sobriety. In a business where that kind of radical honesty is normally avoided at all costs, Morrissey is an open book.
“I have an obligation to tell people and help other people out,” Morrissey said. “Hopefully, they can hear my story, and it helps them. And I feel a moral obligation to do that. I feel like that’s just what I have to do and it’s just a gut feeling, so being open about it and as open as possible, I think is the key. You have to be honest.”
For Morrissey, keeping his journey to himself would be doing a disservice to others who are struggling.
“I think if I can prevent somebody else from having to go through what I went through, or at least give someone hope that things are going to get better, someone who’s in a similar situation to what I’ve been in, I think that’s very valuable,” Morrissey said. “For me to take all this knowledge and all of the people who helped me to get better, get healthy, get back to wrestling, get to the most peaceful point of my life – if I were to take all that help and not give any out, that would be pretty damn selfish and it goes against everything I believe in being in the program and in recovery. It would be the complete opposite of the lessons we learn. You take what you’re given and you gotta pay it forward or else you’re just being selfish.”
Morrissey currently finds himself in a feud with one of AEW’s signature fan favourites in Eddie Kingston, another man who has been transparent about his struggles with mental health. On the shelf for 14 months after breaking his leg in multiple places, Kingston made his return to action against Morrissey at Sept. 20’s All Out pay-per-view at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.
In choosing him to be Kingston’s return program, Morrissey says it’s a demonstration of faith in his abilities from AEW booker Tony Khan.
“I think it says a lot about Tony’s trust in me, I think it says a lot about Eddie’s trust in me,” Morrissey said. “It says a lot about my talent, also, where months ago we go to Australia and I’m getting cheered and buildings in America, I’m getting cheered and then to flip a switch to dealing with Eddie and talking trash about Eddie, I got a really negative reaction, which is good because that’s what we wanted. I think it also speaks to my hard work and my talent to be able to take the crowds that were cheering me and to immediately make them hate me and want to see this beloved babyface come back and beat me up. I think it said a lot about Tony, a lot about Eddie and a lot about myself, also.”
On Wednesday night, AEW celebrates the sixth anniversary of its flagship program, Dynamite. This past April, the show surpassed World Championship Wrestling’s Nitro with its 289th episode to become the longest-running prime-time wrestling show on a Turner television station. Wednesday night’s show is a chance for the company to reflect on its achievements, including recent ones.
You can catch the sixth anniversary edition of AEW Dynamite LIVE on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT on TSN2, the TSN App, and TSN.ca.
“You talk about selling out Wembley, selling out in Australia, then 30,000 fans in the Rangers’ ballpark in Arlington and then we sold out Toronto for All Out,” Morrissey said.
“Constantly stacking these accomplishments on top of each other builds up a sense of pride and camaraderie. We did this, not one guy did this. Yeah, Tony runs the show, but Tony knows the talent and we all work together. We did this and there’s a sense of pride, camaraderie and teamwork amongst the men, the women, everybody together. I feel like in the hallways, we all feel like a team…and not just talent and not just Tony – the production guys, the lighting guys, the stage guys, props guys – everybody seems to have the same sense of accomplishment.”
While professional wrestling isn’t a team sport, it can certainly feel like one online at times with the kind of toxic invective spouted by fans at one another and the performers in the industry’s two largest companies, WWE and AEW. Though he acknowledges the downside to tribalism, Morrissey, who previously spent time in WWE from 2011 to 2018, believes it can benefit the business on the whole.
“I do think what’s going on right now is good for the wrestling industry and I’ll try to make a sports analogy and it’s apropos because this week it’s coming up again: Baseball, in my opinion, was its best in the early 2000s when the Red Sox and the Yankees hated each other,” Morrissey explained. “The fans hated each other; I don’t know about the players. They definitely disliked each other, but the fans hated each other. And that’s when baseball was at its best. Tribalism can be bad and it does get a little negative, but everybody is going to support their team.”
When push comes to shove, though, Morrissey believes fans love the sport more than they love one company.
“There’s some people out there who support WWE, there’s some people out there who support AEW,” Morrissey said. “They’re going to feud and fight, but I will say this, and this is something that I love about wrestling fans – you have the tribalism, you have those two sets of fans, but if they were fighting amongst each other and someone from outside the wrestling world, let’s say like a talk-show host or something, made fun of wrestling or made a crack about wrestling, I can guarantee you, both sides would turn their attention away from the other, look towards that person and team up to go at them.
“And that’s something I love about wrestling fans because I think, deep down, we all want wrestling to succeed and we all love wrestling. They may all love their product and their company, but I think we all just want wrestling to do well and they would fight any outside force together that comes at wrestling. And the other thing is, 10 years ago, this is what wrestling fans were begging for – an alternative, a challenger brand and they’ve got it now. And, like I said, I think it can be negative, but I think taking sides – honestly, I know this is a wild take – I think it’s good for wrestling. I think it’s Red Sox and Yankees.”
As for his beloved Bronx Bombers, Morrissey is a little on edge about this latest meeting of the eternal rivals in the American League wild-card round. Still, he likes the Yankees to emerge victorious and set up a meeting with the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Division Series.
“Yankees in three,” Morrissey said (Editor’s note: TSN.ca spoke to Morrissey ahead of Game 1). “Yeah, I’m very nervous. I’m not happy. I think the Rays didn’t do what they needed to do this [past] weekend. They sat a bunch of their guys [on Sunday]. There’s no logic behind that. So they couldn’t beat the Blue Jays and we have to play the Red Sox. I’m not happy about it. I’m very nervous about it because the Red Sox are very good and we have to face some really good pitchers. I’m confident we’ll win in three, but I’m definitely not banking on it.”
