Rise and Fall of ECW

[BlackMage5072]

First of all, before I begin this review, I am going to make something very known about myself: I NEVER, EVER saw ECW growing up. I knew about it, I'd heard about it, but I NEVER saw it growing up. It was only until after about 2002 when I first started watching ECW, and all I saw was the hardcore stuff, and I immediately hated it. It wasn't until 2005 when I watched nearly everything that I could, that I started to love and hate it, like we all do about wrestling promotions, because they all do things that we love, and we all do things that we hate. That aside, let me begin.

I just got done watching the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD. I have not seen it before, I just purchased it about five or six hours ago as of this review, so I am fresh from watching it. I have to say this, and I will spread this review to as many friends and fans of professional wrestling as I can:

The Rise and Fall of ECW is, undeniably, and without hesistation, the single greatest professional wrestling documentary I have ever seen. There has been no documentary, nor do I think there ever will be one that had such an impact on me from the minute I started watching to the minute it ended. This DVD gave me so much more respect for everyone involved in ECW, from it's NWA inception, to its secession, to its death, and everything in between. I also gained so much more respect for the company ECW as a whole, and I gained the utmost of respect for Paul Heyman, Taz, The Dudley Boys, and Tommy Dreamer.

This DVD shocked me in so many ways, aside from it just being uncensored, for the most part. It also made me laugh, and honestly, at some points, moved me to tears. This is certainly a wrestling documentary that every single one of my professional wrestling buddies needs to see, and every friend that I know that loves pro wrestling whether on a casual or hardcore basis will sit down with me and watch this DVD. It is THAT GOOD.

If you HAVEN'T seen the DVD, you must. I also will now be on the hunt for the book of the same name, and I will read that from cover to cover. The three things that I will remember the most about this DVD, in reverse order, are as follows:

3.) The heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears, and passion that all of those wrestlers had for the business. Not just for ECW, but for the wrestling business. Shane Douglas, Terry Funk, Cactus Jack, Steve Austin, even Sabu, Sandman, and even fucking New Jack, all had a passion and a love for the professional wrestling business that I think very, very few people before, or since, have ever had about professional wrestling. Those guys went out there, every single night, and put their bodies, souls, and lives on the line for those fans, and they loved every single second of it.

2.) The crucifixion of Sandman. Oh my god, was this something that I didn't see coming. I knew about this, I saw this, and I knew the fan reaction about it. I had NO IDEA it was as bad as they said it was on the video. In all honesty, I had no idea that the entire crucifixion angle was viewed as that terrible, especially since The Undertaker did it several years later, albeit it was NOTHING like what happened to Sandman. Sandman was literally made to look like Jesus Christ, with the crown of thorns and everything, and the crowd went dead silent. The only time I ever heard a crowd more silent than that was when the medics were trying to bring Mitsuharu Misawa back around. I have never heard, especially a crowd as rowdy as those crazy bastards in ECW, go dead silent for that long EVER.

1.) The Mass Transit Incident. I knew about this. I've seen this. I read stories about this. I NEVER, EVER expected them to come out on television and talk about this incident. This is, without a doubt, the single most controversial professional wrestling incident in history. It's so controversial that Joey Styles has been stated in an interview that when it's mentioned, he refers to it as "The incident we can never mention on television." Seriously, this is the most shocking thing I have ever witnessed on a wrestling documentary, because this was never, ever supposed to come out on television, this was never meant to be acknowledged publicly, and it was probably, up until that point when this DVD was made, NEVER going to be mentioned in front of a camera. Even if it was just 1:30 or 1:45 seconds long, the fact that they even SPOKE about this incident on the DVD made my jaw hit the ground.

From this day forward, whenever I hear the chants, whether I'm at the event, or watching on television or on pay per view... when I hear the chants, I will forever join in. E-C-W.

[Board Admin]

Dude I got the book and the DVD, the book is great because it goes further into the DVD, you read similar things to what you watched on the DVD but you actually get a little bit extra knowledge of what exactly happend at certain points.


The Book is FANTASTIC!!! and just for people who think I am lying that photo is proof of both the DVD and Book!

BM I picked the book up from Amazon, you might wanna have a look.

The Rise and Fall of ECW, is a documentary that explains to you with 100% truth exactly what happened, why is it all true, because of one man Paul Heyman, he would go out and tells fans stuff that happened in the back because he respected us, when ECW got a DVD of course he would tell the truth because he respected the fans for sticking by him.

The promotion, the DVD, everything about ECW was one of a kind and it's a shame how it ended BUT this DVD tells you everything you wanted plus it gives you some bonus matches as well which really sweeten the deal. I'm with you BM, Rise and Fall of ECW is without doubt the GREATEST wrestling documentary EVER, and nothing in the world EVER will compare to it!!!

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[DM]

I first saw this Documentary on Youtube years ago and every once in a while go back to it. To Echo BM's thoughts all of which are true though again as good as the DVD is it also does explain why ECW couldn't and wouldn't have a chance in hell at success which is very apparent and very sad.

From the Hardcore style, to Heyman not wanting to change his ways, for saying in a 'territorial region', and for not having revenue, ECW was sadly a blip on the radar that had rabid fans but only catered to that one demograph.

What's real sad is you can talk about how good ECW was but the first thing that pops in your mind is not wrestling, but hardcore style, not everyone's cup of tea. Dispite how loyal these men and women were the writing was on the wall no matter how hard they tried which makes this tale more tradgic if anything.

End note, I know WWE did their version of ECW and everyone crapped on it, though that is what ECW would have been if Heyman had changed his ways or tried to appeal to other masses, which as we all saw, wouldn't have worked. Even though WcW and WWE adapted their ideas, they had a fanbase to evolve into it rather the other way around. What's real sad is how loyal anyone can be to this brand had to be disgusted with TNA's version of ECW. There's a reason why I was against it and even though Dreamer cried his eyes out, I still felt as if they all sold out to do a 'greatest hits' show. They had One Night Stands in WWE that surpassed TNA's version by far and in the end, no matter how good ECW may have been, they now have that black eye.

ECW will be remembered for a lot of things and it is perhaps one of the best documentaries out there bar none and I'd reccommend it to anyone

[Valdora]

I got it a few years back and I agree. This is the reason the WCW one sucked so badly...because it was not this DVD.

It covered everything with everyone involved and explains what was ECW. I wish Raven, Sandman and Sabu could have been on it to round it up but overall all you really needed was Heyman and Dreamer and the content would have been there.

For me ECW changed the business along with Nitro. Without them Wrestling would still be a boring cartoon show and international, fast paced wrestling would never have made it to america (yes folk watch it. All and I do mean ALL of WCW's top cruiserweights of the 1996 bomb came from ECW.)