I remember when I found out Tommy Dreamer had been in ECW longer than Paul Heyman because Dreamer was keeping the company afloat with his own money at the very end while Paul had lied to them about finding a new TV deal and instead went to go film scenes for Rollerball and almost no one was aware Paul Heyman had left for WWE until they saw him on his debut on RAW's commentary team. Tommy Dreamer was so upset that he planned on shooting Paul in the back of the head during WrestleMania and then killing himself live on tv. What stopped him was a phone call from Jim Ross saying they were still interested in Dreamer and were planning on using him soon. So yeah, you could say Paul Heyman made some people upset, lol.
Imagine if that actually happened? ECW as a brand might have never been revived or mentioned in a good light ever again. The former owner was shot on live TV by a deranged former employee? How could you salvage that? Basically Benoit before Benoit in that it would just be null. Heck, Wrestlemania would likely be defunct as a PPV much like Over the Edge is.
@@MachtPlaysNot to mention it wouldve been on THE PPV for wrestling during the biggest boom period of the sport mere weeks after the monday night wars ended.
These long form videos are fantastic, I love them so much. Especially because they tend to come out over the weekends, so I can sneak in a headphone and put them on behind my bar whenever service is dead. Wrestletalk are keeping me going through the graveyard shifts
Some of the worst words to hear in wrestling "Vince Mcmahon is taking a more hands on approach." Actually, those words aren't really great in any context.
I remember when Zack Ryder got himself over on TH-cam. Then news came that WWE was going to produce a show for him on the network. I should have bet my house that it wasn't gonna succeed. WWE has this uncanny talent of missing the point of what made the show great.
The thing is the Attitude Era was directly because of Vince. A pity that what he did after were weak but they were fueled by hubris after he got a hit with Attitude.
If I remember correctly. Rey Mysterio vs. Sabu ended in a "No Contest" after a DDT through a table on the outside and both were deemed to not be able to continue, not a DQ. They would have done that because the match was for The World Heavyweight Title.
I could talk about WWECW and it’s issues for hours and hours and hours. It was 100% Vince’s doing. I think the Summer of 2006 was when Vince started to lose it as a promoter. Vince just wanted WWECW to be like Raw and SmackDown, and not it’s own thing, and that was the issue.
Benoit was the final nail in the coffin. He was drafted over so they could mould the brand around him, and he would have won the title during that tragic weekend that haunts WWE to this day
I agree. I think that if RVD never got busted for weed and if Kurt Angle was able to stick around WWECW would've been better and built around them. Vince tried one last ditch effort by bringing in Benoit for him to refresh the brand but after that fateful weekend that was the last straw
@@MegaBroski12 RVD drug bust was a wound they never recovered from. Once Lashley vs Vince was done, the show was basically competing with a peak TNA wrestling
about the original ECW. I always said this when people blame Bischoff/WCW for "killing ECW". What hurt ECW more? WCW bringing in Konnan's AAA guys and NJPW guys that occasionally had US dates in ECW in 95? Or Vince signing ECW's face of the company (Taz) and top Heels (Dudleys) the same month ECW launched their major cable show, and then took that TV deal the next year.
@@thewriter8762Even that isn’t entirely true. If NXT UK hadn’t done it, the amount of major UK indy stars that had allegations coming out against them would have
If the ECW revival show were streamed in 2006, the WWE would’ve been innovators and would have probably gone through another Attitude Era in the 2010’s. Hindsight is 20/20 but Shane was onto something and his pops REALLY dropped the ball there.
I will never forget seeing Big Show beat RVD for the ECW title and how the fans immediately threw garbage. WweCW could’ve been successful. But like with WCW, Vince just couldn’t let his ego go
I often wonder where ECW would be if Vince simply left it alone to Shane Tommy Dreamer and Heyman. There was a market for ECW that Vinnie Mac could have profited off of and it bewilders me that he didn't see that
This was one of the first times Vince openly dicked around his audience out of spite saying you want ECW back oh your gonna get it back alright and slowly smothered it to death while the fans watched knowing they couldn’t do anything
@@Nick_T_90 It's still maddening that he left money on the table just to do things his way, I get he's so rich it didn't affect him, but it was so simple, and yet he couldn't help himself.
Well despite the failure of WWECW, I did enjoy seeing the ECW world title reigns of Kane, Mark Henry, Matt Hardy, and John Morrison... These are guys who could not really get much main event shine in Raw or Smackdown, but were able to win the big one in WWECW.
5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1
You’re freaking amazing Luke. Thanks for this amazing work and all your Wrestletalk fellas. Now, off to watch ONS 05.
The buggest mistake they made was naming the 3rd brand ECW. They should have just upgraded Velocity to 3rd brand status . The only thing they should have brought back from ECW was the Television title . Then they could have revived the cruiserweight title as well and then moved the women's championship to Velocity.
I would like to mention, in the season mode of SVR 2006 they added in a ECW story line were RVD with group of some ECW in game did a invasion angle as well as the ECW arena was a playable in game.
