All The Tropes

Extreme Championship Wrestling: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Extreme Championship Wrestling (view source)

Revision as of 07:09, 11 September 2021

56 bytes added ,  2 years ago
→‎top: Fixing|links to disambiguation pages
VisualWikitext
(→‎top: Fixing|links to disambiguation pages)
 
Line 12:
For the next seven years, ECW would drastically change the landscape of the national pro wrestling scene. Taking a cue from [[Garbage Wrestler|Garbage Wrestlers]] of the past (like Terry Funk - himself an ECW alumni - and Abdullah the Butcher), as well as Japanese "deathmatch" promotions like FMW, ECW popularized "hardcore" wrestling in the United States; practically every match was fought under what's now known as "Extreme Rules" (where pretty much anything except hitting a ref was legal). Several other wrestling styles were also highlighted and popularized thanks ECW, including ''lucha libre'' (which led WCW to raid ECW's talent roster for the best ''luchadores'' they had to create their famous Cruiserweight division).
 
ECW presented a product for a more mature wrestling fan, giving them flawed heroes, deeper storylines, dramatic matches, and - oh, yeah, how could we forget - plenty of sex and violence. Their product was a stark contrast to the family-friendly comic-book superheroes of [[WWEWorld Wrestling Entertainment|the WWF]] and WCW, as well as the highly-[[Kayfabe|kayfabed]] style of the NWA. ECW also invented and/or popularized many things that the modern wrestling fan takes for granted these days: having an arsenal of weapons under the ring, the presence of an Evil Authority Figure (in the form of Bill Alphonso from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, and later Cyrus from "The Network"), many of the most daring maneuvers that are now seen on TV on a regular basis (mostly in [[Gimmick Matches]]), and a more "shades of grey" booking style where very few people are pure [[Face|faces]] or [[Heel|heels]] (at least for very long). ECW also turned a whole bunch of wrestlers who were rejects from the big promotions (because they were too short, or not muscular enough, or too ethnic, or anything not having to do with actual skill) and turned them into hot commodities, leading to many of them having long and successful careers with the bigger promotions. (Amongst the ECW alumni that left the company to go on and have memorable careers were [[Chris Benoit]], [[Eddie Guerrero]], [[Mick Foley]], [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.]], Amy "[[Lita]]" Dumas, [[Chris Jericho]], Mike "Crash Holly" Lockwood, [[Raven (wrestling)|Raven]], Ron Simmons, [[Rob Van Dam]], and - arguably the most famous of them all - [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]].)
 
Even the ECW crowds had a big influence on other wrestling fans. The "WOO!" when one wrestler chops another (a [[Homage]] to [[Ric Flair]]), the "This is awesome!" chant for a great match, the "Holy shit!" chant for a particularly impressive move, and the "You fucked up!" chant when a wrestler misses a spot were born in ECW, and almost all of these chants remain ingrained in wrestling crowds to this day. The fans were also allowed to bring their own weapons to the show in its early days, and wrestlers would use them during matches (infamous weapons included a cactus, a ladder, an NES, a VCR, a ''two-man kayak,'' and a cast-iron skillet, whose use by [[Mick Foley]] against The Sandman brought "Bring Your Own Weapons" nights to an end).
Line 58:
** And then there was [[Paul Heyman]]'s infamous shoot promo on The Nashville Network (later The National Network, and now Spike TV) at the end of ECW's run. "Hey, Network - throw us off the air! '''I DARE YOU!'''"
* [[Unnecessary Roughness]]: The infamous Barbed Wire Match between Sabu and Terry Funk; the Mass Transit Incident.
* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: Believe it or not, this was the relationship between ECW and [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]].Despite several employees, most notably [[Jerry Lawler]], openly admitting to ''hating'' ECW, WWE did damn near everything they could to help ECW get off the ground. Both did quite a bit of cross promotion, and Vince even helped ECW get out of a bit of financial trouble from time to time. Really, most of the hate seems to stem from the fact that WWE replaced ECW on TNN, ultimately leading to the latter's dissolution, and that's more TNN's fault than WWE's
* [[World of Badass]]: Compared to WWF and WCW at the time.
* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: Absolutely everyone, but most notable in the case of Tommy Dreamer's repeated piledriving of Raven's female compatriots.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1927477"