Down With The Brown: The Rise And Fall Of ECW (2004)

A special Sydney Brown column as yes, I review something NEW for a change. And let me sum up this disc real quickly: I bought it on a Wednesday, and I’m reviewing it on a Wednesday. Far and away this might be the best WWE documentary they have ever put out. A three-hour look at the history of the ECW that hits so many points, so many issues, it’s almost mind-boggling how much ground they cover.

I’m resorting to what you get, what works, what doesn’t, and the verdict on this one:

What’s on it: As I mentioned, a three-hour documentary that talks to all the major players in the history of ECW (at least those who are currently employed by the WWE, don’t expect to see Shane Douglas’s thoughts here), and seven additional matches.

-The Pitbulls vs. Raven & Stevie Richards (Best of 3 Dog Collar Chain Match) 9/16/95
-Rey Mysterio Jr vs. Psychosis (Best of 3) 10/17/95
-Mikey Whipwreck vs. The Sandman 10/28/95
-2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu 2/17/96
-Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven 6/6/97
-Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow 3/1/98
-Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn 5/16/99

-Audio commentary from Dreamer, Tazz, and RVD during their respective matches.

And a few outtakes:

-Stevie Richards discusses his near paralysis in 1997, his WCW tenure, his legit heat with Raven, and his unwelcome return to ECW.

-Tazz tells a story about his last meeting with Paul Heyman before his 2000 Royal Rumble debut, and the guilt he felt in leaving ECW.

-Chris Jericho talks about how badly his travel bookings were.

What works:

-Everything. I am aware that I am a columnist of great hyperbole but I’m not kidding when I say this is the greatest WWE produced documentary I have ever seen. No punches are pulled in this one. Everybody who needs to be talking does. You’re not going to see HHH in this (well, maybe for about two minutes), no Shane, no Stephanie, and even Vince is kept to a minimum. You get to hear from Paul Heyman, Tommy Dreamer, Tazz, The Dudleys, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and virtually every single ECW player that is now working in the WWE. Really, the only guys not interviewed that could have made it better were Terry Funk, Shane Douglas, Raven, The Sandman, and Tod Gordon.

-Over FIFTY chapters. Fifty different topics are discussed from the days of Eastern Championship Wrestling to the first stars Public Enemy to bankruptcy and Heyman’s first broadcast on RAW. EVERYTHING is covered, and I’ll cover the highlights.

-How Mikey Whipwreck became a star.

-How the low production values were turned into a positive.

-Paul Heyman’s public firing of Sabu.

-Paul Heyman performing the funniest Steve Austin impression you’ll ever hear.

-Jerry Lawler’s real feelings about the ECW-WWF co-promotion.

-Sabu’s neck breaking, Tazz breaking his neck, Stevie Richards breaking his neck, and how Bill Alfonso spilling pints of blood in one of the most disturbing matches ever saved him from being fired.

-the phenomenon of the BWO.

-How NOBODY was told of the ECW appearance at IYH: Mind Games and how all the reactions you see are real.

-The crucifixion angle (how uncomfortable the talent was, how Raven had to come out and apologize for it, and how PISSED Kurt Angle was when he saw it in the arena. He gets worked up even now talking about it.)

-The Mass Transit incident almost killing the initial PPV. (No footage of it is on the DVD.)

-Rob Van Dam’s shoot during the Barely Legal PPV and how he meant every word he said.

-How Barely Legal was three seconds away from becoming a complete disaster.

-Why Tod Gordon was fired from his own company.

-The Al Snow “Head” gimmick saving Al’s career

-How Tazz felt about getting booed out of the building during his last ECW match at Anarchy Rulz 1999.

-How horrible TNN was to Paul, and how Paul blames their TV deal on ultimately sinking ECW.

-How Paul Heyman was almost canned his first night broadcasting on RAW for talking about Trish Stratus’ “bush.”

And that’s just scratching the surface. Literally EVERY major angle is covered here, and almost every participant is there to talk about it.

-Nothing gets watered down. This is a TV-MA disc and it warrants it. No bleeping. You hear every F-word (unless it was bleeped on the master), see every drop of blood, even on the commentary. It’s almost amazing to hear RVD refer to himself on the commentary as the “Whole Fu*king Show” and pointing out how Jerry Lynn “fu*ked up” during their match.

-This is the closest you will ever come to seeing Vince McMahon apologize. Vince discusses Tazz winning the ECW title only to job to HHH four days later on Smackdown. “I’m not sure what I was thinking at the time” and he seems to regret doing that to Paul.

