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| Guest Columns | Luke Johnston |
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THE NEW CHALLENGE FOR
ECW Some seven years after bursting out of the ashes of a dilapidated little bingo hall in South Philadelphia, ECW is finally ready to make a name for itself on the big stage. Starting next week, Paul Heyman and his merry band of misfits make their national debut on the TNN cable network. For the first time since the fall of the AWA, fans will have a legitimate weekly alternative to the Big Two. After years of being that promotion that everybody talks about but only a few actually see on a regular basis, the whole country will finally get the opportunity to see and feel the revolution for themselves. It's going to be huge. It's going to be fabulous. It's going to change the face of wrestling for the next millennium. Right? Uh, maybe, but first of all, what makes you think anybody's going to watch it? Those of us who have been around for a while know how ECW made its name. It debuted at a time when the pro wrestling business wasn't quite dead but basically had one foot in the grave. The sex and steroid scandals had rocked the WWF and cast a negative shadow on the industry as a whole. Vince McMahon responded by trying to increase the wholesome "fun for the whole family" image of the WWF, and the result was something that looked more like a live action Disney movie than professional wrestling. WCW was completely lost. They were regularly drawing houses of 500 people or less and had pretty much given up on trying to turn the company around (or at least that's the impression they gave). In the mean time, there was this quiet little promotion in Philadelphia called Eastern Championship Wrestling that was starting to develop a following among the brave souls who would journey to the ECW Arena every Saturday night. At a time when the target audience for WCW and the WWF seemed to be kids 12 and under, ECW was doing something dramatically different. As part of some bizarre and radical strategy, they started filling their shows with stuff that actually appealed to.... adults. Blood, violence, profanity, barbed wire, cages, chair shots, table breaking. In the ultra politically correct world of pro wrestling in the early nineties, ECW was the only place you could find it. And people sure found it. As ECW gained in popularity, things were only getting worse for the other guys. Vince McMahon responded to his rapidly deflating TV ratings, house show gates, and merchandise sales by giving people more of the very thing they were rejecting: family entertainment. In came Doink the Clown, Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, Thurman "Sparky" Plugg, and more of the like. Fans were screaming at McMahon that they wanted a more adult oriented product, but sadly, he didn't listen. Some fans stuck with the WWF in the hope that it would one day get better. Others got completely fed up and stopped watching wrestling altogether. Others found ECW. ECW was an alternative to the Big Two in the truest sense of the word. The 90s had ushered in a kinder, gentler, form of wrestling, but ECW revolted against that. Todd Gordon and Paul Heyman didn't just establish ECW as an alternative to what the other guys were doing, they also turned it into a sign of defiance against what pro wrestling had become. Fans of ECW weren't just fans of the people who wrestled there, there were fans of what the promotion represented. With every chant of "ECW! ECW!" at live events, fans were sending a big "Screw you" out to the other companies and what they represented. Most of ECW's fans had grown up on the WWF and the NWA in the 80s and were disgusted with what the two promotions had turned into. ECW was an outlet for those frustrations. In the process of bringing in those disgruntled fans, the promotion developed a loyalty among its followers that has never been matched and probably never will. You didn't just like ECW back in those days, you worshipped it. A lot of these fans happened to be on the Internet, and it was there that they spread the word to other fans that an alternative to WCW and the WWF actually did exist. It was largely due to the Internet that ECW's fanbase continued to grow through the years. When this guy that nobody had ever heard of named Sabu would moonsault through a table at a show, you would read about it on the Internet and feel like you were missing the world. When Shane Douglas threw down the NWA title and transformed Eastern Championship Wrestling into Extreme Championship Wrestling, you read about it on the Internet and wished that you could have been there. A lot of people got hooked on ECW the very first time they saw it. Whether it was live at the ECW Arena or on a videotape, there was just something so special, so magical, so different about the product that you felt like you just had to see more and more. And more and more fans did see it. ECW continued to gain followers as the years went by, and although it increased dramatically in size and popularity, it still maintained that sense of specialness. It was still different, it was still unique, and it was still an alternative to the Big Two. Then something changed. Some time in late 1997, Vince McMahon woke up and realized that family entertainment was no longer working. Perhaps it was the humiliation of having his ass handed to him in the ratings week after week by WCW that made him realize that it was time for a change. A drastic change. McMahon took everything that the WWF had represented over the last ten years and tossed it out the window. Bret Hart, whom McMahon claims was always a strong proponent of the family friendly style of wrestling, exited the promotion in November, and then the floodgates opened. McMahon and the WWF did a complete 180. Gone were the silly gimmicks meant to appeal to kids. In their place, controversial and oh so politically incorrect anti-heroes like Steve Austin and Degeneration X. Gone was the softcore, blatantly non-violent style of wrestling that so many fans had rallied against throughout the 90s. In its place, a more rough and tumble style of competition: chair shots, table breaking, blood, and heck, even barbed wire. Fans everywhere watched in delight as the WWF morphed into a completely different company seemingly overnight. This was the WWF that everybody had pleaded for during those dark years when the evil clowns and wrestling hockey players had dominated fans' TV screens. It was clear that the WWF had been born again, but to a lot of people, what the WWF had become looked a lot like something they had already seen. Something like ECW. After years of being different, after years of representing an alternative, ECW ceased to be different. What Paul Heyman had been doing for so long in the cramped confines of the ECW Arena and on crappy late night cable time slots was now being done on a stage in front of millions by the WWF. The WWF took what had worked for ECW and gave it their own little twist. In turn, WCW started to emulate some of what was being done by the competition by sprinkling in a more hardcore style of wrestling. Pretty soon, it was routine to see multiple tables bring broken every Monday night. Chair shots became a standard feature of nearly every match. Brawling outside the ring became more common than brawling inside the ring. Before long, what ECW had used to establish itself as an alternative was no longer an alternative, and that brings us to where we are today. When ECW makes its national debut next week on TNN, it will face the challenge of convincing people that it's still an alternative to the Big Two. Unfortunately, that won't be as easy to do as it was a few years ago. Fans won't be all that shocked by Sabu doing a moonsault through two tables. Rob Van Dam doing a flying body press off the top turnbuckle into the third row won't make an entire match memorable by itself. Tommy Dreamer taking five straight chair shots to the head won't be that big of a deal. After all, Mick Foley took 12 at the Royal Rumble. In order to succeed, Paul Heyman must realize that being different in 1999 is a lot harder than it was in 1995. The rules have changed, and what was once considered forbidden ground is now flaunted every Monday night by both promotions. In order to make his mark on a national level, Heyman needs to put out a product that is everything that ECW used to be, but more. In addition to the hardcore style that made ECW famous in the first place, there must be creative and engaging storylines to back it up. The WWF has set the standard for this over the past couple years, and ECW will have to prove that it truly can play with the big boys in this department. In addition, Heyman needs to do everything he can to keep the core group of talent -- Dreamer, Taz, Incredible, RVD, etc. -- firmly in place. A lot of fans aren't familiar with any of the established ECW stars, and it will be up to ECW to make people care about them. Establishing ECW as a major player on the national stage in today's "been there, done that" world of pro wrestling will be a challenge, but if there's anybody out there who has the ability to live up to that challenge, it's Paul Heyman. The fact that ECW has broken into the pay-per-view world and prospered for as long as it has is a testament to his ability. The fact that promotions across the country have adopted ECW's style in recent years is a testament to the impact the company has had on the business. I don't know what the greater result will be of ECW's new found national exposure, but man, it sure will be fun finding out. Luke Johnston The Shooters Mail the Author Visit The Shooters |
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