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WRESTLING BOOKS
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HARDCORE HISTORY
The Extremely Unauthorized Story of ECW
by Scott E. Williams
Description: ECW! ECW! ECW! - A chant reserved only for the sadistic collection of wrestlers that represented the unique brand of Extreme Championship Wrestling between 1993 and 2001. Even years after the death of this company, many wrestlers are still living off the name they made for themselves performing in an ECW arena. In this book, Scott E. Williams sets out to tell the real story behind the hardcore revolution that was ECW. A company that was repeatedly raped and pillaged by the "big two" for many years, yet held its ground in the bloodiest battles of the wrestling war - that is until the Extreme soldiers grudgingly laid down their weapons in 2001 and threw in the towel.
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ECW was always a complex beast. Current fans are under the impression that Paul Heyman was the backbone of the ECW's existence. But he will be the first to admit that the land of Extreme was not built by his vision alone. Scott E. Williams takes readers back to the beginnings of ECW, before it was "Extreme" and even before it was "Eastern." An astonishing look back at its humble beginnings as a struggling Philadelphia promotion called Tri-State run by Joel Goodhart, which had a very brief shelf life. A man by the name of Tod Gordon picked up the pieces and continued the tradition under the banner of Eastern Championship Wrestling. Eventually Paul Heyman came on board and the era of Extreme was born. That's all I will tell you, as you will have to check out the book to read all the fascinating accounts of what happened in between.
Many of the recollections of ECW alumni are a figurative drop-kick to the balls of WWE's revisionist history of ECW that was shoved unceremoniously down our throats during the months leading up to ECW's "One Night Stand" PPV and the release of WWE's "Rise & Fall of ECW" DVD in 2005. WWE is perhaps the only group of people who cannot handle the truth about ECW. But that's neither here nor there and is an insignificant detail in describing this book. All I will say is, when you're finished reading this book, you will know the truth behind Vince McMahon's claims that he secretly supported ECW financially throughout the years. Let me just say that you truly cannot believe everything you see or hear on TV.
The only complaint that I was left with at the end of this book is not really a complaint at all. The one thing that bothered me was that this book was almost TOO well written. Scott E. Williams used words that I've never seen before and utilized sentence structure that often had me reading certain paragraphs twice to grasp the concept. Scott is a wonderfully creative writer with moments of brilliance, but come on Scotty you're writing for wrestling fans, you got to dumb it down a little! That may as well be filed under compliment rather than complaint.
Rating: In conclusion, buy this book, purely for its mind-blowing original content. 9/10
Reviewed by Brad Dykens on March 15, 2006.
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