How ECW Changed Professional Wrestling, Ahem, Sports-Entertainment.

ECW.
Those three letters meant that some of the most outrageous material ever filmed in the realm of professional wrestling was about to take place.
Although there could be a backstory to all this hubbub, instead I am giving you a DVD to watch and a book to read.
The Rise + Fall of ECW, #3 on my list of the best DVDs WWE ever made, is a three hour tour-de-force of the history of the company. Of all the documentaries that Vince and company made, this was the best one, and that is saying something. All of the major players are interviewed, and all the major events (both in and out of the ring) are covered. Heck, it even has that “Mature Audiences Only” screen because for PPV, the documentary was rated TV-MA!

As for the book, it’s a gem entitled Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of ECW. Authored by Scott E. Williams, this feels like a research project that went beyond the normal “tall tales”. It’s a book that of all the tomes published about ECW, this one tells the best story, with minimal sensationalist/revisionist history (not like WWE).
ECW, as noted earlier, was practically synonymous for creating controversial material. Their way of doing business in the ring would be so influential that the big leagues took notice. It also inadvertently was the heart of the Monday Night War.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at some different ways ECW changed the game.

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The Talent
Extreme Championship Wrestling wasn’t tied down with corporate voodoo like a World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling.
Essentially, this meant that the small-time promotion in Philadelphia could take a bunch of chances.
One of these areas was hiring the talent that WWE/WCW wouldn’t normally bat an eye on.
For example, would WCW or WWE hire a man with as many visible scars as Sabu in 1994? I mean, look at the guy:

Terry Brunk, the man behind the alter-ego, is so tough he would fight you to the death. With his expertise being death matches of more varieties than Heinz, it’s no wonder this man could definitely be the face of a renegade promotion.
Another odd-looking superstar in ECW at this point definitely had to be Sandman.

Here’s a guy who looked like a regular Joe. A man who may very well have been at your workplace (minus beer and kendo stick of course). Hell, its been well-known this man wasn’t in the best of shape…EVER. Jim Fullington however became a fan favorite by being an ass-kicker who threw everything he had into his matches. This is a prime example of how ECW went against the status quo in choosing its talent.
In a cut against the grain, ECW also gave international superstars (not the WWE synonym for wrestler) a platform to go nuts.
Men like Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, amongst many others, were able to showcase their worldly abilities in front of rabid fans every week.

To those fans watching in attendance, it was as if  they were being christened the first amongst a new breed of wrestling fan.
The revelations were eye-opening to the point where Eric Bischoff, trying to find ways to beat WWE, did a ‘raid’ and hired all these men.
While ECW had the spotlight and the spirit, WCW had the lucrative contracts. Contracts equal $, and that dough was what wrestlers needed in order to provide for their families.
In addition to the ‘guarantee’, these newly termed ‘cruiserweights’ were one of the primary reasons why WCW got a leg up in the beginning of the Monday Night War. Their platform the big league provided would be miniscule in comparison, and due to politics, most would never advance in the company.   

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The Gimmicks
When ECW was first starting to gain popularity in the underground, mainstream WWE and WCW had garbage on the tubes.
Playing to the “kid-friendly” demographic, there were Ding Dongs, plumbers, race car drivers, “evil foreigners”, etc. The gimmicks were what drove the wrestling at the time, and the gimmicks were what drove the ratings down.
ECW had gimmicks, there’s no denying that, but the tools at their disposal were much different than their upper-class brethren.
Sure, there was a rapping tag team who put opponents through tables.

Sure there was a legitimate bounty hunter on the loose, and whose theme music would play during the whole duration of the contest.

Sure there was a man chugging beer with the audience, while smacking himself in the head with said can of suds.

Yes I know this was from ONS in 2005, but dammit this is too awesome to ignore!

Sure there was a man who was referred to as, “Homicidal, Suicidal, (&) Genocidal”, and would cause physical harm to himself in order to get his point across.

BTW, this match took place on exactly my eighth birthday!

There was a bigger meaning to all this.
The hint was that those men behind the characters were just playing as themselves.
ECW didn’t have a creative team or script writers, so what appeared in the ring was what you got. WWE and WCW may not have had much in terms of creative either, but they did give their characters strict guidelines to follow, and thus it became apparent those gimmicks wouldn’t be (for the most part) very entertaining.
In 1997, WWE ushered in it’s “Attitude Era”. Although there could be several distinct points used in describing when it started, one could use Shawn Michaels’ “Blaze of Glory” promo as a big example. Shawn, full-on Degenerate at this point in his career, came down to the ring to do an interview segment with Jim Ross. Only Shawn though was sporting biker shorts with a tube of gauze exposing his, um, junk.

