Did The Constant ECW Reunions' Make Everyone Dislike ECW?

[romanstylesiii]

After the first One Night Stand, I was happy to say good-bye. But the reunion shows went on for another 10+ years.

For me, it was officially enough when TNA ran a show. TNA at the time had all the best young talent in the world. I am not sure anyone in the world wanted to see all the aging ECW talent doing their 500th reunion show over the more talented and much younger TNA roster.

[The Ichi]

I think it was kind of the equivalent of Hollywood (badly) remaking a grungy horror cult classic. It just doesn't work.

[Deleted]

I realized this some time ago......... when I was in my 20's the idea & nature of ECW was pretty amazing. What I saw seemed unreal. Way out there compared to the other big 2. One might say extreme, even. ;p

But now that I'm older, I utterly cringe at a lot of old ECW footage. I didn't "grow up with it" like others, so I know it would've never aged well with me anyway. But not so much the quality, just the flat out violence and harm they went thru. Knowing all the injuries and even deaths does no good for its image to me.

And watching how others (tried to) emulate what they pioneered has not aged well either. I used to be upset that WWF/E censors full-on chair shots, but it doesn't even bother me anymore - in some cases I damn well appreciate it.Foley getting hit with a chair used to look awesome - knowing the brain damage it caused (SEVERE memory problems) makes me hate ever thinking it was cool.

[Deleted]

It made me dislike ECW reunions

[The Dark Order Inferno]

A decade of the WWE acting like ECW was close to, if not bigger than WCW and seeing what the ECW style did to the wrestlers who stayed made me dislike it.

[Alice Syndrome]

Nah it just made people lose their nostalgia goggles.

[Stu]

Constant reunions from 2005-now don't make me dislike the original shows from the mid-1990s.

[kingoftheindies]

make me hate ECW? No. Make me realize there was about a 10 year gap starting with One Night Stand where ECW's impact was overhyped while downplaying how good WCW was during the 90s? Yes.

For all the talks of WCW raiding ECW in a lot of cases the truth was that WCW executives were exposed to wrestlers due to the Lucha and New Japan connections, or through guys that had Bischoff's ear... and that can be tracked to pretty much every ECW guy Bischoff signed.

[darbus alan]

I think there's a narrative around ECW that excessively glorified the positive aspects of the product while ignoring the completely trashy aspects of it. It's spread by not just the old ECW diehard fans, but also WWE and a number of ECW alumni.

[The Blue Nova]

Personally I am an ECW fan. But I can also say alot of the stuff does not hold up over time.As for every RVD vs jerry lynn or Dean and Eddie Match theres a Hack Myers or a Mikey whipwreck vs Fidel Sierra match. With that being said I think ECW still had alot of good that helped them stand out in 1995 1996. When the big two product was terrible.Because of this i think some fans may watch ECW with rose colored glasses or because it gives them nostalgia. I think the attitude era hurt ECW to be honest. I still think the first ONS was good closure and should of been left at that.and by 2010 Tna pushing their company aside to promote guys from 10 or 11 years earlier when TNA had an amazing roster was silly.

[kingoftheindies]

Jul 8, 2020 15:20:06 GMT -5 darbus alan said:

I think there's a narrative around ECW that excessively glorified the positive aspects of the product while ignoring the completely trashy aspects of it. It's spread by not just the old ECW diehard fans, but also WWE and a number of ECW alumni.

This too. ECW peaked in 95-97. Now they did still have some good shows in 98 and 99 but their last year was insanely disjointed.

And don't get me wrong, a lot of stuff from ECW's prime still holds up very well, but i personally think even the influence that is talked about on mainstream wrestling is a bit overstated. Not fully but they were a very clear and very distant number 3 promotion

[Deleted]

I'm watching through Raw, Nitro and Hardcore TV right now starting in September '95 and am in December right now. Other than their run on TNN, this is my first time watching ECW and it's really been a slog so far. I'm trying to figure out why people liked this. I get that it's 90's edge and that the original music didn't make it into the Network versions, but still... yikes.

As for the unions, I will say that I cringe every time they do an nWo or DX reunion.  If I want nostalgia, I'll go watch old shows. 

[Deleted]

I usually love even the trashier shows, it is nice to see weird combos and what shape everyone are in.

Will be watching some stuff later to remind myself of the weirdest matches and segments.

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

Yeah I kinda did get tired of it pretty quickly. It really should have been a one time thing.

[Final Countdown Jones]

The passing of time did worse for ECW than nostalgia ever could. Seeing its lasting consequences, greater awareness of how much of a sleazef*** Heyman was, knowing people were out there destroying themselves for someone who was sucking the life out of them for his own gain and left them hung out to dry. There's things that hold up, thre's things that were cool, but as a total package it's hard not to look back on a lot of it and feel dirty.

[agent817]

I didn't first watch ECW until the late-1990's and even then, I figured it was smaller scale compared to WCW and the WWF (or WWE, if you want to say that), but I enjoyed it. I could still watch some old shows. Sure, ECW was definitely a product of its time, but there were still some good matches and product.

The problem is that nostalgia for ECW could only last so long, especially because it didn't last a full decade. Sure, some could say the same about WCW, but if you really think about it, WCW became its own thing when it evolved from just being under the NWA/JCP umbrella. So it lasted longer than one would think. ECW, on the other hand, may have lasted from 1992 to 2001, but ECW didn't become what it was known for until 1994 or 1995. Of course, I have yet to see stuff from those days, but they are clearly from of its era. You could only do so much for so long for a dead promotion that while had an impact on the business, it isn't as big as people make it to be. If anything, it just has a cult following.

ECW One Night Stand (both 2005 and 2006) and the Hardcore Homecoming shows worked, because they weren't that far removed from when ECW folded. When I read the Wrestlecrap induction about Hardcore Justice, it was clear that TNA didn't have the rights for some of the wrestlers to use some of the names, nor could they say ECW.

[XIII]

Classic ECW was very much a “you had to be there as it was happening” type of thing. No amount of Dreamer, the Sandman stumbling around and often not making it to the ring, or dudes wearing jean shorts and hitting each other with plunder could recapture it.

Then every promotion ever pimped it right into the ground,

[Mozenrath]

It invited more scrutiny, maybe, though personally, as tired as I got of it, I am glad a lot of guys who got screwed on money back in the day got to capitalize on it.

[Andew9001]

The first ONS should have been it because a lot of the wrestlers only had success in ECW of course they were going to milk it for all it was worth.

On another note that Hardcore Justice show was awful. It may have been the fact that i hadn't eaten or drank anything the morning i watched it but that show made me feel physically ill. Some of the guys werent able to use their names like Tony Luke and Kahoneys. Mike Tenay and Taz not being allowed to mention the name ECW despite constantly doing it. Dreamer and Raven ripping off Rock and Mankinds i quit match. Joel Gertner struggling to even walk to ring and then missing his spots. Whatever the hell that tag team match was. The dance off. Fake Blue Meanie.

Just an awful show all around.

[Natural Born Farmer]

TNA's reunions were just another example of them taking a WWE idea and doing an inferior version, but also running it into the ground.

But I've seen Sabu and Justin Credible wrestle on indies within the last year. Neither can go anymore and the matches were bad, but they still get the nostalgia pop and the "E-C-Dub!" chant. Can't blame promoters for chasing the easy money.