Barbed Wire City: The Unauthorized Story of ECW

[The Dragon Saga]

I've seen Rise and Fall, it glamorized ECW, painted it in a light Paul Heyman wanted people to see it, didn't go in-depth on much except the success it had in Philly, yet was pretty entertaining and most people seem to find it entertaining, probably why its one of WWE's most successful DVD releases.

I've seen Forever Hardcore which was a joint production of Jeremy Borash and Shane Douglas to promote Homecoming which was some poor attempt to compete with ECW One Night Stand. It's okay at best, too much praising and not enough reality hence why in-terms of a documentary it wasn't all that good.

But this new one (yes, they felt compelled to make another ECW documentary) is actually a) pretty interesting b) well produced and c) an interesting look from the perspective of former talent like Sandman, Raven, Public Enemy, New Jack, journalists like Meltzer, Mike Johnson from PWInsider, Bruce Mitchell from PWTorch and which was the most interesting part, the fans about not only how ECW grew but fell on its ass!

ECW is often praised despite the fact - lets be honest - for wrestling it was pretty fucking shit. You had the odd glimmer of talent but most if not all got picked up. In this documentary you have guys admitting that yeah they went too far and now their paying for it, anyone who thought ECW could succeed long-term is an idiot and the fans wanted too much, them going as far as to say without humor the only way people would have been satisfied is if someone died.

It is also a very interesting look at Paul Heyman. We are often told how much of a visionary Heyman is/was and how everything was his idea and how he was the driving force, but in the end he was also the death because he couldn't keep up with what going on around him. And when ECW closed he was so desperate to jump ship to WWE he never called a single ECW talent to tell them the company had folded, they found out when he popped up on Raw.

Its a really good look at ECW. I'm not too into the nostalgia "ECW was the best cause there was blood and tits and swearing" because that's not wrestling, thats trailer trash television, but every now and then its like a guilty pleasure. I'm interested to see if anyone else has seen BWC and if so what did they think or who's interested in seeing it?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

When I was in my teens and first saw ECW, I was intrigued in the beginning. After a little while, however, it seemed to me as little more than a one trick pony. Whenever I was able to catch ECW or watch a recording of it, the wrestlers were coming about as close to killing each other as you could get. With the level of physicality and insanely dangerous spots they were doing, I instinctively felt that it'd never succeed on a long term basis. It was simply too...well...extreme in pretty much every measurable way.

ECW has carved its name into the annals of wrestling history. It's legacy is certainly going to be mixed, at least in my eyes. This new documentary is able to show that clearly in a way that we haven't seen in past ECW documentaries. ECW was different and there was some genuinely edgy and innovative stuff going that set it apart from WCW or WWF at the time. Different doesn't necessarily mean successful or better, however. ECW was so over the top that there's no way it could have succeeded as a national promotion in the same way as WCW or WWF. No television network was going to allow ECW to air without making a lot of changes because, often, it was too raunchy even for television in the late 90s, which was the era of crash TV. Yet, without the over the top violence, profanity and sleaze; you were basically taking what made ECW out of the company. They were a niche wrestling company that appealed to a highly devoted, but small, fanbase.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I have seen both the Rise and Fall of ECW, and Forever Hardcore and enjoy them both, so I have no doubt that I would enjoy this one too. Is it available in the UK do you know? If so, I will certainly think about picking it up.

The part you mentioned about the wrestlers admitting they had gone too far and are paying for it now sounds very interesting, that definitely wasn't covered on the documentaries I have seen on ECW.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

I have seen both the Rise and Fall of ECW, and Forever Hardcore and enjoy them both, so I have no doubt that I would enjoy this one too. Is it available in the UK do you know? If so, I will certainly think about picking it up.

The part you mentioned about the wrestlers admitting they had gone too far and are paying for it now sounds very interesting, that definitely wasn't covered on the documentaries I have seen on ECW.

Checkout Highspots.com, should be there for digital download, I've linked to it for you, plus you can then watch it over if you wish. Or if you want the DVD and wait about nine days that is also an option.