First Time You Saw ECW

[Guest Ether]

When was the first time you saw ECW, whether it was on TV or in person.

 

For me, the first time on TV was late May 1996. I had heard about it but didn't know it was on TV in the Pittsburgh area till then. Saw the Dudleys (a heel D-Von with stuttering face Bubba Ray) versus the FBI (Little Guido and J.T. Smith). Hooked as soon as I saw a chairshot during the middle of a match and no DQ was called. Match ended via DQ when D-Von hit the ref with a chair (Styles: "There's not a lot of thing you can get disqualified for in ECW, but hitting the ref with a chair is one of them. You can use one on your opponent though.") Also saw Brian Pillman hanging with RVD and Shane Douglas trying to lose his TV title, only to have Pit Bull 2 when it, prompting Shane to want the belt back.

 

Live, my brother and I drove to Philly to see the "Crossing the Line Again" show in February 1997, where among other things they officially announced Barely Legal. Still the best house show I've ever been to.

[syxx2001 0]

When they had their show on TNN. It was the first night I had the internet at home too.

[Youth N Asia 0]

I think it was 1997, maybe early 98.

 

Slingshot Suplex loaned me a tape called Double Tables. I'd heard of ECW and remembered their deal on RAW, but hadn't seen anything.

 

I must have watched Double Tables 5 or 6 times durring that week, and the Benoit powerbomb spot from the top rope through a table 20 times. The show was so unlike anything else I'd seen. Cause basicaly all I had seen was WWF, WCW, and Global on ESPN.

[The Dames 0]

I'll never forget when I first saw it.

 

I missed WCW Bash at the Beach 96 the night it aired, so I watched it the next day. After the Hogan turn, the credits rolled and segued into a Raven promo with Sandman's son. (July 96). The first few matches I saw in that show was Jericho vs. Pitbull # 2, which is where he won the title and Dreamer vs. Prime Time Brian Lee in a weapons match.

 

I loved the intensity, the blood, the announcing (!) the crazy spots, everything.

 

1996 was a great year.

 

Dames

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

June 99. Taz and Corino argue. Corino wusses his way out of a match. LSD comes out to a huge pop and Taz asks the crowd if LSD deserves a title shot.

 

He gets one, and gets his ass beat. Thrown down a set of cement stairs in the audience for fucks' sake.

 

Comedy and a hell of a match in 10 minutes? I'm hooked.

[Guest Askewniverse]

Early '95.

 

I stayed up late one night and had the TV on the Prevue Channel (TV Guide Channel). I noticed that something called "Extreme Championship Wrestling" was going to air in a few minutes on Sports Channel Philadelphia. I remembered reading about ECW in PWI, so I decided to check it out.

 

The show was mostly promos, recaps, and commercials, but I liked it. One of the first things I saw was Benoit and Malenko beating the hell out of Public Enemy. Once Styles mentioned that Benoit was trained by Stu Hart, I became an instant Benoit fan. At the time, Bret Hart was my favorite wrestler, so I automatically liked anybody who was trained in The Dungeon.

[Special K 0]

well, the first time I saw ECW was when they invaded Raw, but the first time I was really exposed was a Hardcore TV where it was RVD v Dreamer and RVD did his awesome 'bounce 3' into the air' piledriver sell.

[GreatWhiteNope 0]

Summer 1995 - I was flipping through channels and saw Marty Jannetty wrestling in a battle royal.

 

That caught my attention.

 

Definitely remember some Eddie-Dean matches in the weeks following that.

[what 0]

First show I ever saw was Raven/Dreamer's final battle in 1997. It was an incredible match and I was hooked. I remember thinking "is that Johnny Polo?" a bunch of times.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I'm pretty sure the first time I saw it was a tape I bought off the internet of Barely Legal '97 (I probably got it about one month after the event took place). I was hooked, and actually had quite a few ECW tapes for a while (until I stupidly sold them 'cause I needed cash a few years ago). We never got ECW in syndication here in Wisconsin (at least to my knowledge), so I never got to actually see ECW "live" on TV until the TNN show started.

