Rise & Fall of Ecw

Rating:
Summary: Not great, but not bad either
Review: Coming from Canada, I wasn't the first on the ECW bandwagon but I have always considered myself a wrestling fan first, not a fan of any one promotion. This DVD contains more good than bad, but the WWE still manages to stink it up with the ridiculous premise that WWE was a "friend" of ECW while portraying WCW and Eric Bischoff as the evil enemies.

This DVD is automatically good simply for the fact that ECW was such compelling entertainment, there is no way even a ham-fisted attempt at capturing its essence could end up being boring. That said, there were some MAJOR problems that this DVD had. First, why was there no interview with Raven or Sandman? It was obviously a prerequisite to be on the WWE payroll for your opinion to count, and it was a little bit sickening to see Paul Heyman, Tazz, etc. sucking up to the McMahon's on this DVD when the very essence of ECW was utter revulsion at the cartoonish stigma WWE had given wrestling.

It was very upsetting that there were no interviews with Raven, Sandman, and of course New Jack, who goes virtually unmentioned on this DVD! What the hell is up with that? That in itself deserves a YOU F@CKED UP chant. This is a disgrace, New Jack is the essence of extreme and delivers some of the finest promos in wrestling, bar none. Ask yourself this question the next time you see New Jack speak, do you believe he might seriously injure whoever he is threatening to hurt? Yes. How many other guys in wrestling can you say that about? Pretty well zero.

What about Sandman and Raven? Their matches are represented on this DVD, but where were the opinions of these hardcore icons? Did they break their bodies in vain?

There is a LOT more to ECW than what you see on these DVD's. Do yourselves a favour and pick up some of the Pioneer DVD's. There is a lot more to this revolutionary organization than what is contained here. You won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: no way
Review: Dude how on earth could you hope they would put 3 of my matches with Tanaka on the best of DVD. Sorry to say but I wouldnt be surprised if the actual dvd had half as many matches as you state.

Rating:
Summary: The review that could...
Review: I am impressed that WWE did as good a job as they did. While there are flaws, I will address those in a bit, overall this is a very good portrayal of the little company that could. With the exception of its portrayal of WCW it avoids the re-writing of history that flawed Monday Night Wars. It is easy to see the passion that most of the boys had for the company. Taz(z) breaking down is proof enough.

The people they use to retell the history are knowledgable and for the most part do so as a shoot. However, one of the chief flaws of this production is the abscence of the non WWE boys-Gordon, Raven, Sabu, Sandman and Shane. I understand why these people weren't used but it's not a complete history without these contributors, especially Tod Gordon.

The other flaw, IMHO, is the match selection. While these were good matches they just didn't deliver the 'edge' that the company was, be it violent or technical. That is the reason for only 4 stars. Granted, with all the Coliseum DVDs on the market, do a ECW search on Amazon, it is easy for anyone to watch some of the finest matches in America in the last dozen years (pre ROH, again IMHO).

Overall, this may be the best wrestling DVD produced. It's an amazing trip down memory lane and does its part to make sure that ECW's contribution is never forgotten.



Rating:
Summary: Great but not complete
Review: I remember the first time I saw ECW. It was on a small local channel that used to show different independent promotions every night at 11PM. I happened to be flipping channels and I came across this show. The episode I happened to see was the one where Shane Douglas won the NWA title and threw it down. The episode that was the birth of Extreme Championship Wrestling. I knew I saw something special but I never would have pictured how big it would become. Back in the days when WWE was pushing Doink, Kamala and all the other ridiculous circus attractions they were known for, back in a day when Hogan had debutted in WCW and they were becoming more of a circus than WWF had ever been, I happened to come across a small promotion that would change the wrestling world. I fell in love with ECW and once they stopped showing it on the local station I ordered every episode from RF Video. It was a horrible day when it folded but I'm glad to see it's legacy lives on.

