How many of you watched ECW during its run

[Bad News Gertner]

I don't mean through the Network or WWECW. I mean through 92-2001. I've always got the sense that not alot of people here watched it

What were your impressions of it? Who were your favourites/wrestlers you hated. When did you start watching and did you ever stop watching? Ever attend a show?

I started watching around late 96/early 97, so at the peak of the company. My favourite wrestlers there were RVD, Sandman and Dreamer. Shane Douglas is my least favourite wrestler of all time. Justin Credible was the last wrestler I truly despised, especially during his feud with Dreamer . Lol I was so happy when Dreamer won the belt, and then a few minutes later that bitch Justin Credible won it and I was pissed.

I attended their only show in Canada which was August 2000. Main event was a Trippe threat match between Credible, Jerry Lynn and Steve Corino.

My guilty pleasure wrestlers were Simon Diamond and his entourage. Mitch the Bitch fucking killed me lol

[Savio]

I tried to get into when it was on TNN but I saw a "baldies" segment and got turned off from it.

[Bad News Gertner]

Yeah the Baldies were pretty bad lol

[Bad News Gertner]

They fought Balls and Chilly Willy at the show I went to in a boring brawl. The brawls through the crowd aren't remotely interesting when you're there live and they aren't in your section

[Lock Jaw]

I saw some pieces on TNN, and I had 1 VHS tape that I don't think I ever finished watching the whole way through.

It just seemed like not my type of thing. Too much profanity and "edgy" material for my sensibilities.

[Savio]

I just remember a backstage segment by them and thinking "this is really corny". Hard to find any thing of theirs on youtube, no wikipedia page either.

Juan used to put ECW up on Justin.tv some long cage match brawl and I thought it was boring.

[Lock Jaw]

I saw some pieces on TNN, and I had 1 VHS tape that I don't think I ever finished watching the whole way through.

It just seemed like not my type of thing. Too much profanity and "edgy" material for my sensibilities.

The only match I remember being on the VHS was some sort of "Broken Glass Match" where they put their hands in glue and then in broken glass

[Boondock Saint]

Would randomly stumble upon Hardcore TV every once in a while, usually on around 1 am, on some random local channel. But didn't really know what was going on.

Tried to watch it weekly on TNN as much as I could. Didn't care enough to go out of my way and tape it, though.

[Bad News Gertner]

The only match I remember being on the VHS was some sort of "Broken Glass Match" where they put their hands in glue and then in broken glass

Taipei Death Match

[Bad News Gertner]

Would randomly stumble upon Hardcore TV every once in a while, usually on around 1 am, on some random local channel. But didn't really know what was going on.

Tried to watch it weekly on TNN as much as I could. Didn't care enough to go out of my way and tape it, though.


I taped Hardcore TV every week from like 97 till it ended. I missed 95-96 which was their best years

[xrodmuc316]

It was very hard to watch outside of Philly/New York. Had to have a satellite vs cable just to get the weekly show. I caught what I could over a few different friends houses who had satellites.

Mostly though it was tape trading and PPVs only. Luckily ECW was great at recapping a lot of what happened quickly, so you never fell too far behind missing 2 or 3 weeks.

Saw ECW live once, and it was a awesome show. Just pure chaos.

The Dudleys were everything, they had start a riot heat in ECW. Taz was there, didn't have a match but showed up in the crowd and cut an amazing f bomb filled promo.

They were my ECW faves, along with RVD and Al Snow

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

97-2001. Don't think we got it in Mass until around then on the Spanish channel WOOSTER/BOSTON!

Saw them live at the Palladium in Worcester around 2000 or so.

Saw ECWWE when it still had a lot of the originals in 2006 at a small community college gym.

[RP]

I caught the back end of it. I liked it. I wish i would have been a fan from the beginning. But in hindsight. There were a lot of future racist, antifa motherfuckers in those crowds. I think Heyman got out of that shit when he needed to.

[Triple A]

Hardcore TV was on like Friday nights at 1 AM here so I would watch it randomly sometimes, but didn't really get into it until like 1997 or 1998.

I went to like 5 or 6 shows. The most fun wrestling shows I've ever been to by far... Nothing else has ever come even close 2 the crowd atmosphere...

Favs were Sabu, Tajiri, Taz, RVD, Dudleys :-)

Feel like CW Anderson was freaking sweet and very underrated... Remember him almost always having a really great match

Never liked Shane Douglas and Justin Credible... Also tbh always kinda thought Tommy Dreamer was boring

[Fignuts]

Grew up in western NY, so I followed it religiously from like 96' til it ended.

Went to a few shows. Specifically remember seeing Taz vs RVD and Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka live.

