10 Things You Should Miss About ECW
Thanks for the hardcore memories.
ECW stands as a moment in time. It was a wrestling promotion that drew in both hardcore wrestling fans, and curious bystanders of a sort, yet within the pro wrestling fan community it grew the most hardcore, dedicated fanbase imaginable. Still fondly remembered over a decade after its demise as an independent promotion (the later, WWE-led ECW incarnation just wasn't the same), its alumni continue hear chants of ECW when performing in the ring today. Loud, raucous chants.
That is the hallmark of a promotion that made an impact. The hallmark of blood, sweat and determination that many workers put into the promotion that Paul Heyman (then Paul E. Dangerously) built. It was the company that fought it out to the bitter end, and many of its workers would go on to make an impact in the WWE and elsewhere.
For others, well, there was just nowhere else for them to go. They were too radical, too unorthodox, frankly... too extreme to land anywhere else.
It's not just the stars that are missed however. The fans, the ECW Arena, the entire aura of the promotion is deeply missed in a wrestling business that seems cleaner and more sterile than when ECW shook up the industry. So lets reminisce and look at ten things we miss about ECW!
10. Joel Gertner's Filthy Mouth
Joel Gertner was the mouth of ECW - and what a filthy mouth it was! Possessing a degree in dirty limericks (or so one might assume), Gertner spent a lot of time accompanying the Dudley Boyz to the ring, but shined just as bright on his own, because you simply couldn't censor the guy.
Lines like "It is I, hotter than Tobasco sauce but loads easier to swallow the Quintessential studmuffin and a good God damn handsome man, and a man who's got more game than Parker brothers Joel "I'm young, I'm hung, & I'm skilled with my tounge" Gertner" are among those actually printable, but when it came to Gertner, the filthier, the better.
While the WWE did bring him back for the original ECW: One Night Stand PPV in 2005 (an event so popular demand crashed the WWE's website), there was no way to employ him long term given the R-rated nature of his material. So while he's gone, Gertner's not forgotten, and lives on in infamy on Youtube.