Making a near mockery of the interview, Shawn went to the back only to get his ass chewed out by Vince McMahon. This should have cost HBK about $10,000. In a weird swerve of fate, Vince reneged the fine, stating that he needed to go ‘there’ in order to compete against WCW. This allowed the WWE superstars to act more like themselves, and therefore added a spark of perceived originality to the product.
ECW could be given credit for starting a revolution for how characters were conceived in wrestling. In this instance, they may have not been a direct cause to the change of direction, but inspirational they sure were. Hell, Paul Heyman was on WWE’s payroll at the time!
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THE STORYLINES
For every “Austin vs. McMahon”, there was about twenty cases (or more) of “Jean-Pierre-Lafitte stole Bret Hart’s jacket.”
WWE and WCW in the mid-1990’s were throwing proverbial crap at the figurative wall trying to see what stuck. At this point in time, the gimmicks were corny and the audience was being driven away. Keep in mind there were corporate masters to please, and gates to meet.
Enter in ECW.
There was a creative freedom in this small promotion not experienced in either of the big-named companies.
Not only could the men play as themselves, but the storylines concocted were as edgy/dark as stories could get.
For example, there was an angle about Tommy Dreamer blinding the Sandman. At the time, it was controversial for two reasons. One, it featured both good guys and bad guys caring about this one person, the one being Sandman. That was considered taboo, and almost a break of kayfabe. Two, the man behind Sandman (Jim Fullington) stayed true to the angle to the point where he didn’t leave his house during the duration of the sit-out!

There was also an angle revolving around Sandman’s family, whose love and affection for him were deserted in favor of the dastardly Raven. Again, it was one of those angles that WWE and WCW at the time wouldn’t touch with a broken stick. It wasn’t even that it was so dark and edgy, but the angle had legitimate emotion from not only the actors involved, but the paying people in the audience too. This was considered radical, and in the later years, the big guys would try their hand at heavy-hearted storylines.

While again the change may not be 100% linked to ECW, it should be noted they were the first to do so.
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THE MATCHES
In addition to unique gimmicks and edgier storylines, ECW changed the perception of how a match should be as well.
For example, did anyone notice that later on in WCW and WWE that wrestlers took a lot more chances than they did previously?
That’s because ECW made it cool.
As time went on in ECW, the “regulars” at the ECW Arena knew what to expect from the wrestlers.
So the wrestlers of course had to keep changing it up.
Whether it was a new spot, or a new move altogether, one of the best things about ECW was how there weren’t many boundaries on how a match was performed.
Instead of having a flow of “x does this” and “y does that”, it was more like, “THIS IS AWESOME,” and, “YOU FUCKED UP!”
That’s right. In addition to your normal heat segments and ‘hulking up’, the smarks in attendance will notice how well the wrestlers work each other. If a match’s flow is consistent and fluid, then the fans will be positive. Have a rookie in there who botches a few segments, then bring out the tar and feathers!
Since WCW and WWE saved the big moments for their bigger events (i.e: PPV’s), ECW always gave their faithful more than their fair share. Whether it was a high spot, a convoluted technical spot, or even when the bad guy gets his, ECW fans react to everything that goes on.
Sure enough, the major leagues caught on to this, and their matches starting taking more risks. The crowds weren’t as vocally rambunctious, but they did voice their opine.

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CONCLUSION: As wrestling stagnated in the mid-1990’s, there was a promotion that shook the foundation the ‘extreme’ way.
Extreme Championship Wrestling ushered in what many of us took for granted today.
With a diverse talent pool, fresh gimmicks, edgy storylines, and a whole new way to view matches, ECW’s philosophy of accentuating the positives while hiding the negatives would eventually bring radical change in the mainstream companies of WCW and WWE.
These changes would be a major part in the ‘Monday Night War’’. The highest ratings, the highest crowd participation, and the most accelerated change, all happened because one company wanted to out-do the other.
In the background lied a company whose innovations and ideals would change the very landscape of sports entertainment forever. The one whose ideas would trickle down, and inspire the higher-up companies to follow in their path.
It would be unfair to say ECW was the direct cause of edgier programming, but it is fair to say ECW was definitely an inspirational tool for it. Between talent raids and creative liberties, ECW could also be known as the first victim of the Monday Night War.

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Viva La Raza: The Eddie Guerrero Tribute Post (10th Anniversary Edition)

On that blustery Sunday afternoon of November the 13th 2005, I was helping my Dad doing what he does best: patch up an automobile.

While I forgot what he was fixing, what happened next I’ll never forget.

My Mom, who was never a fan of sports-entertainment, came rushing out to the porch yelling for me to come inside.

So she told me a wrestler had died, and I was thinking to myself who could it have been? Surely there was a legend, whose years were most likely behind him, who had a short illness and passed on. Maybe even an afterthought on television shows like most jobbers. Tried to downplay this as much as I could.

Until I saw on the computer screen from WWE.com that said, “Eddie Guerrero 1967-2005”.

I broke down and cried.

Amongst the very first times I’ve teared up for something to do with wrestling, it had to do with a performer whose presence was more than welcome on my television screen.
As for my markdom of Eddie so to speak, it has to go all the way back to the first episode of RAW I ever watched back in 2002.

