In my opinion, the original ECW will not be remembered for its hardocre nature in wrestling. While it is an interesting piece of wrestling history, the hadrcore wrestling, in my opinon, will not be rembered. There is a reason why Sabu, New Jack, Public Enemy, the hardest of the hardcore ECW wrestlers never were able to catch on in big promotions. That sort of hardcore wrestling was a fleeting moment in the overall history of wrestling. Whereas other superstars from ECW, such as RVD, the luchadores, and Benoit, Malenko and the like succeeded, while they could do the occasional hardcore spot, they all shared one thing in common, they could actually wrestle. There is a reason why ROH has a rabid fan base and CZW is on its last breath.
However, ECW will be remembered. It will be remembered for two important aspects.
First, it forced wrestling to grow up. Mature storylines and angles were inserted into ECW, a glaring difference between the garbage storylines that WWF and WCW were pushing at the time. The two companies collectively (really first WCW then WWF) decided that they needed to turn up the volume on their storylines. This has had a lasting effect. Even the watered down WWE that we have now is still miles away from the garbage that the WWF was putting out in the early to mid 90s. Without ECW, no WWF attitude, that much we can all agree on.
Second, the ECW caused a renaissance in the quality of the actual WRESTLING that was in both WWF and WCW. As I previously stated, it was the likes of the luchadores, RVD, and Malenko, Benoit, Jerry Lynn, The Franchise, that pushed the product of wrestling up to a higher level. Without ECW, there would be no ROH because fans would not be expecting a higher quality of product.
So, there is my opinion. The hardcore nature of ECW will be forgotten and the true legacy of ECW will be the injection of mature storylines and the actual wrestling presented. What do you guys think? Any actual steam behind this argument? Will hardcore wrestling rise again? Has it not actually gone away?
Thanks fellas.
However, ECW will be remembered. It will be remembered for two important aspects.
First, it forced wrestling to grow up. Mature storylines and angles were inserted into ECW, a glaring difference between the garbage storylines that WWF and WCW were pushing at the time. The two companies collectively (really first WCW then WWF) decided that they needed to turn up the volume on their storylines. This has had a lasting effect. Even the watered down WWE that we have now is still miles away from the garbage that the WWF was putting out in the early to mid 90s. Without ECW, no WWF attitude, that much we can all agree on.
Second, the ECW caused a renaissance in the quality of the actual WRESTLING that was in both WWF and WCW. As I previously stated, it was the likes of the luchadores, RVD, and Malenko, Benoit, Jerry Lynn, The Franchise, that pushed the product of wrestling up to a higher level. Without ECW, there would be no ROH because fans would not be expecting a higher quality of product.
So, there is my opinion. The hardcore nature of ECW will be forgotten and the true legacy of ECW will be the injection of mature storylines and the actual wrestling presented. What do you guys think? Any actual steam behind this argument? Will hardcore wrestling rise again? Has it not actually gone away?
Thanks fellas.