Wednesday, June 17, 2009

F'N ECW

F'N ECW
by David Swan

Last Thursday marked the three year anniversary of the full time resurrection of Extreme Championship Wrestling and amazingly more than a quarter of a decade later, "hardcore" ECW fans are still crying about it. Well its time for this to come to an end, somebody has it say it, and I guess its going to be me... The new ECW is better than the old ECW!!!! I'll do you one better than that the majority of the old ECW SUCKED!

Now before all of the smart marks rise from their parent's basements to attack me, allow me to defend my opinion. ECW's Legacy is completely fueled my nostalgia. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, this isn't a new revelation, but it needs to be stated. Nostalgia causes our parents to claim that shows like "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners" were 'hilarious' and causes people from my generation to swear that "80's cartoons are better than the $hit on TV today". We live in a society driven by nostalgia... if you don't believe me look no further than the Hollywood Box Office. This summer alone the biggest films are ALL remakes of ideas from the 60's, 70's, & 80's... Star Trek, X-Men, Transformers, & G.I. Joe.

Now back to ECW, for anybody reading this that's not familiar with ECW, here is the very abridged version of the history of the company. ECW was founded in 1992 by Todd Gordon, and reached its most notoriety in the mid-late 90's under the leadership of Paul Heyman. In August 1994, a well timed publicity stunt helped ECW gain momentum as an "anti-establishment" wrestling company when Shane Douglas captured the NWA Championship and immediately threw it in the garbage and declared himself "ECW World Champion".

ECW established a rapid fan base and produced many ideas and stars that were "stolen" by WWE & WCW. Paul Heyman masterfully portrayed the WWE & WCW as nothing short of Satan & Lucifer and used that image to gain the support of wrestling fans and wrestlers alike. Heyman would repeatedly accuse Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff of raiding his talent roster, but the truth is that Heyman was WWE's payroll at the time and much of ECW was being funded by Vince McMahon. WWE and ECW even ran several "inter promotional" angles leading into ECW's break out year.

It been debated a million times as to what caused the fall of ECW, in my opinion the blame falls solely on the shoulders of Paul Heyman, but not for the reasons that others claim. In the end Paul made the mistake of forgetting that ECW was a "niche" product that appealed to a small percent of wrestling fans. ECW expanded way bigger than it should have, by the end of the 90's ECW was running monthly Pay Per Views, had a weekly prime time show on the TNN Network, had DVD deals, video games, and action figures. The problem was that while they had all these things, what they lacked was a fan base big enough to warrant them and before long the company crumbled around them.

On April 4, 2001, Paul Heyman officially closed the company and declared bankruptcy. Vince McMahon then proceeded to buy the remain of the company from the courts, paying off the nearly 9 million dollars in dept that the company had acquired.

In 2005, WWE released a DVD documentary called "The Rise and Fall of ECW" the DVD was such a huge success (rumors have it that this DVD alone brought in more money than it cost WWE to buy ECW) that in June of 2005 held an ECW Reunion Show on Pay Per View. A year later, WWE re launched the company as the WWE's third brand.

By pretty much every bodies account the original launch of the WWE's ECW brand was a mess. WWE fans had little interest in seeing much of the old ECW talent and ECW fans automatically resented anything that wasn't from the original ECW. Eventually, WWE realized what Paul Heyman had forgotten five years earlier... that a world wide brand could not survive being marketed directly at a "niche crowd" and when WWE completely transformed ECW into a WWE style product the product FINALLY became watchable.

Its become trendy to bash the new ECW but I'm going to defend it.

FACT: ECW gives you the highest percentage of wrestling per show of any wrestling program on TV.

FACT: ECW has been the home of COUNTLESS new superstars that would have been welcomed into the old ECW with open arms: CM Punk, Evan Bourne, Tyson Kid, Kofi Kingston, John Morrison, and Elijah Burke to name a few.

FACT: ECW has been the home of many established stars that the "internet community" LOVES: Rob Van Dam, Chris Benoit, Matt Hardy, Chavo Guerrero, Fit Finley, Christian, Hurricane Helms, and others.

