ECW vs WWF feud in 1997

[The Blue Nova]

How come it did not take off it had loads of potential other then RVD and sabu wrestling a few matches on WWF programming nothing came of it

[Sephiroth]

I personally remain convinced that Vince was essentially trying to do with ECW what Bischoff had done in the early days of the NWO: pull off an invasion angle. He tried it again not long after with the NWA. I suspect a reason it never took off is because a lot of other people in the WWE/F were against giving any air time to a rival promotion, especially one as raunchy as ECW was at the time.

[fw91]

i was only a kid, so i have no memory of it, but i dont think it was meant to be big, just get ecw noticed

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Nov 23, 2013 14:55:59 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

I personally remain convinced that Vince was essentially trying to do with ECW what Bischoff had done in the early days of the NWO: pull off an invasion angle. He tried it again not long after with the NWA. I suspect a reason it never took off is because a lot of other people in the WWE/F were against giving any air time to a rival promotion, especially one as raunchy as ECW was at the time.

Plus the nWo was an invasion by some of wrestling's biggest names. ECW and NWA's names were comparative nobodies.

[Super Nintenjoe KBD]

I love stuff like this and the NWA invasion even if they didnt last long and weren't successful, I just like that they tried stuff like this. Also it's kind of interesting that WWF was "invaded" by their 3 biggest rivals of the previous 2 decades, NWA, WCW and ECW, in the space of 5 years. You could say ECW invaded twice although they were brief as an independent entity in 01. And yes I know they were closer to WWF than the other 2.

[thegame415]

That was an NWA invasion? They sure went after some big names, like Bradshaw and the Headbangers.

I always assumed the eventual plan was for them to feud with Austin or DX in a whole "New School" vs "Old School" feud.

[dbostick]

Supposedly, it was a combination of things that phased the ECW angle out on WWF TV.

There were rumors that Titan and friends wanted Dreamer to job to Jesse James on Shotgun and, obviously, Heyman had problems with that idea. Also, Vince wasn't too happy with Sabu throwing chairs around in the crowd after his match with Flash Funk, which was ultimately the last of ECW in the WWF for a while- other than JR and King plugging Hardcore Heaven '97 to Vince's "disapproval." Rob Van Dam had also not endeared himself to management, hence his short stay, due to his attitude.