The Rise and Fall of ECW (2004)

E-C-W! E-C-W! E-C-W!" - a chant still heard in arenas around the world. ECW: Extreme Championship Wrestling redefined professional wrestling in the '90s with a reckless, brutal, death-defying, and often bloody style that came to be known as "hardcore." It attracted a rabid, cult-like following that is still going strong today.

This 6-hour, 2-disc set follows the rise and eventual demise of the company that raised the bar and revolutionized sports-entertainment forever.

DVD EXTRAS:
Seven bonus matches, including:
*The Pit Bulls vs. Raven & Stevie Richards
*Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis
*Mikey Whipwreck vs. The Sandman
*2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu
*Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven*
*Tazz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow*
*Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn*

*includes alternate commentary

a good documentory with 7 good matches

this dvd chronicles the whole birth and death of the ecw....with firsthand accounts from the ecdub originals about the hardships and the bounced checks and paul haimans evil mind....the documenary is good but the matches r great...buy this on August 27, 2007

Only half the truth. Get Forever Hardcore for the rest.

Just as my title says. You only get half the truth here. This DVD for me, stands as the best documentary wwe has offered up to this point. You get the info on who created ECW. You will hear from wwe signed stars only. I like the way they all spoke out of character and gave their true feelings. You will also hear Eric Biscoff's side of the story as far as WCW raiding their talent. What I like the most is. WWE didn't edit the interviews. You will hear all the cursing there is. To speak any more will result in spoilers.

If your a fan of ECW then you may be satisfied with this documentary. Pick up Forever Hardcore also. It has the exact same concept as this. Only you'll hear from the stars that are not signed by the wwe. It features some matches. But you can get all these matches plus more on the ECW Bloodsport collection. August 16, 2007

Very good DVD for ECW lovers

You must see "Forever Hardcore" if you liked this DVD. Unfortunately, Vince owns all the ECW footage, so they can't show clips of their stories. But it fills you in on a lot this DVD couldn't tell you! April 22, 2007

Highly insightful documentary into the history of the most extreme franchise of the 90s

Where WWF (now WWE) and WCW dared not go, ECW was there. Disqualification was a thing unheard of in ECW matches, and cheesy fake-punching and fake-kicking (called "pillowstrikes" in the wrestling business) are in the sharp minority of wrestling moves, and blood is shed frequently.

I was too young to ever know ECW beyond the mentions of it on the internet and WWF (which I watched a lot back in 2000, 2001, 2002, and now again in 2005, 2006 and beyond), but this DVD does an incredible job of telling the epic story of ECW and its top wrestlers without dragging behind or missing a beat.

It literally chronicles ECW from its rise as Eastern Championship Wrestling as part of the NWA, to the influence of Paul Heyman, who helped cause it to be nicknamed Extreme Championship Wrestling, and eventually broke away and became officially Extreme Championship Wrestling. They struggled for many years, never having a pay-per-view event until very later on, and having only regional TV access, never syndication until 2000-2001

The story leaves out nothing of importance in telling of the ECW, even dedicating a portion of the documentary to the fans, who were entirely responsible for ECW's mild success, even telling of the loyal fans who went to nearly every show (including one the wrestlers called Hatman because he always wore a straw hat in the front row), bringing their own weapons (from frying pans to boat oars), holding their chairs up for wrestlers to throw other wrestlers onto, and even catching wrestlers that are thrown at them (Spike Dudley for one, being crowd-surfed around the small arena before returned safely to the ring)

The major superstars even have their own segments dedicated to telling their stories in the ring, going from ECW originals like Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Sandman, Tazz, Sabu, Shane Douglas, etc, to people better known for their WWF/WWE exploits, such as Steve Austin (later Stone Cold), Cactus Jack, The Radicalz (Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero), Rey Mysterio, The Dudley Boys.

The people recounting the stories in the documentary are nearly all the people who were involved with ECW, from the producers, executives and creative assistants, to the wrestlers themselves, Tommy Dreamer, Mick Foley, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam, Tazz, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, even Jerry Lawler (who had a feud with Tommy Dreamer and most all of ECW in 1997), Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, and Paul Heyman.

Paul Heyman is without a doubt the most insightful star of these interviews, as he is a great storyteller, with a powerfully emotionally charged voice that grabs your attention and keeps you listening, imitating wrestler's voices (such as Steve Austin and Terry Funk) without a hint of rancor, being as rambunctious and lewd as he can (such as saying in indirect response to Eric Bischoff saying he didn't "raid" ECW and steal its superstars, "Eric Bischoff is full of ****" or else something to similar effect)

Towards the end, you learn via footage and interviews of what began to bring down ECW. You hear first-hand from people like Tazz and Spike Dudley and others of the financial troubles with ECW which saw many wrestlers such as Bam Bam Bigelow leave to WCW for better pay, and other stay on by sheer loyalty to Paul, who commanded their loyalty and respect with loyalty and respect of his own to them, and who went without pay for weeks, even months at a time, just so ECW could continue to thrive. You learn how Paul nearly worked himself to death, working, as one wrestler (I forget who) says Paul worked 20 hours a day for ECW. It tells of the betrayal of one of ECW's original founders, courting ECW wrestlers to get them sold to WCW and WWF, and Paul forcing him to resign from his post.

At the very end, you see a very gritty piece of footage of Paul Heyman from 2001 on his ECW show, criticizing the network that finally put them on syndicated air (TNN, now Spike TV) claiming very loudly and shockingly, that TNN did not spend a penny in advertising ECW; no commercials, no advertisements, no press releases, absolutely nothing, and they even wrote in their contract that ECW could not seek a different network while they were under contract with TNN, while TNN subtly sought to buy WWF Raw is War from USA Network (which they eventually did in late 2001, and kicked ECW off the air, effectively killing it once and for all).


The documentary is well worth the money in itself, providing well edited clips of fierce matches, going into very dense detail of the history of the business, from its very rise, down to its fall and the migration of many ECW stars to WWF (as WCW had been bought out by WWF in mid 2001), with even a very touching piece of footage taken from the first monday night RAW when Paul becomes commentator with Jim Ross, where J.R. comforts Paul in a very mentorly way, telling him to keep his chin up, he'll be okay, etc.

As an added bonus to the entire thing, we get an extra DVD packed with some memorable ECW matches, chosen apparently for their greatness and impact, rather than their bloodiness. While there are still bloody and hardcore matches (obviously) some of them are of the more basic, physical kind devoid of blood, such as the ones with Tazz, and the luchadores Psycosis and Rey Mysterio



All in all, it was well worth the money, and works highly effectively in introducing newbies to ECW, or telling the whole story to hardened fans of the franchise. Most memorable of all in the DVD, which sticks with you long after watching, is the sound coming from nearly every ECW audience in any match---the chants of "E-C-W! E-C-W! E-C-W! E-C-W!" every time the match hits a high point. December 26, 2006

Still the best feature doc the WWE has ever produced.

Before the debacle that was the 2006 rebirth of ECW, this 2 disc set started things in motion, as it sold like crazy and convinced Vince McMahon that a WWE produced ECW was a good idea. This R rated, three hour documentary is full of every twist and turn the original ECW went through, including the Mass Transit incident, the first ECW pay per view, and their struggles on TNN (now Spike TV).

Paul Heyman (of course) gets most of the airtime, but many of the wrestlers (the Dudleys, Tazz, Tommy Dreamer, etc.) offer very candid comments as well.

An extra disc of matches rounds out this fantastic set. If you weren't a huge ECW fan back in the day, then this won't really tickle your interest. But to any true pro wrestling fan, it's required viewing. December 16, 2006

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