Tod Is God tells the life story of ECW founder Tod Gordon.
Tod had been working in his family business, a pawn shop named Carter W. Reed when he booked Missy Hyatt to appear in the store. After some time, he grew close with Bob Goodhart, the owner, and promoter for TWA (Tri-State Area Wrestling Alliance), and would eventually earn fifteen percent of the company after helping to keep Bob afloat during some tough times. Sadly, the company would fold after Bob’s expenses grew too high to be supported by lackluster ticket sales.
Shortly thereafter, Tod would launch his own promotion – Eastern Championship Wrestling. It would go through its initial growing pains before landing a permanent booker in Eddie Gilbert and a spot on local Philadelphia television. After landing on national TV in syndication, Tod would begin to receive attention from Jim Crockett who was in the midst of launching his World Wrestling Network. As Graham grew suspicious of Crockett and Gordon’s relationship, his paranoia would ultimately drive Gilbert away clearing the way for the man who would be synonymous with ECW, Paul Heyman.
By now I think we’re all aware of Paul Heyman’s inability as a businessman to keep ECW afloat as it grew from a northeastern independent promotion into a national one, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the receipts Tod Gordon kept when it came to Paul’s incompetence. While Gordon never did get into the business to create a competitor to Vince McMahon’s WWF or Ted Turner’s WCW, at the urging of Heyman the two worked to create a solid third promotion during the industry boom of the late 90s. However, whenever they seemed to have an opportunity to grow (get onto television in the New York market or even a chance to land on HBO), Heyman would kneecap the organization by either neglecting to perform an important job or misleading Gordon into believing things were better than they were.
The better parts of any wrestling book have to do with what goes on behind the scenes and the madness that goes hand-in-hand with performers keeping themselves occupied on long road trips during the downtime between shows. That being said, I thought this book went a bit overboard with the sleaziness and drugs-and-sex culture that ECW fostered backstage. It’s hard to fault the author for being honest but at the risk of sounding prudish, I could have done without the constant stories of sexual debauchery that occurred behind closed doors. But hey, if that’s what floats your boat in a wrestling memoir, there is more than enough here to sink your teeth into
Gordon spends much of the latter half of the book shining a light on what made several of the company’s top performers special. He also brings up the names of several of those who have since passed by telling a few memorable stories of the time he spent with them and detailing the often tragic circumstances surrounding their deaths. It’s difficult to read at times when you remember just how young many of these athletes were and how both the brutal drug culture of the industry as well as the relentless schedule often led to early graves.
While many people would believe Tod Gordon had wiped his hands clean of the industry after parting ways with ECW, he has quite an extensive resume beyond Extreme Championship Wrestling. Tod worked with Pro Wrestling Unplugged, 3PW, an MMA venture dubbed Extreme Fight Club, and finally CZW.
While he’s no longer in the business, Tod Gordon’s influence on the wrestling industry is certainly undeniable and he deserves to be recognized as a driving force behind ECW’s popularity. Without Gordon’s business acumen, Paul Heyman would not have had a place to freely and liberally showcase his vision of the industry alongside Tod. Wrestling fans who believe Heyman was solely responsible for ECW’s success need to take a look at TOD IS GOD to uncover the full story.
Tod is God: The Authorized Story of How I Created Extreme Championship Wrestling is available now
