for you historians out there, what was ECW's downfall?

mrken12

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Speaking of Heyman:

The 10 Shocking Things You Never Knew About Paul Heyman

6. Forced Wrestlers to Lie at Airlines for Discounts

Heyman wasn’t wealthy when he was trying to build up ECW, so he had to save cash anywhere he could. Some of his savings tactics, however, are rather questionable. For example, he made sure at least one wrestler per tour arrived to the venue via bereavement – a discount some airliners offered to passengers who were flying last minute to see a dead relative or attend a funeral.

Chris Jericho expressed his frustration with this tactic in his first book. At one point, he flew with Johnny Smith and both were supposedly mourning the death of their relative Chris Benoit, but they had trouble figuring out how they were “related” causing them to blow their covers. But, this example is only the tip of the ice berg when it comes to Heyman’s financial issues during the darkest days of ECW.



5. Put all Flight Charges on a Wrestler’s Personal Credit Card

In the early days of ECW, it was common for wrestlers to wear other hats when they were not kicking butt in the ring. Tommy Dreamer, for example, sold merchandise and promoted house shows at some points in his ECW career. Chris Candido’s other job was buying plane tickets for the ECW roster. Candido would purchase the tickets with his personal credit card and Heyman would pay him back. The agreement soured toward the end of Candido’s stint with ECW, however.

Heyman stopped paying him back and eventually fired him. Candido left ECW with more than $170,000 in travel expenses that he never got reimbursed for. Heyman even got Candido to sign a contract explaining that he would not sue Heyman or ECW for the money he was owed if Heyman dissolved Candido’s contract with ECW. The move would allow him to go to WCW. At the time, that’s where Candido had his eyes set.

Nonetheless, he left ECW broke and ended up selling his house to stay afloat. He said Heyman never explained to him why he was fired.


3. Still Owes Wrestlers Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

As ECW was collapsing, the company was struggling to accommodate the people who built it and were putting there bodies on the line for it– its wrestlers. According to ECW’s bankruptcy filings, wrestlers were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay. Rob Van Dam was owed $150,000; Joey Styles and Rhino were each owed $50,000; and Tommy Dreamer was owed $100,000.

As part-owner of the company, Dreamer had invested money in ECW. Furthermore, the ring truck was in his parents’ names. Dreamer left ECW with heartache to look forward to and even suicide ran through his head a few times. Dreamer spoke about this subject in detail during his appearance on the Steve Austin Show.
 

Vinny Lupton

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i get it but, sheesh. that whole locker room was about to mob that nikka :mjlol: this thread is making me want to watch rise and fall of ECW again.

Question: Would you save WCW or ECW? if you had lets say, 100 million :patrice:
If I was a 100millionaire I woulda definitely bought ECW and saved it. WCW never created anything except the nWO which ran too long and Goldberg
 

Vinny Lupton

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btw you brehs need Observer subscriptions for shyt like this. The history of dis bizness is in them archives. It's not about spoilers on who's gonna be the new Wyatt family member and all the other rumor shyt Dave doesnt even actually say, that people still clown him for. It's the recorded history of wrestling since 1983

edit - look at the F4W weekly editions for April, 2001. Spooky time for wrestling


Choose Newsletter
F4W~!#305 - $120 million later, first XFL season ends - April 30, 2001
F4W~!#305 - $120 million later, first XFL season ends - April 30, 2001

F4W~!#304 - Power Pro Wrestling loses television - April 23, 2001
F4W~!#304 - Power Pro Wrestling loses television - April 23, 2001

F4W~!#303 - ECW parent company files bankruptcy - April 16, 2001
F4W~!#303 - ECW parent company files bankruptcy - April 16, 2001

F4W~!#302 - Austin wins WWF Title at WrestleMania - April 9, 2001
F4W~!#302 - Austin wins WWF Title at WrestleMania - April 9, 2001

F4W~!#301 - It's official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001
F4W~!#301 - It's official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001
 
Last edited:

Vinny Lupton

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Does anyone know if ROH actually turns a profit? I'm curious to know if they'd survive without their big parent company, which is what ECW was missing. I know ROH was independent for a long time but I mean now
 

SteelCitySoldier

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The TNN deal was their nail in the coffin. I don't blame Paul E. for taking the deal because he needed cash. TNN was trying to come in and change the ECW product, and Paul wasn't hearing it. So they pretty much stopped promoting the show and went after RAW instead :manny:


They were trying to change the show but just by toning it down a little, they were afraid that someone would get seriously injured on the show and didn't want to have to deal with that headache.

As far as TNN goes there is an urban legend that says they stopped promoting them because WWE had already let them know that they were going to be looking for a new home and were told that it would be in their best interest to stop promoting them if they wanted a chance.

As for the thread:
WCW and WWF signing away their talent played a role in it but I don't think it was as big as it's made to be. One of the appeals of ECW was that they took people we could relate to and made them into great characters. Sandman was Stone Cold before Stone Cold.

That PPV money was a big ass reason why they went under. They couldn't pay the bills without receiving their money and they would basically put all of their money into putting on the shows and then be broke until they got the checks. They put on house shows but didn't make money like WWF or WCW did at the time so it was basically just covering whatever the rent on the buildings would be and shyt like that. They probably lost more than they made nightly.

Paul Hey man was the biggest reason IMO and not because he was a bad business man, or a their, crook whatever. Its because he had something but he wanted to be bigger. He wanted to be at WCW and WWF's level along with wanting to put WCW out of business so bad that he lost his gotdamn mind and stared thinking he could do it all at once instead of taking his time and letting it keep growing.
 

Tide Run This

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btw you brehs need Observer subscriptions for shyt like this. The history of dis bizness is in them archives. It's not about spoilers on who's gonna be the new Wyatt family member and all the other rumor shyt Dave doesnt even actually say, that people still clown him for. It's the recorded history of wrestling since 1983

edit - look at the F4W weekly editions for April, 2001. Spooky time for wrestling


Choose Newsletter
F4W~!#305 - $120 million later, first XFL season ends - April 30, 2001
F4W~!#305 - $120 million later, first XFL season ends - April 30, 2001

F4W~!#304 - Power Pro Wrestling loses television - April 23, 2001
F4W~!#304 - Power Pro Wrestling loses television - April 23, 2001

F4W~!#303 - ECW parent company files bankruptcy - April 16, 2001
F4W~!#303 - ECW parent company files bankruptcy - April 16, 2001

F4W~!#302 - Austin wins WWF Title at WrestleMania - April 9, 2001
F4W~!#302 - Austin wins WWF Title at WrestleMania - April 9, 2001

F4W~!#301 - It's official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001
F4W~!#301 - It's official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001

Really wanna sit back and read some dirtsheets from January up to April of 2001 I started fading out of wrestling on and off when WCW and ECW were closing up I could already see the promotions starting to tank but I didn't know how bad it was with finances and as far as WCW getting jerked by that Kellner stooge.
 

jackswstd

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Heyman's lack of business sense and signing that awful TNN tv deal were the main catalysts. Of course WCW and WWE stole their concept of hardcore as well as signing away talent.
 

richaveli83

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i get it but, sheesh. that whole locker room was about to mob that nikka :mjlol: this thread is making me want to watch rise and fall of ECW again.

Question: Would you save WCW or ECW? if you had lets say, 100 million :patrice:
I would buy WCW. The tape library alone is worth it. The WCW/Jim Crockett/Mid Atlantic tape library rivals that of the WWE tape library. Plus you have that history. When Vince bought WCW they still had a lot of talent. There is a reason why the death of WCW has had a bigger impact on professional wrestling than the death of ECW.
 
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