Barbed Wire City Documentary

[SOR]

I did a quick search and didn't see any posts about this so thought I would make a thread it's been out for a couple days now so...

What's the feedback on this like? Is it worth a purchase? I have ECW Rise And Fall and Forever Hardcore which generally gives the full story but I'll definitely give this a look if it's get some positive feedback in this thread

[Deleted]

It's definitely a very good companion documentary to those two. I liked it better than Forever Hardcore. It's something different, since it includes comments from guys like Public Enemy before they passed away, several wrestlers from both 2001 interviews and then also 2012 interviews, comparing their viewpoint at those two times in their lives.

The one thing I disliked about it was the time it spent focusing on Extreme Rising. I know they had to explain that the 2012 footage was from that particular promotion's show, but they went too far into how successful that show was and talking about the show's content. I don't think that really mattered. I would've preferred more focus on the Eastern Championship Wrestling years, because that was actually part of ECW. Extreme Rising isn't. They included the Eastern stuff in the Extras, but should've swapped that footage into the main documentary in place of the Extreme Rising stuff.

I was also left scratching my head at the use of music. One of the things the guys who made the documentary talked about during their Kickstarter campaign was wanting to raise the money to license music they wanted to use in the documentary. Well, there isn't anything in it other than what sounds like one of them playing a keyboard or strumming a guitar as background music. They didn't appear to have licensed anything.

Those guys deserve to get paid for their efforts making the documentary, but it didn't seem to include anything that needed "licensing" aside from what they had to pay Rob Feinstein for use of his Fan Cam footage. The rest is just their own interview footage, self-created music, and photos.

In all, it's definitely worth getting if you were a fan of ECW. It's absolutely better than Forever Hardcore.

[celticjobber]

It was good, but they should've had more interviews with former ECW wrestlers (Tommy Dreamer was a notable absence), and less footage of wrestling journalists like Meltzer, Keller, and Scherer. I would guess about 70% of the interviews were with the news guys.

While their insights were interesting, I would rather hear more from the wrestlers. Especially guys you never hear many interviews from, like Perry Saturn or Mikey Whipwreck. Or hell, I'd like to hear some obscure guys like Chris Chetti or CW Anderson's take on ECW now. Or even Chilly Willy, who quit wrestling and joined the military after September 11.

And I thought they should've talked more about guys who made it, like Bubba Ray Dudley (they focus on how he pissed off crowds and left for WWF when ECW signed with TNN, but nothing else), and not just tragic figures like Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney.

[Deleted]

I'll second all of celticjobber's comments. It definitely would have helped to use more interview footage with the wrestlers and less of the journalists. From the standpoint of putting together a documentary like this that didn't have a narrator, they had to somehow rely on the interview subjects to "explain everything" and recap the history verbally. Odds are the journalists speaking of what happened during each period was much more useful in doing this than the interviews with the wrestlers probably were. It's doubtful someone like Mikey Whipwreck would have explained a time period in ECW's history more fully than Mike Johnson, for example, since Johnson is used to writing historical pieces for his web site.

They should've thrown some of that Kickstarter money at guys like Tommy Dreamer or Taz to entice them to do some interviews. It would've been a very wise investment for the overall documentary.

[Deleted]

It was great it just would have helped to be authorized...How much they talked about finally getting the PPV deal after the Transit incident...Hearing Joey and Paul's speeches would have helped...It's also a bit unsettling hearing Rocko Rock talk about it all

[Deleted]

Apr 26, 2013 3:22:38 GMT -5 celticjobber said:

It was good, but they should've had more interviews with former ECW wrestlers (Tommy Dreamer was a notable absence), and less footage of wrestling journalists like Meltzer, Keller, and Scherer. I would guess about 70% of the interviews were with the news guys.

While their insights were interesting, I would rather hear more from the wrestlers. Especially guys you never hear many interviews from, like Perry Saturn or Mikey Whipwreck. Or hell, I'd like to hear some obscure guys like Chris Chetti or CW Anderson's take on ECW now. Or even Chilly Willy, who quit wrestling and joined the military after September 11.

And I thought they should've talked more about guys who made it, like Bubba Ray Dudley (they focus on how he pissed off crowds and left for WWF when ECW signed with TNN, but nothing else), and not just tragic figures like Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney.

