LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR …the legend revisited

PPV poster

                                         

SANDMAN,SABU,RVD,DREAMER

                                     

           “Let the bodies hit the floor

                         Let the bodies hit the floor beaten why for…

                                                          Can’t take much more”

                                                                                                           
                                                                                 - (ECW theme song)

                       

RVD in action

SABU in berbwire

                                          It was the theme song for the wrestling promotion-extreme championship wrestling, better known as ECW (former eastern championship wrestling).The message is clear enough. It was not a so called technical event. But a combination of basic wrestling and mixed martial art blended with violence, bloodsheds, fear and sex. Though, it’s a game of human being but it seems they have transformed themselves into a toy, which can be torn and thrown and most dangerously, barbed wires takes the place of the ring ropes. Altogether, the human flesh turns into a bloody mess. We can call them warriors or fighters rather than wrestlers. But it was ECW, which changed the face of the professional wrestling promotion business.

                                   

                                                     The selling point of ECW was its loud violence, fearlessness, painful passion and use of weapons from everyday subjects’ as-tables, chairs, ladders, sticks etc. During the first few episodes, the fans brought weapons for the wrestlers to hit their opponents. Wrestlers fought outside the ring more than they spent their time within the ring. They wrestled in between the spectators and outside the arena, too. The high fliers used risky stunts everywhere even in concrete floors, stairs, ladders, steel railing, and turnbuckles.

Tod.a.gordon, the originator of ECW sold the promotion to his booker Paul Heyman in 1996.Heyman used extreme brutality and sex cleverly to glorify and glamorize the shows, as the shows were meant  for adults from 18-35.

       “We wanted to set our mark. We wanted to break away from the pack,

          We wanted to let the world know that we weren’t just some

          Independent promotion
                                                                               -       Paul Heyman

RVD performing a chair shot

                                   The magical era of ECW was between 1995-2000. It was during the leadership of Heyman, ECW made some outstanding contribution in controversial storytelling through unforgettable matches. The PPVs (pay per view) were instant hits. He hired some extreme daring performers like-Mick Foley(as cactus jack),hardcore legend Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Sabu, Rob van dam, Sandman and many more; did their best in all hardcore extreme rules matches like 3 way dance, Barbed wire match, Flaming Tables match, Singapore Cane match, death matches and likes. The rivalry, the feud between Mick Foley-Terry funk, Mick Foley-Tommy Dreamer, and Raven-Sandman are just like folklore for wrestling fans.

 “ECW was a lifestyle. It was counter culture,
                                 anti establishment and it was up in your face"
                                                                              
                                                                                                         - Paul Heyman

enter SANDMAN

                         The philosophy was just like that. The rough texture or extreme freedom gave the sense of anti establishment (the sandman gimmick was an ideal model for that. The beer drinker, cigarette smoker persona, which was followed during the late nineties by Stone Cold Steve Austin in WWF). To hold the coarseness of events ECW never followed any scripted storyline as WWE, TNA or former WCW, NWO. It was a game to smash rules in its own way. Generally, there were hardly any rules even in the matches. The referee was there just to count three after a pin fall or submission move.

                               

                                    All famous PPVs like Wrestlepalooza, Hardcore heaven, Barely legal, One night stand, Living dangerously etc were really path breaking events that gave the brand ECW a fan based promotional business.

                                                    “Skin against skin, blood and bone

                                                     You’re all by yourself but you are not alone

                                                     You wanted in, now you are here

                                                     Driven by hate, consumed by fear.

                                                     Let the bodies hit the floor…”

ECW logo in WWE

SABU performing a submission move

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                       It was a unique magic that is not replicable in any sense. May be a number of good technical wrestlers are incorporated or more violence or varieties of weapon are involved. Firstly, WWE (world wrestling entertainment, formerly known as world wrestling federation) brought back the ECW brand, in 2006 after successful PPV- ECW one night stand in 2006,along with their other two brands RAW and SMACKDOWN. At present, TNA (total nonstop action) is trying to modernize the flavor of ECW (as EV-2 brand name) by hiring some ECW originals lead by Tommy Dreamer. They have launched the PPV hardcore justice and started a scripted feud between ECW originals (Tommy Dreamer, Mick Foley, Raven, Stivie Richards, Sabu and Sandman) and TNA originals (Aj Styles,Robert Rude,James Storm, Matt Morgan).It is  good enough.But, far from the extreme wildness, which made ECW special at that time. And that will always make ECW a myth, a journey, an unparallel experience of wrestling, violence, scandal, sex, passion, fear, blood all together.

ANWESHA SAHA