12 Misconceptions About ECW You Probably Believe
2. It Never Got The Goodbye It Deserved
When WWE dropped ECW One Night Stand in 2005, everyone thought ECW was finally getting the send-off it deserved. Big names were back, the crowd was loud as hell at the Hammerstein Ballroom, and Paul Heyman delivered one hell of a promo. But if you’re honest, it wasn’t really the ECW — not the gritty, blood-soaked place that ran through smoky bingo halls and half-lit gyms.
Just a few weeks before that WWE show, Hardcore Homecoming quietly went down in Philadelphia — in the actual ECW Arena. Shane Douglas and other ECW vets put it together, and this wasn’t some polished WWE production. It was raw, loud, and way closer to what ECW actually felt like. Fans packed in tight, weapons flew everywhere, and legends like Terry Funk, Sabu, and Douglas tore each other apart in a brutal barbed wire main event.
Although One Night Stand got the spotlight, Hardcore Homecoming had the soul. No fancy pyro or scripted match order, just pure ECW chaos and, for many, the closure the real ECW never got.