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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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s been a while since this ol’ mothership has been updated, and well, it’s almost (or already) 2012!

While the apocalypse may or may not happen in this upcoming year, let’s all reflect on 2011.

All the bad times, and all the good times.

While some of you may have had a really good year, and while some of you may have had a really bad year, my year was a combination of both.

For the first six months of 2011, I was shrouded in debt, unemployment, and a depression that was eased in part due to this blog. While I could trace back my main mistake, which was leaving a secure job while moving, everything is hindsight 20/20. I can say that while this part of the year SUCKED, I dug out of the hole and thus have become a better person...

... Which leads to the other six months of 2011. Gainfully employed full-time, out of debt, and feeling much better about myself. In the process, I lost some 40-odd pounds, all of which came because of employment and a accidental new diet plan.

While I have not been posting as much, I can refer to this as fun and something to look forward to. Whether it’s wrestling or the DVD sub-blog, creativity always flows. 

Also would like to point out that my sister got married this past year, my brother engaged to be married this upcoming year, and while my luck with women isn’t the greatest, I definitely plan on improving that.

Keeping this short, I just want to thank everyone who took time out to read this and the DVD blogs. Since May, I have attracted an audience that quite frankly I’m humbled and appreciative to have. I plan on making more creative content in the coming year, while trying to balance new posts in between the blogs. Love you all, and hope to see even more readers/subscribers in the upcoming year!

Here is the Facebook handle, and the Twitter handle.

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Romancing the Bird: A Good Eats Thanksgiving

In the fall of 1999, Thanksgiving the way I saw it was forever changed.

Food Network was still a channel devoted primarily to milquetoast-style cooking shows. Sure there was Emeril, Mario, and Bobby spicing things up. Of these men however, not one truly revolutionized the cooking show as something fun yet educational.

Enter Alton Brown.

Originally a drama major from the University of Georgia, Mr. Brown was dissatisfied by the quality of the cooking shows on the air. In 1995, Alton graduated from the New England Culinary Institute, where it’s been noted that he would make stock more flavorful by putting in seasoning packets.

Alton created two episodes of what would be Good Eats, “Steak Your Claim” and “This Spud’s for You”, for a PBS station in Chicago. Apparently, Food Network liked what they saw and low and behold, we got a new star in the making!

While it would be a few years before Good Eats got the cultural outpour it so rightfully deserved, the humor behind the science (which Alton admits he sucked badly at in grade school) was prevalent from episode one.

Romancing the Bird (title being parody of the 1984 movie “Romancing the Stone”) on the mean-hand was aired just prior to Thanksgiving in 1999 while being the 14th episode aired under the Good Eats label.

So without much further ado, let’s jump into the madness of the gobble!

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Sitting on his porch with a turkey sandwich in his hand, Alton dives into an anecdote of a Thanksgiving from years gone by. Roll back to a sepia-tone image of 1970, young Alton is about to fill an empty spot at the table. Enter in a stranger (played by Alton), who has a passion for turkey.

Uncle Morty, a rotund man of not much in the brain matter, is about to carve the bird.

That strange man instead overrules and whips out an electric knife!

To the awe of all, the turkey is carved like a Rembrandt painting.

Only there was one catch: while the family was used to the dry turkey that Granny cooked up, this guy wasn’t. So he choked on Gimpy and died, and thus his legend lives on. GOOD EATS!

 In usual Alton style, there is a history lesson to be had. Starting with the initial outing from 1621, which was a three day affair, there were many modifications to this holiday.

After the crop failure of 1622, the gathering was held down until 1777 when it was time to celebrate whoop ass of the British in the Revolutionary War!

While some Presidents of this United States country try to get the Butterball rolling, it wasn’t until a magazine editor by the name of Sarah Hale got inspiration that Thanksgiving could become a reality.

Attempting to push a day for family and their “wholesome values”, apparently everyone and their brother got a letter trying to make a go of this day, but nothing worked.

It wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln (once again portrayed by Alton) in 1864 that Thanksgiving became a holiday, denoting the last Thursday in November to be it. FDR tried to fuzz around the day a little bit, but the public wasn’t too kind to this, and therefore wasn’t mess with again. I’m surprised no President has tried this recently!