You guys have been knocking these videos out the park. I absolutely love them and I appreciate the research and time you all put into these. They have been very well done.
Shane Douglas gets a bad rap by most wrestling fan and especially big stars in the wrestling industry he was an absolute legend in ecw the guy was constantly nuclear in terms of heat back then guy was a beast of a champion
18:46 that match didn't end in DQ. It ended in a no contest. That still doesn't make any sense though since ECW was supposed to be anything goes with a definitive finish and no rules.
I remember when Sci-Fi started showing wrestling. I was a fan of both at the time. The show was trash and I found myself annoyed they weren't just showing reruns of actual Sci-Fi shows. The channel was having problems they never really recovered from, the new boss didn't like Sci-Fi and cancelled several popular shows then added a lackluster wrestling show and a God damn soap opera. They cancelled several Stargate shows, their highest rated shows at the time, they cancelled the Battlestar Galactica prequel, then they gave us trash made for TV Asylum movies trying to trick people into watching them, soap opera garbage and this travesty.
That one was more or less a case of circumstances. I'm sure we would've had it given AEW didn't overtake that same fanbase and the fact that NXT was getting too big to be a developmental. To a point was the Black and Gold NXT ever developmental, it was a showcase for the top indie talent before they went over to RAW or SmacDown.
I still remember watching the 2006 One Night Stand PPV with all my friends in middle school. A PPV that brought us together for one night. Such great memories
To be fair to "The Zombie" I legit think that was supposed to be a fuck you to Sci-Fi. A lot of people were mad that ECW was on the Sci-Fi channel, then the first thing that happens is a Zombie comes out.... Only to immediately get the shit kicked out of him by Sandman and never appear again. It was a pretty aggressive statement of "We're NOT doing that shit." that I think a lot of internet talking heads misrepresent for clicks.
Interesting video. I'm in my late 20's and and almost 30 so I grew up as a kid watching wrestling around the time Cena and Orton where the biggest stars in WWE. I also remember watching online NXT the original during the first season. This was around the time I started watching wrestling the year before watching clips of on youtube of mania highlights of Undertaker and HBK. So for me I never really got to experience ECW. So seeing this retrospective is quite fascinating
Paul Heyman, in my opinion defines the word carny promoter. Every talent he ever managed in his career elsewhere, were all given at least 1 match in ECW. Paul also was never financially dependant himself on wrestling, came from money and probabaly never understood what being broke was like, he lived at home. He never has never had a real job or bills to pay, he didnt have his own family until way later on. Like Cornette, he came from an afluent family. Unlike Corentte, Paul only really cared about ECW NOT its actual people. A long time ago an unnamed promoter/booker/office person told me, "Paul is a survivor at any and everyone's cost." ECW could never become mainstream or it would lose what made it special. ECW was an experience and a mindset that shifted the way wrestling was presented and became a parody of iteself after Vince brought it back. To be special it needed to be small and fringe.
Great job! But quick question: Why did you do it in a closet? A ring light would have helped. I also want to thank you for using a proper microphone. It was crystal clear and perfectly presented. I give it a definitive thumbs up, and now I'll go ahead and try another of these long-form videos. Well done!
Srsly I think the Zombie could have worked - well, not that version of course. But imagine a grunge like Character like Raven with that Aura, calling himself Dead Inside and playing with the metapher of being a Zombie, being an undead in the world full of colours, a more postpunk/goth character would have been great. Like always, good work, Luke!
16:20 honestly they should do that now. Put Heyman in charge get some of the old ECW guys who can still walk and a bunch of new guys and make a real ECW revival.
I'm so sorry about Foley and Angel's last run with WWE, they really came back at one of the biggest creative slumps in the company's history. watching foley die inside when he introduced the universal and 24/7 title was so sad.
I’ve actually been re watching WWECW on the Network, as looking back it’s pretty cursed and bizarre to look back on that show now. The first 7 months of the show from June 2006 to January 2007, was the best the show had to offer, it was somewhat watchable, somewhat. Some good matches as well RVD vs Kurt Angle RVD vs Sabu in a ladder match RVD vs Hardcore Holly, where Bob Holly gets a nasty gash on his back from a table spot, that is probably the best match of Bob Holly’s entire career. Ric Flair vs Big Show in the most original ECW type match they ever did on the WWECW show, Barbed Wire, Thumbtacks and the lot, Ric Flair in 2006 was just doing dangerous matches. It’s crazy WCW legend Ric Flair is in the most original like ECW match to ever be broadcast on the WWECW show. So those 4 matches are by far the best matches the show had to offer, and if anyone hasn’t seen those matches I do recommend them. So the first 7 months of the show, it’s somewhat watchable. Then we get to the debacle of December To Dismember, that PPV was when the WWECW thing went completely off the rails. The problem was Heyman pitched 2 ideas to Vince, 1 idea was that CM Punk would win the Chamber match at Dismember To Dismember, Vince didn’t like that idea. So Heyman came up with another idea of Lashley turning heel, and for CM Punk to chase the heel champion Lashley heading into 2007, Vince didn’t like that idea either. What Vince wanted is what happened, a babyface green Lashley winning the Chamber match. As Vince wanted to heavily push Lashley as a babyface champion, but felt that he wasn’t ready for that push on SmackDown or Raw just yet, so Lashley’s push on WWECW was a test run. December to Dismember fucking bombed, and it became WWE’s lowest buy rate PPV in history. And because of that fired Paul Heyman a week later, even though it wasn’t Heyman’s fault. By January 2007, after the 2007 Royal Rumble, is when we start to fully see Vince’s vision for the WWECW show, which is just Raw and SmackDown but with a much smaller roster.
