So, instead of doing the second episode ECW Hardcore TV this week, I figured we’d just look at ECW on TNN.
Listen, when I started the First Month Fire series for Into the Vault, I said that I’d sit through and recap every first-month episode of a show that I started. Then I watched Hardcore TV.
It’s just a couple of episodes but I’m not sitting through the first month of that. I changed my mind at episode three. Hardcore TV doesn’t become good until past episode ten.
With that said, let’s get into episode one of ECW on TNN from August 1999.
Exotic-Tier
Well damn, that was easy. Episode one featured an ECW World TV title match between champion RVD and Jerry Lynn.
This is a match from Hardcore Heaven 1999 which was in May. I really don’t need to say anything else about this match. It’s an ECW classic from one of the company’s best rivalries.
Just know, it’s a dope, exciting match that could’ve gone either way. The champ was in danger of losing the belt several times.
Prior to this episode, I had only seen ECW via scramble PPV six times a year. That started with November to Remember 1997. So, seeing it on cable TV was a big deal at the time.
This episode was put together as a viewer intro to the promotion. Basically, the same approach to get TNN to go in for with ECW was used as the first episode.
ECW on TNN #1 Verdict: 7.5/10
Yeah, they just showed some promos, music videos, and angles around this amazing match but it worked. It was both an exciting episode and a good introduction.
TNN wanted something like WWE RAW or WCW Nitro but didn’t want to invest in it. ECW did what ECW does and provided good, current content with a strained budget.
ECW would eventually give TNN a more serial, mainstream approach at the cost of TNN being portrayed as the villain on TV. However, that’s a couple of episodes off.
What we have here is something similar to the TNA Impact debut. While both had been around for a moment, their arrivals on national cable TV made it a fresh product.
The main difference here is that ECW was met with hostility as soon as the ink on the contract dried.
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