-GREAT commentary. A lot of the guest commentaries have been hit-or-miss but Tommy Dreamer does a great job reliving his final battle with Raven and his confrontation with Jerry Lawler (and gets some nice inside jokes about Beulah as he asks “I wonder what happened to her?”) RVD while not as good is very outspoken about his feud with Jerry Lynn. And I’d have the same positives about Tazz except of course, that’s his JOB.

-Nice comparisons of all the angles and gimmicks the WWE “borrowed” as we get side-by-side shots of ECW moments followed by the WWE version.

-Unlike the Monday Night War, this isn’t a one-sided affair, because nobody comes out looking particularly good. This is a warts-and-all presentation. Bischoff comes off as smarmy (though even moreso because he certainly believes everything he says, and it’s hard to argue many of his points), Heyman comes off as a genius booker and genius cult leader who had no sense of business, Jim Ross comes off as a patronizing jackass as we get off-air raw video of him treating Heyman like a child during his first broadcast in 2001. (Did JR forget he broadcasted with Paul in WCW in the early 90’s?), and Vince is his usual double-talking self, praising Heyman for what he accomplished, patting himself on the back for helping ECW survive while at the same time scooping up Tazz and The Dudleys simultaneously and thereby starting them on the permanent slide, and his appreciation of Paul’s ideas though denying that the WWE got their “Attitude” from him. The only guys who come out of this clean are Dreamer and The Dudleys, and even The Dudleys admit they were major assholes who may have gone too far to get heat in their tenure.

-Guys you wouldn’t expect to get major time do. Shane Douglas burned his bridge with Vince, he gets several segments. Ditto Raven.

What doesn’t:

-If you were a fan of the Pioneer ECW DVD series, you were probably like me and weren’t terribly impressed with the full match listings here. Four of the seven matches can be found on other ECW DVDs and basically all seven matches can be pretty easily found on other sources. So there’s a bit of a disappointment there, but the added commentaries help give the matches an added freshness.

-Denial. Paul Heyman is a great talker, but it plays a little strange how in 1998 Paul felt they could have been the “#2 organization” (a fact Bischoff shrugs off by saying that that would have made the WWF #3) yet by 1999 they were almost bankrupt. There seems to be a discrepancy as to how such a popular organization never seemed to make any money. Even Dreamer can’t understand how they could do sell-out shows towards the end but not be able to pay anybody anything. And that’s really the one question that never gets answered: “Where DID all the money go?” It’s interesting to hear Heyman say one minute that “if they could have gotten a new TV deal, they’d be fine” and the next minute hear RVD admit he was owed so much money, he didn’t think it was POSSIBLE for Paul Heyman to pay him back.

-Audio. WWE DVDs often have difficulties where the background music is louder than the person talking, especially when a softer spoken guy is talking. A minor quibble, but it’s something I’ve never really seen addressed.

-If the WWE doesn’t own the rights to the ECW wrestler’s theme music, you aren’t going to hear it. I’m just warning you. Forget about hearing Pantera right now.

-Some of the major players get glossed over. Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero get maybe a two minute segment when their battles were legendary in 1995. Chris Benoit’s tenure is pretty brief with his breaking of Sabu’s neck barely mentioned. And basically the last six months are barely covered, no mention of Corino, Tajiri, Super Crazy, Justin Credible, Kid Kash or any of the guys who were there at the end, only minor glimpses of them in montages. A minor quibble, though it’s a little difficult to get emotionally involved in the Malenko-Guerrero farewell when you don’t have the backstory to go with it.

The Verdict:

A GREAT DVD. Do not hesitate for a moment to get this. Even if you already have the matches, the documentary is worth the price by itself. And keep in mind, I have not always been a fan of the WWE documentaries (I basically skipped them on the Flair DVD.) But I guarantee, the three hours will fly by. I had no intention of watching this in one sitting, but I just couldn’t stop it. I bragged once that I read the Have a Nice Day book in one sitting. Yeah, all 700 pages. I could not put it down. The same holds true for this DVD. And there’s something for everybody to learn, as even I didn’t know many of the goings-on backstage. (No, not the drug use.)

This is a rarity to see such a production done, and I think Tazz sums it up nicely as to why Vince was as lenient to Paul Heyman as he was when he stated that Vince put it all on the line with WrestleMania I. And he felt Paul did it every day with ECW. And I think therein shows you why Paul got the respect that Eric Bischoff never will. Paul made a business out of nothing. Eric Bischoff squandered a business with money that wasn’t his. ECW changed the wrestling business despite it’s ultimate failure. And it’s a tribute to see its legacy commemorated as wonderfully as it is here.

Thumbs WAY up, highest recommendation, A.

-Sydney Brown