The Legacy of ECW: Did it Help or Hurt Pro Wrestling?
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DOPEdweebz
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfP9m5vxNmA&list=UUpo_r3_HXHnjvMy93MYCRPgComments
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Help.
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Help. Without ECW we would have never got the attitude era
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I love ECW, I watched as much of it as I could back when it was hot. Problem was I couldn't find it half the time because of how inconsistent the syndication was.
The legacy is a mixed bag though, you will always know that ECW was a great blend of everything from technique to chaos but people will remember the chaos more because it was the biggest drawing factor to the their product.
Thus the legacy of ECW is that so many offshoot promotions exist now in this country that do almost exclusively those chaotic, overly violent matches. That wasn't the norm in this country before ECW. -
Helped.
Just as he said, it made the Big 2 step their game up and even have them emulate what they were doing. Even though most people didn't know that ECW existed, they were watching a product on WWF and WCW being revolutionized by a smaller promotion.
Then when the Big 2 started the talent raid, the in-ring work started to change because those guys in ECW could work and make you work if you were just getting over on gimmicks in WCW and WWF. Some of the top talent that passed through ECW had already signed with WCW or had went on loan to WWF.
Chris Benoit once was in WCW back in 92 in a NWA tag team tournament, but never signed with the company. That was my first time seeing him and i thought he was good then. Jericho had a stint as TV Champion in ECW then signed with WCW. Kurt Angle was on loan to ECW when he first signed a WWF contract for developmental reasons, but never wrestled due to the crucifix angle. If you remember Brakkus, the muscle dude from WWF who did nothing, he was sent to ECW, where Taz smashed him. Droz was on loan to ECW and I saw a clip from Beyond the Mat where he got bust in the face with a fork and toaster by New Jack.
And who can forget when WWF was losing in the ratings to WCW so bad, they dedicated an entire show to ECW back in 94? It was the initial ECW invasion, where Paul, Dreamer, and Sandman sat in the front row, and then Sandman spit beer in Savio Vega's face. Then some time later, Vince allowed every other match on RAW to be a ECW match, and we got to see the first RVD/Jeff Hardy match, with RVD going over. ? , I remember when RVD was Robbie V in WCW, wrestling bare foot.
Alot of these dudes, Paul saw something in them, and made them household names. So without ECW, there wouldn't have never been a cruiserweight division in WCW because it was created just to get Rey Mysterio Jr over who was fresh from his ECW stint. Then followed Juventud, Eddie, Benoit, and others, all fresh from ECW.
ECW changed wrestling in the 90s, but when WCW and ECW died, it was up to Vince to keep some of it going, but he fell back into his old ways and got his hard on for big dudes but up. -
helped
and if paul had better money management skills and half the budget of the other 2 (don't get me started on the ? deal tnn/spiketv gave them for a cable deal), the Monday night wars would have never happened. WWE and WCW were lucky to get the ECW wresters when they would leave. I remember Raven being ringside for like a month and a half before he set foot in the wcw ring; before, in wwe he was a manager with a polo stick. It was like christmas for them to get those guys. Made stars that could go. -
WCW having luchadors and cruiserweight wrestlers with great matches came from ECW
WWE hell in a cell, tlc, and other ? matches came from ECW
Not to mention the legends ECW produced -
Helped, but it has hurt as well, ECW wannabe feds suck, its all about garbage wrestling.
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ECW = GOAT
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Helped and hurt. It is obvious why it helped but it also hurt because stars took more risk and many careers was cut short. Lives was cut short.
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if it wuznt for ecw, we wouldnt have ? ? happen,sexy ? wrestlin' in a slutty manner(tiddies & azz poppin' out!),and edgy ass promos!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6niz0_kimona-wanalaya-striptease_shortfilms
yall remember dis ? right chea! -
It was so goat dudes on the mic in ECW.. No Darren.. Raven was good.. Taz was this mystery shoot fighter suplexing machine.. Before Austin was chugging bears it was the Singapore slanging sandman..
