History Trivia / ECW

* AcclaimedFlop: Simply put, while the promotion was famously praised for being innovative, they literally never made money. There isn't a single year when they turned a profit. It was so illiquid by 2001 that Paul Heyman needed the PPV money to put on the next show.

** A stable-wide example would be WWECW's New Breed, which Punk was a member of for all of two weeks. Within those two weeks, it became blatantly obvious to everyone watching that Punk was the only one who had any real future in WWE. Everyone else was released from the company within a year besides Matt Striker, who transitioned into a backstage/announcer role before being being released in 2013. Elijah Burke did manage to find some success as "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero in Wrestling/{{TNA}}, but never came close to reaching the heights Punk did.

** Sabu was not Indian.

** A stable-wide example would be WWECW's New Breed, which Punk was a member of for all of two weeks. Within those two weeks, it became blatantly obvious to everyone watching that Punk was the only one who had any future in the company. Everyone else was released from the company within a year besides Matt Striker, who transitioned into a backstage/announcer role before being being released in 2013. Elijah Burke did manage to find some success as "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero in Wrestling/{{TNA}}, but never came close to reaching the heights Punk did.

* BreakupBreakout: Regarding WWECW, its most successful alumnus is Wrestling/CMPunk, who became a star comparable to Wrestling/JohnCena. Arguments can be made for Wrestling/TheMiz, Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}, Wrestling/JohnMorrison, and Wrestling/BobbyLashley for second place. Wrestling/{{Christian}} and Wrestling/MattHardy don't count, as they were long-established stars well prior to WWECW and both were only sent there to carry the show for the sake of the younger talent that were getting experience there, though in WWECW it was the first time both Christian and Matt were treated as solo main-eventers in WWE,[[note]]Although Christian had already been a main-eventer before [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling in another company]][[/note]] having previously been known as tag team specialists and solo mid-carders.

* FanNickname
** The original ECW is often referred to as "E-C-Dub", due to the famous chant.
** Rabid ECW fans are referred to as "The Mutants".
** The ECW revival was often referred to as "WWECW".

** Terry Taylor was actually an unlikely fan of ECW, but reached his limit with the Danbury Fall; the logical end point of those super-high dives done at Paul Heyman and Tod Gordon's behest.[[note]]It is noteworthy that the Danbury Fall was due to a ''botch,'' however, not an unavoidable consequence of the dive; Grimes tried to hold on to the scaffold in spite of New Jack trying to synchronize their jump properly, causing New Jack to fall first and Grimes to fall in a very unfortunate position for New Jack.[[/note]]

* AcclaimedFlop: There's a lot of "What Ifs" with ECW. Paul can talk all he wants about the TV deal falling through, the Pay-Per-View money owed to them, etc., but that's all a distraction from the real issue: they literally never made money. There isn't a single year when they turned a profit. It was so illiquid by 2001 that Paul needed the PPV money to put on the next show. Besides, by early 2000, the lineup was not even 10% of what it was at their peak. Fans at the time would've probably preferred that ECW die a martyr then linger on as a less-then-average indie.
* BreakupBreakout: Show-wise, WWECW's most successful alumnus is Wrestling/CMPunk, who became a star comparable to Wrestling/JohnCena. Arguments can be made for Wrestling/TheMiz, Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}, Wrestling/JohnMorrison, and Wrestling/BobbyLashley for second place. Wrestling/{{Christian}} and Wrestling/MattHardy don't count, as they were long-established stars well prior to WWECW and both were only sent there to carry the show for the sake of the younger talent that were getting experience there, though in WWECW it was the first time both Christian and Matt were treated as solo main-eventers in WWE,[[note]]Although Christian had already been a main-eventer before [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling in another company]][[/note]] having previously been known as tag team specialists and solo mid-carders.

** Terry Taylor was actually an unlikely fan of ECW, but reached his limit with the Danbury Fall; the logical end point of those stupid-high dives done at Paul and Tod's behest.[[note]]It is noteworthy that the Danbury Fall was due to a ''botch,'' however, not an unavoidable consequence of the dive; Grimes tried to hold on to the scaffold in spite of New Jack trying to synchronize their jump properly, causing New Jack to fall first and Grimes to fall in a very unfortunate position for New Jack.[[/note]]

* DoingItForTheArt: It's well-known that the majority of the wrestlers in ECW performed in the promotion for the sake of it, rather than for profit. (Though it's also known that during its final years, the financial dire straits were too much for many wrestlers , who eventually ended up leaving.) In one of the periodic documentaries put out by WWE, Dreamer is said to have told Heyman, "I will '''die''' for this company." The adrenaline / head injuries probably were not helping, and Tommy's always been a bit crazy; but it's no secret that Paul Heyman was the Jim Jones of pro wrestling for a little while.

* FakeNationality: Pablo Marquez was from Ecuador but billed as a Puerto Rican.
** The Rottens were not British, and Sabu was not Indian.

** WWECW, a shell of its former self. Wrestling/VinceMcMahon and [[{{Creator/SyFy}} Sci-Fi Channel]] meddled in it so much as to result in that half-baked PG product, until the miserable failure which was the December 2 ''December to Dismember'' made Heyman quit. Vince made himself the ECW Champion at one point.

