Details on New Documentary About the History of ECW

UNAUTHORIZED, IN-DEPTH DOCUMENTARY OF EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING'S HISTORY, IMPACT, AND RAMIFICATIONS IS NOW IN PRODUCTION WITH DECEMBER 2012 RELEASE

Allentown, PA –BWC Films in-production, debut release is an unauthorized, in-depth documentary about the defunct pro wrestling organization, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). This film aims to take an honest, non-bias, and critical look at the history, legacy, and impact of ECW on the professional wrestling industry, as well as tell the stories of men and women who helped build this small mom and pop promotion into a national force. The documentary examines the violence and bloodshed, marketing and fan involvement, as well as the decisions of those in charge, through the company's triumphs, glory years, controversies, and demise. http://kck.st/QUHxwH

Production began in March of 2000, as filmmakers Kevin Kiernan and John Philapavage were attending the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. Several times throughout the years production resumed, but in 2012 this project was resurrected, additional footage and interviews were captured, with a production and release schedule finalized.

Kiernan and Philapavage's concept from day one was to produce a documentary film about Extreme Championship Wrestling that would appeal to the general public beyond wrestling fans, as they found the story of ECW facinating on to anyone interested in pop culture phenomenon, or sub-cultures of any type. There have been over sixty intriguing interviews conducted, some with the same subjects twice—over a decade apart. This approach to telling the story of Extreme Championship Wrestling gives the viewer proper context and is holistic in nature. They have conducted interviews with wrestlers, referees, ring announcers, security staff, company staff, production, and journalists, all the way to fans and fan organizers.

Now Kiernan and Philapavage are turning to Kickstarter to make their labor of love a reality. They seek to produce an honest film about ECW, a group of people that came together with the goal of turning the wrestling industry on its head. The sacrifices these men and women made trying to achieve this goal were often mentally and physically brutal, as they were chasing the dream of trying to create something innovative in professional wrestling. They succeeded by playing an often unheralded role in the creation of the cultural phenomenon that was the wrestling boom of the late 90's, but failed to fully realize their dream of getting to the top of the swell of popular acceptance that they helped create. BWC FILMS wants to tell this story, and needs your help. Visit the Kickstarter page created for this project. Watch the video, read the description, and with your donations, BWC Films will be able to complete this project and premiere it in December 2012. Each donation comes with a prize, if the project goal is met. Please view the page, video, and donate here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bwcfilm/a-documentary-about-extreme-championship-wrestling

Blast From The Past: DX on ECW

"Stream of Consciousness" from Paul Heyman

Paul Heyman took to his Twitter account @Heymanhustle and spent a good amount of time talking about how thankful and blessed he is for the career he has had, as well as what aspiring people in the wrestling business need to do to get themselves over today:

