If you see this DVD, Buy It!

Before I begin, I just want to preface this by saying that this review, nor any review, will give you justice on this DVD. You must see it for yourself. Don't take my words or anyone elses words as the truth or what to go by. This is easily the best wrestling DVD I've ever watched. I thought the Monday Night Wars DVD would be tough to top, but this just blows that out of the water. This might be the best wrestling DVD/Tape I have in my large collection.

My first ECW memory came through the old AOL Grandstand Wrestling Message board. I read alot about this ECW thing that was going on in Philadelphia. Being alot younger, I didn't understand that this was an indy promotion. I thought it was a big production thing like WWF or WCW. Soon after, I found out what ECW was all about, and I loved it. Multi-dimensional characters like Raven, Sandman, Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Mikey Whipwreck, Taz, everyone in the bWo, Sabu, RVD and the Dudleyz grabbed my interest. These guys made me a fan when I first laid my eyes on the product. Guys like Masato Tanaka, Steve Corino, The Impact Playaz, The Triple Threat, and others kept my interest and faith in ECW.

Being in my early teens, I could never really get out to Philadelphia to watch ECW. I had to rely on trading tapes, and alot of the ECW I saw, came through people who dubbed RF Fan Cams. (Sorry Rob, Ha!) Later on, ECW had syndicated TV in NY, on the MSG network. The time would switch seemingly every 3 months, as sometimes it was on at 1 AM, and sometimes it was on at 2 AM. I used to go out, and come home in time to watch ECW on Saturday nights. I actually ran my life like that for a year, as I was always home by 1 AM on Saturday night, cause I didn't trust my VCR to work. Finally, ECW started running in Queens and Freeport, Long Island, and that is when I got my first taste of ECW live. Anyone who's ever been to an ECW show knows what it feels like to be part of ECW, and this is one story that the DVD gets into, and that is how important the ECW fan was to the ECW product.

With that said, let me give you the facts of this DVD.
This DVD set comes in 2 discs. One disc is the complete ECW story with people from ECW, and competitors of ECW. The second disc has 7 matches on it. Those matches are:

*The Pit Bulls vs. Raven & Stevie Richards
*Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis
*Mikey Whipwreck vs. The Sandman
*2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu
*Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven
*Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
*Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn

While the matches are great, the thing that really makes the DVD is the documentary style of the ECW story. This DVD made use of alot of the vast WWE library. Clips of matches from WCW, ECW, WWF and NWA:ECW were all shown. It is crazy the library that the WWE possesses right now. The complete chapter list, which tells you what the DVD covers, is below:
*Early ECW
*The Public Enemy
*Taz
*Sabu
*Terry Funk
*The Night The Line Was Crossed
*Paul Heyman vs. WCW
*Tommy Dreamer
*The Sandman
*Sandman-Dreamer Feud
*ECW Evolution
*Cactus Jack
*Mikey Whipwreck
*The Extreme Begins
*Philadelphia
*Technical Wrestlers
*Production Value
*The Fans
*Raven/Dreamer
*Sabu Gets fired
*Taz breaks his neck
*The Monday Night War
*Lucha Libre
*Steve Austin Comes to ECW
*Promos
*Cactus Jack Leaves ECW
*Taz returns
*Sandman/Raven
*The bWo
*Beulah & Dreamer
*ECW & WWE
*The Crucifixion
*The importance of PPV
*ECW loses the PPV
*The PPV is back on
*WWE Co-promotion
*Barely Legal: Lance Storm vs. RVD
*Barely Legal: Taz vs. Sabu
*Barely Legal: The Main Event
*Raven goes to WCW and Jerry Lawler invades ECW
*A Locker Room mole?
*The Superstars' Roles (a discussion of everyone's out of the ring responsibilities)
*Paul Heyman's creativity
*WCW & WWE's ECW Imitation
*Taz & the FTW Title
*The Dudleys: the most hated tag team
*Financial Woes
*The TNN Deal & Taz Leaves
*The Dudleys Leave ECW
*Disappointment with TNN / RVD - the whole F'n show
*Mike Awesome controversy & Tommy Dreamer wins the title
*The Demise of ECW
*Paul Heyman debuts on Raw

Simply said, this DVD covers everything. The story part of the DVD runs just a little under 3 hours. That's alot of material. The only thing you could really complain about is that non-contracted WWE guys weren't allowed to comment on ECW in retrospect. I would've liked to hear from Tod Gordon, (He is mentioned throughout the DVD, and the common WWE fan probably doesn't know who he is, and that's why I thought he should've had some words on this DVD.) Shane Douglas, New Jack, Francine, Blue Meanie, Sabu, Raven and Sandman. Most of the contracted WWE talent who were in ECW, comment on ECW, throughout this documentary, such as Paul Heyman (Obviously), RVD, The Dudleyz, Taz, Dreamer, (Who is a major contributer on this DVD and talks about every time period) Dawn Marie (Not the best person to talk about the aura of ECW's roots, but good enough for the common WWE fan), Mick Foley, Al Snow, Lance Storm, Chris Jericho and others. Also commenting on ECW throughout this DVD are Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff.

