"The Magic of ECW"....revisited.

***Writer's note*** I originally wrote this and printed it in middle May 2005, and since ECW has made a comeback (in name only, seemingly); I thought I'd bring back out what many have called the best article I've written to date and one that I am also admittedly very proud of. I had some wonderful emails at the time from people and wrestlers who worked for ECW about this article, and to re-print it seems very relevant today with the current mess that things are in. Sit down, relive the past with me, and remember how ECW was genuinely 'politically incorrect.....and damn proud of it!'.......

How can the exploits of people in one average, rundown even, bingo hall in Philadelphia; touch the lives and affect so many thousands and millions of professional wrestling fans? How can something that started so small and normally, have gone on to truly change the entire face of a sport? How can a company now sadly defunct, still live on in the hearts of so many people today? How can three letters mean just SO much? This….. is the magic of ECW.

Starting off as the Tri State Wrestling Alliance, and then becoming Eastern Championship Wrestling; it all began quietly in Philadelphia. You had to believe they weren’t turning much profit in those days, but it made for an entertaining read in the magazines all the same. Names and legends such as Jimmy Snuka and Abdullah The Butcher, Kevin Sullivan and DC Drake, and many more could be found on the shows. Local talent such as Larry Winters, The Sandman, JT Smith, and more; would give a local feel to the events. And it was a wrestling promotion with a hardcore feel, before the word was used, abused; and possibly even said far too often, that it could even lose it’s meaning. But never forget where it was first coined as a description. This….. is the magic of ECW.

Back in 1993, there was a phenomenon. It’s name? Sabu. Homicidal, Genocidal, and Suicidal – no table was safe. I acquired Japanese video footage that left me speechless at the time, of Sabu in FMW; and was just amazed. Remember that kayfabe, god bless it’s soul as it is sadly missed today in some respects; was still alive at this point. And I was utterly convinced that this guy was the real deal. I had plenty of people who hated wrestling, who were sick of the WWF’s product; believe that Sabu was like a second coming and would beg to borrow my video tapes. ECW had brought him to the dance, in the USA; back in the Tri State Wrestling Alliance he had had matches of some note but no huge significance. Yet put this FMW footage onto television to hype his appearances, and the impression was given that ECW had managed to bring someone and something truly special to their show. They would do it many times over with lesser names and talents, but possibly never more so than with Sabu. This…..is the magic of ECW.

If you said the word cruiserweight back in 1993, 1994 time; people would have looked at you blankly. The term Junior Heavyweight? Not known. Only one promotion was brave enough to take the talents of Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Too Cold Scorpio, and more; and let them take a centre stage – with a huge pay off in match quality. Matches of the kind given from these names, are still heavily sought after by people. Want to know where WCW took the ideas that gave them a decent start to their shows, and a strong undercard; even when the main events were sadly lacking in anything of interest? Look to this period in ECW. Eric Bischoff and WCW, for their sins; knew something groundbreaking was happening. I don't think you can truly accuse Guerrero and company of selling out ECW to go to where the money was – what they did was take their incredible style onto an even bigger stage and revolutionise the wrestling scene you know today. And who gave them this chance in the first place, to prove themselves to the world? This….is the magic of ECW.

Hardcore. Who pushed the envelope further for arena wide brawls, crazy foreign objects, blood and swearing; and actually went so far as to embrace this element of professional wrestling fan that many companies had hoped to sweep away under the carpet and pretend didn’t exist? Ian and Axl Rotten tore up ECW with feuds and match stipulations that quite simply, hadn’t been done and that many would never have dared to consider doing. The Sandman, brought his cigarettes and beer to the ring like it was perfectly natural to do so. Tommy Dreamer, and his insane quest to go from hated babyface to respected by the notoriously hard to please Philly fans. Where else could such a seemingly one sided feud as Dreamer vs Raven have had such power and atmosphere to it? Mick Foley, and those barbed wire no rope matches. Only ECW had the audacity and the proverbial ‘testicular fortitude’ to book matches of such differing styles on the same show. They believed wrestling fans could appreciate more than one approach to wrestling, and didn’t underestimate the intelligence of fans. So you think ECW was just violence? Well, if you want to look that stupid, go ahead. ECW realised if you stick to one style alone, you can be pigeonholed under a particular label; and burnout in content and in fan interest is never too far from that moment. Such thinking would make them the most talked about independent promotion of their time. This….is the magic of ECW.

Shoot comments, insider terms, and making it appear that things weren’t meant to happen or to be said. Now, to many, this was a bad move and exposed the wrestling business to people it shouldn’t have been giving itself away to. And I can see that belief. But, for the kind of viewer it was meant to be aimed at; ECW did this perfectly. Little things, like the dropping of a worker’s real name; made all the difference. And they did it cleverly, there was no ‘this wasn’t supposed to happen’, they didn’t play it as if someone had gone against the script as such. They just knew how to go about it, not to focus fully on it; but for those who were meant to get it – they got it. They did it tactfully, they did it cleverly. Just like those of us who believe that sarcasm is not the lowest form of wit, but a finely tuned art form. WCW tried this, and sadly failed miserably; with results that just don’t bear speaking of; because it wasn’t their way. ECW were able to do this, because they knew how to play the game that they’d invented. Joey Styles would be prone to pointing out that ‘you can see it on a Monday night, but if it isn’t here then it’s just not extreme’. And boy, was he ever right! This….is the magic of ECW.