Triple A is spot on. Atmosphere is unreal. Would be scary for a 16/17 year old kid like me if I weren't immediately caught up in the atmosphere and screaming my head off myself.

Only thing that has ever topped those shows was Wrestlemania X-8. And even then, just the Hogan vs Rock match.

Was legit terrified of Taz. Thought he would beat the shit out of me if I ever walked up to him.

[Fignuts]

I remember seeing USWA on some weird station once and thinking "this is shit" and never watching it again.

[Simple Fan]

Never watched ECW. Was mostly a WCW kid and didnt really switch to WWF until around 1999. Didn't k iw about WCW until WWE started putting out the DVDs. WCaw really didn't acknowledge ECW.

[Shisen Kopf]

I didnt watch that trash. Jerry Lawler was right. ECW stands for really crappy rasslin

[ClockShot]

When they got their primetime TV slot on TNN/SpikeTV, whatever it was back then, was when I watched.

It was amazing. Nothing out there that even came close to what it was.

[Nicky Fives]

I would have watched it as I loved reading about it in magazines as a kid, but I never had any access to it.

[Bad News Gertner]

I would have watched it as I loved reading about it in magazines as a kid, but I never had any access to it.

Oh wow, it didn't air in Toronto?

[Bad News Gertner]

Grew up in western NY, so I followed it religiously from like 96' til it ended.

Went to a few shows. Specifically remember seeing Taz vs RVD and Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka live.

Triple A is spot on. Atmosphere is unreal. Would be scary for a 16/17 year old kid like me if I weren't immediately caught up in the atmosphere and screaming my head off myself.

Only thing that has ever topped those shows was Wrestlemania X-8. And even then, just the Hogan vs Rock match.

Was legit terrified of Taz. Thought he would beat the shit out of me if I ever walked up to him.

My dad used to take my friend and I to WWF/WCW shows, and I remember him saying after the ECW show that he's never doing this again lol. It was probably the Sandman pouring beer on a chick's chest who couldn't have been 17 years old and licking it off in the middle of the ring

[Fignuts]

oh my god there were some of the rattiest ring rats I've ever seen at those shows.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

I very much enjoyed watching ECW back in the day. Loved the RVD/Jerry Lynn and Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka series. I appreciated the insanity of the New Jack and Sandman and Sabu types but never really huge fans. Loved Taz, Tajiri, Lance Storm, Shane Douglas. So great.

Also loved their super springy ring.

[Bad News Gertner]

Haha so true about the ring. I remember Roadkill Boss Man Slamming people and the two would just bounce off the impact

[Ultra Mantis]

I caught some of Hardcore TV very late in it's run, Scotty Anton vs RVD was the big feud that I can remember. Tony Mamaluke vs the floor was another hot feud. Rhino was just absolutely killing everyone in sight. Steve Corino bleeding a lot. Remember guys like Guido, Tajiri, Whipreck, Jerry Lynn being featured a lot. Doring and Roadkill and Chilly Willy too but never really got into those guys. I liked it a lot actually. Was a big fan of the backstage promo style, like these characters were just grabbing a camera and chatting shit, really added to the chaotic nature of the shows.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

Also shoutout to my boys Joey Styles and Joel Gertner.

[Jordan]

I tape traded and got a lot of ECW shows. Because they were so much more aggressive than WWF & WCW I loved it. Now not so much. I thought RVD and Jerry Lynn were amazing. I loved the triangle of Tajiri, Guido and Super Crazy, as well as Mike Awesome and Tanaka. Loved the four way with Scorpio, Jericho, Pitbull and Douglas... liked seeing Funk and Foley work together... loved Sabu, Born to be Wired... Joey Styles was the glue that held it all together for me. Loved Dreamer too. Started watching when they went on TNN weekly because I never got Hardcore TV where I lived. The first time I saw ECW was hardcore TV on my grandparents direct tv. I never remembered the channel so I only saw it once but I loved it. I remember a tag match with FBI vs Balls and Axle with a ton of color on FBI. Grandma didn’t get it. Then after that I saw the first episode of South Park air.

[Jordan]

Hardcore TV was on like Friday nights at 1 AM here so I would watch it randomly sometimes, but didn't really get into it until like 1997 or 1998.

I went to like 5 or 6 shows. The most fun wrestling shows I've ever been to by far... Nothing else has ever come even close 2 the crowd atmosphere...

Favs were Sabu, Tajiri, Taz, RVD, Dudleys :-)

Feel like CW Anderson was freaking sweet and very underrated... Remember him almost always having a really great match

Never liked Shane Douglas and Justin Credible... Also tbh always kinda thought Tommy Dreamer was boring

Always hated Justin Creadible but I didn’t mind him as The Impact aplayers with Storm. That was a good team.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

Oh dang totally forgot about the Tajiri/Super Crazy rivalry. That was so good.