You guys did a great job with this. FWIW, the lesson WWE learned in all of this appears to have been the value of absolutely destroying the value of all other wrestling brands as quickly & as thoroughly as possible.
Wait, when did Sabu vs Rey Mysterio end in DQ? It was a spot to end the match where they were trying to not make anyone look bad by losing. It was a ref stoppage.
Of course it was Vince😂 Honestly, if he sat his old ass down and allowed Shane to work, ECW might still be around. People still love that grunge and rough wrestling. That's what people watch AEW for.
Vince McMahon Jr. Killed ECW. But the brand is still alive because Paul Hayman got into the WWE Hall of Fame so ECW is still alive in our memories!!! Have a great day.
12:43 made me go watch it again & i was like "this is pretty tame" for the first few minutes but towsrds the end i was like "yeaaaaaa this is fantastic"
As much as we all crap on him recently Shane was probably the biggest visionary in wwe. But Vince never took to any of his ideas and it costs the company billions on billions. Like the ufc purchase suggestion is always something i remember
Edge was lobbying for Gangrel’s return just for a one night Brood reunion during his feud with Seth Rollins as he used this statement: “WWE fans they remember…..they always remember.” Same statement used by Vince for ECW “No one will remember the old ECW.” “No one is going to remember the old Brood or Gangrel.” If you have diehard wrestling fans for WWE, WCW, ECW, or any number of promotions out there…….they always remember!
When you said Raven is you favorite wrestler of all time, it made me think, and realize, that im not sure who MY favorite wrestler of all time is. Man.. thats a seriously tough question with so, so many viable candidates. Mankind is up there, but then i ALWAYS loved how Rey Mysterio Jr. could do the 619 and fling himself all over the ring and all over his opponents. Undertaker had such badass entrances. The Big Show is larger than life and hard to miss with his epic choke slams. Guerrero with his charisma and the sort of "love to be hated" persona his character displayed. Macho Man. Need i say anything at all? The name alone commands respect... the list just goes on and on. I dont think i could pick just one. Theyre all equally great in their own rites, barring Hogan, the absolute liar.
As someone who stuck with the show from beginning to end, while it was sad early on, it wasn't complete doom and gloom at first. The first couple months, you could still see glimmers of hope as they tried to keep it somewhat in line with the og, but it was obvious it was a tug of war. Once RVD was gone, the show morphed more into the new superstar initiative Era, and at times had some promise. I mean a lot of ppl did stick around the ratings despite it all. Had it just not been "E C W" it may have had a better reputation. We did get some gems from it... Rvd and Sabu VS Test and Mike Knox. The Balls/Kelly story was ALMOST good(Mandy and Otis in 2007) but Vince pulled the plug. CM Punk vs John Morrison was a very good rivalry. Christian as champion was excellent. Even Matt Hardy had decent matches as champ. Mark Henry's first time showing he could carry a title. Evan Bourne. Heel Shelton. Don't pretend you didn't like Yoshi Tatsu, they chanted his name in nxt like forever in 2014. Never would have been a great show, but what chances it had and what little good it did show were always constantly buried beneath by Vince
Ecw in WWE was killed by TNA! While WWE was trying to make a 3rd brand, TNA hired all the ECW stars. WWE had an ECW lite, while TNA had a 2nd chapter for the ECW stars.
Vince killed it , because it was one his competitions and he didn’t want to listen to anyone but himself. Shane had so many ideas , but Vince always dismissed them. Shane should’ve been the heir to WWE , not Triple H or Stephanie.
Only 9 of the ECW champions from its original incarnation, from Tazz's first reign to Ryno's, were considered as recognized world champions by PWI. That being said, none of ECW's World Heavyweight Champions would move on to win recognized world championships. WWE's incarnation proved to be more of an indication of true talent. Most of WWECW's champions would move on to win recognized world championships in WWE and other companies. Yet PWI refuses to recognize this incarnation of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. That is an injustice considering that this was Chavo Guerrero's only World Championship win.
