The Blue Meanie Thinks ECW Was Always Doomed To Fail
The cult hardcore promotion was hard to market to the mainstream
ECW was a trailblazing promotion. Ripped off from everyone from WCW to WWE and beyond, it brought hardcore wrestling to the masses, and gave wrestling some much needed edge in the 1990s.
However, due to its extreme nature, ECW was a hard beast to market, and news of its demise in 2001 should have come as no surprise.
ECW original The Blue Meanie has revealed to JBL and Gerald Brisco on the Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw podcast that he always knew ECW was doomed:
“In my mind, ECW was doomed from the start because, again, the Attitude Era where everyone is competing for talent,” pointed out Meanie. “You have to overpay a little bit to make sure your marquee guys don’t jump ship. And then, when ECW kind of started making money, say in [1997], they made money. They’re still paying for [1996]. So, when they go to [1998], they make money in ’98, but they’re still paying for ’97 and part of ’96. So, they’re kind of bailing water out of the boat while water is still coming in.
“If they could have just got a deal, if the TNN deal would’ve worked where TNN put out money for cost of production and advertising, and stuff like that, I think ECW could’ve stayed afloat. I say this all the time, if ECW would’ve survived, it would’ve become a promotion like what Ring of Honor became.”
H/T: Wrestling Inc.