After some more history anecdotes, Alton gets a rude awakening from MARCIA MARCIA MARCIA! Obnoxious in nature, she irritates Alton like no one else. Like for instance, first appearance sees her putting a wreath on the front door!

Blabbering on, she goes to note how the family is coming over for Thanksgiving, even if that wasn’t what Alton intended. “Oh, sisters just know these things!” In a fit of somewhat contained rage, Alton throws the wreath onto a bush and thus here comes our first tidbit:

The next scene shows Alton and Marcia sitting in the living room. While Marcia gets carried away in décor, Alton tells her pretty much it’s a turkey/stuffing/cranberry affair. Marcia’s response? “That doesn’t sound very Plymouth”.

Suddenly the screen tints and Alton asks Marcia if she knew what the Pilgrims ate on the first Thanksgiving. In a sense of science fiction retro (ala Matrix), Alton gives Marcia a choice via berries. Blueberry, and it’s family tradition. Cranberry, and it’s pilgrim tradition. Although she takes the blueberry, she’s given the swerve of the cranberry!

In the “forest”, Marcia nags on about how can there be no pie on the first Thanksgiving. Enter in...

Many food stuffs are mentioned, including the notion that Europeans believed potatoes were poisonous. Alton even does an internet plug, HUGE STUFF FOR 1999!

Going over the meats, and while there was turkey, swans, geese, and duck available, the big hit was VENNISON!

Anywhos there’s a small argument after Deborah notes she goes over to Grandma’s house for the day with turkey and all the fixings. “What is anthropologically correct?” We will never know!

Marcia goes to get decorations, while Alton is greeted by a man in a “turkey mobile”.

 

For craps and giggles, Alton heckles the man. “Gee, aren’t all turkeys the same?” Chuck, the driver and “turkey freak”, is absolutely incensed by the man’s “lack of knowledge”. As Chuck retrieves a frozen bird, Alton nods to the camera and cracks himself up.

As mentioned in part, the USDA denotes three types of state a turkey can be in. Frozen is zero degrees or lower (it’s not just water), Refrigerated is one to 26 degrees and requires less thawing time, while Fresh is higher than the 26 threshold.

Uncle Morty appears to be as dumb as usual. “Turkey, you mean the country or the bird?” Hearing about the feast, Uncle packed up his Stratolounger in a trailer and came over to Alton. Chuck was a tiny bit interested in this chair until Alton brings everyone back down to Earth.

“He’s been abusing something,” quips Morty about Chuck, even though Morty’s brain may have been abused by the stressors of alcohol.

After some banter about the legitimacy of grade-A birds, and the insults of the truck, Alton quickly gets a bird and heads back to the house. Morty is given the bird to park, while Alton confides to the camera how he will show the family cooking pointers, but do the exact opposite! Next little snippet coming up:

Next up we have thawing expert Ray, a horrible Elvis impersonator who says to leave the frozen bird on the turkey on the counter for a day or two. Alton is able to lure Ray with a hidden six-pack Morty brought over. “He has left the kitchen!”

Anywhos, without missing a beat, “W” arrives. Now in traditional mock James Bond-theme getup, this hot little minx is an equipment specialist. Before the equipment arrives, time to explain why Ray was absolutely wrong in his assessment!

You see, the frozen turkey has a “danger zone” of pretty much anything over 0 degrees. Leaving it on the counter would be behoove to germs and microbes and all that sort of thing. So Alton gets his fishing cooler, and packs the turkey inside aluminum pan in there. Add in some freezer packs, and its good to go!

After that, W gets the good ol’ briefcase of weaponry out.

 

Up for bids is a thermometer. Not just any old one however, it’s got a digital read-out with a probe that can be safely inserted into the meat! Rest assured, my parents got one after this aired.

Alton, safe to say his character has a little thing for W, invites her over for the feast. “They don’t bite...much...” W politely declines sadly.

If the turkey is still frozen the night before, Alton notes to give it the “Mafia” treatment. This would mean put the bird (in wrapping) in a bucket full of water, AND mash it down with a brick! Rest assured this turkey wishes it could sleep with the fishes!

