The legacy of Extreme Championship Wrestling is still a special one for a select group of people. The fans who experienced it and the wrestlers that lived it hold a special place in their hearts for ECW, especially as we drift farther from the closing of the company.
Twenty years ago this month the last ever ECW pay per view aired in Guilty As Charged and it cemented the legacy of a company that thrived on being left of center in the wrestling world. Though many have downplayed the significance of its legacy, one person who hasn’t is CW Anderson. Anderson, one of the up and coming talents ECW had in its final year, spoke with Wrestling Epicenter about how some have tried to paint the legacy of the company differently and how it hasn’t worked because of how ECW resonated with the fans.
“I’ll start out with Jim Cornette. I was a huge fan of Jim Cornette. I still am! I listen to snippets of his podcast every week. I have nothing but respect for Jim Cornette and his opinion. I’ve always valued his opinion. Eric Bischoff? I think I met him on on a couple of occasions. But, I don’t really know him like that. But… Some people don’t like the stuff that we did in ECW. I get it. It wasn’t their forte. They didn’t grow up with it. They like a more old school wrestling style. To others, it didn’t make sense and didn’t tell good stories. We were ladders, tables, and chairs. But the “hardcore” wrestling wasn’t about tables, ladders, and chairs. It was about us going out there and wrestling our ass off knowing we weren’t getting paid! Knowing we were back-dated pay and owed checks. Knowing we were wrestling injured – For instance, one night I had to wrestle Raven and New Jack on the same night and my back was out on me. I remember Paul (Heyman) and Bill Wiles carrying me to the Gorilla Position, my music hit, and I went out there and wrestled Raven and then Nw Jack, I came to the back and collapsed and Road Kill put me in the back of his van and took me to the airport. That is the hardcore style that I remember. Guys from WCW, guys from WWE would never have wrestled like that without getting paid. They were spoiled! They were used to getting catered and used to making six figures when I was making $75 a night paying my own way. The legacy to me and the fans, you know, I can’t get in the ring now, 20 years later, without the crowd chanting “ECW, “ECW!” Most, I won’t say most but some of the fans were either very young or weren’t born yet. Hey, that’s thanks to the WWE Network who still airs us. A lot of the older guys don’t like us. That’s OK. That’s their stuff. But, there is a volume of fans that do because of the cult that we were. We were like the Rocky Horror Picture Show of wrestling! You don’t hear people go to shows chanting “WCW” or “WWE”. But, every show I go to, you hear “EC-Dub, EC-Dub!” and that is because of the Hardcore, the heart and the soul that we put into it.”
Anderson was part of that final pay per view in a violent I Quit match against Tommy Dreamer. Since then, Anderson has worked the independent scene, along with stints in the first iteration of MLW and some stops in the WWE iteration of ECW, Billy Corgan’s NWA, and even Impact Wrestling’s ECW reunion show Hardcore Justice. He recently announced, then retracted, his retirement in the summer of last year. You can watch the rest of his interview below.
Check out our official store at PRO WRESTLING TEES, show us your support and buy a shirt. You can visit our store by clicking here.
Make sure to follow us on Twitter @BodySlamNet and on Instagram @BodySlamDotNet
Also check us out on Facebook and give us a like and share by clicking HERE.