I watched live when Vince McMahon said ECW was gonna be canceled, yea LIVE, that’s how much of a wrestling fan I was, I was 8 years old, I watched Raw, Smackdown (Smackdown was literally a Raw recap show), TNA, and ECW. By that time, the top stars were Zack Ryder and whoever his girl was, Tommy Dreamer, Christian, Matt Hardy (with purple tights), Finaly, Jack Swagger (who would soon become World Heavyweight Champion), the Gold Standard Shelton Benjamin, Big Daddy V, The Boogeyman, and Abraham Washington and Tony Atlas (I liked that act). I actually liked Mike Knox on Smackdown, I wasn’t watching ECW when he was on ECW, so I knew nothing about Knox and Kelly Kelly, they were separated by the time they were on Smackdown together
I started watched wrestling Armageddon 1999. HHH vs Vince was the first real match I ever fully watched. Stopped watching WWE in Aug 2005 and didn’t come back until April 2010
The more I hear about how Vince booked things backstage, along with his attitude and actions as well, the more I think he was just a very lucky guy who had very talented people around him and he was the one person who had no idea what he was doing. Period.
I don't think Syfy were in the wrong for wanting certain gimmicks to fall in line with their other programming. Especially from a media, and company, that has Kane, Undertaker, Gangrel.....GOD(!) It was really up to Vince to make it work and balance it out to make sense if he truly cared.
That RVD vs Cena was a subliminal doubleturn for me. At the end of the match I gained respect for Cena that i never had before and RVD in WWE seemed diminished from the Jerry Lynn days
![[LIVE] BABYMONSTER(베이비몬스터) - DRIP | 두시탈출 컬투쇼](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UG05pxLGwzc/mqdefault.jpg)
Never forget that WWE's version of ECW subsequently lead to the most damning thing of all: RVD's TNA theme.
DO DE DO DEDO DE DO. ROB VAN DAM!
DO DE DO DEDO DE DO. THE WHOLE F'N SHOW!
@@miho022883 DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN VAN TERMINATOR
@@StarLeo_VAN ASSASSINATOR!
Listen I unironically LOVE that theme 😅
I used to love that theme as a kid 😂
I remember when I found out Tommy Dreamer had been in ECW longer than Paul Heyman because Dreamer was keeping the company afloat with his own money at the very end while Paul had lied to them about finding a new TV deal and instead went to go film scenes for Rollerball and almost no one was aware Paul Heyman had left for WWE until they saw him on his debut on RAW's commentary team. Tommy Dreamer was so upset that he planned on shooting Paul in the back of the head during WrestleMania and then killing himself live on tv. What stopped him was a phone call from Jim Ross saying they were still interested in Dreamer and were planning on using him soon. So yeah, you could say Paul Heyman made some people upset, lol.
Cult leaders often do!
Imagine if that actually happened? ECW as a brand might have never been revived or mentioned in a good light ever again. The former owner was shot on live TV by a deranged former employee? How could you salvage that? Basically Benoit before Benoit in that it would just be null. Heck, Wrestlemania would likely be defunct as a PPV much like Over the Edge is.
@@hydrogendiamond5830wrestling as a whole would have been black balled by the entertainment industry if that happened on a live ppv
@@MachtPlaysNot to mention it wouldve been on THE PPV for wrestling during the biggest boom period of the sport mere weeks after the monday night wars ended.
These long form videos are fantastic, I love them so much. Especially because they tend to come out over the weekends, so I can sneak in a headphone and put them on behind my bar whenever service is dead. Wrestletalk are keeping me going through the graveyard shifts
Mate that was me in the early 00s but all we had was Sky Sports on the corner telly to pass the time.
Good years.
Some of the worst words to hear in wrestling "Vince Mcmahon is taking a more hands on approach."
Actually, those words aren't really great in any context.
I remember when Zack Ryder got himself over on TH-cam. Then news came that WWE was going to produce a show for him on the network. I should have bet my house that it wasn't gonna succeed. WWE has this uncanny talent of missing the point of what made the show great.
The thing is the Attitude Era was directly because of Vince. A pity that what he did after were weak but they were fueled by hubris after he got a hit with Attitude.
@@One.Zero.One101 Yeah, Vince had a sick knack of destroying ideas that weren't his.
Vince is like that one aunty who accidentally makes a great pie and then keeps making the same pie for every party even after people are sick of it.
@@WaqarHussain-te7ft 😅
Luke's obsession with the 90s in general is extremely fascinating.
80s, 90s and early 00s will never be topped in terms of era defining pop culture
@@brentsmith9134Not when you have that attitude.
If you were there, you would understand why.
@@MrTray301410 You DO know the boomers say the EXACT same shit about the '60s and '70s, right?
You’re too young to know what you missed
Math>Pipebomb
Loved the original ECW
'could your Phone in 2005 play an hour long show?!'
Man, I remember downloading Backlash 2006 onto my PSP.
That's not a phone
@@DS-us8sc lmao
I remember watching wrestlemania 21 on TH-cam in 2007 in like 50 parts
If I remember correctly. Rey Mysterio vs. Sabu ended in a "No Contest" after a DDT through a table on the outside and both were deemed to not be able to continue, not a DQ. They would have done that because the match was for The World Heavyweight Title.
