So, I was feeling a little nosgtalic tonight and looked up some Extreme Championship Wrestling videos on You Tube. It made me shed a tear.
For those of you who don't follow wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling (or ECW) was a small independent, semi-underground wrestling promotion that operated out of Philly. Several of my favorite wrestlers worked for that company: Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, Raven, The Dudly Boyz, Sabu, Chris Beniot, Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam...just to name a few. This was an 'anything goes' company. Blood shed was a natural occurence. Cheese graters, flaming barbwire baseball bats, staplers, VCR's, and manniquin heads were as prominent weapons as the sterotypical steel chair. Brawls in the crowd were considered legal; as was doing a moonsult off a third story balcony onto two flaming tables stacked up on each other. (And yes, that actually did happen. I can't make this stuff up!)
The wrestlers were not buffed-up body builders like you see now. And I liked that. Sandman, for instance, had a beer gut. He would come through the audience to 'Enter Sandman', swinging a Signapore Cane and drinking beer cans that he put in his pants. Made me trust the drunk guys if I ever got into a bar fight. It gave faith to the average guys. Even now, I hate the overly muscled look. Support the overly skinny/chunky guys!
This was also the first promotion I followed that the women got into it. Instead of standing in the corner and looking pretty, they took bumps and bruises just like the guys. No 'Divas' here. Nancy Beniot aka Woman(God Rest Her Soul), Beluah McGuillcuty, Dawn Marie...these were the woman worth looking up too. They were bitches with attitudes who scared me more then the men to be honest. Especially Woman. The bloodiest match of all time belonged to Beluaeh McGuillicuty vs. Bill Alfonso. It was refreshing because all WWE and WCW had at the time were over inflauted blondes who annoyed the crap out of me jacked up on silicone. Not excatly the strong female role models you want your daughter to look up too.
I remembered trying to stay up till two in the morning on Saturday because they would show ECW on Sunshine Network. If I missed it, I would steal the tape my brother recorded it on and watch it. He would get pissed if I didn't return it and he find it my VCR. Apparently, girls weren't suppose to watch something as 'brutal'. Huh, yeah...right. Rather watch Mike Awesome cheese grate some dude's forehead instead of TRL. But that's just me.
Unforunatly, the orginal ECW shut down back in 2001 due to money issues. A few years ago, WWE Owner/Satan/PMS's more then a woman dictator/owner Vince Machmon, after buying the rights to ECW (not to mention WCW...but that's another story) relaunched the brand. For fans of the original, it was a total slap in the face. For one thing, the 'hardcore extreme' ruling that made ECW was BANNED! Just because Vince doesn't dig the 'hardcore' scene. Less then a year, the ECW founding fathers who had came back were released from their contracts after everything they built for was made out to be a giant joke. Most either retired, got a job behind the scences, began wrestling in indy (independent) companies, or deflected to Total Nonstop Action (TNA). Now, reports are buzzing that this sham (that's right, I said it) will be shut down sometime in 2010. I for one will not cry, but instead bust open a pack of Coors a la Sandman and be blasting 'Enter Sandman' in celebration...even if its by myself.
But in some way, the REAL ECW will never die. You Tube is filled with old matches from television and Pay-Per-View matches. DVD's are still being produced, even though its under the WWE label. Real wrestling fans will always remember it for being something different instead of the same vanilla wrestling.
Now if you excuse me, I have to jump off a twenty foot ladder onto a flaming table.
E-C-F'N-W 4 Life.
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