Forever Hardcore

What's up everyone, and welcome to another DVD review here on the DOI. This time, I checked out Forever Hardcore, the documentary on ECW, which was produced by Jeremy Borash. With the success of the WWE produced "Rise and Fall of ECW" DVD, where only WWE contracted talent spoke openly about ECW, another DVD featuring guys who weren't on the WWE DVD was warranted. Their stories needed to be told. This DVD tells the stories of Sabu, Raven, Tod Gordon, Sandman, New Jack and many others. This DVD allows the fans to hear and get the side of the wrestlers who weren't featured on the WWE produced DVD. How would this DVD compare to the "Rise and Fall of ECW" DVD? Would Borash, a guy who never worked for ECW, be able to tell ECW's story right? Is this DVD even worth watching if you have the WWE DVD? Find out below:

Right off the bat, Jeremy Borash had a few hurdles to overcome. For one, he could not use ECW footage or ECW trademarks, due to the WWE owning all the rights to that. He also had to distance himself from TNA, and make it clear that he was producing this documentary as an ECW fan and not as a member of TNA. Borash was able to accomplish both of those goals.

Borash, who was a huge ECW fan, opens up the DVD, telling a story about how he would go to the ECW arena, while working for WCW, all disguised, so no one would recoginize him. Borash even recollected a story where he saw someone else from WCW watching (and most likely marking out) an ECW show at the ECW arena, and how he had to hide. ECW was that powerful, that not only did it attract all types of fans, it also attracted people from other promotions.

The documentary pretty much follows the same format of the WWE DVD, meaning that the story of ECW was told. The birth, the growing pains, the success and the fall of ECW is all covered in chronological order. This time however, instead of hearing from Eric Bischoff, you hear from Vince Russo. Mick Foley is replaced with Terry Funk. Instead of Paul Heyman, you hear from Tod Gordon. The DVD covers all the highs and lows of ECW, and to me, came off as one huge ECW shoot interview. Some of the talent that give their thoughts and memories of ECW are:
Sabu
Shane Douglas
Raven
Terry Funk
Tod Gordon
Francine
Vince Russo
Sandman
Kid Kash
New Jack
Joey Styles
Blue Meanie
Jerry Lynn
Other people, such as Gabe Sapolsky, Bob Ryder (who is really fucking weird looking, almost cartoonish) and Mike Johnson, talk on this DVD, but the above list are the main contributers.

The DVD opens up by talking about Tod Gordon and Eddie Gilbert's split. The reason for the split was never mentioned, but all that is told is that they had a falling out. This opened the door for Paul Heyman, and Philadelphia wrestling, and the state of wrestling was forever changed. During each chapter or major event being covered on the DVD, everyone would comment and give their thoughts on the person or subject.

The Public Enemy were brought up first, as they were the first team Paul Heyman got behind. Everyone discussed Public Enemy's impact and how strong Paul felt about them. Up next was Sabu. Sabu, who will probably never get the credit (nor money) that he rightfully deserves, is covered in-depth. If you really just stop for a second and think, Sabu might go down as not only the most underrated wrestler of all time, but one of the most influential.

Speaking of Sabu, this is the third DVD where he breaks his silence gimmick. (The other 2 DVD's being RF Video's Shoot Interview with Sabu and Behind Closed Doors with Sabu.) Sabu openly talks about different periods of ECW, his unique style and what was going through his mind. We also get an up close look at his scar, which he suffered in the unforgettable "Born to be Wired" match.

Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA title was discussed for a while, and the impact of what Shane did was discussed. I got a kick out of someone saying the NWA was a huge mess, just like it is today, on a Jeremy Borash produced DVD. If anyone follows the current state of the NWA, everyone knows it's just a skeleton of a skeleton of what it once was.

Back to Shane, where people weigh in on what he did. Raven says he doesn't know if he could do what Shane did. The seriousness of throwing down a title belt was discussed. This was really cool to watch, as everyone had different opinions on what Shane did, as some thought he was right and some thought he was wrong.

Tod Gordon openly laughed as he talked about how they got one over on Dennis Coraluzzo (The NWA President at the time) and how they even worked Dennis in thinking this was all a work. Dennis never knew it was a shoot until it was too late. Too late even, that Dennis did promos about Shane throwing down the belt, thinking it was still a work. This was such an important moment in ECW, as this was time when ECW became EXTREME.

From here, we get everyone's thoughts on some of the more popular wrestlers in ECW, such as Sandman, Terry Funk, Raven and others. Everyone put over Sandman as one of the nicest guys today. Sandman calls Raven too smart for his own good. Raven is definitely a wrestling genius and it is cool and thought provoking to hear what he has to say on a myriad of subjects. Raven even said that Paul Heyman saw the Raven character as his own personality. Wow.

