The life of a completist fan is a strange one indeed. You take this one thing that speaks to you like no other – be it a band, a TV show, an author, a sports team or, perhaps, professional wrestling – and you find yourself compelled to buy/download/’borrow’ any product that is affiliated with this love of yours. But product by product the joy slips away – where once you skipped to the shops, wide eyed and excited to discover what new treats your great love had sent down into the world for your adoration, now you slump dejected behind your laptop, begrudgingly entering your fucking card details into fucking Paypal to pre-order some remastered box set that turns into a fucking cat or something.
But my love of Morrissey aside, this 3 DVD collection of previously unreleased matches from the vaults of ECDub does feel like a little bit of a stretch for even the most ardent fan. Maybe it’s the Paul Heyman factor – he’s become one of the main focal points of WWE over the past year, everything he’s touched has turned to gold and we’ve reached a point where a manager is selling more t-shirts than the supposed top faces. Maybe it was inevitable that WWE would see what else Heyman-related they could squeeze a few dollars out of.
Either that or they noticed that last years box set was entitled ‘ECW Unreleased Vol 1’ and can count.
Whatever the reason, this set does feel like a bit of a barrel scrape.
It’s not that the box set is bad – far from it. Just a quick look at some of those featured will tell you the level we’re dealing with here – Jericho, Guerrero, Dreamer, Funk, Sabu, Cactus Jack and Rob Van Dam to name just a few. It’s just that a lot of these matches are ‘previously unreleased’ for a reason. They might’ve been great to have witnessed live and in (often gruesome) colour but do they stand up to repeated TV viewings? I’m not so sure.
One of the things that made ECW so special and so adored by it’s fan base is that they weren’t trying to be WWE/F or WCW. Those two behemoth companies were battling it out in the Monday night wars, throwing money around like it was, well, something a little less foolish to throw around. A child’s hopes and dreams perhaps. But ECW was the antithesis of that – they were hardcore, they were lo-fi and independent and they really didn’t give a shit whether you liked them or not. The bright lights and theatre of WWE were the enemy – this was about guys beating the holy hell out of each other in a hall in Philly and if you weren’t there in that hall then you were missing out. The problem is that you literally are missing out when you watch some of these matches as the camera can’t keep up with the action as it’s often going on both inside the ring and out of it. These aren’t ‘made for TV’ matches so if you’re used to the production values of WWE or even latter day ECW then you might find some of this box set difficult going.
That said, while this set contains probably no one’s greatest matches, there is some real entertainment to be found for the hardcore fan. The Three-Way Dance (oh grow up) match for the FTW title between Taz, Sabu and Bam Bam Bigelow is an absolute stormer, showcasing just why all three have had such an impact on the business. The late Bam Bam was truly one of the greats – a high flying giant who could work a great match with just about anyone and this match reminded me just how missed he still is to this day.
There is also a six-man tag match featuring another sadly passed on legend, Eddie Guerrero, and his team mates The Steiner Brothers taking on Dean Malenko, Cactus Jack and 2 Cold Scorpio. As you will probably gather from the line up, this is another real gem.
The DVD is presented by ECW legend Tommy Dreamer and Joey Styles and they veer from your standard WWE DVD presenting into the occasional “Ahh, we’ve gone a bit off script but fuck it” moment that keeps you genuinely interested in the segways between matches. That said, I could probably watch Dreamer talking about re-grouting his nan’s bathroom so there you go.
In summary this set doesn’t feel all that essential and for a better education you can pick up plenty of DVDs featuring the wrestlers mentioned above all taking part in five star matches. But hey maybe you’re a completist too. I know the feeling all too well. Re-issue, repackage, repackage…
