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One of the great mysteries surrounding ECW in the 1990s was why in the world would the person who founded the company be a “mole” to secret talents away from Extreme Championship Wrestling to WCW. The revelation on ECW’s 1-900-Hotline and subsequent insider newsletters at the time took Tod Gordon from beloved patriarch to pariah in one fell swoop for ECW faithful fans, even if it didn’t really add up when you thought about it in any great depth.
Well, the reality of that story, why it happened and who benefited from the move is revealed from Tod Gordon’s mouth for the first time when his memoir Tod is God: The Authorized Story of How I Created Extreme Championship Wrestling is released tomorrow. Co-authored by Kayfabe Commentaries’ Sean Oliver, the book is an insanely deep dive into not just the ECW mythos but Gordon’s journey through life before, during and after he ends up in the wonderful world of Oz we call professional wrestling.
As someone who has had countless conversations with Gordon - dating back to my days as a fan calling his store, Carver W. Reed, purchasing tickets to ECW - I can attest that the book reads genuinely as Tod’s own voice, the product of Oliver’s excellent work translating endless hours of Skype conversations into the written word without losing Gordon’s soul in the process.
This is true, raw and unvarnished journey of an extreme influencer who changed the entire trajectory of the professional wrestling industry. The letters ECW never cease to fascinate fans and Tod Gordon finally reveals all the inner workings and machinations that came with the creation, rise and fall of the most influential wrestling company of the 1990s. If you ever had a question about how the sausage was made in ECW, well, this is going to leave zero to the imagination.
Of interest to most fans will be Tod’s relationship with Paul Heyman once Heyman volunteers to assist Gordon backstage at an event after Eddie Gilbert quits as ECW booker. From there, Heyman comes in as booker, noting he will only be around until a Jim Crockett project launches. When Crockett’s WWN has the plug pulled, Heyman is ECW for life. Gordon bestows Heyman 49% of the company and they are off to the races, but while Gordon wants to run a few shows a month locally, Heyman wants to take over the world.
The relationship with Heyman, who Gordon describes in the book as the brother he never had, is a fascinating read. When they are at their best, they are in sync, speaking all hours of the day and night, almost intoxicated by the magic ECW is conjuring up for its fans, stunned by the fact that the fandom of the promotion is for the promotion itself, not just one performer. While ECW is taking off in front of the eyes of the public perfectly, financially is another matter as expansion to New York and Florida (paying for the TV slots) begin draining away at what Gordon had budgeted to put into the company.
While Gordon sees his bank account draining, Heyman is on a mission to change professional wrestling and reshape it in his own Extreme-tinted image. There’s just one problem. Heyman doesn’t own the majority of ECW and the person who does is coming ever closer to hitting the wall financially. As all this is going on, Heyman is passing the word of advertisers about to come on to the show and backers who want in back to Gordon, but they don’t want to deal with Tod. Each week, Tod warns Heyman, they are coming closer to the end.
Then, the end comes, and Tod is out, as owner. He tells Heyman that if he wants to take it over, he has Tod’s blessing (for a price) and magically, there’s a new LLC for the company and Heyman is backing it. Gordon later realizes that Heyman was playing a chess game to take over the company all along by getting Tod to the end of the line, where he would gives up financial control in order to see his baby and the talents he cared about move forward, but in the moment, Gordon didn’t even realize he was even sitting down at the table playing, only that he lost, well after the fact.
Gordon has stated that comments made about him in Paul Heyman’s WWE DVD spurred on the writing of the book, which makes one expect a revenge play, but the book never comes off as one. Instead, Gordon breaks down the positives of Heyman as a booker and performer but doesn’t hold back on criticisms of Paul the person, nor the fact that if Paul didn’t hold up his end of a promised agreement to pay Gordon back in installments for the ECW ownership, he would simply call Heyman’s mother - and does.
