Watching ECW Is What Ruined It For Me

[The Brain]

As a young teenager in the mid 90s I used to loving reading Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its sister publications. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next issue and would try to fill my head with as much wrestling knowledge as I could. It was a fun time. WWF and WCW were the top two promotions and were pretty much equals at the time. I liked reading about other promotions like Smokey Mountain Wrestling and the USWA. I even tried to learn about Japan, Mexico, and the smaller independents. The PWI 500 was a lot more fun back then. During this time there was one promotion that kept getting my attention. I would always read about it and it always sparked my curiosity. That promotion was ECW.

When I first started reading about ECW it was still know as Eastern Championship Wrestling. It would not be long before Shane Douglas would throw down the NWA title saying he didn’t want to represent a dead promotion. He said the ECW title was the only title that mattered and Extreme Championship Wrestling was born.

For three years I read about all the chaos that ensued at the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia. Every night was a blood bath. People were jumping off balconies, crashing through tables, and pretty much mutilating each other every night. Chairs, Singapore canes, thumb tacks, barbed wire, and even fire were just some of the things that were frequently used in ECW. Just seeing a picture of Sabu with scars all over his body left an impression on my young mind and let my imagination run wild. In the midst of all the anarchy I read some great wrestling was also taking place thanks to guys like Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero among others. I didn’t have access to any ECW programming so all I could do was imagine what those nights in the ECW Arena were like.

In 1997 ECW was finally going to hold its first pay per view. I couldn’t wait. I was finally going to see all these guys I had read so much about. I had the feeling that literally anything could happen and I was finally going to be able to actually see what all the hype was about. The pay per view was a decent show but it left a lot to be desired. The reality of ECW just couldn’t compete with my imagination. As the months went by I saw a few more ECW pay per views but none of them satisfied me the way the magazines did. I built ECW up in my own mind to something it couldn’t actually live up to. Don’t get me wrong, ECW had some good stuff, but it also had a lot of crap. Funny how the magazines never reported the crap.

As strange as it may sound I was a fan of ECW until I actually saw it. Sometimes imagination of the unknown is better than the actual reality. It’s like if you got to spend a night with your favorite rock star and he took you bowling. Sure it could be fun, but it’s not the rock star life style you were expecting. You’ve been bowling before and can do that anytime. Still a good time. Still fun. Just disappointing.

Those are my thoughts anyway. I’m not trying to knock ECW. It was ok for what it was. I was just expecting more. If you were a fan in the early/mid 90s what were your impressions the first time you saw ECW? If you’ve never seen ECW what kind of opinion do you have of it based on what you’ve read?

 

[RatedRockstar]

I get what your saying, i was a huge ECW fan, but i didnt like a lot of the wrestlers, sabu had some great matches, tommy dreamer always impressed me. But mostly after Y2J (or at the time lionheart Chris Jericho) Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio Jr. left there wasnt much wrestling, it was a lot of brawling that did in fact get old after awhile, sandman, austin, dreamer, raven, tazz all had some good promos and good matches, but great wrestling only happened with RVD and Jerry Lynn in the ring, which made RVD my favorite wrestler, I always have and always will love ECW, but only because WWF and WCW were similar, and ECW gave me something different and edgy to watch, as far as the great wrestling that would capture your imagination, there were only a few that could provide that...Rob Van Dam kept me watching ECW along with Dreamer and Sabu, but i could see why someone who wasnt always a fan would be disappointed, great thread btw.

 

[Richie Cult]

My first impressions of ECW were:
1) Wow! An alternative. I do like choices.
2) Damn! These guys are hardcore and I am not referring to using weapons to bash heads. I mean that they took a lot more abuse from actual wrestling moves than WWF & WCW and kept kicking out of pinfalls. What were "finishing moves" in WWF & WCW were merely "moves" in ECW and these bastards put on excellent matches.
3) The vulgarity and sexuality was different. I prefer a little bit less profanity, but I accomplished that by limiting my viewership of ECW.
4) Rob Van Dam's extremely long ECW TV Title was very cool and added great credibility, especially considering that was the secondary belt to the ECW Heavyweight Championship.

 

[wrestlingfan]

I'm only 13 but I ddint see much but from any old ECW Vignette they used to show when Vince was thinking of revivng ECW, I must say ECW seemed wild an dmysterious.

