The Rise & Fall of ECW

I don't care if your a wrestling fan or not, this is a GREAT documentary. If you ARE a wrestling fan... this is an INCREDIBLE documentary. You really feel that by the end ECW was properly honored and properly vilified for all the right reasons. Paul Heyman... I want to have a drink with you, brother.

Not just talking heads but great moments of real wrestling legend. It's almost like watching a mythology explained by the people who created it. The only true downside is there was nothing about Joey Styles on it. He was the voice of ECW and I what like to have understood that voice better. Also, there are a few other people who I would like to have heard from, primarily some of the key fans. WATCH THIS FILM!!!

I had my doubts about seeing the video, I thought it was going to be biased against ECW which partially it is with Paul Heyman being the loudmouth leader but it takes in various viewpoints from Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Steve Austin and others all talking about what made ECW so cool.

Make no doubt about it, ECW lived up to its tagline "The leader of Extreme" wrestling put up fabulous show despite a low budget (many of these shows looked like and were filmed in run down arenas).

I liked the way they also played classic matches from the era, so if your new to ECW and wondered if the hype about is real, then you'll see it is.

Its great to see the interviews too explaining how they did certain storyline, Steve Austin's reign in ECW, which basically was a crybaby gimmick cheapshotting Eric Bischoff for firing of WCW, but it lead to Austin being a bigger star.

We see the evolution the Lucha Libre wrestling invading ECW, something that WCW would adopt so ECW was the first to create certain standards that the WWF and WCW would follow.

Bottom line is this is a great video/DVD, its well worth buying or renting wrestling fans.

I am extremely happy with this 2-disc DVD set. The matches are great for those who aren't familiar with ECW's style and work ethic, but it's the near three hour documentary that makes it all worth it. The interviews are great, and it's fun to see the workers' opinions versus Paul's. You really see a great mind at work when Paul E. speaks. The history is covered well, including touching briefly on the "Mass Transit" incident. I love how this feature is rated MA and they leave the language and content untouched (except for things that were already edited for television). This keeps the ECW feeling going. A LOT of ground is covered and I learned a lot of things I didn't know. My favorite aspect is how many of the top workers are covered in individual segments, and also many of the bigger story lines are covered. There are touching moments during the documentary that will bring a tear to your eye, but mostly you'll just laugh your ass off. (The only real gripe I have with the set is that they don't include the extremely short Beulah vs Fonzy match that Paul E. raves about. I would've enjoy seeing this whole match, and don't see why it isn't there since it wouldn't take up much room.) This set is a must for any fan of WRESTLING, not SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT. Sure, it's not Puro, but it's the best America had to offer. Man...I miss ECW.

This, as the title suggests, is all about the former wrestling promotion ECW, which went under back in 2001 after owner Paul Heyman filed for bankruptcy.

It features many of the former employees along with owner Paul Heyman and producer Ron Buffeon speaking on the promotion and what it stood for. They cover all of the things that made ECW famous such as the great story lines, the hardcore brutality, and the outstanding scientific wrestling, as well as Lucha Libre. As well as that, they shoot on the not-so-appreciated and controversial aspects of the promotion such as the defiant and counter-culture angles and incidents such as the infamous Mass Transit Incident and the storyline with Raven and Sandman.

It also talks about how it was before ECW was bought by Heyman and went "extreme." I learned a lot about the era when it was owned by Tod Gordon. I hadn't even previously known that ECW hadn't started off as being a hardcore promotion.

Another aspect of this documentary that I liked is how they take the time to split up the first section of it into taking time to talk about all of the company's most famous wrestlers, such as RVD, Raven, Sabu, Terry Funk, Sandman, Mick Foley and many others.

They talk about the Monday Night Wars and the Invasion angles as well, and I found it very interesting to hear the different sides of the story from WCW's Eric Bischoff, WWF's Vince McMahon, and ECW's Paul Heyman.

This is 320 minutes, but I would say the documentary itself minus the bonus matches lasts around 265 minutes. That may seem like a very long time, but I watched this in one sitting, and it was a 4 and a half hours that felt like 2.

This also had a great moral and a very conclusive ending, so it's well worth the time spent. Long live the original ECW!!!!!

This DVD was a so good that I have watched it about ten times.It's nice to hear what was really going on from the wrestlers themselves.Even though ECW was basically a commercial(they couldn't get on TV so they just bought an hour of advertising time and ran the show) for all but the last year of it's existence, it's still surprising to learn that the wrestlers were handling all the merchandise and even answering the phones.It's even more surprising to learn how many people weren't getting paid on a regular basis.And it's down right mind blowing to learn that the people who weren't getting paid were the ones who stuck around the longest.I really only have two problems with this DVD.First, they only interviewed people who were contracted by the WWE at the time of filming and the reason why is extremely clear.Vince McMayhem wanted to make sure that no one told the truth about him and how he worked long and hard to destroy ECW, just like he did to the NWA.And he succeeded, his boys were "team players" and I wouldn't be surprised if Vince actually scripted their interviews.The second thing I didn't like was how they pretty much glossed over the TNN year.Heyman talked about how he hated TNN but they never explained any of the on screen madness from that final year.I would have loved to know why Billy Corgan showed up for two minutes and was never seen again.But I guess it would have been impossible to cover everything so I can't really complain.This is a definite must see for anyone who ever liked wrestling.