"I walk into the offices of #Looking4Larry and there's a bunch of #ECW pics sent to me by George Tahinos (who is a phenomenal photographer) . I guess in honor of the ECW DVD/Blu-Ray coming out next week and NO, I can't express myself in 140 characters or less and I couldn't help staring at this pic of me and Bill Alphonso from 1995 ...and I'm looking at that pic and wondering "how fuckin' long was my hair back then?" #HolyShit And then I immediately thought, "Who would follow THAT rebel leader? I look at some of these pics, and I realize how blessed I was in my career. Some guys have to wait forever for a lucky break. I managed @AustinIdolLive and Tommy Rich at the age of 21. Also The Orig Midnights, which I got to do on @ESPN. Got to debut in WCW on TBS at 23 years old. So I was @JRsBBQ color commentator at 23 years old. NO ONE IS GIVEN THAT OPPORTUNITY IN TODAY'S ENVIRONMENT! I will admit, with all modesty, I #Hustled my ass off, and GOT MYSELF the opportunity with ambition, politics, and pure assertiveness. Even "down periods" would give me the chance 2 work w/ people like Mean Mark. U know him as "The Undertaker" At 26, I managed @SteveAustinBSR, Rick Rude,Arn,Eaton, Zbyszko ... The Dangerous Alliance (didn't forget @Madusa_Rocks) I'm working with these legends, these giants of the industry, these absolute top guys in my 20s In today's system, most super talented people spend a great portion of their 20's just trying to make it onto the main roster and yes, that has to change. I got to take over the creative of #ECW a week after my 28th birthday By the time I became @JRsBBQ commentator on @WWE #Raw in 2001, I was 35 years old. STILL a "kid" but I was already a veteran with decades in the business, and yet a 35 year old today would just be getting that chance and working with @JRsBBQ on #RAW allowed me to commentate Wmania 17 and @SteveAustinBSR vs @TheRock. By the time I worked with Brock Lesnar, which has become my best known managerial role, I was 36 years old. I look at some of these pics and videos #HustleTweeters send me, and I realize what an amazingly blessed career I've had. I've had more lucky breaks, more open doors, more perfect-storm-timing-opportunities than anyone else I've known. These pics don't just remind me of "accomplishments," they remind me of what a lucky bastard I've been to be able to ...work with these magnificent people, and play these roles, under these various circumstances. I've hit the lottery so many times, it's easy to just "expect" the next opportunity, or get a sense of entitlement. But I've never felt entitled. Always blessed. Privileged. Lucky as all Hell. And yet, I know how much hard work goes into it, and how you have to SCORE with your opportunities. The next generation in this (or any other business) doesn't just need to "Step Up," they need to "Stand Up" and "Get Noticed!" Think it was easy for @CMpunk? Think it was easy for @WWEDanielBryan? They had to scratch and claw and fight for every ...inch of turf they could pry away from the previous generation, who made them fuckin' earn it!!! It's not about backstabbing. It's not about kissing ass. It's not about pulling a hot stunt and getting momentary publicity. It's about creating your own opportunity (like @SteveAustinBSR did with "Stone Cold") and working harder than every1 else looking for the big break, the next chance, the golden opportunity. This isn't a pep talk. It's the lay of the land as I see it in today's sports entertainment industry. I would have written a blog, but who knows if anyone will click on the link? And while this may be a "stream of consciousness" diatribe, it's a message to those who may be getting frustrated a message to those who may be wondering "will I ever get that chance? that break? that opportunity?" DON'T WAIT FOR IT TO COME TO YOU! RELY ON YOURSELF!!! Do you think @SteveAustinBSR relied on anyone? Did HHH? Did @TheRock? Did Hulk Hogan? Did @CMpunk? With great humility, I ask you, did I? FUCK NO. If there was no opportunity, I created my own, pushed my way in, manipulated the circumstances to beg, borrow, plead, blackmail, bribe, cajole, threaten, bullshit and/or manufacture. All I wanted was a mic in my hand and a time frame in which I had to deliver my message. I knew I would score. I've seen it in this business for ages. I saw @ShawnMichaels go from tag team wrestler to greatest all around in-ring performer ever. Think it was easy for him? I remember when Shawn and Marty were blackballed in the business, and could only work in Ala-fuckin-bama. Think it didn't take @ShawnMichaels everything "and then some" to break out of The Rockers and get a chance as "HBK"? AMBITION. ASSERTIVENESS and the ABILITY TO BACK IT UP is what it takes to create the next generation of main eventers. And it's time for the next group of superstars to stake their claim and create their own generation for others to follow. Period. Excla-fuckin-mation point. The lecture is over. Pontification has ended. Hope I've been of help 2 ANYONE who follows this acct and maybe even to someone who doesn't!

We now return you to our regularly scheduled nonsense...."

Some time after these tweets, CM Punk tweeted once again "I'm a Paul Heyman guy," while Chris Jericho responded "I agree with @Heymanhustle diatribe and I would like to add one more piece of advice. To really make it in this business...you have to be willing to take a chance. And if that pisses people off than so be it! Stop being so nice. Nice doesn't cut it."

I find it interesting the Heyman is getting praise for something that Triple H and Jim Ross have been saying for years.