After Lashley won the title, WWECW was just FCW wearing an ECW mask.
"rob nobody remembers ECW" i put my house on that being from the mouth of kevan dunn
I say both Dunn AND Vince
I could talk about WWECW and it’s issues for hours and hours and hours.
It was 100% Vince’s doing.
I think the Summer of 2006 was when Vince started to lose it as a promoter.
Vince just wanted WWECW to be like Raw and SmackDown, and not it’s own thing, and that was the issue.
Benoit was the final nail in the coffin. He was drafted over so they could mould the brand around him, and he would have won the title during that tragic weekend that haunts WWE to this day
I agree. I think that if RVD never got busted for weed and if Kurt Angle was able to stick around WWECW would've been better and built around them. Vince tried one last ditch effort by bringing in Benoit for him to refresh the brand but after that fateful weekend that was the last straw
I agree John Morrison became champion out of no where and beat cm punk 😢
@@MegaBroski12 RVD drug bust was a wound they never recovered from. Once Lashley vs Vince was done, the show was basically competing with a peak TNA wrestling
@@MegaBroski12the issue with Kurt having WWECW placed on his back was that he was in his Perc Angle era
@@lucasbland7352a bad mistake that John Morrison being champion
about the original ECW. I always said this when people blame Bischoff/WCW for "killing ECW".
What hurt ECW more? WCW bringing in Konnan's AAA guys and NJPW guys that occasionally had US dates in ECW in 95?
Or Vince signing ECW's face of the company (Taz) and top Heels (Dudleys) the same month ECW launched their major cable show, and then took that TV deal the next year.
Yeah, funny how WCW was "poaching talent" while WWE was "recruiting talent," isn't it?
@@Alucard-A-La-Cartewell yeah it's two totally different things. I don't know why you can't understand that.
Vince is the answer whenever a question is asked that starts with who killed ____ in wrestling.
Agreed.
Except for the promotions that were never affiliated with WWE
@@juancl7658 technically WWEs size killed those ones too, so he did them all
@@TinkSalsanah cuz some of that is Triple H. Like the British wrestling revolution killed off by NXT UK. So the McMahon’s would be the best answer
@@thewriter8762Even that isn’t entirely true. If NXT UK hadn’t done it, the amount of major UK indy stars that had allegations coming out against them would have
I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a video in years. What could be better than Luke talking about something that sucked
Wait….. did the WWE like your comment? Thats what it said on my screen…… if they did they not only watch the show but read the comments? Am I tripping
If the ECW revival show were streamed in 2006, the WWE would’ve been innovators and would have probably gone through another Attitude Era in the 2010’s. Hindsight is 20/20 but Shane was onto something and his pops REALLY dropped the ball there.
No we wouldn’t lol
I will never forget seeing Big Show beat RVD for the ECW title and how the fans immediately threw garbage.
WweCW could’ve been successful. But like with WCW, Vince just couldn’t let his ego go
Literally this. I think Shane has a few thoughts that were ahead of its time and the idea of making an online show would’ve been great.
43 minutes to say "Vince McMahon" lol
Great vid, Luke, I love these video features. More!!
I have enjoyed these video essays. Thank you for the effort in putting these together
I often wonder where ECW would be if Vince simply left it alone to Shane Tommy Dreamer and Heyman. There was a market for ECW that Vinnie Mac could have profited off of and it bewilders me that he didn't see that
This was one of the first times Vince openly dicked around his audience out of spite saying you want ECW back oh your gonna get it back alright and slowly smothered it to death while the fans watched knowing they couldn’t do anything
@@Nick_T_90 It's still maddening that he left money on the table just to do things his way, I get he's so rich it didn't affect him, but it was so simple, and yet he couldn't help himself.
Who killed WWECW?
Vince Mcmahon "IT'S ME AUSTIN. IT WAS ME ALLLLL ALONG!"
Well despite the failure of WWECW, I did enjoy seeing the ECW world title reigns of Kane, Mark Henry, Matt Hardy, and John Morrison...
These are guys who could not really get much main event shine in Raw or Smackdown, but were able to win the big one in WWECW.
You’re freaking amazing Luke. Thanks for this amazing work and all your Wrestletalk fellas. Now, off to watch ONS 05.
Luke Owen at 8am LET’S GO
Luke Owen at 10pm in Aust LETS GO!
Luke Owen at 7 AM in CDT at Dallas, Texas
Luke Owen at 1pm in England LETS GO
The buggest mistake they made was naming the 3rd brand ECW.
They should have just upgraded Velocity to 3rd brand status .
The only thing they should have brought back from ECW was the Television title . Then they could have revived the cruiserweight title as well and then moved the women's championship to Velocity.
This was an amazing little doc. GREAT JOB and many Thanks Luke!!
I would like to mention, in the season mode of SVR 2006 they added in a ECW story line were RVD with group of some ECW in game did a invasion angle as well as the ECW arena was a playable in game.