Hell at the time you couldn't do ? outside the ring in wcw/WWF without getting tossed.. I may be biased.. I grew up in philly.. I mean the funk brothers and ? Foley.. Jericho fell thru.. Most fond wrestling years of my life -
I think it severely hurt pro-wrestling in the sense that people just care about high spots now and nothing else. It lead to the creation of TLC and ? like that which is fun as a novelty but spoiled many fans because they're always expecting tables and high spots and if they don't get that they boo no matter how good the match is. Like on Sunday night for example when Christian kept working on Bryan's arm. Back in the day that would be viewed as gold today that is viewed as boring and they were dying for someone to be slammed outside the ring or against a pod instead.
The emphasis on suspension of disbelief, ring psychology and storytelling has been regressed and it makes a lot of today's matches kinda boring to watch because it's just spot after spot after spot with no real method or reason to the madness. -
i say helped more than hurt, showcased well rounded wrestling with an edge, a healthy alternative to what was going on, ill rather see 25 minute technical or ? classics than 5 minute squashes anyday, even tho more psychology could have helped, but its inspiration to horrible hack promotions like czw who overdo what ecw stood for times a hundred and look like terrible bums, that is the main part it hurt imo.
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Plus I heard about creative control.. It was wreck less but guys could control who they were.. I mean the Dudley's were GOAT trolls Lol.. It has hurt a little but ? nothing is perfect..
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ECW made WWE step their game up. ECW was always highlight folk lore for me. it got watered down by the time it made it officially to tv. There are some matches i wanna see that i never saw. like rvd tazz. anything dudley or sabu.
didnt someone powerbomb someone thru like 7 tables stacked up?
One ECW thing i never saw in WWE is when you toss the chair, they catch it, then you drop kick it to their head. -
I think it severely hurt pro-wrestling in the sense that people just care about high spots now and nothing else. It lead to the creation of TLC and ? like that which is fun as a novelty but spoiled many fans because they're always expecting tables and high spots and if they don't get that they boo no matter how good the match is. Like on Sunday night for example when Christian kept working on Bryan's arm. Back in the day that would be viewed as gold today that is viewed as boring and they were dying for someone to be slammed outside the ring or against a pod instead.
The emphasis on suspension of disbelief, ring psychology and storytelling has been regressed and it makes a lot of today's matches kinda boring to watch because it's just spot after spot after spot with no real method or reason to the madness.
I disagree with this, in a sense that fans of ECW cheered when you had two technical wrestlers going back in before. Quick one counts, working on body parts, fighting off submissions, those were frequent in matches on top of the insanity of those high spots.
WWE did develop those chaotic matches from ECW shows, but fans latching on to those types of matches isn't ECW's fault, rather because of how often WWE marketed them to the fans.
You have a great point about the spoiled fans though. -
The ring psychology in ECW was decent at best (Ie: Sabu Vs. RVD) but hardly something that was ever really overemphasized over high spots. Then again this is also a reason I watch more japanese wrestling than anything else. They're the only ones that still tell their full story in the ring these days and I'm more into that traditional wrestling structure than *plants a finisher, the kick out, goes for another finisher, the kick out, throws him over the rope, dives through the middle of the ropes* formula.
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The ring psychology in ECW was decent at best (Ie: Sabu Vs. RVD) but hardly something that was ever really overemphasized over high spots. Then again this is also a reason I watch more japanese wrestling than anything else. They're the only ones that still tell their full story in the ring these days and I'm more into that traditional wrestling structure than *plants a finisher, the kick out, goes for another finisher, the kick out, throws him over the rope, dives through the middle of the ropes* formula.
Ecw help give birth to CZW and IWA-mid south -
That's the negative impact it had right there ^^^^
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Being a ? ECW fan was like being on a candy bar diet with the occasional salad.
They did have some good storytellers...then either Bischoff or McMahon stole them.
The high spots though, well most of the more violent ones, could be replicated by anyone. It took no talent to be powerbombed trough a flaming table, or to fight with cheese graters and ? .
