"ECW - Excellent at Covering Weaknesses"

[IrishCanadian25]

E.C.W.

Excellent at Covering Weaknessess



special thanks to fellow ICE Member "The Natural" for providing the inspiration for this thread...​

So what exactly is it about "The Original ECW" that still drive peope nuts and STILL has people taking about their wrestlers, storylines, and events!?

Now I'll be the first to admit - Paul Heyman and Co. produced some BIG stars in this business. Rob van Dam. Chris Jericho. Eddie Guerrero. Rey Mysterio. Taz. The Dudleyz. But outside of a very select group of talented and hard working alumni, the roster of ECW was, at best, underwhelming. The specific thing that ECW seemed to do so well that kept it relevant for so long was to mask the shortcomings and the weaknesses of its product and its performers.

Rob Van Dam has always been a bit of a spot monkey with limited significant mic skills. Sabu is even worse. So what did ECW do to mask those shortcomings? Stuck them with Bill Alfonso - a strong managerial presence - and accentuated the spot-fest matches. They also gave RVD the 420 gimmick, which enabled him to gain popularity with the crowd in question.

The Sandman is an out of shape contractor, but they turned him into a star with a mixture of tobacco, beer, blood, and vulgarity.

Mike Awesome, the man whose name was invoked in the thread that inspired this discussion (http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?t=153763) was an athletic freak with marginal mic or character skills. He was super-over in ECW, and went nowhere in WCW.

It seems to me that ECW's success lay in their ability to pander to and kiss the asses of the fans of the product who felt the "big 2" in WWF and WCW were patronizing them for so long. No matter what, a guy could get on the mic after breaking 4 bones in his body and just say a few words about how much he loved doing this for the "real" ECW fans, and the guy was over for life in that particular bingo hall.

What was it about the original ECW that took such a limited talent pool and turned it into what it was? And how else were Heyman and Co. able to hide the weaknesses of its performers to be successful? Are there lessons to be learned here?

 

[JuiceOS]

ECW was much different than the other producst of the 90s and birthed many styles WCW and WWE stole...true they had alot of brawlers and alot of guys who were weak in the ring. but they also had alot of good wrestlers Jerry Lynn, Super Crazy, Tajiri, Little Guido are some of the others...

and you talk about covering wrestler weaknesses

every organization does that

Mike Awesome went no where in WCW because at that time in WCW it was a sinking ship and they werent run properly with all the backstage politics.

 

[klunderbunker]

Violence, blood, rape, swearing, same sex sex acts, tranvestites, over the top angles, alcohol, crucifixions and a little wrestling on the side.

That wasn't ECW. That was the Attitude Era in WWF and probably the most successful period in wrestling history. A lot of these things could be taken from ECW with the main theme being everything was balls to the walls. Why was this the case you ask? The answer is simple:

The fans wanted something new.

That was the answer to everything. The wrestling fans were tired of the whole wholesome and good stories with the hero triumphant with the title all the time. They wanted something new. ECW played to this and it worked. You now had complex characters with adult stories that were no longer about "I want the title because I want it." Now you were bringing in drama and violence and it was exactly what the fans wanted to see.

The fact that the wrestling was bad and the stories ranged from over the top to just plain bizarre made no difference. The fans were happy because it was something new and the quality didn't matter. The problem came when what was once new became the new norm and the fans got tired of it and you know the rest.

In short, that's why ECW worked so well: it was different than the norm and it catered to the fans instead of telling the fans what they were going to see.

 

[Shadowmancer]

What exactly is wrong with covering up weaknesses? It seems like it is the best thing to do. ECW also did other things that worked really well, they used the pre-recorded matches thing, but hey edited down so it was "all killer no filler" it got Lance Storm over while still showing Shane Douglas as a top star in ECW.

