wrestling / News

Bruce Prichard on The Rise and Fall of ECW’s Success, His Concerns About ECW One Night Stand, Why There Was No WCW Nostalgia PPV

January 15, 2020 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Rise and Fall of ECW

– On the latest Something to Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard discussed the success of WWE’s “Rise and Fall of ECW” DVD and why there was no WCW “nostalgia” PPV like the one ECW received. The Rise and Fall of ECW home video release came out in 2004, three years after WWE bought the hardcore promotion, and was one of the company’s most successful DVD sets.

Prichard discussed why the set was so successful and his concerns when WWE decided to revive the brand for the One Night Stand PPV in 2005 and eventually a full revival, as well as why they didn’t do a similar revival PPV for WCW despite doing a Rise and Fall of WCW DVD. Highlights and the full podcast are below:

On the success of the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD: “I think that people in general, and whether you want to admit it or not a lot of times, they love to see the behind the stories of the fallen. Especially something — they love to see things come crashing down sometimes. And ECW was a darling, had a niche audience and it was a darling of the internet in a lot of ways. So it was romanticized and when it went out of business, I think people, [that] passionate fanbase there was like, ‘Oh my god! It was the greatest thing ever!’ So there was definitely a feeling like I’ve talked about before of, when people watch reality shows where it’s an elimination reality show. What are you really watching? You’re watching to see who gets eliminated week after week after week. You really only care about the winner in the finale. But leading up to it, it’s all about the demise. So as a society, I think people like to read about and they like to see the demise of something.”

On ECW’s demise: “So the Rise of Fall of ECW, incredible story. You had a bunch of misfits that produced a television show that had this incredibly loud fanbase that loved it. And to that audience man, it was the end-all, be all. But trying to get out of that bubble, and once they got out of that bubble of Philadelphia and the Northeast, all of a sudden they realized ‘Well s**t. Maybe there aren’t that many people that really like it.’ And you heard about it, f**king all over the world, man. S**t, Japan brought those guys over for the violence, for the myth that was ECW. And there was an audience out there that was interested in that story. And I don’t give a s**t who you are, that’s a great story.”

On his concerns about ECW One Night Stand: “I also had an issue with the ECW PPV. What do you do? Who do you bring in, and obviously it was very successful and there was a nostalgia thing. And I am 100% on the same page as Rob Van Dam. That to do an ECW, purely ECW show — one-off, one time and be done with it — great. Go do it, it’d be a great nostalgia show. My biggest fear was … I don’t know. It just, it’s like Brawl for All, man. You’re either pregnant, or you’re not. You can’t be half-pregnant, and that was my fear with the whole ECW thing. Do you go down that road.”

On if he thought WWE should do a ‘nostalgia’ WCW PPV: “No, I didn’t. What the f**k were you going to do with [WCW]?…As far as WCW goes, what did you have to do a nostalgia show on that? All those guys that made the jump, most of them were old WWE guys that had any name value. And aside from Hogan and Sting, what would that be? What would that consist of?”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.