[BUTT 0]

When I was 10 (this was in '95) I read about ECW quite a bit in PWI and other such magazines. While most of the coverage focused on Raven, Sandman, and Sabu, I was more interested in the fact that Marty Jannetty was wrestling there. So, when I noticed that MSG was showing ECW late at night, I said "I have to see this." I set the VCR, and the first ECW match I saw was Eddy Guerrero & Taz vs. Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio (the one where Taz hurt his neck). I saw Malenko and Guerrero doing stuff I had never seen before, even though today it would seem tame (stuff like the tombstone reversal spot and the tiger bomb). So I became a big fan right away.

[Placebo Effect 0]

Stevie and Meanie superkicking Santa Clause.

 

I was hooked for years after that.

[Dangerous A 0]

Sometime in late '97, NoCalMike loaned me Matter of Respect '96, Heatwave '96, and Barely Legal. My wrestling world was turned upside down after that.

[snuffbox 0]

Wrestlepalooza 98

[Guest M. Harry Smilac]

Turned on Sunshine Network here in Florida at around 3AM on a Friday night and their was some guy, I still don't remeber who, cutting a promo that was getting bleeped every other word.

 

About 30 seconds in to the promo Enter Sandman hit and I saw this guy come out bashing beer cans against his forehead and smoking a cigarette.

From there on out I was hooked and watched every Friday.

 

Probably was late 96/early 97 if I had to guess.

[King Cucaracha 0]

I think Guilty As Charged '99.

[Slingshot Suplex 0]

I think it was 1997, maybe early 98.

 

Slingshot Suplex loaned me a tape called Double Tables. I'd heard of ECW and remembered their deal on RAW, but hadn't seen anything.

 

I must have watched Double Tables 5 or 6 times durring that week, and the Benoit powerbomb spot from the top rope through a table 20 times. The show was so unlike anything else I'd seen. Cause basicaly all I had seen was WWF, WCW, and Global on ESPN.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I bought that tape at an indy show in Michigan. Friend of mine had some tapes and I had heard about ECW but not had the opportunity to see it.

 

Benoit vs Snow was great and then I was hooked

[Jericholic82 0]

I had read abotu ecw in pwi in like 95ish, but I didnt see it till I was flipping channels one sat night in April 96 and came across a wrestling show on KTLA (An LA indy channel that also wound up airing wwf shotgun/jakked, wcw worldwidethen also USWA and Music City Wrestling, then later XPW tv) and found out it was ecw, so I was like "cool". I fogrget who was wrestling that night, but I remember the first thing I saw was a manager (I think named "damian kane" or somethin) doing a promo and some sort of beatdown occured. later in the show, Raven had a promo and I was like "hey thats scotty flamingo/johnny polo" I got hooked instantly. for some reason in late june, the show stopped airing on sats, so I thought it was gone (the last show being the one that proceeded hardcore heaven 96(which I taped and still have on tape), so I never found out the results making me made mad. It came back in july on sats and I continued to get into it, especially the raven/sandman feud and the feud between the eliminators and the gangstas (saw the gangstas win the tag title son tv in august and I got so excited, yes I was still quite the mark and popped for the faces)

 

The RAW invasion was so cool in 97 and I so wanted to see barely legal, but I was only like 14 at the time and had no job and had just convinced my dad to order wm 13 the weeks before so there was no chance. I didn't get to see that show till I bought the reissued pioneer vhs version of the show in 01. Infact I never ordered or saw live any of the ecw ppvs.

 

I remember in 97 the show started to air on sunday nights at midnight , I so I would stay up late on a school night no less.

 

By 98 with shotgun on the channel and wcw worldwide and ecw back on sats, they aired back to back to back making the ultimate 3 hour block on sat nights for a wrestling fan like me.

[Red Baron 0]

A Tanaka vs Awesome match, i think it was the first time they fought.

[Darthtiki 0]

It was summer '99, I had heard of ECW from Ced during our time serving at the Maximum Security Prison errr High School. Anyways, that summer I inherited a tv (which I mainly used for N64) and unfortunately I didn't have cable wired to my room so I bought a 20 dollar antenna from Radio Shack and tuned around and accidently came across the America One Network and one night they showed what I believe was MCW and following that was ECW hardcore tv which during the time was hot with the Corino/Taz feud and the Impact Players. I remember taping those shows (even with the crappy output that my antenna gave me) so that I could spread the ECW virus. I remember a few months later going to my first WWF show (a house show at UC Davis) and seeing Lita w/ Essa Rios before she was all over tv and i was telling my bud who didn't watch ECW "dude, that's Ms. Congeniality from ECW".

