The Public Enemy

**The Public Enemy** (Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock) made their ECW debut in September 1993 at UltraClash. The team quickly became one of the more popular acts in the company; their wild brawling style, complete with a myriad of foreign objects and the inclusion of tables, made them one of the most feared teams in the company and it wasn't long before they won their first ECW Tag Team Championship. They regularly danced their way to the ring, waving their arms to their theme song and inviting fans into the ring for impromptu dance parties after winning matches. As The Public Enemy was embraced by the majority of fans, The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa Saed) debuted at *Barbed Wire, Hoodies & Chokeslams* to feud with Public Enemy. The Gangstas immediately began a long and bloody feud with The Public Enemy, which pitted The Gangstas' "harsh, gritty West Coast gangsta" lifestyle against The Public Enemy's "East Coast feel good" style.

On November 19, 1995, The Public Enemy received a tryout with the WWF, wrestling a dark match against then-WWF Tag Team Champions The Smokin' Gunns.

In January 1996, after their success in ECW, The Public Enemy signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW). When they arrived in WCW, they continued acting as they did in the manner that made them so popular with fans. During their three-year stint, they won their only WCW World Tag Team Championship with a victory over Harlem Heat in September 1996, though their reign lasted only eight days. The team wrestled through September 1998 and was mostly victorious in their final year with the company, concluding their run with a win over Villanos IV and V on a *WorldWide* episode.

At ECW's House Party 1999 on January 16, The Public Enemy made a long-awaited and much-hyped return to the ECW Arena, in order to answer the challenge of the Dudley Boyz. At the time, they were still under contract to WCW, but they successfully brawled (with assistance from New Jack) with the Dudleys. Following the showdown, Johnny Grunge grabbed the microphone and claimed that the past three years had been a "rollercoaster ride" for the team, and that "if you opened up our chest and looked at our hearts, there's only one thing stamped on it, and that's ECW!" Grunge further thanked the Dudleys for house-sitting "the house that the Public Enemy built" while they were gone, and then invited everyone in attendance to join them in the ring for a post-show celebration.

Their next scheduled appearance was at *Crossing the Line '99* on February 12 in Queens, New York against the Dudleys, which was eventually cancelled. The team was buried on the February 20 edition of *ECW Hardcore TV* as being cowards who ran from a fight. Two days later, the team would make their WWF debut.

The Public Enemy signed with the World Wrestling Federation in early 1999. They made their WWF debut on the February 22, 1999, episode of *Raw is War*, defeating The Brood by disqualification. In the two months they lasted in the WWF, their most notable appearance was losing a squash match against the Acolytes on *Sunday Night Heat* in Pittsburgh. Public Enemy would wrestle a final time on March 30, 1999 in a match taped for *Shotgun Saturday Night*, losing to the Hardy Boyz via disqualification. The match was aired on television on April 10, 1999. Shortly after airing, both members of Public Enemy were released in mid-April, along with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, Bart Gunn, and LOD 2000.

The Public Enemy briefly returned to WCW after leaving the WWF, with both men involved in the WCW Hardcore Junkyard Invitational. They then made an appearance on the August 4, 1999 episode of *WCW Thunder* in a squash match loss against Bill Goldberg and again on August 9 in a losing effort against the West Texas Rednecks. Their final appearance came in a house show on August 18, and neither made an appearance in WCW again afterwards.

The Public Enemy made one last appearance on *ECW on TNN*, which was their last exposure on mainstream television.