Next up is Niece Nancy and her basting opinion. Quickly stopped, Alton explains that it doesn’t really do much, and it anything, slows the cooking time of the bird! “Hey, isn’t that your pager I hear going off?” That’s pretty much the only dated part of this program, as you can fill in any electronic device for the pager and the reference still fits!

After creeper Alton has that mag yanked, the magic of the brine is explained. For that, we turn to the mad scientist!

To properly explain how a brine works, time to bring in a prop!

“Where does she get all these wonderful toys?” A Batman reference on a cooking show, surely you jest me wrong! That’s putting aside the James Bond and Elvis references!

Long story short, she explains how the seasonings hook up into the moisture (in this instance salt and water), and together they enter the muscle of the bird and serve out a life sentence. They’re never escaping!

Next segment sees Alton at the stove concocting a brine mixture.

(Minus the allspice and ginger, and that would be the brine my Mom has perfected in the last decade. THANKS ALTON!)

While the brines cooks together, it’s important to note to not brine the turkey with hot liquid. The brine, after the chance to get “happy”, should be chilled, “served on ice”, then introduced to the turkey via a CLEAN bucket. Keep the bucket chilled in a cold place, in this instance Alton uses a garage as example.

Returning to the show after a twenty minute absence, Marcia explains the importance of stuffing a bird. As she is going down an ingredient, random signs are interrupting her. Stopping in a pout, it’s revealed that Alton was doing the signage!

“IT WAS ME MARCIA, IT WAS ME ALL ALONG! AW SON OF A BITCH!”

Alton goes on saying that stuffing is evil. It harbors bacteria while not introducing flavor to the bird. Worst yet, it slows down cooking time!

After getting a dish out of the microwave, its apples and onions going to be used as aromatics for the bird. Adding a cinnamon stick to the fray, Brown then tucks the wings underneath the bird in the hopes to prevent “waddling” and burning.

At this point, Alton notes this could be the time where family comes over. He shows clean spaces where to put down pies and such, while Uncle Morty watches Kojak and does nothing.

Morty, a pop-up populist, tries to persuade the audience that the pop-up thingy in the turkey is the hint that the bird is done.

WRONG!

Alton explains the pop-up is a spring held by an epoxy designed to, well, “pop-up” at a certain temperature. Most of the time, these things go off too early, so never judge. Apparently these things are so ineffective that Alton compares these to Charlie’s Angels doing serious detective work! OUCH! Time for another tidbit this show is famous for:

Prepping the turkey up some more, including the “turkey triangle”, Alton would soon discover something very disturbing. Aunt Verna, “rampant roaster”, tries to lower the temp of the oven. “Low and slow is the only way to go!” Hogwash notes Alton, as the low and slow method rolls the fat off without browning the skin. Alton’s method is to do 500 degrees for a half hour, apply said triangle, and then cook at 350 until the thermometer reads 161.

This was where I thought the show fell apart, but more on that later.

Alton whips up a quick cranberry sauce (rocket scientists need not apply), and then a pan of cornbread BLINDFOLDED!

A few minutes later, all the family is at the table, and the turkey is ready to be served.

However, Alton’s got a secret weapon!

Remember that knife at the very beginning that the stranger used? Well guess what, Alton was saving that for years and has finally had an appropriate use for it!

Now he carves into the turkey, and truth be told, it doesn’t look fully cooked!

Keep in mind with the above picture, that he does say there is “aftercooking” (as in the temperature of the meat goes up even after getting out of the oven), but seriously, look at that pink juice on the board! He then proceeds to cross-contaminate everything in its path, something he notes he tries to prevent in the segment previous! EUGH!

The conclusion shows Alton saving the left-over turkey, which presumably will be used on a later show.

That show, “Behind the Bird”, would be shown over a year later AFTER Thanksgiving to show the uses of the leftover carcass!

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CONCLUSION: While the ending may leave something to be desired, the rest of the hour is some of the most inventive ideals ever heard. From the probe, to the knife, down to the brine, this show inspired my Mom to do something different for Thanksgiving, those things she has done ever since. Many culture references while staying on topic prevents this from being “just another special”, while serving up unique Brown-isms. If you have to watch one cooking special leading up to gobble day, make it this one. Just ignore how horrible the turkey came out, primarily on how undercooked it was.

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