 

[Aotearoa (Bushwacker)]

We never got ECW on television here (Aotearoa / New Zealand) so we'd have to wait months for them to come out of video. Along with renting all the latest WWE and WCW PPV's on video, ECW was there as an alternative and something to feed the hungry wrestling fan in us. I liked it, it was hardcore, it was different and you felt a little bad-ass watching it. The only issue was we didnt know who anybody was. They were complete strangers to us, we didnt know them or their history and couldnt connect with them. They just served as a thing to say wow those two guys were hardcore and that was it. After a while it all meshed in to one anyone, same thing just two different guys. We didnt know who the guys were. Not like WWE and WCW where we cared about the character and felt for their welfare and just HAD to rent the next PPV.
PS Things are obviously a lot better now with satelite and we get WWE programming just a couple days after it airs in USA and PPV's are broadcast live so we are right up to date. TNA to me is lot like ECW in the old days. We only get the TNA PPV's here but not the weekly programming so when you watch a PPV you dont know who the guys are (except for the old WWE guys) or the storylines and so you just dont connect or care.

 

[JuiceOS]

I dont even remember how i first heard about ECW, maybe it could have been this big book I had of WOW magazine which talked about ECW/WCW/WWF that was probably it. I read about ECW like who are these guys? I got a pretty bad memory because only other thing i really remember about ECW in my wrestling past is watching it on TNN during middle school on friday nights and always going to the ECW website...

I LOVED ecw and still do, watching alot of the old big moments of ECW or big moments to me get me emotional...I dont know if it is because it reminds me of younger days or how the wrestling industry is now.

i wish vince would release all the ECW PPVs and historic shows on DVDs maybe some sort of dvd collection. stop doing those most bloody match dvds or best of dvds...

ECW was great and nothing will ever even come close to what it was

 

[P. Nut Butters]

We never got ECW on television here New Zealand so we'd have to wait months for them to come out of video. Along with renting all the latest WWE and WCW PPV's on video, ECW was there as an alternative and something to feed the hungry wrestling fan in us. I liked it, it was hardcore, it was different and you felt a little bad-ass watching it. The only issue was we didnt know who anybody was. They were complete strangers to us, we didnt know them or their history and couldnt connect with them. They just served as a thing to say wow those two guys were hardcore and that was it. After a while it all meshed in to one anyone, same thing just two different guys. We didnt know who the guys were. Not like WWE and WCW where we cared about the character and felt for their welfare and just HAD to rent the next PPV.

Also being from New Zealand, I'd heard so much about ECW obviously. The first ECW event I ever watched was Guilty as Charged (2000, I think). Back then in New Zealand, we got a one-hour version RAW on a two-week tape delay on free TV and Nitro was 3 weeks behind at about midnight. I wasn't a big WCW fan and so after all the hype about ECW, I thought it was going to be heaven.

I first realized that even as a PPV, their production values were poor (obviously I now know that this is something ECW fans never really cared for) but some of the performers were really good. Jerry Lynn, Tajiri, Rhino, Paul E and Rob Van Dam (my first time seeing RVD actually), had absolutely great characters I thought. The backstage promos that I saw on that event were unique but for the most part good.

Overall, I was disappointed though. The Amish Roadkill/Danny Doring/Simon Diamond vs Nova/Jazz/Kid Kash was a good match and so was RVD vs Sabu, but aside that, I found the event to be pretty boring. The other matches were terrible I thought and really the only other highlight was the sick bumps from LSD at the hands of Mike Awesome and his tables. I watched a few more ECW events and I was equally as disappointed. Ironically though, I've seen two old episodes of ECW on TNN and I thought they were better than the PPVs i'd seen.

 

[Papa Pillman]

i wish vince would release all the ECW PPVs and historic shows on DVDs maybe some sort of dvd collection. stop doing those most bloody match dvds or best of dvds...

ECW was great and nothing will ever even come close to what it was

I couldn't have said it better myself... if the WWE released all the ECW ppv's on DVD, I would buy every one from the last 2-3 years the promotion was running.

ECW over those last couple years (once the production values improved a little and focus was steered more towards the quality of the wrestling and not purely the "extreme" violence element) delivered the most consistently entertaining in-ring product perhaps in the history of the industry. I never ordered a ECW PPV that didn't leave me fully satisfied.

 

[The Idiot]

ECW always seemed like a cult to me...like they were an army of one. The promotor, the wrestlers, managers, fans...and everything they did... their one purpose was to show the world that they were better because they were extreme/tough guys. It always felt like that came first...and the actual feuds with one another in the organization came second. (Which is the main reason to actually watch the show, right?)

The audience in those small arenas was like nothing I had ever seen.
A lot of the things they did left me scratching my head...but then again so did WWF and WCW. Some things were hard to be taken seriously...Tazz for one, lol.

Overall...I actually enjoyed ECW. They were big in the late 90's which was my high school years...so the sex, violence and profanity was something that fit, for me, at the time.

 

[GameUniverse]

ECW was amazing back in the day... I remember watching their syndicated tv show at 1am on our local Spanish channel in Boston. The wrestling was so different and exciting. It felt like you were part of something.... Going to a house show with 500-1000 people going absolutely crazy was amazing. The wrestlers were always super accessible and I ran in to them before and after shows and it was like a family. They gave 110% all the time and it showed. If I could ever explain to you the atmosphere of being at one of those events live it was a million times the electric then when the Rock would come out at Raw. You missed out....