The Rock was making fun of Eddie Guerrero like only The Rock can. “Viva la viva Eddie Guerrero!” It was one of those epic rips I know for sure was a laugh riot then, still is now. It was one of things where surely now it would be a generic-character bad guy being in the Guerrero role, but Guerrero is Latino mothereffin’ Heat y’all, and therefore he looked as good as the competition!

His singular biggest impact on me though would come a few months after that spat with Rocky.

After a months-long feud with Edge, the two combatants were set to square off on SMACKDOWN in a feud-ending No Disqualification match. While the acting was pretty much straight-forward wrestling until the commercial break, the contest post-break was brawling and weapon chicanery to the max!

Edge and Eddie took equal abuse. Whether it’d be a sunset-flip powerbomb or a helo (sorry for my spelling) onto the ladder, both men had the grimaced look of grizzled warriors. The climatic finish saw Edge use his patented Edgecution on Eddie... FROM THE TOP OF A GOD DAMNED LADDER! That’s right, Eddie’s face met nothing but canvas and ate a three count for his troubles. Bloodied from a legitimate cut, Eddie would get a thunderous ovation for his hard work. A bad guy getting applause for his efforts? Another feather in Eddie's cap on his talents. 

For the next year, Eddie would not only turn face, but team up with beloved nephew Chavo on a hellacious run of “Los Guerreros”. The only thing more epic than their matches, and there was quite a few of them, was their vignettes based on the motto of “Lying, Cheating, and Stealing.” Baby bottles and dance parties were amongst the topics not spared for this “dastardly duo”, who seriously had some heel-like attitudes in a face situation. 

No Way Out 2004 though would see Eddie receive his biggest triumph: the WWE Championship. After Frog-Splashing Brock Lesnar (who was taken out by Goldberg), Eddie ran into the crowd where his legitimate family was sitting ringside. Later-shown backstage camera footage saw the locker room pay respect to the veteran, who certainly had a long road before getting the belt.

Long story short, the long road consisted of kicking drug and alcohol habits that should have destroyed him, but didn’t. Eddie turned his life around. He found his savior in Jesus Christ and renewed his vows to beloved wife Vickie. 

2004-2005 would see a character change as Eddie turned heel on friend Rey Mysterio. Bringing in “bastard children” and even Vickie as a rookie WWE on-screen character, the feud was silly, but had tons of great matches in them. Despite all of that, Eddie’s character remained red hot with the fans.

Along this time, Eddie was showing signs of another face turn when he and Batista, then-champion, were tagging and showing respect to one another. They were even going to be on the same team at the Survivor Series, taking on team RAW with Shawn Michaels as the captain.

Eddie’s last appearance on TV saw him beat Mr. Kennedy by DQ, but then get BLASTED in the head with a chair.

Cut back to that Sunday afternoon.

There was a Supershow going to be taped anyway for RAW and SMACKDOWN, but instead of pushing Survivor Series, it became a Eddie Guerrero Tribute. A move people expected, but was appreciated given the circumstances.

Four of the most emotional hours of television ensued. The lines of faces and heels were cast aside as men took each other on in friendly matchups, while others were nowhere near consolable on the matter. Like Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit for example, two long-time friends on the road. You know shit's going down when Rey Mysterio takes off his mask! Speaking of Mysterio, one of the sadder pieces of imagery was the opening to that RAW when they had everyone stand in silence for the bell toll, and fans/wrestlers alike where pretty much stone-cold in their appearance. Rey, having Shawn hold him, looked like a child mourning for his father, and became the most sympathetic person right then and there. Keep in mind Shawn kicked Rey’s head off in one of the best matches of the year, but the two hugged it out like brothers post-match.

Eddie’s autobiography is one of the saddest things ever read too, because of the realization that sets in after closing the final page. If you want to see what I’m talking about, you can order the book here. Literally, the book was released so close after Eddie’s death (very accidentally, that date was chosen for months), that the literary irony doesn’t enter a subconscious until you really think deep down.

For one of the most bizarre analogies ever written, Eddie Guerrero is like Dale Earnhardt. Like Dale’s death in that 2001 Daytona 500 spurred the evolution of safety, Eddie’s death spurred the evolution of health/drug testing. The Wellness Policy, instituted by WWE in early 2006, has not only tested superstar for illegal drug use, but also for medical conditions either pre-existing or not-known. For example, MVP had a heart condition not known about until a Wellness test, and as a result, he got a life-saving pacemaker.

Even ten years on, it hurts as much as it did now as it did then. Eddie is one of the most unique men in wrestling history. While short in stature, he was not short in every other conceivable nature. The skills, persona, charisma, you name it, were in a stratosphere hardly contained by a wrestling ring. In a era now where a ton of new wrestling talent seem to look and sound the same, Eddie was someone who can be looked at as an original.

I have no real ending for this, so with tears welling up yet again, “Thank You Eddie!” 

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