FACT: The new ECW has already produced more main event talent than the old ECW. Not one World Champion from the old ECW would ever go onto another World Title after leaving (and no TNA does not count in my book). Where as Rob Van Dam, CM Punk, Big Show, Mr. McMahon, & Kane have all held the ECW & WWE/World Championships.

FACT: Nearly one million more people watch "ECW on Sci Fi" every week than watched "ECW on TNN".

Back in the 90's, ECW was a proving ground for young talent. Countless future World Champions including: Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Rob Van Dam, Mick Foley, and Steve Austin all got their big breaks there. And that is one thing that hasn't changed, years from now we will look back at men like CM Punk, John Morrison, Kofi Kingston, The Hart Dynasty, Evan Bourne, and others and remember that they TOO got their first BIG breaks in ECW.

In closing, its time for people to realize that the ECW they remember is gone... its gone and no matter how many companies try to replicate it, you simply can't capture lightening twice. What stands before us now is a new ECW, an ECW that in many ways is far superior to its predecessor and if some people would give it a chance they might actually enjoy themselves.

7 comments:

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  4. This is a horribly written travesty of the horrible travesty that is internet blogging. I'll outline why.

    1. Your title is wrong. If you knew anything about ECW in its original form, you'd know it's ECF'NW, not F'N ECW. I have the t-shirt to prove it. Unless you're dyslexic or have some sort of unknown transpositional English disease, this lends no credence to whatever it is you're about to write.

    2. Even if your title was accurate, that credence would fly right out the window with your statement, "Well its time for this to come to an end, somebody has it say it, and I guess its going to be me...," as if you, of all people, would be the only qualified individual to end this discussion/debate/argument/whateverthefuckitis. First of all, somebody has already said all this. You're not the first. You won't be the last.

    3. "The new ECW is better than the old ECW!!!!" Anyone who uses more than one exclamation point is a fucking hack of a writer. I don't even care that it's an internet blog no one reads. Again, no credence. Now, while you're certainly entitled to your opinion, I feel it necessary to point out this, because I thought it was obvious but I guess it's not: The new ECW isn't Extreme Championship Wrestling. It's WWE ECW. There is a difference -- a huge difference. They're not even the same thing. Yes, they carry the same acronym. Whatever. I don't care. It's like comparing Army of Darkness to the first Evil Dead film. While considered a non-serial trilogy, the intent and content of the third film is vastly different by design than the first one. You absolutely cannot compare the two together as horror films, because the third film isn't a horror film -- it's a comedy. The same comparative logic applies to this old ECW vs. new ECW debate you've created in your mind. Plain and simple: Don't compare them.

    4. You suck.

    5. I'm not a smark, so let's disspell that notion right now. I don't watch much wrestling anymore. I don't get a boner over Ring of Honor. I don't watch TNA. I don't read dirtsheets. Wrestling died right along with WCW. Once the Monday Night Wars ended, wrestling, for all intents and purposes, has never been the same. And for the record, I always held the WWF/E product in higher regard, so I'm not a WCW mark either.

    6. Nostalgia is, absolutely, a powerful thing. Maybe the smartest thing you said in this entire piece. I'm glad you pointed out the Hollywood box office because, holy shit, I didn't realize all these remakes and reboots were happening. There's a new Star Trek movie out? No way!!!!!!!!!!

    7. It's Tod Gordon, with one 'd'. Just for that, I'll refer to you from here on out as Douche Bagg.

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  6. 8. The spelling, grammar and flow in this is terrible. My retarded uncle who drinks his own piss can make himself more clear and less choppy.

    9. Your opinion on why ECW failed is valid. Too bad it's not relevant to your argument, Douche Bagg.

    10. "...WWE re launched the company as the WWE's third brand." OK, first off, it's relaunched. Don't be afraid to combine prefixes with the words they prefix. Secondly, you call it WWE's third brand, which is accurate. What that means is it's a WWE product. See #3.