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Steiners first match (outdoor show) was my first episode (midnight-ish) on Philadelphia SportsChannel.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

It was like 4 in the morning, I was switching channels, and I saw 911 chokeslam Tommy Dreamer (I think) off a balcony through 3 tables.

 

 

Instant fan.

[Guest Mosaicv2]

Right around late 1995, my dad really noticed it first before I did and that was the reason I got to hear about it. Most of the time I really remember it being on 1 a.m. Friday on channel 27, the SPANISH CHANNEL no less.

[Zetterberg is God 0]

I had always read about it in PWI and magazines like that but had no access to tapes or shows until my friend lent me Living Dangerously '98. Once I moved to Calgary and had access to TNN, I watched it every week and borrowed PPV's from a friend.

[Guest hasbeen]

1995 or 1996 probably, on one of the regional sports channels before Fox sports took them over. First segment was JT Smith, introducing "KISS", which turned out to be of course Richards, Meanie, and I think Nova. Great comedy, then Sandman cleaned house, before Raven took him out. Can't remember all of it, but the big match was 3-team tag match with Eliminators, Gangsta and I think the Harris boys.

[The Dames 0]

1995 or 1996 probably, on one of the regional sports channels before Fox sports took them over. First segment was JT Smith, introducing "KISS", which turned out to be of course Richards, Meanie, and I think Nova. Great comedy, then Sandman cleaned house, before Raven took him out. Can't remember all of it, but the big match was 3-team tag match with Eliminators, Gangsta and I think the Harris boys.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm almost positive that was within the same month that I started watching, if not the next week. July 1996.

 

Dames

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Heatwave 1998. Nuff said.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

I’d been following ECW in magazines ever since its inception in 1992. I’d read reports and articles on their various cards, and the first one to really catch my eye was the report on their tapings in May of 1993 which included a wild brawl involving everyone on the roster and saw Todd Gordon get knocked silly. I think it was the taping that also featured The Dark Patriot tossing JT Smith off of the balcony, the one that Terry Funk strung up Rocco Rock from, and then leaping from it onto Smith with a double ax handle.

 

The first event of theirs I got to see was The Night The Line Was Crossed. The event as a whole had been talked up real big, but it was the main event that I really wanted to see, as I was intrigued by the idea of Sabu, Shane Douglas and Terry Funk wrestling for 60-minutes. After watching the tape I was blown away. It was totally and completely unlike the generally dire product being churned out by WCW or the WWF. The wrestlers, the fans, the signs, the chants and the commentary all served to highlight just how vanilla and hideously pedestrian the mainstream wrestling product had become in the US, and it was great.

 

ECW really was ‘the’ promotion in the US from 1994 until 1998, by which point WCW and the WWF had copied and adapted anything from ECW that could be taken to the mainstream, and there was nowhere ECW could or would go to once again be the alternative product that made them what they were.

[DMann2003 0]

Like a lot here I first learned of ECW through PWI in late 94, the first event I ever saw was Hardcore Heaven 94, which ends with the raining chairs sequence, but I don't recall ECW TV being available in Dayton until August 1996, right after Natural Born Killaz, when it started airing around 5-6pm on Saturdays on America 1.

[Papacita 0]

I first saw their TV show around April or May 94 back when they were just NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling. I was talking on the phone to my best friend at the time (a non-fan, but he knew how big a fan I was) and he stumbled onto the show while channel surfing and told me to turn to it. I had read about it before in PWI, so I sat down and watched it. I was really intrigued by the hardcore style, but it was kinda hard for me to get into at the time since as somebody mentioned, all they showed were match clips, commercials and ads for upcoming shows. After going to Slamboree that year and seeing the reaction for Terry Funk, and then talking to a friend who used to attend the shows, I decided to keep watching, and the most notable thing I can remember from that period was Cactus throwing down the tag belt, which was kinda cool since you could see the controversy from that spill over to WCW TV. I tuned in periodically over the next year or so (actually missed the whole NWA Title controversy, and was confused as hell when I first tuned in to the new Extreme Championship Wrestling) before really becoming hooked around the time Sandman beat Shane for the title.

 

Never been to an ECW show though, which considering I'm from Philly irks the HELL out of me.