 

[Vincent Michaels]

I never saw any of the original ECW, but DVDs like The Rise and Fall of ECW and ECW Blood Sport truly have showed me some of what ECW meant to wrestling and the legacy it has left behind. Recently however I have found a ton of old ECW Fan Cam shows and PPVs on DVD and I can't wait to get them to get a REAL view of what ECW was actually like.

 

[PsYcho]

Ah yes.....the original E-C-F'n W!!!!!!

In 1996, I entered the work force as a bag clerk at a local supermarket: a 16 year old kid with my first job. This is relevant, I promise.

During slow periods, my friends and I would thumb through magazines and I would ALWAYS go for the latest copy of PWI: which is where I discovered ECW.
After a few months and with its cult fan base growing, our local Fox affiliate started airing ECW Hardcore TV through syndication. Every saturday night, I would stay up until 4 am to catch the latest episode and see the likes of Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, and my all time favorite, Shane Douglas!

I also caught most of the PPV events throughout the late 90's and in my opinion, Barely Legal was the best one, but when ECW gained a weekly network show on TNN (now Spike TV) I hardly watched it anymore. By now, most of the guys I actually liked had jumped ship to either WCW or WWF and with the exception of The Dudleys, they were usually buried deep in the lower to mid card.

Shane Douglas had some of the best mike skills in wrestling history and was never given a chance to shine in either of the "Big 2" and The Dudleys, although they were successful, were just a watered down version of their ECW selves.

 

[Tech N9ne]

It was definitely an alternative to WWF and WCW. Heyman really went balls out...

I agree, there were things that were so awesome it was ridiculous. Then there were things that were just shit.

The same goes with their talent. There were guys that were unbelievable and guys that were shit.

For me, Rob Van Dam is what did it for me. I liked a lot of other guys and respected most of them for what they did. But RVD was like nothing I had seen. The kicks and chairs and frog splashes and flips and turns. That isn't even including the balcony moves.

Van Daminator, Van Terminator etc... He was just doing it all. RVD is not what he used to be to me, but I will always have a soft spot for him. I thought he was the future of wrestling back then. I don't know if I will ever look at a wrestler like I did RVD then. He was so innovative and crazy.

I would watch ECW as much as I could in those days, about 90% of the reason, was The Whole... Fuckin'... Show!

 

[byrnside]

I think I can say I appreciated ECW for what it was. Honestly, at first, I thought ECW was an upstart promotion started by ex-WWF wrestlers that were pissed off they couldn't make it in the big time. In some respects that was true, until I looked a little further.

The first pay per view I saw was Wrestlepalooza '98 which ironically was taking place in my home town of Marietta, GA. At the time the internet wrestling scene was starting to burst and that was how I first heard of the promotion. So after a few months of reading and imagining like The Brain, I finally broke down and dropped the $15 for the Pay Per View to see what it was all about. To me, at the start of the Attitude Era, it had so much more than what the WWF [and especially WCW] was offering. Also, I was 12, so the actual art of wrestling was all but lost on me. I was just coming into my own in the realization of why I actually liked certain wrestlers versus the others.

From OnlineWorldofWrestling.com:

Wrestlepalooza '98.

The Blue Meanie & Super Nova b The FBI (Little Guido & Tracy Smothers), Justin Credible b Mikey Whipwreck, Chris Candido & Lance Storm b Balls Mahoney & Axl Rotten, Bam Bam Bigelow b New Jack, Tommy Dreamer & Sandman b The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray & DVon), Rob Van Dam vs Sabu ended in a 30-minute draw (RVD retains the Television title), Shane Douglas b Al Snow to retain the ECW World Heavyweight title..

Overall, for my first show, this was a pretty intense card that introduced me to most, if not all, of the major ECW players at the time, there was a solid mix of hardcore action and actual wrestling throughout the pay per view. From then on I kept up with ECW through the internet, buying pay per views every now and then, and eventually they signed a deal and were broadcast on TNN so I could watch them every week. Unfortunately I came along after the infamous Raven/Tommy Dreamer feud and a few others that more than likely put ECW on the map. A few of the main things that kept me tuned into ECW aside from the wrestling and action itself was the carefree way they did things. The ex-WWF and WCW competitors weren't afraid to talk about hating their former bosses or guys they thought pushed them out of their respective companies. One thing that stands out from the pay per view was a promo that Shane Douglas did. He actually said "Fuck!" at one point. I was shocked. I was excited. I was hooked. WCW and the WWF were not offering anything like that, so I kept watching. But sometime during '99 their talent pool severely suffered and dwindled so I began to lose interest.