8 Ways ECW Shaped Modern Wrestling
3. Incorporating The Fans
ECW
was interactive before social media existed – fans were encouraged to bring
weapons and lay the soundtrack to the weekly massacre. Their hilarious and
profane chants continue to this day, sparking the night after WrestleMania
hijacking that WWE has recently embraced.
However,
they weren’t just critics. ECW fans were loyal soldiers in Heyman’s army,
defending the niche product to outsiders and carrying out a grassroots campaign
to get the company on PPV. Whether inside the South Philly bingo hall,
Hammerstein Ballroom, or any other intimate setting across the country, the ECW
faithful united to support their favorite performers and lynch mob anyone they
detected half-assing.
“The people made the building, the building didn’t make the
people. Those people were part of the show,” Sandman said in the Rise and Fall
of ECW.
They
remain the most passionate wrestling fans, inspiring McMahon to relaunch the
product five years after it ceased operations. Of course, the WWE version
couldn’t compare to the bloodstained memories of the rebellious nineties.