Umm Mikey is featured briefly right before the PPV talk

[celticjobber]

Apr 26, 2013 16:47:11 GMT -5 @slickrickstyles said:

Apr 26, 2013 3:22:38 GMT -5 celticjobber said:

It was good, but they should've had more interviews with former ECW wrestlers (Tommy Dreamer was a notable absence), and less footage of wrestling journalists like Meltzer, Keller, and Scherer. I would guess about 70% of the interviews were with the news guys.

While their insights were interesting, I would rather hear more from the wrestlers. Especially guys you never hear many interviews from, like Perry Saturn or Mikey Whipwreck. Or hell, I'd like to hear some obscure guys like Chris Chetti or CW Anderson's take on ECW now. Or even Chilly Willy, who quit wrestling and joined the military after September 11.

And I thought they should've talked more about guys who made it, like Bubba Ray Dudley (they focus on how he pissed off crowds and left for WWF when ECW signed with TNN, but nothing else), and not just tragic figures like Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney.

Umm Mikey is featured briefly right before the PPV talk

I know, but I meant I would like to have seen more interview footage with Mikey (and others who weren't even featured) and less with the journalists.

[Mayonnaise]

Apr 26, 2013 3:38:06 GMT -5 @kudohdriver said:

I'll second all of celticjobber's comments. It definitely would have helped to use more interview footage with the wrestlers and less of the journalists. From the standpoint of putting together a documentary like this that didn't have a narrator, they had to somehow rely on the interview subjects to "explain everything" and recap the history verbally. Odds are the journalists speaking of what happened during each period was much more useful in doing this than the interviews with the wrestlers probably were. It's doubtful someone like Mikey Whipwreck would have explained a time period in ECW's history more fully than Mike Johnson, for example, since Johnson is used to writing historical pieces for his web site.

They should've thrown some of that Kickstarter money at guys like Tommy Dreamer or Taz to entice them to do some interviews. It would've been a very wise investment for the overall documentary.

Something else to remember is Johnson and Scherer were there in ECW as well. Both worked for Joey and Bob Ryder in creating and maintaining the ECW website. They were the guys behind all the interviews and columns there as well as being 2 of the original ECW superfans. Johnson was also Joey's researcher for the international guys as well. So those two at least have a lot 1st hand knowledge of things that happened.

[Deleted]

Very well said Rick...What alot of people don't know is how many hands were in the melting pot that was ECW...Gilbert, Heyman, and Gordon wasn't all of it...

[anticonscience]

Is this the one that got funded thru a KickStarter? I considered donating but ultimately decided against getting a copy since there have already been 2 great docs on the topic so this one felt unnecessary (especially with how few guys there were free to interview as well as the fact that they couldn't use vids/pix since WWE owns them)

[celticjobber]

Apr 26, 2013 18:27:20 GMT -5 anticonscience said:

Is this the one that got funded thru a KickStarter? I considered donating but ultimately decided against getting a copy since there have already been 2 great docs on the topic so this one felt unnecessary (especially with how few guys there were free to interview as well as the fact that they couldn't use vids/pix since WWE owns them)

They had ECW footage in Barbed Wire City, but it was stuff from fan cams.

If you liked the other 2, I would recommend this one because it's different enough to justify seeing all three.

Since they've been working on it off and on for over a decade, it includes interviews going back to when ECW was still around in 2000 and early 2001.

The difference a decade made physically on some of the guys in this doc is pretty startling (especially Balls and Axl).

[Bishblast]

I would say it's definitely better than the other two I've seen. The extras are alright on the DVD... just, good god, way too much Billy Corgan. Can't stand that dude.

[Deleted]

Anticonscience, you should check this one out if you were an ECW fan and liked the previous documentaries. It has things to offer that neither of the others could (like Public Enemy being featured in the interviews). It's better than Forever Hardcore, but I can't really choose between this one and Rise and Fall. The Rise and Fall one had the benefit of using all of the footage, and interviews with everybody. But this one was very well done even without those things, possibly better in certain ways. They still used some Heyman interview footage from ECW fan convention Q&A sessions, so he's included in a roundabout way.

They did use ECW footage throughout it, but only the fan cam stuff they could get the rights to use. They also used still photos very well, "animating" them to look 3D.

