Ed Ferrara

Edward Ferrara (born November 22, 1966) is an American retired professional wrestler, writer and agent for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), often co-working alongside Vince Russo.

He is most known for, in WCW, portraying the character "Oklahoma", a mockery of WWF's commentator Jim Ross, and was the heaviest WCW Cruiserweight Champion, although he was forced to vacate the title for exceeding the 220 lb weight limit.

Ed Ferrara began his work in television production and writing, contributing to shows such as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show and Weird Science on the USA Network.

Ferrara was also a wrestler in Slammers Wrestling Federation known as Bruce Beaudine.

He was most recently working on the creative team for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Ferrara graduated from Drew University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts in theater arts and English.

Between 1994 and 1996, Ferrara was trained and wrestled in the California-based independent promotion - Slammers Wrestling Federation.

Ferrara worked under the ring name of Bruce Beaudine and on April 11, 1996 he won the SWF heavyweight championship.

In 1998, Ferrara was writing for television shows on the USA Network.

Executives at USA learned that he was working as an independent wrestler on the weekends, and set up a meeting with him and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE).

He matched the credentials required for the job including previous experience in wrestling and working in television production.

He secured an interview with Vince McMahon and began working with the WWF at the King of the Ring in 1998 during the Attitude Era.

He immediately clicked with his writing partner Vince Russo.

Ferrara appeared on an episode of Sunday Night Heat on March 14, 1999 when Tiger Ali Singh called out a fan.

The fan was Ferrara which Singh wanted to impersonation of Jim Ross.

While Ferrara did the impersonation, fans began booing.

Jim Ross and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams came out to confront Ferrara.

Steve Williams German suplexed Ferrara and then attacked Singh.

Eventually, Ferrara and Russo were offered a better deal to work for WCW, and left the WWF to go work there.

Ferrara and Russo began working for WCW in October 1999, and they placed themselves within the onscreen product of WCW.

They migrated their "Crash TV" formula from the WWF.

Matches were shorter in length, speaking segments both inside and outside the ring were more prominent, and a far greater emphasis was made on pushing midcard wrestlers to the point that everyone on the card had a gimmick and/or storyline.

Successful products of their initial tenure at WCW included Screamin' Norman Smiley, 3 Count, the re-invention of The Outsiders, The Mamalukes, 'Psycho' David Flair, The Revolution, The Filthy Animals, and Chris Benoit's main event push, among others.

There were some storylines which did not necessarily go over with fans the way they wished including Buzzkill, The Maestro, Buff Bagwell, and Madusa winning the Cruiserweight title.

Another storyline that didn't go over well with fans was Ferrara's controversial parody of WWF commentator Jim Ross, in which he took the onscreen name of Oklahoma and began parodying Ross on WCW programming, even going as far as to mimick Ross' Bell's Palsy affliction.

He had previously done an impersonation of Ross in the WWF during an angle with Tiger Ali Singh where he was called from the audience as a fan and did his Ross impression.

Ross would state that his impersonation was "personal" and "very hurtful".

Jim Cornette would later spit in his face and challenge him to a fight for making fun of his long-time friend, Jim Ross.

He defeated Madusa for the Cruiserweight Title.

Their initial stint was epitomized by the reintroduction of the nWo after months of storylines which ultimately saw Bret Hart win the world title at the expense of his nemesis Goldberg.

However, both Bret Hart and Goldberg got injured a few days prior to a major WCW pay-per-view.

WCW later formed a booking committee which consisted of former bookers including Kevin Sullivan, Kevin Nash, J. J. Dillon and Bob Mould.

This would also mark the beginning of the end for the friendship between Russo and Ferrara who both took opposing positions.

Russo refused to work in the booking committee as he felt he was jobbed out by the backstage politics of the company whilst Ferrara decided he would stay on as he had just relocated his entire family to Atlanta and so felt compelled to continue his work as a writer.

This would be the last time Russo and Ferrara would willingly work with one another in a wrestling environment, until being reunited in TNA years later (see below).

The success of the booking committee was limited at best.

Ratings had plummeted and WCW was in a state of disrepair.

Russo's and Ferrara's "Crash TV" writing style, which enjoyed immense popularity among the WWF's predominately Northern and Western audiences from urban areas, was openly resented by rural, traditional Southern wrestling fans who made up the majority of WCW's fanbase.

The new committee also led to the mass exodus of the most promising mid-card wrestlers in the company.

Now known as The Radicalz, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn all walked out of WCW as Kevin Sullivan stated he had no plans to use them on subsequent programming.