[Jordan]

The thing I notice about ECW now is just how highly edited it was to make it work. If it weren't clipped it would have come off like a total shit show, and a lot of the times it came off that way anyway. I cannot remember ever ordering an ECW PPV that was actually fulfilling except Heatwave 98 and Anarchy Rules 99. ECW for me was all hype. I grew up with a kid who had a brother who worked indies and he worked some ECW shows as a job guy. The kid hyped ECW to me as this brutal style with barbed wire bats and the like. That is was gave me this impression that it was "better" than WWF or WCW. Going back when I watch old ECW I really can't stand it, it's quite obnoxious tbh.

When I got into hardcore wrestling I was probably like 11/12 years old and I stuck with it for maybe 4 or 5 years. I got the classic BJPW and FMW tapes with some of the first big time death matches. And the thing that always stuck out to me was the lack of drama. One there was no commentary or Japanese commentary so there was no story being told to me. It's just brutal spot long break and setup for the next one, and usually there was a botch or two in there.

I do wish though that Heyman would've gotten Mr. Pogo to do a program with New Jack though.

[Wehttam]

empire sports (rip) and sometimes msg would have it, late as fuck at night. and then they would come here for shows.

[Jordan]

Also want to comment on ECW's final year. It was really bad. They seemed to have a ton of steam with crowds, they were mostly full. They had a fan base no doubt. But all the stars were gone with only Dreamer, RVD, Lynn, Rhino, Sandman and Sabu to carry the ship which was being sunk by the pushes of Justin Creadible, Steve Corino and Cyrus. Corino had no business near the ECW Title.

Oh something good though, the Dreamer/CW Anderson matches were really good as far as I can remember. Especially the final PPV they had.

Funny enough that the death of ECW began with their biggest opportunity in debuting on TNN. The original episode was such a disappointment, just a recap episode. Sure they played one of the RVD/Lynn matches and it was great but at that time I NEEDED new fresh ECW programming and they killed it from the start.

[Jordan]

I guess I could talk about ECW all day tbh. One of the best things about ECW was the evolution of hardcore. From gross out Axle and Ian in a glass fist match, which is a spectacle of gore to say the least to Foley/Funk/Sandman/Sabu barbed wire matches and crowd brawls to the final and best form, Tanaka vs Awesome. In those matches you had like five moves, punches, lariats, chair shots, dives and powerbombs, and they were by far and large the best hardcore matches of all time in ECW. I do think that Foley is the greatest hardcore wrestler ever but mostly because of his work in WCW and WWF. The shit he did in the big leagues was even more brutal than the ECW/IWA/Big Japan stuff. But nothing was more realistic than Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka no selling chair shots and taking powerbombs out of the ring through tables. Man that series was good. Also they did better matches in ECW together than they did in FMW, probably because they had Joey Styles calling, and the ECW environment which ate it up like crazy.

[Jordan]

Nobody in ECW disappointed me more than The Sandman. I cannot remember ever feeling satisfied with any Sandman matches unless he was squashing someone. In particular I remember some tape trader selling November 2 Remember 97 to me as this amazing show with a crazy Tables and Ladders match between Sabu and Sandman. Truly one of the worst matches of all time. What a shit card that show was, I have no idea what Heyman was thinking with that one.

[Jordan]

Also without a doubt the best match in ECW history is the Psicosis vs Rey Misterio 2/3 Falls. You could say Dean and Eddie but that shit with Psicosis and Rey was ground breaking, ECW forever tried to recreate that match.

[Bad News Gertner]

Also want to comment on ECW's final year. It was really bad. They seemed to have a ton of steam with crowds, they were mostly full. They had a fan base no doubt. But all the stars were gone with only Dreamer, RVD, Lynn, Rhino, Sandman and Sabu to carry the ship which was being sunk by the pushes of Justin Creadible, Steve Corino and Cyrus. Corino had no business near the ECW Title.

Oh something good though, the Dreamer/CW Anderson matches were really good as far as I can remember. Especially the final PPV they had.

Funny enough that the death of ECW began with their biggest opportunity in debuting on TNN. The original episode was such a disappointment, just a recap episode. Sure they played one of the RVD/Lynn matches and it was great but at that time I NEEDED new fresh ECW programming and they killed it from the start.

2000 ECW was way better than 98-99 ECW imo

[Cool King]

It's funny that you've made a thread about this now Gertner, as only a few days ago I was thinking about the one time I watched ECW during its run.

My memory of it is a little hazy as I only watched it very briefly one random day when I stumbled across it when I was channel surfing.