WWE contracted guys, such as Mick Foley, Tommy Dreamer and Taz are discussed. No one has a bad word to say about Cactus Jack, as everyone appreciated what he did for ECW. Dreamer is put over as a guy who put the company on his back time and time again. Taz is remembered differently by everyone, as some say he was ok, but some say he was kind of a dick and believed his own hype. Hearing New Jack speak (and I'm sure everyone can imagine how open he is) is awesome. When New Jack talks, just listen, because you know you will laugh your ass off. One particular thing that made me bust up is when New Jack talked about the Philly fans and all the rats he had. New Jack is at his best whenever he is discussing violence or sex.

On the subject of violence, New Jack said he shows no remorse nor cares about Eric Kulas aka Mass Transit. He said Mass Transit lied, was green and asked Jack to carve him. New Jack talks about his acquittal and how he don't give a shit about Kulas.

When WCW scouted and signed Benoit, Malenko, Jericho and Guerrero from ECW, Paul needed people to replace them. Konnan talked about how he struck a deal with Paul Heyman and introduced the northeast to guys like Pyschosis, Juventud Guerrera and Rey Misterio Jr. Konnan talked about how popular extreme lucha was and how ECW was able to replace people who left the company.

One controversial segment of the DVD, was the segment covering the Shane Douglas breaking Pitbull Gary Wolfe's neck. Shane said it was Gary's fault for trying to oversell a DDT. Gary said it was Shane's fault. Really good stuff here, and I wonder what they said to each other after hearing what the other had to say on this DVD.

Shane Douglas's rise as the top heel in ECW was covered. Shane said he had people literally attacking him during the Pitbull halo angle. Shane said that he had to sneak into arenas in the trunks of cars, in order to protect his own safety. Shane might be the last heel in wrestling to have drawn that much real heat, when you think about it.

The girls of ECW are covered next. The impact of Francine (who was with the company longer than any other female) was covered. Kimona's infamous strip tease was also covered.

In another great, yet controversial segment, Raven and Sandman discuss the crucifixion angle. This is something I didn't get on the WWE DVD. WWE showed the footage and covered the angle in-depth, but didn't get comments from the wrestlers actually in it! Thankfully, we get to hear what both guys thought on this. Both thought it was retarded for Raven to apologize. Sandman said if he wasn't so new with the company then, he would've never let Raven apologize. Raven and Sandman agreed that the only reason Raven was forced to apologize was because Paul was courting Kurt Angle. Sandman said he wondered if Kurt cried to Vince when Undertaker crucified (Or as WWE said at the the time, "Symbolized") Steve Austin. One funny thing during this was when Raven said people accused him of being insensitive to the cross because he was Jewish. He said if he hung Sandman on a Jewish star, Sandman would roll. I never got why so many people cried about this angle, it's wrestling and is no different than things you see on TV and in the movies.

Blue Meanie discussed the bWo and how he said it was only supposed to be a one time thing. He also talked about how Raven helped him get into the company, and Raven talked about how he booked Meanie and Stevie Richards just to pop himself. bWo was lightening in a bottle that caught on for a good 8 months in ECW.

The ECW invasion of Raw, and Barely Legal were covered in-depth as well. Everyone involved gave their thoughts on both. The impact of ECW was then discussed with Terry Taylor admitting that he stole stuff from ECW while he was part of the WWF booking team. (Terry admitted stealing Big Show chokeslamming Undertaker through the ring from ECW when Bam Bam put Taz through the ring.) Everyone then talked about how ECW was getting really hot and was starting to make some money and became a legit number 3 (or in some eyes, a number 2) promotion. Joey Styles also puts up his commentary on the show against any other wrestling event in wrestling history.

Terry Taylor, like I said above, is also on this DVD, and he has alot of comments around this time period. He talked about how the Public Enemy were beaten up by the APA. (Bradshaw a bully for the man? Perish the thought!) Terry said he was the one who brought the Public Enemy in, and how he found out later that the Public Enemy were set-up. With everyone else on this DVD, I'm surprised that Grunge didn't have a few words here.

The impact of the Monday Night Wars was then discussed. People going to the WWF and WCW left and right and how it affected ECW was discussed in detail. Tod Gordon then talked about the mole accusations, and said it was all a giant work to give him time to stay home with his four children and get away from the grind. This segment was kind of sketchy and incomplete, due to Forever Hardcore not being able to use WWE footage and due to the mole story not being 100% explained. Then again, this DVD is more catered to a fan of ECW not someone who didn't know what ECW was.

