First Time You Saw ECW

[JHawk 0]

Early May 1996. It was a six man tag with Shane Douglas and The Bruise Brothers against...I can't even remember. The Pitbulls and Dreamer maybe? My brother happened to be awake when it came on our Prime Network affiliate and taped it for me. I remember a decent 25 minute brawl but sadly didn't keep the tape.

 

The Douglas-Scorpio "A Matter of Respect" TV Title match was a week or two later. That's the match that got me hooked.

[Guest jm29195]

Anarchy Rulz 2000- loved every minute of it and had never seen anything like it- Kid Kash/EZ Money had me going nuts especially, with the post match Sandman/LSD/Cyrus/Gertner match helping greatly!

[Guest Ransome]

Guess I'll be the first person to say that I only learned of ECW after it's death, in about February 2001. Their first actual show I watched was a tape of Living Dangerously 2000 in late 2001.

 

To put it in context, WWF Superstars came to Australian TV in 1999, and I only watched WWF casually until about January 2001. Wrestlemania X-7 was the first entire pay-per-view I watched live. I caught up with tapes later.

[Adam 0]

^much like you, I only really SAW ECW in early 2001. My first PPV was WrestleMania 2000, and i was buying Apter mags from late 99 until 2001, where I learnt about ECW and its superstars, not knowing what their deal was.

 

Then finally I found Hardcore Heaven 2000 in a Video Shop down here. I think I saw Living Dangerously 1999 before that, but it was just OK and I wasn't sure if I liked the product as much as my other markyness. Then there was RVD vs. Jerry Lynn. As they say, the rest is history. I am the massive fan I am today. I was only an on-again, off-again fan up until then, but as soon as I laid eyes on RVD vs. Jerry Lynn, hooked.

[strummer 0]

don't know the exact date, I think it was the summer/fall of 95, and it feautured Shane Douglas v Marty Jannety and I think something to do with Sandman and Mikey. I remember seeing the Raven introductory vignettes and thinking " OMG is that Johnny Polo, it can't be!"

[Red Baron 0]

I remembered witch match.

 

It was Tanaka/Awesome/Tazz triple threat elimination match where Tazz got eliminated first.

 

"Taz has been eliminated. Taz has been eliminated?...TAZ HAS BEEN ELIMINATED!!! THE FOUR WORDS YOU'D NEVER HEAR ON ECW!!! TAZ HAS BEEN ELIMINATED"

[MDH257 0]

We never got ECW TV until the TNN show and Time Warner Cable was the absolutely last cable system to give clearence to ECW PPV's. So the first time I saw ECW was Wrestlepalooza '98. What a introduction, huh (sarcasm).

[DangerousDamon 0]

THe 1st time I saw ECW was the night Tommy Dreamer finally Beat Raven.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

I never did religiously follow it since the show aired at 3am-ish on Sunday mornings. I'd see a lil but here and there but always attended the live shows when they came to town; even though I only initially knew the old WWF/WCW guys and mainstays like Taz/RVD/Dudleys. By far, all 4-6 times I've seen them live I got a better bang for my buck than any other wrestling, concert, or sporting events.

 

Also caught a lot of their ppvs in 1999/2000 as about 6 of us would all pitch in to check it out.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I was watching the Prevue Channel in late July in '98, and saw an ad for Heat Wave '98. I was like "SHIT, THAT LOOKS COOL" from the clips they showed, ordered it, and was hooked on ECW ever since. Really fucking good PPV, too. Still holds up.

[Zack Malibu 0]

Ordered Double Tables in spring of '95, but right around the time I got it, I found ECW on the America One UHF Channel on my old TV. They were on Tuesday nights, and every other night at 11 was another federation of wrestling (Smoky Mountain on Wed., USWA on Fri., etc.). I got to see the early days of Dreamer/Raven, the Eddie/Dean classics, Douglas' departure for WWE, just all the classic moments.

 

About a year and a half later (Labor Day weekend '96) a Spanish channel out of Boston began showing ECW on Friday nights at 1am. I set my timer, and the first scene of the first episode I have on tape is a Douglas and Francine promo from a beach, talking about how they broke Gary Wolfe's neck and Jerry Lewis should use his telethon to raise money for him. It aired on that channel until mid '98, then they lost it and I didn't see TV eps until the TNN deal.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Zack, Hardcore TV still aired on Unvision 27 (the Boston Spanish channel) until early 2000. Right after WAAF Real Rock TV, IIRC. It stopped, and then I think WNDS 18 from somewhere in New Hampshire (Nashua or Manchester) started airing it around the time of the kick-ass Tag title tourney in late 2000, and stopped soon after (since, well, ECW went under soon after).

[snuffbox 0]

We never got  ECW TV until the TNN show and Time Warner Cable was the absolutely last cable system to give clearence to ECW PPV's. So the first time I saw ECW was Wrestlepalooza '98.  What a introduction, huh (sarcasm).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I dont think Wrestlepalooza was nearly as bad as folks like SK made it sound. Snow-Douglas was a decent match considering Shane was crippled, RVD-Sabu was a pretty good spotfest, Dreamer/Sandman vs Dudleys and New Jack-Bigelow were fun brawls, and the undercard was ok. I take it you didnt like it though, and thats cool.

[Zack Malibu 0]

Zack, Hardcore TV still aired on Unvision 27 (the Boston Spanish channel) until early 2000. Right after WAAF Real Rock TV, IIRC. It stopped, and then I think WNDS 18 from somewhere in New Hampshire (Nashua or Manchester) started airing it around the time of the kick-ass Tag title tourney in late 2000, and stopped soon after (since, well, ECW went under soon after).

 

Univision got replaced by another Spanish network in my area on the cable box, so while I occasionally saw it on the old UHF TV I had laying around, I lost the ability to see it regularly/tape it.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

The first time I saw ECW was when Public Enemy were in the ring during their face time.

 

Don't remember what they were doing, as it was 2 in the morning and I was still young at the time, but I do remember it was Public Enemy doing their dancing.

 

...strange, my experiences of seeing each of the big 3 for the first time are all different:

 

WWF/E: IRS wrestling on Superstars

WCW: Hogan giving his old boots that he beat Andre in to Evad Sullivan

ECW: Public Enemy

[Guest Rex Cutter]

My memory is hazy, I am an old bastard... See if you guys can help me. It was a cold winter night, I remember watching ECW on NJN (an old cable company not sure if it is still around) Shane Douglas was piledriving Sherri Martel after finding a Ric Flair button on her or something. He piledrove her three times and told her to go back to Atlanta and tell Flair that he sucked or something. I was hooked and my girlfriend at the time wondered why I was so crazy about it!

[MDH257 0]

We never got  ECW TV until the TNN show and Time Warner Cable was the absolutely last cable system to give clearence to ECW PPV's. So the first time I saw ECW was Wrestlepalooza '98.  What a introduction, huh (sarcasm).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I dont think Wrestlepalooza was nearly as bad as folks like SK made it sound. Snow-Douglas was a decent match considering Shane was crippled, RVD-Sabu was a pretty good spotfest, Dreamer/Sandman vs Dudleys and New Jack-Bigelow were fun brawls, and the undercard was ok. I take it you didnt like it though, and thats cool.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I didn't hate it as much as is just left me with a feeling of "this is what the hype was all about ".

I got the next ppv, Heatwave '98, and it was a hundred times better.

[haws bah gawd 0]

The first time I ever saw or even heard of ECW was when I was just channel-surfing, and came across the preview show for Barely Legal. The moves I saw the wrestlers doing on that commercial blew me away, and although ECW wasnt shown on any channels in my area, I made it a point to always read up on them through the Apter-mags.