This Day in Wrestling History

Henri Deglane defeats World Champion Ed "Strangler" Lewis by disqualification in Montreal, Canada after allegedly being bitten by Lewis. Deglane then claims the Paul Bowser recognized American Wrestling Association World championship and it splits off from the main line of World champions. This match has become legendary with many speculating that Deglane actually bit himself in the locker room between falls and then hid the bite until the match restarted thus getting the DQ win over Lewis.
May 4, 1931

It was announced by Vince McMahon that Andre the Giant had suffered a broken ankle. The injury was blamed on Killer Khan, setting up a series of grudge matches after Andre recovered. WWE maintained ownership of the giant cast used to set the ankle and often displays it at their annual AXXESS events.
May 4, 1981

During an edition of Smackdown in Tucson, Arizona, Jacquelyn (aka Jackie Moore) answered an open challenge from WWE Cruiserweight Champion Chavo Guerrero, defeating him with a low blow inside of three minutes to win the Cruiserweight Title, the first woman to do so since the belt became a WWE property.
May, 4, 2004

WWE publicly confirmed they were bringing the ECW brand back as a full-time entity and were signing talents to deals with the brand slated to debut at the June 2006 One Night Stand PPV.
May 4, 2006

The Necro Butcher's scene with Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" where they brandish a staple gun in the midst of their hardcore CZW match was nominated for the very dignified "WTF Moment" MTV Movie Award. The scene did not win, but was one of many notable mainstream media mentions for Butcher that year, including a shout-out during the Academy Awards.
May 4, 2009

Following a less than stellar run on Monday Nights, SpikeTV issued a press release that TNA Impact would be returning to Thursdays on 5/13/10. “The fans have spoken and with their input we have determined the best timeslot to maximize the TNA audience is on Thursday nights where we are confident it will be among the most-watched shows with young men,” said Brian J. Diamond, senior vice president, sports and specials for Spike TV, in the release, which also announced the addition of Reaction, a well produced series that followed up on Impact's developments. Reaction ended up running several months and in some weeks, was better than Impact.
May 4, 2010

partial source: pwinsider.com

This Day in Wrestling History

ECW makes its debut on Pay Per View. The show called "Barely Legal" was headlined with Terry Funk vs. Raven for ECW World Title.
April 13, 1997

This Day in Wrestling History

Bret Hart defeats Undertaker, Steve Austin & Vader for the WWF(E) Title, starting his fourth reign as champion.
February 16, 1997

The final episode of WWE's version of ECW aired.
February 16, 2010

This Day in Wrestling History

The Monday Night Wars continued, WCW Monday Nitro's 4.6 rating defeated WWF Monday Night RAW's 3.6 rating. RAW in Uniondale, New York featured Owen Hart defeating WWF Champion Shawn Michaels by disqualification when Triple H broke one of his crutches over Hart's head while he had Michaels in the sharpshooter. Nitro was just over 200 miles away in Baltimore, Maryland, and featured Ultimo Dragon defeating WCW Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero by submission to win the title for the second time, Booker T winning his first of a record six WCW World Television Titles from Disco Inferno, and a main event of WCW World Champion Sting defeating Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
December 29, 1997

Mick Foley (as Mankind) defeated The Rock for his first WWF(E) Title after Stone Cold Steve Austin returned knocking out The Rock with a steel chair. The show would air on the following Monday, January 4, 1999. That night Tony Schiavone would reveal the result during WCW Monday Nitro, airing live that night, noting that Mankind as champion "ought to put a lot of butts in the seats." Schiavone would later claim Eric Bischoff fed him that line to say. D-Generation X celebrated with Foley after the match.
December 29, 1998

On an edition of ECW on SyFy from East Rutherford, New Jersey, Tommy Dreamer wrestled his last match for WWE's version of ECW, facing Zack Ryder in a match where Dreamer promised to leave ECW if he lost.
December 29, 2010