The TNN deal, and how it killed ECW was discussed. Francine is very vocal during this subject, just like she was in her RF Shoot Interview. TNN using ECW as a guinea pig for the WWF was explained.

The great RVD-Jerry Lynn feud was then talked about. Lynn said he might've lost more matches than he won, but he said it didn't matter because it was all about the wrestling in the ring.

The whole WWF wrestler vs WCW Wrestler in an ECW ring was discussed as the infamous Taz vs Mike Awesome match 4/00 ECW World Title match is talked about. This DVD would be more complete if they could've got comments from Awesome about this. I don't think the true importance and effect of this match came across. This was a once in a lifetime thing and wasn't put over as huge as it should've been.

The death of ECW is discussed. Several wrestlers talk about how they didn't know ECW was dead until the saw Paul Heyman taking Jerry Lawler's announcing spot on RAW, in March of 2001. Sandman said during the dying days, everyone in the ECW locker room was still family, but all against Paul, due to lack of money. Shane Douglas said that towards the end, it was amazing that he made more money during ECW's earlier years in front of a 1000 fans, and losing money while in front of 6000 fans and on PPV.

Everyone gave their closing thoughts on ECW at the end of the DVD.

Two "post-DVD" segments came up next. One featured Terry Funk telling everyone why he chose to wrestle on the Hardcore Homecoming show for less money, than wrestling on the WWE One Night Stand show for a shit load of cash. This was kind of emotional.

The next segment is presented by Jeremy Borash. It is a Tribute to Chris Candido. A promo outtake from TNA is shown where Borash is interviewing Candido. Candido is just being Candido as he oversells the hell out of a leg injury. Funny stuff here, and this may have been Chris's last ever taped promo.

This concludes the main documentary/story.

There are also two bonus features. One feature features one of the owners of the New Alhambra (ECW Arena), whose name is Roger, giving a quick 2 minute tour of the place. I popped for Roger pointing at one of the skyboxes and saying "this is where they kept the computer geeks." It was like he was implying they were held captive there and not allowed anywhere else.

Another feature was word association with Joey Styles, which I think he oversold, as he took it very serious. It was pretty funny that the first word that popped out of his head for Francine was "boobs." Joey then talked about how her tits are too large for her. Astute observation by one Joey Styles.

Final McWord
This is the perfect tag team partner to the WWE produced ECW DVD. It fills in the gaps that the WWE omitted and it allows guys who weren't featured on the WWE DVD to speak. However, this DVD has no visualizations of what is discussed, due to WWE owning all of the footage, so the WWE DVD has the advantage in that department.

This DVD is perfect if you have the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD. I would recommend watching the WWE DVD first, then watching this one, this way you have a visualization and saw what the guys are talking about. On the WWE DVD you get to see the crucifixion, but on Forever Hardcore, you get to hear from Raven and Sandman. If you meshed the DVD's together then you'd have the 98% complete history of ECW with comments from practically everyone.

One thing this DVD glosses over, just like the WWE DVD, are the years 2000-2001. Guys like Justin Credible, Steve Corino and Cyrus would've been cool to hear from. Also, I'm surprised that Axl Rotten, Tammy Sytch and Balls Mahoney weren't interviewed for Forever Hardcore. However, it is only a minor complaint on what has to be considered a kick ass job by Borash.

I really enjoyed this DVD. The 2 hours flew. You definitely need a knowledge of ECW going into this, but then again everyone who will buy this already knows ECW. I think Borash did a great job in presenting ECW the right way and put it over the way it should be put over. The stories were interesting, and for the most part, the documentary comes off as one giant Best-Of ECW Shoot Interview. One thing that I don't know if possible due to legal reasons, that could've made this DVD better, would be to use some of the RF Video Fan Cam footage that WWE doesn't own. The one knock on the DVD is that there are no visualizations of what is going on and this solution might've fixed that. But aside from that, this DVD does a great job telling the story of ECW with some of the top ECW names.

Overall
I recommend this DVD highly. Definitely pick it up. Like I said above, watch "Rise and Fall of ECW" first, and then watch this DVD to fill in the gaps and to hear a more "r-rated" story of ECW. You can tell no one was edited here and everyone was allowed to speak their piece. This DVD did an excellent job and it was cool hearing from so many people about so many things. I really think that this DVD makes the "Rise and Fall of ECW" story complete.

To check out this DVD, go to http://www.foreverhardcore.com or go to Forever Hardcore directly.

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com