Paul Heyman used what he had to the greatest Effect, and he pulled off an entertaining product. There is nothing wrong with hiding weaknesses, because if you don't you are overly exposing the Wrestlers to fans, it stops the greenest wrestlers burning out with the crowd. You book a show with that part of Paul Heyman's booking philosophy and you will have a good show to build from. ECW was however a case of FMW being involved as well.

 

[Coco]

What you're talking about speaks volumes about the usual party line from sports entertainment la-la land. All that shit you hear about guys not having "it?" Most of it is just uppercard guys circling the wagons and inventing an intangible that keeps up and comers where they are. Some guys don't have "it," but most of the time there's little effort put into making guys appear to have it. When guys could be given characters and unique in-ring styles to compliment that character, bland are instead told to go out and do the basics and they catch flack when they don't get over on that. What Heyman understood was that you had to put something into most guys to help them get over. It's something insecure upper-management in the E at the moment fails to appreciate more often than not. And while Heyman also understood this, he made something out of such a limited talent pool because that's all he had. If he took the usual sports entertainment mentality of this generation on elevating new talent, ECW wouldn't have lasted a month. He worked with what he has, and since he appreciated how to make stars, he was able to turn nothing into something.

 

[DeathClutch]

To be fair ECW was revolutonary for taking chicken shit and making it into chicken salad.
It's the style of wrestling they used (Hardcore) it's hard to look bad in a harcore match, watch most of WWE's Hardcore championship matches, they took guys who couldn't even get a spot in the Royal Rumble and made them look great.

ECW thou as you pointed out thou covered flaws up brilliantly, they give guys gimmicks that the fans connected too, mix that with hardcore wrestling (Not CZW Extremist stuff) it gelled and worked well.

We'll never get an era in wrestling like the late 90s-early 00s it was a magical time for Wrestling fans.

 

[chenandlerbong]

ECW worked well and got as over as it did because they played to there strengths. As has already been said, they did have there fair share of brawlers and hardcore wrestlers, but at different times they also had some amazing technical wrestlers as well. Like the op said, RVD and Sabu were not great talkers, so they gave them Bill Alfonso to take care of the promos and let them get on with wrestling. Realistically its on page 1 line 1 of the 'how to book wrestling' handbook. Admittedly pushing the envelope/boundaries was what gained the notoriety, but it was the wrestlers ability to do it in a believable way that made it last.

 

[ice82683]

ECW worked because Paul was great at creating new stars to build his company around. The catch to that was that Paul constantly had to create new stars to build his company around because once the star got big enough, Paul couldn't keep them because he couldn't afford to match the WWE/WCW money they were going to be offered.

Paul was also very in tune with the things around him(except money). We always hear stories of Vince creating things or doing things he wants to see or likes. ECW's problem was that it didn't have the reach, the money, or the connections that WWE and WCW already had, thus when they "borrowed" his ideas it seemed fresh and new.

I fully believe if Paul had someone else running the financial end of ECW, ECW might have made it longer than WCW. Would it had been able to keep on going after that, who knows, but it would have been quite a sight to see.

 

[CDoherty]

Heyman made everyone drink the kool aid. It's exactly to what Jericho said about TNA being the 2nd rate program and acting like the 2nd rate program.
Heyman took guys that would be lucky to win a match on Raw and made the wrestler and the crowd feel like they were a main eventer, and ECW was different. It wasn't the same shit as WCW/WWF at the time. Heyman took a main eventer like Sid who look a little weak in WCW/WWF and his matches a little boring and made him look unstoppable and I could not wait to see him again.

 

[WolfNyte]

Irish you forgot the BIGGEST star to come out of ECW...a legend.

He became one of the biggest stars ever and it was in ECW that he got his new attitude. I speak of Stone Cold Steve Austin who came in as a blond headed Hogan joke / insult after he got the boot from WCW and left as the 3:16 SCSA rattlesnake.

Let us now look at the AMAZING Guerro / Melenko matches that went 30 min + and Rey Mysterio / Psychosis Matches that tore the house down.