    11. "WWE fans had little interest in seeing much of the old ECW talent and ECW fans automatically resented anything that wasn't from the original ECW." Says who, you? I'm a WWE fan. And I'm an old ECW fan. I like them both. I had interest in seeing much of the old ECW, and I didn't automatically resent anything that wasn't from the original ECW. You're making shit up now to try to support the awfully shitty blog you're in the middle of writing. Again, Extreme Championship Wrestling and WWE ECW are different. You know that niche audience you keep referencing? They don't want WWE ECW. They don't like WWE ECW. Furthermore, the WWE niche audience -- they have one too -- don't want the old ECW. They don't like the old ECW. How can 13-year-old kids honestly appreciate the work of guys like Chris Benoit and 'Lionheart' Chris Jericho? Your mission, Douche Bagg, should you choose to accept it: Gather up 100 13-year-olds, pop in a tape of Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero in their last match in ECW, take notes and report back to me on how many of them gave that match a standing ovation when it was over.

    12. "...when WWE completely transformed ECW into a WWE style product the product FINALLY became watchable." That's it. That's when you stop comparing Extreme Championship Wrestling to WWE ECW.

    13. "FACT: ECW gives you the highest percentage of wrestling per show of any wrestling program on TV." This is false until you share the percentages on a per week basis for every weekly wrestling show on TV.

    "FACT: ECW has been the home of COUNTLESS new superstars that would have been welcomed into the old ECW with open arms: CM Punk, Evan Bourne, Tyson Kid, Kofi Kingston, John Morrison, and Elijah Burke to name a few." False. The old ECW didn't welcome new superstars. They welcomed new wrestlers.

    "FACT: ECW has been the home of many established stars that the 'internet community' LOVES: Rob Van Dam, Chris Benoit, Matt Hardy, Chavo Guerrero, Fit Finley, Christian, Hurricane Helms, and others." How does this make WWE ECW better? I don't see the correlation. So, the 'internet community' loves these guys and, therefore, WWE ECW rules everyone's nuts. I see.

    "FACT: The new ECW has already produced more main event talent than the old ECW. Not one World Champion from the old ECW would ever go onto another World Title after leaving (and no TNA does not count in my book). Where as Rob Van Dam, CM Punk, Big Show, Mr. McMahon, & Kane have all held the ECW & WWE/World Championships." How is this relevant? What the hell does Mr. McMahon have to do with the old ECW world title? Didn't Tommy Dreamer, a former ECW world champion, just win the ECW title again? Or does the new ECW title, like TNA, not count? Furthermore, CM Punk, Big Show, McMahon, Kane -- they weren't even in the old ECW. They're not relevant to this point. Shit, it's not even a point. It's a grasp at something in the air that, turns out, doesn't even exist.

    "FACT: Nearly one million more people watch 'ECW on Sci Fi' every week than watched 'ECW on TNN'." This is false until you provide ratings on a per week basis for both shows.

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  7. 14. "Back in the 90's, ECW was a proving ground for young talent. Countless future World Champions including: Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Rob Van Dam, Mick Foley, and Steve Austin all got their big breaks there. And that is one thing that hasn't changed, years from now we will look back at men like CM Punk, John Morrison, Kofi Kingston, The Hart Dynasty, Evan Bourne, and others and remember that they TOO got their first BIG breaks in ECW." Proving ground for young talent, check. Proving ground for guys who were outcasted by other promotions, check, but you should have mentioned that too. The guys you point out -- Punk, et al -- aren't getting their big breaks in ECW. They're getting their big breaks in WWE, on a WWE show that happens to bear the same acronym as a former wrestling promotion yet doesn't resemble it in any way, shape or form other than in acronym alone. It's a dumb statement, just one of many in this piece.

    15. "In closing, its time for people to realize that the ECW they remember is gone... its gone and no matter how many companies try to replicate it, you simply can't capture lightening twice. What stands before us now is a new ECW, an ECW that in many ways is far superior to its predecessor and if some people would give it a chance they might actually enjoy themselves." Look, I like that WWE is giving their young talent a chance to prove themselves on TV in front of a national audience. I dig that. But you'll never convince anyone it's far superior with what you just wrote. It lacks coherence, logic, proper spelling/punctuation/grammar and doesn't have any facts to support your opinion. The ECW I and many others remember is gone, yes. I'm glad you reminded me of that because, frankly, it must have slipped my mind the show on SciFi every week isn't the old ECW. This is not a new ECW. It never was. It's just a new WWE brand. Honestly, you should consider a career in waste management, that way you'd know where this blog belongs.

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