Dueling Chairshots
July 10, 2001
By Kurt Lamont
 
Seeing the ECW invasion angle on RAW made me realize that with or without ECW I will always consider myself an ECW fan.  The funny thing about the turn of six 'WWF wrestlers' and two 'WCW wrestlers' to join ECW along with Dreamer and RVD is that to myself and the ECW fans out there, these wrestlers never really left the ECW.  They were ECW Wrestlers who just happened to work for another company and just happened to be reuniting.  ECW is more than just a wrestling company, it's a passion.

This passion was partially born out of ECW being both a small and large at the same time, and that dynamic played to their benefit. They were large in that for a period of time in the mid to late 90s they could compete with the product that WCW or WWF put out. But they were also small so when you went to a show you were right on top of things, and not in an upper deck with binoculars. Going to a ECW show was 10x the experience than a WWF or WCW show. The matches and angles and wrestlers may have been inferior, but the total package was greater than the sum of the parts. You had a feeling you were part of the show, whether its through chants, or wrestlers going through the crowd fighting, or something else that you might not get somewhere else. They made you feel like you were a part of some special. You wanted to join the 'revolution'. And they pitted themselves as the underdogs to WCW and WWF. Heyman made ECW into the cool, babyface and made WCW (especially Bischoff), and the WWF to a lesser extent, the heels.

Now if you never went to an ECW show, or only watched ECW casually, I can easily see how you can not like ECW. I could even see how those that watched religiously could find tons of faults and not like it.

But ECW is to an ECW fan what alcohol is to an alcoholic. A little bit might not do much, but a lot will make you an addict. Once you are an alcoholic you will always be an alcoholic even if you never have another drink. Once you are an ECW addict you will always be an ECW addict even if you never see ECW again.

We have no idea what will happen going forward.  But even if it was just a one night only deal it was worth it.  Last night the ECW fans were given a couple of cold ones. And you know what? It was awfully refreshing.

You can contact me at kurtlamont@yahoo.com.