As far as the DVD goes I felt it gave a good summary of what ECW was. However, there were quite a bit that was never elaborated on in the DVD. For example, they showed Mickey Whipwreck win the tag team titles. This came after he won the TV title. When he held the title he still had never hit a move, and he won every match during his reign because his opponents kept beating on him and would end up getting DQ'd somehow. At Barely Legal after Taz bet Sabu, RVD attacked him, and Sabu and RVD turned heel and went with Fonzy which bled into the ECW-WWE angle, Taz also turned face in that match. They never showed how Taz came back and turned heel because he was pissed at the company for bailing on him during his injury. It's the equivalent of having a WWE history and ignoring Austin's speech at King of the Ring where he invented Stone Cold 3:16. They skipped over most of the last 2 years, never went into the Impact Players, etc. There was so much they could have added. For a 2 DVD set where the story is only on the first disk they could have done a lot more. On the plus side the story is very well done. I always wondered why they never held another PPV at the ECW Arena and they kinda went into it.

In the DVD McMahon and Bischoff really underplayed how much influence ECW had on the industry. Maybe, McMahon was telling the truth about WWE not stealing the ECW attitude. In any case, ECW had shown it was successful and WWE probably would have never tried it without ECW to break it in. Who knows? Personally, the concept of Wrestlemania was created by Doctor D David Schultz. If Vince McMahon could steal his concept, market it as his own, and try to get people to tell him how brilliant he was because of it what does that say about him?

Rating:
Summary: Driving the Point Even Further Home
Review: I've noticed a lot of people who never even watched ECW writing reviews on here, they can't really understand the importance of this DVD. This DVD was just about as good as it gets for something produced by WWE. It would have been great to hear from people on it who were making the impacts back then. Such as Steve Corino, Justin Credible, The Sandman, New Jack, The Franchise, the list goes on. New Jack, Corino, and Credible were barely even ON the DVD!

Basically, ECW died because Paul Heyman was a lackey to Vince McMahon, everyone knows this. WWE also took the chance to get some good blasting in on Bishoff.

So, considering WWE produced this, it was about as good as it could possibly get. I'm very glad that they featured the Tommy Dreamer/Raven feud so much, as well as the Raven/Sandman and Dreamer/Sandman, since those were some of my favorite pro wrestling angles of all time. It's good to know that even people who didn't watch ECW can enjoy it, but you really can't get the whole feel of it unless you were there when it was going on...

Rating:
Summary: Here is what SHOULD be on this DVD collection
Review: NOTE: I gave this 4 stars because amazon.com forced me to rate this.
·Return of the Funker 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - Tag titles: Sabu & Taz © v. Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko (****)
·Three Way Dance 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - TV title: 2 Cold Scorpio © v. Eddie Guerrero (****)
·Hostile City Showdown 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - TV title: Eddie Guerrero © v. Dean Malenko (****3/4)
·Enter Sandman 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - TV title: Eddie Guerrero © v. Dean Malenko (****1/2)
·Heat Wave 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - Eddie Guerrero and Taz v. Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio (***3/4)
·From Path of Destruction - August 26, 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - 2/3 Falls: Eddie Guerrero v. Dean Malenko (***3/4)
·Gangsta's Paradise 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - Rey Mysterio v. Psychosis (****)
·Gangsta's Paradise 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - Tag titles - Dog-collar match: Raven & Steven Richards © v. Pitbulls (****)
·ECW Arena - October 7, 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - 2/3 Falls: Rey Mysterio v. Psychosis (****)
·November 2 Remember 1995 - Philadelphia, PA - Rey Mysterio v. Psychosis (****)
·Big Apple Blizzard Blast 1996 - Queens, NY - Rey Mysterio v. Juventud Guerrera (****)
·Cyberslam 1996 - Philadelphia, PA - Sabu v. 2 Cold Scorpio (****)
·Big Ass Extreme Bash 1996 - Philadelphia, PA - 2/3 Falls: Rey Mysterio v. Juventud Guerrera (****1/4)
·Heat Wave 1996 - Philadelphia, PA - TV title - Elimination match: Chris Jericho © v. Shane Douglas v. Pitbull #2 v. 2 Cold Scorpio (****1/4)
·ECW TV - February 14, 1997 - Webster, MA - Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, and Gran Naniwa v. Taka Michinoku, Sho Funaki, and Dick Togo (****1/2)
·Barely Legal 1997 - Philadelphia, PA - Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, and Gran Naniwa v. Taka Michinoku, Sho Funaki, and Dick Togo (****3/4)
·ECW TV - April 4, 1998 - Buffalo, NY - TV title: Bam Bam Bigelow © v. Rob Van Dam (****)
·ECW TV - July 18, 1998 - Philadelphia, PA - Mike Awesome and Justin Credible v. Jerry Lynn and Masato Tanaka (****)
·Heat Wave 1998 - Dayton, OH - Mike Awesome v. Masato Tanaka (****1/4)
·November 2 Remember 1999 - Buffalo, NY - Mike Awesome v. Masato Tanaka (****)
·ECW On TNN - White Plains, NY - December 31, 1999 - World title: Mike Awesome © v. Masato Tanaka (****1/2)

