Review of WWE: ECW One Night Stand

Introduction

Wrestling fans in Philadelphia are unlike any other fans on the planet. They have been called hardcore. They have been called bloodthirsty. Latterly, they have been called extreme.

But in truth, all the Philadelphia fans want is to be shown respect by the performers that they pay to see. As such, any lack of effort is unacceptable; the most technically gifted performers are expected to put 100% of that ability on display, those less gifted are expected to take more risks to justify their inclusion on the card. No matter that only a little over 800 fans could ever fit into the ECW Arena (which, most Saturday nights, was actually a bingo hall). That isn`t the point.

ECW soon became notorious for these same demanding fans, and for the actions of the wrestlers who endeavoured to please them, seemingly at all costs. The company may have had its fair share of technical wizards in its time, but few casual fans will eulogise about the classic catch-as-catch-can series pitting Dean Malenko against Eddy Guerrero. Rather, they will tell you about the time that resident "pretty boy" Tommy Dreamer earned his stripes by tasting a kendo stick pummeling from The Sandman. Or perhaps about the time that wrestling legend Terry Funk was almost permanently disfigured during a match with Mick Foley, the conclusion of which saw Foley literally playing with fire. Feel free to Google, but I daren`t even mention New Jack.

But whilst ECW made tremendous strides as a company on the back of this "hardcore wrestling" notoriety, and indeed held a significant number of pay-per-view events, it - just like virtually every other wrestling company in the United States - was unable to thrive in the then-dense wrestling market, and they ceased promoting in 2001 and soon sold their assets to the WWE.

That said, however, the spirit of ECW lives on, and whilst the list of WWE competitors who once wrestled for ECW is too long to print here, all you need know is that "Stone Cold" Steve Austin honed his beer-drinking, cussing gimmick in front of those same 800 fans in the converted bingo hall.

Held on 12th June 2005 in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, this was the first time that the WWE had promoted an event under the auspices of a different pro wrestling brand. As the title suggests, if this was to be ECW`s last ever event, they were going out with a bang.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 non-anamorphic PAL and is just as good, if not marginally better, than a digital television broadcast. As usual, the source is the television master copy. Regulars to WWE DVD may notice that this PPV was less expansive than most of the company`s recent efforts. This is intentional, to preserve the smaller-scale, ECW feel.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and, whilst it is standard fare for WWE releases, is very good for a DVD of this genre. Dialogue is always clear and there are no audio sync issues. For international fans, there are also Spanish, German and Italian commentaries.

One disappointing audio aspect is that The Sandman`s entrance theme - appropriately "Enter Sandman" by Metallica - has been edited out of this DVD, even though it was used for the live PPV broadcast. This is due to a rights issue and was not unexpected. That said, it kills what was always an ECW tradition, and you will wonder why Sandman`s entrance is so celebrated, given the horrendous overdubbing of the track with a bog-standard guitar riff.

Also note, all swearing has been "bleeped" in post-production.

Features

The extras on this disc are limited, simply because the main feature lasts for over 2 1/2 hours. There are several promotional vignettes that were used on WWE telecasts to promote the event, several of which are based around an ex-ECW wrestler. There is also a scene included from WWE RAW, where Eric Bischoff predicts ECW`s death, once and for all.

On first inspection, the most intriguing extra was that of an "alternate commentary" from heel wrestler JBL, who is a staunch anti-ECW campaigner. Disappointingly however, rather than a true commentary from JBL, he was actually hooked up to his own personal microphone for his entrance, which occurs around one third of the way through the show. From that point, he remains in the audience with his Smackdown! cohorts, berating the ECW stars that he detests. So, rather than this being an regular commentary, it is actually just an opportunity to hear in more detail what JBL is saying to the crowd, his fellow heels, and to anyone in the ring who challenges him during the remainder of the show. With long pauses in between uninteresting, unfunny comments, this is definitely one to skip.

Overall though, a decent set of extras, of which the promotional vignettes are particularly well done.

Conclusion

Although the WWE will have seen this one-night ECW revival as a nice little earner (they certainly wouldn`t have promoted it otherwise), that sense of avarice did not permeate what was a fine night of professional wrestling. The boisterous crowd packed into the Hammerstein Ballroom were clearly relishing the opportunity to show their appreciation to the combatants once again, and to pillory perennial anti-Christ Eric Bischoff (Bischoff is credited with killing ECW by buying up all of their best talent in a manner which would make Roman Abramovich blush).

That said, one could have expected even more from some of the bouts, given the reputation of the combatants. The bout between Rey Mysterio & Psicosis was like watching a slow-mo re-run of one of their superb matches from 1996, and Eddy Guerrero`s substandard effort against Chris Benoit had some analysts suggesting that the former had deliberately sabotaged the match.

There were plenty of highlights on the show, though. Lance Storm`s first match in months was a solid effort against former tag team partner Chris Jericho, who adopted his ECW ring name "Lion Heart" for the evening. Masato Tanaka and Mike Awesome also rekindled their years-long feud with a solid effort, which included some shockingly dangerous moves from both participants. And the main event featuring Tommy Dreamer & The Sandman against the Dudley Boys was typical ECW craziness, and is unquestionably one of the most violent matches ever held on pay-per-view.

Furthermore, the in-ring interviews conducted by Rob Van Dam (who is recovering from surgery to repair his anterior cruciate ligament) and former ECW general manager Paul Heyman were as well received as they were candid. Both are symbols of the ECW ethic and the crowd roared their approval, lapping up the "insider" jokes at every turn.

At this point, it seems unlikely that there will ever be another ECW-based event, so as well as this being a "One Night Stand", it is probably a last-stand also. If that is to be the case, ECW gave its hardcore following something to remember it by, putting on a show that this year, has only been bettered by Wrestlemania.