
Watch ECW
- TV-14
- 2008
- 3 Seasons
-
5.8 (997)
ECW stands for Extreme Championship Wrestling. It was a renegade wrestling promotion that competed for several years against Vince McMahon's WWE. ECW was known for a hardcore style of wrestling to go against the more traditional style of matches that took place in other promotions. ECW superstars were very strong personalities and had no problem using bad language, making sexual comments, using weapons and bleeding heavily during matches and interviews. The ECW announcer was Joey Styles who was known for his signature announcement Oh my God! The promotion had a strong cult following amongst wrestling fans that were hungry for a different type of product. ECW was led by Paul Heyman. He had worked in several wrestling promotions using the name Paul E. Dangerously. He came to ECW as a performer but soon took over operations. He was there for the key years of the promotion. He developed many different storylines that pushed the boundaries of what fans had experienced in the world of wrestling and was considered the true innovator behind creating the ECW brand. Unfortunately for Heyman, ECW later ran low of funds and sold the rights to the name and video library to Vince McMahon and the WWE. In the early 2000's McMahon resurrected the ECW name and debuted a new TV show. McMahon brought back many of the original ECW performers to star on the show. Some key components to the roster were ECW Hall of Famers Rob Van Dam, Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Justin Credible, Little Guido and Tazz. He added some well known WWE talents to the ECW roster as well such as The Big Show, Kurt Angle, Bob Hardcore Holly, Matt Hardy, Gold dust and William Regal. During the run of the new ECW program, they used the show as an opportunity to debut new and young talents. Some of these talents like Sheamus, CM Punk and Evan Bourne went on to great success in wrestling and others like Shawn Spears, Brayton Walker and Marcus Cor Von disappeared into obscurity. The ECW program would also feature guest appearances from new and old WWE superstars like John Cena, Batista, Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels. The show eventually stopped production but a good number of the talents continue to work for Vince McMahon and the WWE today.