If you think this is a book seeking to scorch the Earth in order to take out Heyman and present Tod as saintly, that’s not the case at all as Gordon himself doesn’t come off without a few burn marks of his own. Gordon is absolutely confessional about his own acts of debauchery during the run of ECW, whether it's decadent sex stories involving himself and others or cocaine use to get him through all of his professional responsibilities during the week. Gordon doesn’t paint himself up to be a patron saint of professional wrestling above all else. He not only admits he was down in the muck, but relays the stories in great detail. There’s nothing left out here. Just ask "The Pony."
Perhaps the absolute best chapter of the book, which is the one chapter Gordon wrote himself, is about his relationship with his best friend, his sister Leslie and her battles with brain cancer. It is one of the most honest, jarring and sad chapters ever included in a professional wrestling book with a message that is far more important than anything said about ECW within the confines of the same book - treasure your people, love them and embrace them, because none of them, including you, will be here forever. It is probably impossible to get through that chapter without feeling the loss Gordon has in her passing and that chapter alone makes the book well worth reading as a life lesson.
The vast majority will be coming to Tod is God for ECW dirt and they’ll get it in buckets, from Gordon’s initial forays into the business, learning under Jimmy Snuka and Ivan Koloff and Don Muraco, among others, landing a local TV deal in his lap without ever looking for one, the discovery of the ECW Arena, Terry Funk, Sabu, Nancy “Woman” Sullivan, The Sandman, The Public Enemy, New Jack and everyone else you can think of from that motley, perfect crew that comprised ECW at its zeitgeist. From dealing with fans to the wrestling media of its era to the calvacade of characters inside the ring and locker room, Gordon delves into every subject imaginable. You'll even find out who Sandman screwed in a graveyard.
The book will make you nostalgic for days long gone if you lived them, but also doubles as a textbook of what promoters should and shouldn’t do as Gordon lived in real time, an on the job training manual for a world that is never normal and always head-scratching, because the vast majority of those who love and pursue it are anything but normal themselves. With stories ranging from sad to hilarious, you will absolutely feel as if you were there in the rooms where they happened, marveling at the insanity and the majesty of it all.
Tod is God starts well before Gordon is inside the wrestling bubble and closes well beyond his decision to exit ECW in 1997 (the "Mole" saga), although his time running and overseeing 3PW and Pro Wrestling Unplugged, as well as several other projects, are covered as well. His time running one of Philadelphia's oldest businesses, Carver W. Reed, is also covered, but the majority of the book is centered around Tod's experiences in the maelstrom that is professional wrestling.
Tod’s memoir is an almost Forrest Gump-esque journey as he goes from on an unimaginable evolution from fan loving the business to becoming one of the most important influencers in the business, interacting with every major name you can think of during that roller coaster run. Now happy to be seated on the bench watching everyone else on their own pro wrestling theme park adventures, it’s inarguable that Tod Gordon changed the trajectory of untold lives for legions of those in professional wrestling, including Paul Heyman himself, as well as an infinite number of fans.
Tod is God tells that story, truth in advertising from a promoter who always strove to do right by his fans. If this book is the final chapter in Tod Gordon’s involvement in professional wrestling, he gets to close it with his head held high and proud, the job once again done right. If you even have a passing interest in ECW, it's a must read book. If you have an even passing interest in professional wrestling, it's a must read book and a greatly welcomed addition to every pro wrestling book library. If you want to read a great story about a well lived life, it's a great book even for someone who has never cared about pro wrestling.
Terry Funk provides the foreword for the book, making it an even more important wrestling document, but even without the Funker stamp of approval, Tod is God is a story of a man who walked into an upside down world out of love and when he exited to return to reality, he did so leaving that other world a better place, almost like a real life, f***ed up version of The Chronicles of Narnia...with far more drugs involved than C.S. Lewis ever ingested.
Tod Gordon would never claim to be pro wrestling's patron saint, but his memoir reveals what he truly is and was - the one-man butterfly effect that changed pro wrestling forever, for the better. All of the highs, lows, frustrations, rivalries, heartbreak, brotherhood and betrayals that came hand in hand with that journey are included in exquisite detail within the pages of Tod is God for all to read.
Oh, and as far as the "Mole", that story is revealed as well...
Tod is God will be officially released tomorrow 7/25 in The United States and Canada and can be ordered at this link.
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