Luke will do anything he has to in order to keep talking about ECW and I respect the hustle.
Heyman hustle
Cant wait to see VICE do who killed ECW 😅 They are doing Who killed WCW right now. ❤ Great Job as always. 42:01
You guys have been knocking these videos out the park. I absolutely love them and I appreciate the research and time you all put into these. They have been very well done.
Shane Douglas gets a bad rap by most wrestling fan and especially big stars in the wrestling industry he was an absolute legend in ecw the guy was constantly nuclear in terms of heat back then guy was a beast of a champion
The Franchise!!
I’m a big Franchise fan. Perfect Strangers is a jam.
18:46 that match didn't end in DQ. It ended in a no contest. That still doesn't make any sense though since ECW was supposed to be anything goes with a definitive finish and no rules.
Luke did a fantastic job with this as a whole! he knows his information as it relates to wrestling, keep up the good work.
I remember when Sci-Fi started showing wrestling. I was a fan of both at the time. The show was trash and I found myself annoyed they weren't just showing reruns of actual Sci-Fi shows. The channel was having problems they never really recovered from, the new boss didn't like Sci-Fi and cancelled several popular shows then added a lackluster wrestling show and a God damn soap opera. They cancelled several Stargate shows, their highest rated shows at the time, they cancelled the Battlestar Galactica prequel, then they gave us trash made for TV Asylum movies trying to trick people into watching them, soap opera garbage and this travesty.
I am shocked WWECW lasted more than a year or two. It went on a lot longer than I remember.
Me too couldn't believe Luke said 4 years+ 😂 jesus
Love the video! Maybe the next deep dive can be Who Killed Black and Gold NXT?
I think the rise and fall and rise of TNA would be interesting.
That one was more or less a case of circumstances. I'm sure we would've had it given AEW didn't overtake that same fanbase and the fact that NXT was getting too big to be a developmental. To a point was the Black and Gold NXT ever developmental, it was a showcase for the top indie talent before they went over to RAW or SmacDown.
AEW?
I still remember watching the 2006 One Night Stand PPV with all my friends in middle school. A PPV that brought us together for one night. Such great memories
Love these Saturday afternoon documentaries. This is up their with the best of them
To be fair to "The Zombie" I legit think that was supposed to be a fuck you to Sci-Fi.
A lot of people were mad that ECW was on the Sci-Fi channel, then the first thing that happens is a Zombie comes out.... Only to immediately get the shit kicked out of him by Sandman and never appear again.
It was a pretty aggressive statement of "We're NOT doing that shit." that I think a lot of internet talking heads misrepresent for clicks.
I remember the original ECW and WWECW 👍🏿
What an outstanding doc! Please keep doing these!
This is amazing. Love these documentary videos from WrestleTalk.
I recommend going and watching OSW's retrospective of December to dismember after this. A lovely pairing for a Saturday!
Another amazing original video. Would love to see a similar version of this about Who Killed NXT.
NXT is more alive than Black and Gold has ever been since Nick Khan fixed that giant sunk cost.
Vince McMahon
This video was made with so much love and respect for ECW! Thank you so much and Mayor Kane says hello 😁
Another great deep dive. Nice job, Luke!
Love theses longer stories! Keep it up. How about top 10 10 SERIES OF PROMOS IN WRESTLING HISTORY! U r welcome.
Interesting video. I'm in my late 20's and and almost 30 so I grew up as a kid watching wrestling around the time Cena and Orton where the biggest stars in WWE. I also remember watching online NXT the original during the first season. This was around the time I started watching wrestling the year before watching clips of on youtube of mania highlights of Undertaker and HBK. So for me I never really got to experience ECW. So seeing this retrospective is quite fascinating
Awesome video overall tho! .. just had to clear up that one aspect that's been universally misreported all these years
Paul Heyman, in my opinion defines the word carny promoter. Every talent he ever managed in his career elsewhere, were all given at least 1 match in ECW. Paul also was never financially dependant himself on wrestling, came from money and probabaly never understood what being broke was like, he lived at home. He never has never had a real job or bills to pay, he didnt have his own family until way later on. Like Cornette, he came from an afluent family. Unlike Corentte, Paul only really cared about ECW NOT its actual people. A long time ago an unnamed promoter/booker/office person told me, "Paul is a survivor at any and everyone's cost." ECW could never become mainstream or it would lose what made it special. ECW was an experience and a mindset that shifted the way wrestling was presented and became a parody of iteself after Vince brought it back. To be special it needed to be small and fringe.
Great job! But quick question: Why did you do it in a closet? A ring light would have helped. I also want to thank you for using a proper microphone. It was crystal clear and perfectly presented. I give it a definitive thumbs up, and now I'll go ahead and try another of these long-form videos. Well done!
Tremendous long form content again…..Chef’s Kiss.
Luke's accent and the way he pronounces certain words is hilarious to me for some reason. Like the way says Hammerstein or the way he said Daivari
Very well done, this reminds me why I've never been a WWE guy at my core.