Yes most were crap...RVD, Dreamer,Sandman,Raven aka Scotty Polo in the WWE, BWO/ravens flock and the Dudly factin to name a few.

They were mostly bad in Extremely Crappy Wrestling with a very few shining stars but they were there and Heyman helped make those few the Legends they are today.

 

[D-Man]

"Accentuate the positives, hide the weaknesses." -Paul Heyman

This was Paul Heyman's motto for ECW. As spoken by the man himself in "The Rise and Fall of ECW", probably one of the greatest DVD documentaries that the WWE ever created. I mean, let's face it... Heyman was brilliant. He knew he couldn't compete with the production value of the WWE and WCW who has bottomless pockets. He needed to take the brunt of what every wrestling fan craved and improve his product on those tangible levels.

I believe KB said it best: We craved something different and ECW provided that for us. In the ECW DVD, Heyman compared his vision of ECW to Nirvana. He said that the 80's were full of hair metal bands and the business of music was over-saturated. Once Nirvana came out, WHAM!! Hair metal bands disappeared and everyone's attention was pointed to grunge. Paul Heyman wanted to do the same thing with ECW and he succeeded.

That's why wrestling fans who are veterans of the Attitude Era aren't satisfied with today's product. Vince McMahon took us on a time warp. We went from realistic, pre-written contests of athleticism to goodie two-shoes heroes to fictional characters and now back to pre-written contests of athleticism, with a little bit of drama on the side. Wrestling fans are basically saying to themselves, "been there, done that." Nothing about today's product is necessarily new. Yes, the writing is better, but that only makes the spoken lines and drama more interesting. Fans want to see different things happen in the ring. The matches have become nothing more than the same vicious circle. Paul Heyman and ECW took this "same ol, same ol" and made it fresh and new.

The main lesson that can be learned from ECW is to BREAK THE CIRCLE. As a fan, I couldn't begin making reasonable suggestions on how to do this. But there are hundred of experts who need to put their thinking caps on, and quick.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

ECW was the equivalent of the backlash against glam rock - people had tired of the Rock N Wrestling period and were turning off. Paul E brought different styles in to replace this, so in music in the 90's we saw the rise of Grunge, Indie and Dance music and in ECW we saw Hardcore, grown up storylines and Lucha Libre. This created new breeds of wrestlers and characters - you didn't have to be an Adonis to smash someone over the head with a chair and who cares if you were 5"4 when you could perform a hurracanrana from the top rope to a guy on the floor? Heyman used carte blanche in developing characters and storylines and (unlike the big two) looked to strengths.

However Easy E and Vinnie Mac were watching and pilfered ideas and talent; hmmm muddying reality and storyline - let's pretend our opposition is taking us over... that high flying mexican stuff looks different - we could use that in the first hour... sex and bad language - hey that could help us close the gap on WCW, who will we base this on? Hey that shoot stuff from Austin looks worth a punt!

 

[multiverseman.com]

TNA needs Paul Heyman so badly. Once I heard Paul's pitch for TNA, it was so clear that there's no other way to do it. It's his grasp of common sense that I find so baffling, in the face of so much lack of it.

 

[The Crock]

