Extreme Championship Wrestling had a presence on TV during the 90s thanks mainly to Hardcore TV. While this program had a far more limited reach compared to ECW on TNN, Hardcore TV was ECW unfiltered. It was the premium extreme program.
This because ECW Hardcore TV came on during a time slot where the FCC was lax. In the U.S, the FCC tends to let more slide after 9PM Central. In most markets that it aired, ECW Hardcore TV was on later than that—meaning all the blood, violence, innuendo, and swearing that built the company’s name was on display.
A National TV Deal and Tweaked Product Were Necessary
Could the house that Paul Heyman and his Originals remained standing? The short answer is yes. ECW was already moving towards a somewhat sponsor-friendly product by 1999.
Fans want ECW to remain extreme but survival dictated that concessions had to be made. The company could’ve remained extreme on PPV while staying viable to lucrative sponsors and networks.
Hell, WWE took ECW’s product, fine-tuned it for its needs and most remember the Attitude Era fondly, albeit somewhat inaccurately. ECW could’ve added a notch or two onto the Attitude approach and be TV-friendly.
Also, the key was getting prime time TV. The key to holding on to that would’ve been pushing Rob Van Dam, the only star they had who looked ready for national TV at the top level. With RVD, there wouldn’t be a need for tweaking its presentation to look larger than life—and thus appealing.
Say what you will about the sports entertainment product and the PG-approach but it allows WWE to be baseline relevant for large audiences. A harder-edged product is something fans will grow out of eventually.
Fanbases age, grow up and move on. Sometimes they “grow out of wrestling” and abandon it. Those who stay are likely to bring their kids, nieces, and nephews to events. Unless a fan is with someone who doesn’t mind their kids being exposed to the mature content on ECW’s events, they’re not going to just bring their small child to ECW.
At least you’d think that. I mean if they’re doing that, they might as well snatch the kids’ Highlights magazines, chuck them in the trash, and hand them a Hustler.
ECW’s Choices
In 2000, there weren’t a lot of choices for ECW unless it was on after prime time was over. I believed ECW would’ve been a good mainstream product. As I said, by 1999 the focus of the company was changing. Younger, more talented wrestlers had come in.
While this wave of talent was involved in some extreme matches, they were delivering bouts in the vein of Douglas-Scorpio and Eddie/Dean/Benoit. Some guys who weren’t that young but weren’t deep in the mix of extreme bouts found a place among them. Yes, I’m talking about Jerry Lynn especially.
TNN was a lousy pick but it was the one available. ECW needed national TV because of how rapidly it grew and TNN needed a popular product to bring in the youth. You know, since it was rebranding.
The Ratings Game
ECW delivered on the ratings and was actually the new TNN’s highest-rated show. Sure, RollerJam was there as well and there were Fridays when it was exciting but ECW on TNN was doing the noticeable numbers. If ECW was around a little longer, being on Spike would’ve been perfect. Ultimately, ECW was an experiment for TNN to see if wrestling would work on the network.
The experiment was a success because the ratings were stable and high for the network. When Impact Wrestling was on Spike, its rating were mediocre when looking at WWE. However, when compared to other Spike show, TNA Impact was doing wonderful. UFC was the marquee but Impact was no slouch. Wrestling was going to do well on Spike anyway.
An interesting choice would’ve been getting on MTV. Actually, ECW would’ve been the best wrestling product for the network in the 1990s. The promotion handled its presentation with the MTV generation in mind. Then again, as we know MTV was 1-2 with wrestling on the network and that was Celebrity Deathmatch.
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