Srsly I think the Zombie could have worked - well, not that version of course. But imagine a grunge like Character like Raven with that Aura, calling himself Dead Inside and playing with the metapher of being a Zombie, being an undead in the world full of colours, a more postpunk/goth character would have been great. Like always, good work, Luke!
that could work
Sat-E-Day should do one of these... I like these dark room reflection's ya'll do
SUPPORT WRESTLE TALK!! 🗣️
16:20 honestly they should do that now. Put Heyman in charge get some of the old ECW guys who can still walk and a bunch of new guys and make a real ECW revival.
I'm so sorry about Foley and Angel's last run with WWE, they really came back at one of the biggest creative slumps in the company's history. watching foley die inside when he introduced the universal and 24/7 title was so sad.
Really enjoyed this video, great work
The only "If Cena wins, we riot" sign that meant a damn.
It’s Me ECW it was me all along (Vince McMahon voice) 😂
Shane's thinking was very ahead of its time
It's 2024 and Bravo was mentioned while talking about ECW. What a time to be alive.
I’ve actually been re watching WWECW on the Network, as looking back it’s pretty cursed and bizarre to look back on that show now.
The first 7 months of the show from June 2006 to January 2007, was the best the show had to offer, it was somewhat watchable, somewhat.
Some good matches as well
RVD vs Kurt Angle
RVD vs Sabu in a ladder match
RVD vs Hardcore Holly, where Bob Holly gets a nasty gash on his back from a table spot, that is probably the best match of Bob Holly’s entire career.
Ric Flair vs Big Show in the most original ECW type match they ever did on the WWECW show, Barbed Wire, Thumbtacks and the lot, Ric Flair in 2006 was just doing dangerous matches. It’s crazy WCW legend Ric Flair is in the most original like ECW match to ever be broadcast on the WWECW show.
So those 4 matches are by far the best matches the show had to offer, and if anyone hasn’t seen those matches I do recommend them.
So the first 7 months of the show, it’s somewhat watchable.
Then we get to the debacle of December To Dismember, that PPV was when the WWECW thing went completely off the rails.
The problem was Heyman pitched 2 ideas to Vince, 1 idea was that CM Punk would win the Chamber match at Dismember To Dismember, Vince didn’t like that idea.
So Heyman came up with another idea of Lashley turning heel, and for CM Punk to chase the heel champion Lashley heading into 2007, Vince didn’t like that idea either.
What Vince wanted is what happened, a babyface green Lashley winning the Chamber match. As Vince wanted to heavily push Lashley as a babyface champion, but felt that he wasn’t ready for that push on SmackDown or Raw just yet, so Lashley’s push on WWECW was a test run.
December to Dismember fucking bombed, and it became WWE’s lowest buy rate PPV in history.
And because of that fired Paul Heyman a week later, even though it wasn’t Heyman’s fault.
By January 2007, after the 2007 Royal Rumble, is when we start to fully see Vince’s vision for the WWECW show, which is just Raw and SmackDown but with a much smaller roster.
Another incredible video! These make my Saturday mornings!!!
You guys did a great job with this. FWIW, the lesson WWE learned in all of this appears to have been the value of absolutely destroying the value of all other wrestling brands as quickly & as thoroughly as possible.
Watching these makes me want more Cut Scene videos. Luke, do you think we'll ever get more of those?
You forgot the part with the ugliest championship belt ever created.
I love these videos. Please keep up the great work!
Nice long form. Good on you. Well played.
Wait, when did Sabu vs Rey Mysterio end in DQ? It was a spot to end the match where they were trying to not make anyone look bad by losing. It was a ref stoppage.
Of course it was Vince😂 Honestly, if he sat his old ass down and allowed Shane to work, ECW might still be around. People still love that grunge and rough wrestling. That's what people watch AEW for.
Vince McMahon is the obvious killer of WWECW Changed the most famous Barb wired Font.
Vince McMahon Jr. Killed ECW. But the brand is still alive because Paul Hayman got into the WWE Hall of Fame so ECW is still alive in our memories!!! Have a great day.
Vince McMahon
video over
True story
Cap
These documentary style videos are fantastic
This was great. Love these videos 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
The pg era killed it. Wwe chose to make it less extreme.
12:43 made me go watch it again & i was like "this is pretty tame" for the first few minutes but towsrds the end i was like "yeaaaaaa this is fantastic"
As much as we all crap on him recently Shane was probably the biggest visionary in wwe. But Vince never took to any of his ideas and it costs the company billions on billions. Like the ufc purchase suggestion is always something i remember
Edge was lobbying for Gangrel’s return just for a one night Brood reunion during his feud with Seth Rollins as he used this statement:
“WWE fans they remember…..they always remember.”
Same statement used by Vince for ECW “No one will remember the old ECW.” “No one is going to remember the old Brood or Gangrel.”
If you have diehard wrestling fans for WWE, WCW, ECW, or any number of promotions out there…….they always remember!