At the end of the day, Paul Heyman worked with what he had. He was forced to hide their weaknesses. It has been said time and time again, but he didn't have the resources that the WWE or WCW had, no, he had barely anything to work with. He had to come up with something that he could afford, but at the same time it had to be entertaining. He was an innovator. His entire roster loved him for it, they loved how different and against the grain the ECW product was. Hell, if they didn't, they wouldn't have stayed without pay for so long. Heyman had a different atmosphere, he told the guys to go out there and do whatever the hell they wanted to. He gave them creative freedom, so they stayed with what they were comfortable with. Heyman would then look at that, and complement it. He would make sure that the good outshone the bad. Just like in anything else. In football, if a team has a weak defensive line, they'll back it up with their linebackers and do whatever they can to hide that. ECW was no different. He knew that a lot of his guys were sloppy, but to him they were just "diamonds in the rough." Heyman didn't look at what he had how a normal person would. He looked at it from a different perspective. He didn't want to be the same as the other promotions, so he went and got guys who would work for him, that would fit into what he could do. He thought everything out, he worked painstakingly from the first ever ECW show until the day it died, to insure that the product was good. He did things that people will never forget, because they were that insane or unique. That was another key element to it. If he had enough AMAZING spots, the fans would still be too "hyped up" to care about the weaknesses, they probably wouldn't even notice. On top of that, he worked to a certain crowd. He didn't work toward the wrestling purists, no, he worked towards those who were sick of everything else. He tried to draw those fans that wanted a change for once. In that sense, his weakest mic workers were just fine. They didn't have to be overly impressive, because they hit on a few key points and they connected with the crowd. Everything Heyman did, he did to work the crowd. Everything. That's why ECW worked, it was different.

Heyman said it best himself: "Now one last time, this ain't WCW, this ain't Monday Night Raw, this ain't Smackdown! This ain't even WWE, this is EC Fuckin W!"

 

[Tech N9ne]

It definitely had plenty of weaknesses and short comings to speak of. I think they made a genre with limited resources.

I think if things would have been better written there, or would have been different, it probably wouldn't have had the same impact. It probably would have been defined as a second rate or third rate, depending how you look at it, version of WWF and/or WCW.

The poor quality but different ideas is what made ECW stand apart. It could never be considered as big as WWF/E or WCW but it's legacy lives on as if it WAS as big as WWF/E or WCW!!

 

[Lucha-Libre is wrestling]

For me ECW didn't covered anything or had to, they were hardcore so the set,ring,story-lines and wrestlers didn't have to look a million buck like wwe or wcw. They were the average Joe's of wrestling, they connected with the real people. They didn't need to look glamorous to entertain. They were the real equal opportunity of wrestling, it was the only place a wrestler could go to save or start his career. ( Stone Cold, Y2J, Eddie Guerrero,Mysterio,Mick Foley, Raven,RVD,and Kurt Angle.)

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

ECW worked because it was in the right place at the right time, offering a product that was in tune with what the audience wanted to see at that period in time. It provided blood and guts, extreme action, realism, high-flying, brawling, great technical wrestling, tag teams, and realistic storylines like The Sandman's blinding and Raven taking away Sandman's kids.

WWE was offering a gimmick-based child-friendly product that was struggling, the fans were bored of it and looking for something different with wrestlers who were actually exciting, rather than the lumbering giants like Mabel, Yokozuna etc who were being shoved down their throats, and more realistic characters instead of evil Clowns, crazed dentists and voodoo priests.

Paul Heyman was able to make the most of this opportunity with his booking genius. Noone can create successful wrestlers out of so little as Heyman could. He was able to take wrestlers nobody else wanted and make something out of them, and make them into idols with the cult-like audience in ECW's arena. With wrestlers such as The Sandman and Public Enemy, he was able to completely mask their shortcomings and make the audience fall in love with them.

By using more real-life style characters in guys such as Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Sandman and Mikey Whipwreck, the audience were able to relate to the wrestlers. They could see themselves in the performers, such as Sandman who was just an out of shape, chainsmoking guy who love beer and hitting people- which was how audience members acted in real life.

Raven was the outcast who dressed in a grunge style (which was relevant at the time), Dreamer was the pretty boy who couldn't be accepted, Whipwreck was the loveable loser and RVD was the chilled out stoner. These were real characters in a more exciting, action-packed show which is why people loved it.

They were bored with the WWE and WCW styles, and when Heyman brought in the Cruiserweights like Mysterio and Pcicosis, even more people saw something in ECW that they enjoyed. There was something for all wrestling fans to enjoy. If you were a fan of the technical style of Bret Hart, you had Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit. If you liked Shawn Michaels' style of wrestling, there was Eddie Guerrero or Jerry Lynn. For the fans of deathmatch hardcore wrestling, there was Cactus Jack, Terry Funk, Sabu, and Sandman. For the brawling fans, Raven and Dreamer would be your favourites and with the introduction of the Luchadors there was something for the fan of death-defying high flying. Even the tag team were great, with the Dudleyz and Impact Players being 2 of the best teams of the 90s in my opinion.