This Day in Wrestling History

WWE announces that they have purchased the video libraries of World Class Championship Wrestling and Stampede Wrestling. These acquisitions, along WWE's own library and the WCW, ECW, AWA, SMW, OVW and other territorial tape libraries they have purchased, creates the largest known wrestling video library, which at last count now contains an estimated 75,000 hours of content.
June 5, 2006

source: pwinsider.com

This Day in Wrestling History

Henri Deglane defeats World Champion Ed "Strangler" Lewis by disqualification in Montreal, Canada after allegedly being bitten by Lewis. Deglane then claims the Paul Bowser recognized American Wrestling Association World championship and it splits off from the main line of World champions. This match has become legendary with many speculating that Deglane actually bit himself in the locker room between falls and then hid the bite until the match restarted thus getting the DQ win over Lewis.
May 4, 1931

It was announced by Vince McMahon that Andre the Giant had suffered a broken ankle. The injury was blamed on Killer Khan, setting up a series of grudge matches after Andre recovered. WWE maintained ownership of the giant cast used to set the ankle and often displays it at their annual AXXESS events.
May 4, 1981

During an edition of Smackdown in Tucson, Arizona, Jacquelyn (aka Jackie Moore) answered an open challenge from WWE Cruiserweight Champion Chavo Guerrero, defeating him with a low blow inside of three minutes to win the Cruiserweight Title, the first woman to do so since the belt became a WWE property.
May, 4, 2004

WWE publicly confirmed they were bringing the ECW brand back as a full-time entity and were signing talents to deals with the brand slated to debut at the June 2006 One Night Stand PPV.
May 4, 2006

The Necro Butcher's scene with Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" where they brandish a staple gun in the midst of their hardcore CZW match was nominated for the very dignified "WTF Moment" MTV Movie Award. The scene did not win, but was one of many notable mainstream media mentions for Butcher that year, including a shout-out during the Academy Awards.
May 4, 2009

Following a less than stellar run on Monday Nights, SpikeTV issued a press release that TNA Impact would be returning to Thursdays on 5/13/10. “The fans have spoken and with their input we have determined the best timeslot to maximize the TNA audience is on Thursday nights where we are confident it will be among the most-watched shows with young men,” said Brian J. Diamond, senior vice president, sports and specials for Spike TV, in the release, which also announced the addition of Reaction, a well produced series that followed up on Impact's developments. Reaction ended up running several months and in some weeks, was better than Impact.
May 4, 2010

partial source: pwinsider.com

This Day in Wrestling History

ECW makes its debut on Pay Per View. The show called "Barely Legal" was headlined with Terry Funk vs. Raven for ECW World Title.
April 13, 1997

This Day in Wrestling History

Bret Hart defeats Undertaker, Steve Austin & Vader for the WWF(E) Title, starting his fourth reign as champion.
February 16, 1997

The final episode of WWE's version of ECW aired.
February 16, 2010

This Day in Wrestling History

The Monday Night Wars continued, WCW Monday Nitro's 4.6 rating defeated WWF Monday Night RAW's 3.6 rating. RAW in Uniondale, New York featured Owen Hart defeating WWF Champion Shawn Michaels by disqualification when Triple H broke one of his crutches over Hart's head while he had Michaels in the sharpshooter. Nitro was just over 200 miles away in Baltimore, Maryland, and featured Ultimo Dragon defeating WCW Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero by submission to win the title for the second time, Booker T winning his first of a record six WCW World Television Titles from Disco Inferno, and a main event of WCW World Champion Sting defeating Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
December 29, 1997

Mick Foley (as Mankind) defeated The Rock for his first WWF(E) Title after Stone Cold Steve Austin returned knocking out The Rock with a steel chair. The show would air on the following Monday, January 4, 1999. That night Tony Schiavone would reveal the result during WCW Monday Nitro, airing live that night, noting that Mankind as champion "ought to put a lot of butts in the seats." Schiavone would later claim Eric Bischoff fed him that line to say. D-Generation X celebrated with Foley after the match.
December 29, 1998

On an edition of ECW on SyFy from East Rutherford, New Jersey, Tommy Dreamer wrestled his last match for WWE's version of ECW, facing Zack Ryder in a match where Dreamer promised to leave ECW if he lost.
December 29, 2010

TNA HardCORE Justice Results

WWE Attorney Comments on TNA Using ECW Theme

Newsday's Alfonso Castillo recently contacted WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt for comment regarding TNA's Hardcore Justice PPV this Sunday featuring an all ECW-theme.