Rating:
Summary: An era gone, but destined to be remembered
Review: Okay, maybe 4.5 stars is more appropriate, I mean there were SO MANY un (eff) ing believable matches in this groups history that I suppose Vinnie Mac figured to focus more on WWE brand talent, or showcase the individuals that the old Whiff had already chewed up and spit out.

I would have preferred some acknowledgement of the Pre-Extreme existence, a picture or two of the late Great Eddie Gilbert, Superfly Snucka as champ, the Don Muraco, then Tito Santana....until the phantom title match where crybaby "francise" Douglas (Not a Dean) took the reigns.

Then again, they get the extra 1/5 star simply because I could see myself in the stands. Yep, a few away from long time family friend Pete Theophall, opposite side of the "gang" with 212 and Dave S. I can still remember how Paul E. came out the night Sabu went to Japan - and his psychological twist of the crowd to make us even think a Steiner brother would be able to live up to what we craved.

Rating:
Summary: Cool site!!!!!
Review: What could you possibly expect from an ECW "documentary" produced by Vince McMahon of all people? If you only want to hear the story from former ECW talent that is on Vince's payroll, then by all means this is for you. If you want to know what Jerry Lawler and Erik Bischof thought about ECW, then this is your DVD! If you want to hear from Sabu, Joey Styles, Shane Douglas (like Vince would let that happen!), Raven, Sandman, Jerry Lynn et all, or anyone who isn't currently under contract by WWE give a true 3rd party (seeing as how it's long dead) view of ECW then you are S.O.L. But what do Sabu and Shane Douglas know about ECW anyway, let's interview Dawn Marie (can't for the life of me understand why HHH doesn't weigh in on this too!).

I really liked how all throughout WCW is potrayed as some evil opportunists while WWF and Vince are the benevolent diety that looked after ECW, oh please.

Buy anyone of the Pioneer ECW DVDs before you waste your money on this insipid, vapid, piece of over-produced fluff, which is everything ECW wasn't.

Such a work it's not even funny. If you weel.

It's really sad to see what Van Dam once was (and won't be allowed to be anymore), he should hop on the next plane to Japan ASAP and not come back.

Rating:
Summary: If you like your wrestling a little extreme, get this DVD!
Review: When I heard about this DVD, I was somewhat skeptical about the the possiblity of WWE giving us their version of the story as to how it all went down in ECW. If you didn't know it already, E-C-W stands for Extreme Championship Wrestling. If you were a fan of WWF's "attitude" era, you'll love ECW. In my opinion, WWF's best era in that company's history(1998-2000 if you're scoring at home)was during their attitude era when they had stars like Stone Cold and The Rock in their prime. Well, you can thank ECW for that! WWF saw the ECW product and gave it some of their attitude and they used it to gobble up and destroy their main rivals, World Championship Wrestling(WCW).
When things first started in ECW, they were simply just another independent wrestling promotion known as Eastern Championship Wrestling. Wrestlers like Tito Santana and Jimmy Superfly Snuka went there when their time was done in the WWF. A man named Tod Gordon was running ECW at the time when he asked Paul Heyman if he'd like to help him out with his promotion. Heyman wanted to be the Kurt Cobain of wrestling! He wanted to slap the wrestling world in the face and say look at what we've got here. He wanted to portray wrestling in a more Extreme way.
This DVD was mostly told by people who are currently WWE employees. Tommy Dreamer, Taz, Rob Van Dam, The Dudley Boys and Paul Heyman to name a few. With that in mind, WWE has done a solid job of telling the story of ECW. Most of the story is told by Heyman. He does a good job of moving the Rise and Fall of ECW along. This is a double DVD. The first disc is the story and the second one is a bunch of ECW matches. The match selection was kind of hit and miss. I bought this DVD for the biography and the second disc was just kind of a bonus. That was how I looked at it. The bottom line is if you like your wrestling a little ,or maybe even lot, extreme, get this DVD!