Weaknesses on the mic were covered up by mouthpieces like Bill Alfonso, The Sinister Minister and more. Weaknesses in the ring were covered up by the style of the wrestling. Sandman had literally no actual wrestling ability, but he fought in a way that made this irrelevant to the fans, who wanted to see hit smack people with his cane and bust himself open. Others who couldn't really talk concentrated on their in-ring excellence- like Malenko and Lynn. Other wrestlers were given the opportunity to talk and be creative, unlike in the other organisations and Shane Douglas and Raven are 2 of the ECW stars who made the most of this, becoming genuine greats on the mic.

Wrestlers who would never have been given a chance elsewhere were given opportunities to do their thing and the number of guys who made their names in ECW and went on to either WCW and WWE is enormous. Steve Austin (wasted in WCW), Chris Jericho (too small), Mick Foley (wasted in WCW), Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit (WWE turned him down even after Bret Harts recommendation) are the shining examples of men who went on to become superstars after being given the opportunity to shine in ECW and then catching the eye of the major leagues.

Even Heyman's idea of using modern alternative music as the wrestlers entrance music was genius, as it made the product relevent to the fans rather than the outdated stylings of the WWF and WCW, who were forced to update their styles after seeing the effect ECW was having. Without ECW, there would have been no Attitude Era and the shock-based storylines, T & A and more realistic characters it provided.

Although the memory of ECW is probably looking through rose-tinted glasses somewhat, you cannot deny the impact that the promotion had on US professional wrestling, and its influence can still be seen today in some of the matches seen in TNA and the icons such as Jericho, Austin and Foley who remain big draws today. Heyman did so much with such a limited budget, it was a miracle the company survived as long as it did through his awful business deals and with the dominance of the big 2. Heyman in my mind did so much for the business and it is a big shame he is not involved in the creative side of either WWE or TNA today, lord knows they could do with some of his evil genius style booking ideas.

 

[JGlass]

JuiceOS made a really excellent point, all promotions hide their wrestlers' weaknesses. The WWE doesn't try to force John Cena to wrestle Kurt Angle style matches, nor do they force Randy Orton to try to cut promos that will electrify the crowd. Certainly John Cena doesn't have as many shortcomings as Mike Awesome or Sabu, but he is not perfect, and the WWE does what they can to hide his imperfections.

The thing I love about ECW is that they did a lot with very little. A company that, for all intents and purposes, operated out of Paul Heyman's mom's basement. They were extremely resourceful and they banked on making a product that people would watch instead of all but forcing people to watch their product by spending big money on big name performers (like WCW).

What ECW did was combine hardcore wrestling with over the top character. The Sandman may have been a poor man's Stone Cold, but you weren't going to get to see Steve Austin bash himself in the head with a beer can until he bled, come to the ring and beat his opponent with a Singapore cane (which is LEGAL), and win the match.

In my opinion, what ECW did to stand out was relate the wrestlers to the fans as much as possible. Sandman was, as you said, an out of shape contractor, but he was a star. Rob Van Dam was this airy pot head, but he wasn't exactly the most physically impressive wrestler in the ring. The fans weren't watching supermen fight each other, they were watching their peers fight each other. Instead of going to a boxing match at Madison Square Garden, they were going to a fight club in an abandoned warehouse. It had a more "real" feel to it. Not real as in, "this is reality," but real as in grind your teeth gritty.

So yes, ECW was excellent at hiding weaknesses, but that by no means makes it any less special. Tuning into ECW wasn't about seeing two giant stars wrestle in a cookie cutter match, it was about seeing two dudes try to beat the living crap out of each other any way possible.