When you said Raven is you favorite wrestler of all time, it made me think, and realize, that im not sure who MY favorite wrestler of all time is. Man.. thats a seriously tough question with so, so many viable candidates. Mankind is up there, but then i ALWAYS loved how Rey Mysterio Jr. could do the 619 and fling himself all over the ring and all over his opponents. Undertaker had such badass entrances. The Big Show is larger than life and hard to miss with his epic choke slams. Guerrero with his charisma and the sort of "love to be hated" persona his character displayed. Macho Man. Need i say anything at all? The name alone commands respect... the list just goes on and on. I dont think i could pick just one. Theyre all equally great in their own rites, barring Hogan, the absolute liar.
As someone who stuck with the show from beginning to end, while it was sad early on, it wasn't complete doom and gloom at first. The first couple months, you could still see glimmers of hope as they tried to keep it somewhat in line with the og, but it was obvious it was a tug of war.
Once RVD was gone, the show morphed more into the new superstar initiative Era, and at times had some promise. I mean a lot of ppl did stick around the ratings despite it all. Had it just not been "E C W" it may have had a better reputation.
We did get some gems from it...
Rvd and Sabu VS Test and Mike Knox.
The Balls/Kelly story was ALMOST good(Mandy and Otis in 2007) but Vince pulled the plug.
CM Punk vs John Morrison was a very good rivalry.
Christian as champion was excellent.
Even Matt Hardy had decent matches as champ.
Mark Henry's first time showing he could carry a title.
Evan Bourne. Heel Shelton. Don't pretend you didn't like Yoshi Tatsu, they chanted his name in nxt like forever in 2014.
Never would have been a great show, but what chances it had and what little good it did show were always constantly buried beneath by Vince
Another great video, thanks Luke 👍
Ecw in WWE was killed by TNA! While WWE was trying to make a 3rd brand, TNA hired all the ECW stars. WWE had an ECW lite, while TNA had a 2nd chapter for the ECW stars.
not realy in 2005
I love the long documentary style videos you guys do. Great work wrestletalk!
Vince killed it , because it was one his competitions and he didn’t want to listen to anyone but himself. Shane had so many ideas , but Vince always dismissed them. Shane should’ve been the heir to WWE , not Triple H or Stephanie.
ECW on Syfi was also the beginning of the end of the channel itself. Now they play films like Fast and Furious. HTF is Fast and Furious Sci-fi!
Only 9 of the ECW champions from its original incarnation, from Tazz's first reign to Ryno's, were considered as recognized world champions by PWI. That being said, none of ECW's World Heavyweight Champions would move on to win recognized world championships. WWE's incarnation proved to be more of an indication of true talent. Most of WWECW's champions would move on to win recognized world championships in WWE and other companies. Yet PWI refuses to recognize this incarnation of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. That is an injustice considering that this was Chavo Guerrero's only World Championship win.
I actually liked Kevin Vampiredude. And Ariel was nice to look at.
he was horible . gimick was ok
I watched live when Vince McMahon said ECW was gonna be canceled, yea LIVE, that’s how much of a wrestling fan I was, I was 8 years old, I watched Raw, Smackdown (Smackdown was literally a Raw recap show), TNA, and ECW. By that time, the top stars were Zack Ryder and whoever his girl was, Tommy Dreamer, Christian, Matt Hardy (with purple tights), Finaly, Jack Swagger (who would soon become World Heavyweight Champion), the Gold Standard Shelton Benjamin, Big Daddy V, The Boogeyman, and Abraham Washington and Tony Atlas (I liked that act). I actually liked Mike Knox on Smackdown, I wasn’t watching ECW when he was on ECW, so I knew nothing about Knox and Kelly Kelly, they were separated by the time they were on Smackdown together
I started watched wrestling Armageddon 1999. HHH vs Vince was the first real match I ever fully watched. Stopped watching WWE in Aug 2005 and didn’t come back until April 2010
Hey did you know that JBL busted open the Blue Meanie for reals?
“Concerning. Looking into it.”
etleast jbl accepted punishment with dangerous chairshot
WCW kiilled itself, but the Turner AOL merger sealed the deal by not wanting to have wrestling anymore.
The more I hear about how Vince booked things backstage, along with his attitude and actions as well, the more I think he was just a very lucky guy who had very talented people around him and he was the one person who had no idea what he was doing. Period.
I don't think Syfy were in the wrong for wanting certain gimmicks to fall in line with their other programming. Especially from a media, and company, that has Kane, Undertaker, Gangrel.....GOD(!) It was really up to Vince to make it work and balance it out to make sense if he truly cared.
That RVD vs Cena was a subliminal doubleturn for me. At the end of the match I gained respect for Cena that i never had before and RVD in WWE seemed diminished from the Jerry Lynn days
Luke: “Think about the phone you had in 2005…”
Me: “Brother, I was 7 years old” 😂
16:29
Terry Funk was a god. That first ECW PPV was special