Hello and welcome to the first ever Cross’ Controversy article. That’s right in every article I am going to be writing about a controversial event and/ or figure in wrestling. I try to pick events or figures which I know very little about and research as best I can so if I get any of the facts wrong please forgive me.

I am going to start out with possibly one of the most controversial events in professional wrestling history. The crucifixion of The Sandman by Raven.

 The infamous “crucifixion angle” was the culmination of an almost year long feud between The Sandman and Raven and it shocked the wrestling world. Consider this, it was October 26th 1996, Raven and the Sandman had had a long back and forth feud in which the ECW title has changed hands a couple of times. The rivalry had already seen a major shock when Raven aligned himself to Lori Fullington, the ex-wife of the Sandman, and brainwashed the Sandman’s real-life, seven year old, son, Tyler Fullington, having them both join Raven’s cult following that were known as the Raven’s Nest. Raven had used Tyler to get into the head of The Sandman by having him deny the relationship between him and his father and perform Raven’s trademark taunt. The two had traded brutal and bloody matches many times. However on this night Raven was returning to the ECW arena and, as quoted in interviews, he and the Sandman knew they had to “step it up”.

Raven devised the idea to crucify Sandman on the ECW show High Incident, an idea which Sandman, who built the cross himself, was completely onboard with.  The cross was hidden under the ring and everything happened as planned. Sandman was set to go one on one against 2 Cold Scorpio for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. The match ended when The Sandman’s son, Tyler, interfered to help his father win. After the match the two engaged in an embrace until Raven attacked the Sandman from behind with a Singapore cane. From this point Raven was joined by Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie who proceded to tie him to the cross and place a crown made from barbed wire on his head. The graphic scene was witnessed by a completely silent arena. Leading many people involved in ECW to say the angle “did not get over.” However Raven has always remained adamant that it was “that quiet Japanese heat.”

Many of the ECW staff members and wrestlers were of Christian or Catholic faith as are most of the United States and so the angle caused wide spread outrage among everybody who witnessed it. None more so than with a young Kurt Angle who had been invited to the ECW event by Shane Douglas.  Angle was considering turning pro at that time and agreed to visit ECW as long as he was not involved with anything that would damage his reputation. Angle had provided guest commentary on a match between Taz and Little Guido but promptly left the building shortly after the crucifixion took place. Angle yelled at a number of the ECW employees including commentator Joey Styles who was also of Christian faith. Angle then walked straight up to Paul Heyman and quit stating that if his name or character were seen or heard on the same show as the crucifixion then Heyman would be “hearing from his attorney”.

All of the wrestlers involved in the angle are clear on the fact that Paul Heyman knew of what was going to happen, however Heyman claimed his complete innocence saying he had not cleared such an act. Many people’s theory is that Heyman claimed he did not know about the angle in order to try and convince Kurt to continue to work for ECW. In a further attempt to appease Angle Heyman wanted Raven to do some “damage control” and apologise to the fans. Something that neither Raven nor The Sandman where happy about. As Raven, to this day, claims that they did not “cross the line” and that even if they had, as the Heel, it would be “stupid to apologise”. Never-the-less Raven did break character and apologise in a way he described as “sincerely-insincere” and claiming that the fans were disappointed by the apology of the Heel.

The incident also brought Raven’s own religious beliefs into question who along with Paul Heyman  and Todd Gordon is Jewish. This lead to many of the ECW wrestlers and staff members believing that Raven had deliberately used the crucifix as an anti-Christian statement. When Raven got backstage he was confronted by ECW staff members and wrestlers who angrily asked why Raven did not crucify Sandman on a "Jewish Star". To this Raven replied that that would have had no philosophical impact on the crowd and joked that they would have to roll the Sandman out of the arena.

However much the angle was criticised and hated Raven, to this very day, still claims that it was in no way meant to be an insult to Jesus Christ but instead an insult directed at the Sandman “by using religious iconography to convey an artistic standpoint.”

Many people involved with ECW and the wrestling business have written the infamous angle off as a complete failure which did nothing more than bring unnecessary criticism to ECW however Raven and Sandman still believe that the angle got heat and was just so shocking that the segment left the audience speechless. Either way the angle did cost ECW the Olympic champion Kurt Angle.

Interestingly enough when Angle joined WWE in 1998 a very similar event happened in a feud between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker. The Undertaker crucified Steve Austin on “his symbol”. The original broadcast commentary had Jim Ross say “Austin has been crucified” however many viewers were angered with this and so the commentary was changed to “Austin has been tied to Undertaker’s symbol.” It is interesting to note that on this occasion the action did not cause any anger with Angle (as far as I am aware) and The Undertaker was not made to apologise.

So there it is... That is basically all I have managed to research on this very infamous, ultimately controversial angle. As I have no real religious faith I feel that many people may have over reacted to the angle, however I can understand how they might feel insulted and angered by it. I think Raven and Sandman did cross the line and possibly Paul E should have not allowed them to. But it’s up to you to decide your views on it. Until next time, I’m Chris “The Dragon” Cross, goodbye.