[Bishblast]

I loved the RF footage they used for this... there really is a lot of info in things he has taped (full of shit or not), I liked how most things were given with a year so as to give you some idea of the context of the interview footage. Only thing I found odd was all the interview footage they used of Rocco Rock, considering how long he's been dead.

[Deleted]

Apr 26, 2013 19:50:11 GMT -5 Bishblast said:

Only thing I found odd was all the interview footage they used of Rocco Rock, considering how long he's been dead.

All the more reason to include as much of it as possible. It's the last existing (and up to this point was unreleased) video footage of him talking about wrestling, and about ECW specifically. It's there, so everyone should get a chance to see it.

[W?Y]

I donated to their Kickstarter; still waiting for my DVD, hoping it'll be here in the next couple of weeks.

[eDemento2099]

I've never heard of Barbed Wire City before, so thanks to the OP for bringing it to my attention. I enjoyed Forever Hardcore and The Rise & Fall of ECW, so this is probably right up my alley.

I think the documentary's title is misleading. Although people associate ECW with barbed wire because the promotion popularized its use in gimmick matches (at least in the context of North America, where few people had seen Japanese deathmatches from promotions like FMW and IWA-Japan), ECW was actually rather reserved when it came to the number of times the promotion used barbed wire. The term 'city' suggests that ECW was full of barbed wire, whereas it seemed to me that the promotion seldom featured it except on a few high-profile occasions (The NRBW matches between Raven and Sandman, between Axl and Ian Rotten, and between Sabu and Terry Funk are the most noteworthy occasions).

I think the question "Was it necessary to have another ECW documentary" is a ridiculous. If you want to assess the 'truth' in something, you want to investigate it from multiple angles/vantage points (The more you use, the more complete your synthesized impression will be). This method of gaining insight is known in science as 'triangulation.' Unless this ECW documentary is merely rehashing information that Rise & Fall and Forever Hardcore have already covered (in which case, BWC is redundant), I consider it a welcome addition.

If you're going to study 18th century France's class system, you don't want to be in a position of relying on only 2 texts/history books. The more (credible) sources you have to assess social phenomena, the better. Paradoxically, working with more sources may lead to more conflicting viewpoints, which will require you to make judgements as to which viewpoints are most accurate.

[Deleted]

Apr 27, 2013 11:16:58 GMT -5 eDemento2099 said:

I've never heard of Barbed Wire City before, so thanks to the OP for bringing it to my attention. I enjoyed Forever Hardcore and The Rise & Fall of ECW, so this is probably right up my alley.

I think the documentary's title is misleading. Although people associate ECW with barbed wire because the promotion popularized its use in gimmick matches (at least in the context of North America, where few people had seen Japanese deathmatches from promotions like FMW and IWA-Japan), ECW was actually rather reserved when it came to the number of times the promotion used barbed wire. The term 'city' suggests that ECW was full of barbed wire, whereas it seemed to me that the promotion seldom featured it except on a few high-profile occasions (The NRBW matches between Raven and Sandman, between Axl and Ian Rotten, and between Sabu and Terry Funk are the most noteworthy occasions).

I think the question "Was it necessary to have another ECW documentary" is a ridiculous. If you want to assess the 'truth' in something, you want to investigate it from multiple angles/vantage points (The more you use, the more complete your synthesized impression will be). This method of gaining insight is known in science as 'triangulation.' Unless this ECW documentary is merely rehashing information that Rise & Fall and Forever Hardcore have already covered (in which case, BWC is redundant), I consider it a welcome addition.

If you're going to study 18th century France's class system, you don't want to be in a position of relying on only 2 texts/history books. The more (credible) sources you have to assess social phenomena, the better. Paradoxically, working with more sources may lead to more conflicting viewpoints, which will require you to make judgements as to which viewpoints are most accurate.

you went above and beyond anything I could ever say...I think I need another beer cause this guy trumped us all

[Deleted]

On the barbed wire city name..... I think it works. There were several matches in the company's history which included barbed wire, even though it wasn't a regular occurrence. Either way, the ECW logo was a barbed wire font.

[aaronslip]

I backed this on Kickstarter but haven't received mine yet.

I'll give it a few days and Email them. Heard it is a good watch though.