9 Times ECW Was Better Than Literally EVERYTHING
It wasn't always sunny in Philadelphia, but these moments were some of the hottest in history
Time has been cruel and kind to ECW.
Not cruel in the way Paul Heyman was cruel to keep so many wrestlers hanging by a thread financially as he gradually backed away from the promotion and ultimately into a job with WWE in 2001, or kind in the way Chris Candido when he allowed Paul Heyman to max out his cards on business expenses on the promise of repayments, but in the way that time inevitably rose-tints the lenses as much as it fogs them over.
2005 was the perfect period for ECW nostalgia to peak. It was only four years removed from the company's demise, and only a decade on from its critical peak. Within subcultures such as pro wrestling, the edgelord mentality of the Attitude Era fanbase was still the one most catered to by WWE, TNA, ROH and anywhere else trying to make a crust in the North American scene, so nothing had really aged out of itself.
But it would.
On its worst days, Extreme Championship Wrestling was a promotion too dysfunctional to be a business, a business too dysfunctional to be a promotion, and a hive of dangerous and unregulated backstage misbehaviour that shortened the lives and careers of many that went through it. On its best, it pioneered multiple futuristic styles and stars, dragged mainstream wrestling kicking and screaming into bold new philosophic frontiers, and offered countless playbooks and performers for the majors to steal at will.
There's a reason the initials mean so much to so many...
9. Nobody Sees It Coming
Emerging from a spot itself that summed up just how creatively far apart ECW was from the majors by 1994, Tommy Dreamer believing he'd blinded The Sandman after knocking a lit cigarette into his eye during an I Quit match was perfect down to the last brutal detail.
The pair were engaged in a bitter rivalry that appeared to come to a screeching halt when the incident occurred. Babyface Dreamer showed contrition for his actions, was shunned by the locker room and was ready to end and/or dedicate his own career to Sandman in the aftermath, particularly when the real life Jim Fullington, suit-and-all, turned back up out of hiding with bandages over his eyes and ECW gaffer Tod Gordon on his arm. Dreamer had even battered longstanding Sandman rival Tommy Cairo on behalf of his former enemy, so dedicated as he was to honouring his word.
It was all a ruse. Drawing Dreamer out and using Woman as a distraction, Sandman brutally caned Tommy, having used him for the Cairo dispute. ECW was ostensibly home to the most plugged-in wrestling audiences in the world, but none of them saw this coming.
This sort of secrecy and storyline preservation is rarer still in the post-kayfabe age.
MJF nobly attempted something similar in 2022 when, after calling Tony Khan "a f*cking mark" live on television, he went completely off the grid. His subsequent return - and the significance of it - ultimately generated the polar opposite reaction to this one, thanks to CM Punk forgetting about the work when it came time to air his shoot grievances at the post-All Out press conference.