That ‘bingo hall attitude’. If they could have bottled it, Vince McMahon would have bought the source there and then, and paid out whatever it took to take and understand what made ECW’s heart beat. But what VKM never understood, is that it was a spirit, a belief, an attiude shared by the wrestlers, by the fans; it was just something that the product brought out in you. You wanted to wear the ECW t-shirt like a badge of pride, no matter where you were from or where you were. No-one felt that way about the WWF/E, and Vince knew it. And no matter what he did, WWF Attitude and so on; he couldn’t change that. The ‘Stone Cold’ part of Steve Austin’s character, look to The Sandman for the blueprints. And that’s just one example, you could literally draw a hundred comparisons of how ECW had originated something; only for a watered down imitation of sorts to parody it, virtually. To some, it insulted ECW and they hated the mainstream for it. To more, it just made them love ECW more; because they knew that if they wanted to see this kind of thing at it’s purest, ECW was theirs. And some of us? Well, some of us knew that imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery, and it was a big sign that ECW had made it’s mark on professional wrestling; and that maybe this was ECW’s biggest step to date. This….is the magic of ECW.

Rob Van Dam. Taz. The Dudley Boyz. Tajiri. Raven. Lance Storm. Chris Jericho. So many names of today, and many more, who made their name with ECW. Paul Heyman had, and I would imagine even under WWE shackles, still does have; an amazing eye for a wrestler’s abilities. Most times, you felt he KNEW a wrestler’s place on the show; but if they showed the ability to move upwards and onwards – he was never afraid to accept this and would move them to where they deserved to be on the card, unlike the stale ‘wait your turn, and if you’re lucky; one day’ mentality of the WWE. You could see a jobber, and you could see a main event worker – but you knew who they were. Paul Heyman knew how to even make the guys who were never going to become household names mean something to the fans, like JT Smith; and he knew how to take people who were more vocally gifted than talented, like Shane Douglas – and make them credible. Speaking of credible, who else could have took a man who’d prior to ECW had to work as Aldo Montoya, the Portugese Man ‘O’ War, and turn him into Justin Credible; and have him taken seriously again? Who else could have seen Scott Levy, the proverbial comedy heel, and give him the full opportunity to evolve into the mysterious Raven? What other promotion would have let The Blue Meanie and the BWO become far fresher and entertaining than the gimmick that they parodied? This….is the magic of ECW.

Music. Raven came out to music by Offspring. Bands such as White Zombie, and Limp Bizkit, and many more; would become truly popular and loved by wrestling fans because of the knowledge of Heyman of what his audience was into. He knew making theme songs with session musicians wasn’t going to do it. He knew generic rip off’s of known tunes weren’t going to get attention for his wrestlers. To make an impression, you need a song that fits your personality and character. Just look to the Public Enemy and the song ‘Here Comes The Hotstepper’, for what a wrestler’s theme song can truly be – or The Sandman’s use of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ and countless cans of beer. Or how the entire ECW audience would sing wholeheartedly with RVD’s theme song ‘Walk’, by Pantera. They knew that to truly get the fan to emotionally invest in a wrestler, they had to feel some kind of attachment to them – be it similarity, or that they wished they were ‘cool’ or could behave in this manner. This….is the magic of ECW.

Let’s not focus on how ECW went out of business. Let’s look at how, twelve years or so from it’s inception; even with ECW, WCW, and more out of business – you can still see ECW’s fingerprints all over professional wrestling. Three simple letters, that sum up a generation of fans, and writers, and wrestlers. Three simple letters, that unless you followed from the beginning; I must admit I personally don’t believe you can truly understand the meaning of. A promotion that broke the rules, and changed the way the business worked from there on in. To the uninitiated, they were offensive; but to the people who understood it, they were groundbreaking. They were ‘politically incorrect….and damn proud of it’, which is still something I like to be myself to this day to be perfectly honest. ECW will never be imitated truly, it will never be recreated properly sadly, it will live in history for all the right reasons. And it will always be missed, and always be loved. And there will always be a little bit of the ‘bingo hall attitude’ in all of us who truly believed. You can be in Philly, you can be in Japan, or you can be like me in England doing a manager gimmick that many on a regular basis feel the urge to compare to Paul Heyman himself – but something that could touch that many people in a way that can’t truly be explained – could never be forgotten, and never will be. This….is the magic of ECW.

"The Internet Icon"
Peter Staniforth
www.peterstaniforth.co.uk

Peter is a UK professional wrestling manager, and currently taking independent bookings - please contact at this email address for more details.

Peter is also a sports, computer games, and music journalist, currently writing on the following websites - www.pwbts.com, www.wrestlingclothesline.com, www.prowrestlingdaily.com, http://www.warned.net/, www.jimmyvan.com, www.twnpnews.com, www.mikels.cjb.net, is the exclusive WWE writer for www.ukevents.net, and also writes for UK newsletter "Piledriver".

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Peter has written for Bill Apter's "Total Wrestling" magazine, the well respected US based newsletter "Wrestling Then and Now", www.kayfabememories.com, and has also written press releases for the UK's WWE Euro Shop merchandise company. He was also mentioned on the credits of the cult wrestling simulation game by Adam Ryland - EWR 4.2.

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