WWE really does pay respect to ECW in this DVD. Vince openly admits that alot of ECW was used in WWE's attitude. Eric Bischoff says ECW did not influence WCW, which Paul Heyman responds by calling Bischoff a liar and full of shit. WWE proves Heyman right, by showing a match between Raven and Sandman in ECW, then showing the same match in WCW. It's hard to respect Bischoff when he says ECW didn't influence WCW at all, as I believe either Bischoff is an idiot or a liar, so either way he's flawed. WWE really does a great job of making ECW look good, and explains everything about ECW.

A cool thing, for me, while watching this DVD, is seeing all the people, who made a name for themselves on the indy scene, just marking out in the ECW crowd. Watch JAPW Booker Ray Sager dress up as a Dudley in the crowd. Watch Fat Frank of JAPW hold up a WWF shirt, which has a black line through it and scream E!C!W! Watch numerous indy wrestlers mark out in the front row. Ditto indy writers. The DVD talks about how the fans made ECW what it was, and alot of focus was put on the fans. It's great to see that after closing the doors almost 4 years ago, ECW still shows love to their fans. While speaking of indy people, you can also watch Rob Feinstein parade around as 7-11 in the bWo. You also hear Stevie Richards comment on what he did with ROH's Gabe Sapolsky.

ECW's complete history is accurately detailed. I emphasize accurate, because alot of WWE media, whether it be a book or DVD, has the WWE spin on it. This DVD does not. Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman dominate this DVD and tell you everything straight from the hip, just like they did when they were in ECW. All you have to do is look at the chapter list, and you can see that all of ECW is recapped.

Some of my favorite stories on this DVD were:
The Raven-Sandman Feud
The Raven-Dreamer Feud
Turning from Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme Championship wrestling, with Shane's promo, and NWA board member, Dennis Carolluzo, reactions
Everything about Barely Legal
The Evolution of Taz
The 1996-97 ECW Invasion of the WWE, and Vince McMahon talking about helping ECW
Talking about the Fans

The DVD turns sad when talking about the folding of ECW. We find out all the problems Paul had with TNN. We see Paul's scathing promo against TNN. We also find out that this whole struggle between Paul and TNN is what gave Paul the idea of the Cyrus character. When talking about the folding of ECW, we find out that 99% of the wrestlers were shorted money and that they all thought Paul was a bad business man, but one of the smartest wrestling minds out there today.

The matches on the DVD are solid. The matches picked are questionable, but that is because there were so many great matches and feuds. The only other thing that could've made this DVD better to me, from a content point of view, would be to focus on Rob Van Dam more. RVD carried that company for 2 years. While the DVD does cover RVD's 23 month ECW TV title reign, I don't think they really covered RVD the best way possible. Maybe it's because if they did, the WWE would be ashamed in the way they promote and use RVD today in the WWE.

Final McWord
Yes this review is short, and that's because there is nothing I can say without ruining the DVD for you. This is just a great piece of wrestling history and a must for any wrestling fan. If I had to take one Wrestling DVD/Tape to a stranded island, this would be it.

Some people voiced their displeasure with the matches on the DVD. Some wanted more matches and some wanted different matches. If anything, it leaves the WWE open to release another ECW DVD.

Overall- Buy this now. This DVD is the number 1 wrestling DVD on my list. There was no wrestling promotion like ECW, and there never will be a fed like ECW. If you watched ECW you'll love this. If you were hardcore about ECW, you'll definitely love this. If you never watched ECW, you'll see why people loved this, and you'll start wishing there was a fed like this today.

This DVD is available all over the place. It's at local stores like Best Buy and FYE. Online, you can get it from Amazon or any other DVD Outlet. If you wanna buy it from a wrestling site, WWE Shopzone has it, as well as other merchandise sites such as Highspots (and their affiliates), RF Video, ROH Video and others. It doesn't matter where you buy it though, it just matters that you watch it.

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com