** ''Barely Legal'' '97 has audio issues with the ring microphone right at the start of the show, and you can hear the truck crew talking and scrambling to deal with that, plus the power blows out mere moments after they go off the air that night.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: ECW was actually evolving into the Wrestling/RingOfHonor acrobatic style in the late 90s thanks to amazing international stars like Masato Tanaka, Tajiri, and Super Crazy (and because they became aware that while hardcore wrestling worked as a niche product which won't necessarily fail, it doesn't have room for growth either) until they got raided and had to go back to their violent roots with Sandman, Dreamer, Raven, Rhino, Justin Credible and others in their final year.
** [[Wrestling/PaulHeyman Paul Heyman's]] original concept for the revived series was a more serious and down-to-Earth promotion with worked shoot-style fights, not unlike Ring of Honor, but with a bigger budget. Creator/SyFy, on the other hand, wanted to go in the opposite direction: a cartoony, highly-gimmicked promotion full of literal [[WrestlingMonster wrestling monsters]]. Think Chikara or Wrestling/KaijuBigBattel, but, again, with a WWE budget and production values.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: TNN would air ''ECW on TNN'' on the FridayNightDeathSlot, and would only show commercials for ECW during the actual show, meaning there was virtually no way to pick up new viewers. Then, TNN opened up public negotiations with Wrestling/VinceMcMahon to put ''WWF Monday Night Raw'' on the channel, meaning ECW would eventually get axed. ECW, however, couldn't shop for another network until TNN officially cancelled them. By the time they did, ECW was flat broke. Heyman feels this is '''the''' reason ECW doesn't exist today.

** ECW were notable for using real songs for wrestlers' entrance music, like Sandman's "[[Music/{{Metallica}} Enter Sandman]]", Raven's "[[Music/TheOffspring Come Out and Play]]" and Justin Credible's "[[Music/{{Prone}} Snap Your Fingers]]", being the ECW's theme one of the few original tunes.

* FollowUpFailure: WWECW, a shell of its former self. Wrestling/VinceMcMahon and [[{{Creator/SyFy}} Sci-Fi Channel]] meddled in it so much as to result in that half-baked PG product, until the miserable failure which was the December 2 ''December to Dismember'' made Heyman quit. Vince made himself the ECW Champion at one point.

* AcclaimedFlop: There's a lot of "What Ifs" with ECW. Paul can talk all he wants about the TV deal falling through, the Pay-Per-View money owed to them, etc., but that's all a distraction from the real issue: they literally never made money. There isn't a single year when they turned a profit. It was so illiquid by 2001 that Paul needed the PPV money to put on the next show. Besides, by early 2000, the lineup was not even 10% of what it was at their peak. Fans at the time would've probably preferred that ECW die a martyr then linger on and as a less-then-average indie.

** Francine and [{{Wrestling/Beulah|McGillicutty}} were enemies, and not just in kayfabe. In the FAQ section of her now-defunct website,[[note]][=http://forevertbozsguy.simplenet.com/francine/=], presently on [[http://www.archive.org Internet Archive]]. The version of the site archived from 1998 is from right before the [=FAQ=] was added so this has not been archived.[[/note]] when asked what she really thought of Beulah and {{Wrestling/Kimona|Wanalaya}}, her only response was [[VisibleSilence ".........................."]], with the webmaster noting that he took it to mean "no comment."

** ECW honchos revolted when the Sandman was "crucified", among them Joey Styles -- the long-suffering [=NewsCorp=] employee who sat through this, the "kiss my ASS!" shoot, the fire incident, ''and'' the ghastly TNN show -- and Francine, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVnSSPB6qjc#t=800s both Catholics]], as are Wrestling/StevieRichards and Wrestling/TheBlueMeanie, which Stevie pointed out on the ''Rise & Fall of ECW'' [=DVD=]. Raven still insists that it was "the right heat", while everybody else agrees that [[XPacHeat it was not]].

* RealSongThemeTune: ECW were notable for using real songs for wrestlers' entrance music - most famously, "Enter Sandman".

** ''Hardcore Heaven'' 2000 has production issues despite starting strong. During the customary intro with Styles & Gertner in the ring, the guys do their shtick and then they walk up to the broadcast booth. The camera follows as if something else will happen in there, but apparently the production team didn't know when the cut away. During the three-way between Guido, Mikey Whipwreck, and Simon Diamond, issues arise with the lighting rig above the ring and it cuts out, so most of the match is only lit by spotlight,

** ''Hardcore Heaven'' 2000 has production issues despite starting strong. During the customary intro with Styles & Gertner in the ring, the guys do their shtick and then they walk up to the broadcast booth. The camera follows as if something will else happen in there, but apparently the production team didn't know when the cut away. During the three-way between Guido, Mikey Whipwreck, and Simon Diamond, issues arise with the lighting rig above the ring and it cuts out, so most of the match is only lit by spotlight,

** ''Living Dangerously'' 2000 (which seems to be an event known for being rather poor consistently) is a bit of a mess in general. A weird goof causes part of Lou E. Dangerously's pretaped promo audio to play during Steve Corino's promo. ''Hardcore Heaven'' 2000 has production issues despite starting strong. During the customary intro with Styles & Gertner in the ring, the guys do their shtick and then they walk up to the broadcast booth. The camera follows as if something will else happen in there, but apparently the production team didn't knowwhen the cut away. During the three-way between Guido, Mikey Whipwreck, and Simon Diamond, issues arise with the lighting rig above the ring and it cuts out, so most of the match is only lit by spotlight,