Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Extreme Championship Wrestling aka ECW was a wrestling promotion that went against the grain of everything a pro wrestling promotion fans thought it should be. It was revolutionary and very in your face. It took risks and and broke many of the standard rules of convention. ECW’s influence reached the likes of the much larger and more powerful promotions like WCW and the WWF. As influential and innovative ECW was…it came to a rather anticlimactic end. This is that story.
For a younger generation that may not have experienced an ECW show live or on television…it was definitely an experience. The atmosphere was usually electric and the fans were extremely knowledgeable. Unlike many fans today who would rather defend everything they see or crap on everything that the competition is doing…ECW fans seemingly appreciated the good stuff, while letting it known if something was horrible. They weren’t blind and or deaf to everything around them. Were ECW fans loyal…most definitely…but there were limits.
ECW introduced fans in the United States to different forms of pro wrestling. It wasn’t just blood and violence they did…they also showcased Lucha Libre and Japanese Strong Style wrestling. They took wrestlers that were basically unwanted by the “Big Two” and made them into stars. Granted, ECW wasn’t flawless and had its fair share of bad matches and moments. Overall, however, it was the model of what the 1990’s wrestling scene was built around for the most part.
With all that said, ECW was not a money making machine. It never made a profit in all the years it was existence. It relied heavily on pay per view money to get by until the next show. ECW’s owner Paul Heyman attempted to bring the company to a more national level with a TV deal on a cable channel called TNN that was met with disastrous results. Checks for the wrestlers and other staff were bouncing and that led many of the top tier stars to look elsewhere for work. It seemed like the entire promotion was hanging by a thread and just barely surviving day to day.
As quickly as stars were exiting ECW, Heyman simply couldn’t replace some of the talent he lost. The money and exposure wasn’t there to compete with both WCW and the WWF. With the money and talent pool drying up, ECW simply wasn’t what it once was. It wasn’t awful, but wasn’t at the levels it was in previous years. As the year 2000 was changing over to 2001, there were heavy rumblings that the company was just about finished.
On January 13, 2001, at a very random house show, the original ECW held its very last show. It did not take place in its home base of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania or even its second home away from home in New York City…but rather Pine Bluff, Arkansas of all places. Why Pine Bluff? Word has it that a very small group of fans joined ECW’s Street Team and worked very hard to get the word out to hold a show in their neck of the woods. There were some scant rumors that Paul Heyman chose the venue in Pine Bluff to distance itself from Philadelphia or New York because he knew this was their last show and didn’t want the negativity from more localized fans that came with it.
Either way, the show was booked at the Pine Bluff Convention Center which had a paid attendance of 1,300 fans. Paul Heyman was nowhere near this show and was already on WWF’s payroll unbeknownst to many. With Heyman a no show, it was Tommy Dreamer who booked the show and was running things behind the scenes. The show wasn’t taped for TV, but recorded with Fan Cams.
The card was as follows…
– Nova pinned The Prodigy (with Stan Lee) after reversing a front suplex into the Nova Blast.
– Joey Matthews and Christian York defeats Hot Commodity (Julio Dinero and EZ Money), when Matthews pinned Dinero after the Future Shock from him and York.
– Super Crazy pinned Yoshihiro Tajiri after reversing a hurricanrana into a cradle.
– ECW World Tag Team Champions Danny Doring and Tommy Dreamer (subbing for Roadkill) defeated The Full-Blooded Italians (Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke), when Doring pinned Mamaluke after he and Dreamer hit the Buggy Bang, to retain the title.
– Jack Victory pinned C.W. Anderson (with Lou E. Dangerously) in a Street Fight, after Spike Dudley interfered and hit Anderson with the Dudley Dog, then pulled Victory on top, and sat on top of Victory, for the cover.
– Michael Shane pinned Stan Lee after faceplanting Lee from the top rope.
– ECW World Heavyweight and Television Champion Rhino pinned Spike Dudley, after a piledriver on a chair, to retain the Heavyweight title.
-Justin Credible (w/Francine) defeats The Sandman in an ordinary singles match and then after had an impromptu ‘hardcore match’ in which the Sandman defeated Credible.
After the main event, fans began throwing garbage which included bottles and cups into the ring pelting the wrestlers. Fans were either upset that ECW was coming to a close or simply upset that the show wasn’t at the typical level ECW was known for. Atlas Security were sent into the crowd to put a stop to the situation. Once things were under control, the entire locker room came out to the ring shaking fans hands along the way.
As the wrestlers were hugging each other, Tommy Dreamer got on the house microphone and thanked all the fans over the years for their support. The Sandman then toasted the fans with a beer and the final scene saw the ECW wrestlers toast each other with beer and then slowly walked out of the ring with loud chants of “Please don’t go” and “Please Come Back.” ECW as we knew it was over after that night. The company officially filed for bankruptcy on April 4th 2001. There have been several attempts to revive ECW in some capacity with the failed Extreme Rising promotion and several reunions including two WWE/ECW One Night Stand shows. WWE even revived the ECW brand, but it simply did not capture the magic of the original promotion. The Pine Bluff, Arkansas show was a quiet and sad ending to a company that had so much influence on the pro wrestling industry.