McDevitt said, "The WWE is sole owner of the ECW marks, and as with all of WWE's intellectual property it will be vigorously protected. TNA acts at its peril if it infringers upon WWE's rights."

As of this week, WWE has made no attempts to get the event shut down due to copyright issues.

source: wrestling observer

Mark Madden Comments on TNA's ECW Re-Do

Mark Madden expresses his disdain for TNA's attempt at re-creating ECW. Hold on tight:

"The end of TNA Impact was, indeed, groundbreaking. The end of TNA Impact was stupid on so many levels it almost defies description. The end of TNA Impact cemented Dixie Carter’s legacy as one of the very dumbest people to ever be involved with wrestling. Dixie Carter went into the ring and, surrounded by one mid-level star and four scrubs, devalued her own company’s brand name for the sake of a promotion that has, for all intents and purposes, been dead since 2001 – a promotion that Vince McMahon OWNS THE NAME TO AND TRADEMARKS OF."

"The vast majority of wrestling fans don’t identify Mick Foley with ECW. But Mick will attach himself to any cause that pays. Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Rhino, Stevie Richards…none ever meant anything in a big-time promotion, and it wasn’t for lack of opportunity. Dreamer’s tears aside, when ex-ECW guys lost their jobs in WWE, it was because they couldn’t cut the mustard. Those bums should be grateful they got the paychecks they did."

"I’m having fun right now as I think of Dixie Carter smiling broadly during “Hard Justice” as TNA fans chant a brand name owned by Vince McMahon."

It gets better! Click here.

source: wrestlezone.com

Rumor Mill - TNA Resurrecting ECW

Prowrestling.net is reporting that Tommy Dreamer has apparently contacted some of his former ECW co-workers about performing at the upcoming TNA Hard Justice pay-per-view event. The show will be an ECW-type event with the former talent of the defunct organization being in charge.

WWE-Lite re-creating ECW. Gee, that sounds familiar...

More about it: TNA Copyig WWE's Extreme Rules PPV

Rumor Mill - TNA "ECW Invasion" Angle

In regards to the teased ECW invasion on TNA TV recently involving Tommy Dreamer, Raven and Stevie Richards, The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports the company has every intention of doing some kind of an ECW angle, but they don't yet know the framework of the angle...More?

This Day in Wrestling History

The WWF(E) buys WCW for 2.5 million dollars
March 23, 2001

RAW/SmackDown/ECW/WWE NXT Roster Shuffle

Since ECW is no more, the "free agents" have been moved as follows:

To RAW:
Yoshi Tatsu
Christian
William Regal
Zach Ryder
Rosa Mendes
Vladimir Kozlov

To SmackDown:
Trent Barreta
Caylen Croft
Shelton Benjamin
Goldust
Ezekiel Jackson
Tiffany

To WWE NXT:
Josh Mathews (announcer; he also continues to appear on other shows as an announcer)
Savannah (ring announcer)
Christian (mentoring Heath Slater)
William Regal (mentoring Skip Sheffield)

Released by WWE:
Gregory "Hurricane" Helms

Still Unassigned:
Abraham Washington (last appearance was on the final ECW so far)
Byron Saxton (has returned to WWE’s FCW developmental territory)
Tony Atlas (last appearance from this WWE Hall of Famer was on the final ECW)
Tyler Reks (has been working with the SD roster off-TV, and occasionally at FCW)
Vance Archer (will be moving to the SD roster according to the March 1 Figure 4 Weekly)

TV Rating for WWE NXT Debut Show

The debut of NXT on SyFy last night did a 1.3 cable rating, which is up from 1.14 rating for the final ECW.