I can't really remember the year but I'm guessing it was around 1998-ish and it was being shown on Bravo (a men's channel targeting 20-40 year olds) and I think I remember seeing Tommy Dreamer, Taz, Sabu and I think Rob Van Dam.

[Jordan]

2000 ECW was way better than 98-99 ECW imo

Oh man I think 98 is the best year by far. What do you like in 2000?

[Jordan]

Actually my first exposure to ECW aside from that conversation I had with that kid who had a brother that worked for ECW, was the ECW invasion of Raw in 97. I bought magazine's too so I knew who they were and I had the internet by that point too. ECW was all hype for me. Just something edgier and cooler than the dorky Vince McMahon and the redneck WCW.

[Bad News Gertner]

Oh man I think 98 is the best year by far. What do you like in 2000?

I like 96 the best. 2000 had the Credible, Corino and Lynn feud which i thought was really fun. They had great matches amoungst each other. Tajiri/Mikey /Sinister Minister vs FBI was a really great tag team feud. Rhino really coming into his own. CW Anderson really came along as well. Saw him vs RVD at the show I went to. Great match. Fresh talent like Hott Commodity, Christian York and Joey Matthews debuting.

[DaveWadding]

I had friends in middle school that followed ECW, so I always knew what was going on, but could never watch it until they were on TNN. Watched the TNN show and loved it.

[Maluco]

So many good memories of this. I though Raven was the coolest guy in the business at the time and RVD was an amazing character and his athleticism was amazing at the time.

Never really had time for the Dudleyz or Sabu for some reason. Just didn’t appeal to me. Was big into Taz, Mike Awesome and how emotional and high stakes they always made Dreamer and Terry Funk matches.

Obviously the 90’s was seedy and a dangerous time to be in the business, but ECW always seemed to make everything seem so important and relevant at a time when there were two giant companies and they shouldn’t have even had a chance.

It was a testament to all the creativity and booking that guys were much more then the sum of their parts and things meant a lot more than they should have.

[Vastardikai]

First ECW match I saw was Tommy Dreamer vs. Vampire Warrior. Same show had highlights from Sandman vs. Cactus Jack in a Barbed Wire Match. I liked Jack for years and thought I would check it out the next week. Said next week had highlights from one of the classics between Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero. I was almost done with wrestling at that point in my life, but Malenko and Guerrero was what got me back into it.

I remember a few things around that time...

1. I was late to the party as far as Raven's ECW debut. But he was such a different persona, I didn't realize he was the obnoxious heels Scotty Flamingo and Johnny Polo. It took me until his world title reign, when he cut this promo and did the obnoxious heel laugh with the vintage ECW post-match promo hairstyle (hairnet to hold the bloody gauze on their head). Also, while his matches fell into a lot of the tropes of what ECW represented, he had the best angles in all of wrestling at the time, with Dreamer and Sandman.
2. I remember the brief runs of Dr. Death, Terry Gordy, and I saw one of Austin's ECW matches.
3. Before there was WWE Sign Guy, there was ECW Sign Guy (who was parodied with Sign Guy Dudley). Before there was Frank the Clown, there was Hawaiian Shirt Guy and Faith No More Guy, who were at EVERY ECW event (and you'll see them at a few WWF shows in New York and Philly, as well) And they always seemed to be front row center of Hard Cam.
4. While the "Extreme" stuff had its point and is the stereotypical thing people paid to see, it was the actual Wrestling that impressed me. The Malenkos, the Guerreros, the Scorpios, the Douglas', the Candidos, and the Jerichos.

[Theo Dious]

Was never into it. My college roommate in 98-99 used to get his hands on some tapes and it looked like a bunch of clowns and not-good-enough-for-WWE guys. Also my roommate was a total douche so that didn't help.

[Loose Cannon]

Hardcore TV was on like Friday nights at 1 AM here so I would watch it randomly sometimes, but didn't really get into it until like 1997 or 1998.

I went to like 5 or 6 shows. The most fun wrestling shows I've ever been to by far... Nothing else has ever come even close 2 the crowd atmosphere...

Favs were Sabu, Tajiri, Taz, RVD, Dudleys :-)

Feel like CW Anderson was freaking sweet and very underrated... Remember him almost always having a really great match

Never liked Shane Douglas and Justin Credible... Also tbh always kinda thought Tommy Dreamer was boring


yeah it was on late as shit in Westchester but would watch it from time to time. D'von Dudley lived right up the road from me in an apartment and got to meet him once so i was into the Dudleys just because of that. I liked Impact Players and Raven as well.

I didn't even know about ECW until about 97 so i didn't get to see any of the stuff beforehand until really the Network starting airing them