Quotes About ECW

Vince McMahon could care less about the ECW legacy.

For those of you who weren't a part of the era of ECW, understand, you're looking at the guy that made ECW what ECW was. So, simply put, I'm as close to royalty in this sport as it comes.

When Paul Heyman came and gave me the whole idea for the character, 'The Franchise,' I remember the NFL was just starting to classify one of their players as the franchise player. So that was the whole idea, that 'The Franchise' was the franchise player for ECW.

Vince McMahon became a billionaire based on Attitude, and Attitude was spawned by the ECW experience.

Shane Douglas's work in the first 11 months as The Franchise of ECW was so groundbreaking. He made people forget about his on-air persona in WCW and successfully reinvented himself as The Franchise in ECW.

For a company the size of ECW, there wasn't room for multiple over-the-top personalities.

I really value my days down there in ECW in Philly.

A lot of what made ECW great was the work and we're going to have the best caliber in ring stuff in the world.

I prefer ECW's style as far as the actual matches I'm capable of having.

I got my break in the business with the now-defunct Bill Watts' TWF, the old Mid-South. Which was really, in many ways, the predecessor to ECW in its time, in that age. It was a really cool, high-impact, snug type of product.

If you look at who emerged on the horizon 12 to 18 months after ECW stopped running shows, I think it's very reasonable to believe that we would have picked up CM Punk and several of the other young stars that emerged in the independent scene in the early part of that decade. Punk obviously is the one that I would hope I would have noticed.

In ECW, hardcore wrestling wasn't done just for the fun of it. It was done for a purpose, for a reason. And for me, it was done to exist and produce a revenue for my family.

Johnny Nitro was an homage to Eric Bischoff, who, I was his apprentice at the time. I liked that name. Basically, Vince McMahon thought that 'Nitro' reminded him of WCW, and when I became the ECW Champion, like, he had a couple times mentioned to me, 'If you're going to be a real star, you need a real name.'

Shane Douglas accomplished quite a bit in and for ECW, but his career will forever be defined by the moment he threw down the NWA Title.

I came into ECW in Philadelphia in 1996 and left in 2001 - a much bigger, worldwide star than I arrived - and I thank ECW for that.

I had no desire to leave ECW, but in '95, I was reaching my mid 30s. I'd been the World Champ multiple times... I'd pretty much done everything in ECW - all I could do is repeat.

I felt like I evolved into a great singles wrestler in ECW because of the opportunities to speak and wrestle longer matches.

I never looked at ECW as wrestling. I always considered it more of a theology. I don't know whether I had or didn't have a messianic complex during that time. But I bought into the movement as much as, if not more than, anybody else. If I sold anyone on the religion of extreme, I was its number-one customer.

I'm so confusing to wrestling promoters, and I'm used to that, but because I stayed in ECW and learned how to express myself the way, ah, that I could connect with my fans, it made my strong Rob Van Dam character uncompromising... and I owe that to ECW.

ECW fans were original. They were part of the show. They were a big part of the show, and other fans in other towns in other countries would imitate the fans that were on ECW television.

Of course, I was an insane ECW fan. You don't get this deep into wrestling unless you are obsessed with wrestling so that was the final hook.

What I think ECW presented was a big opportunity for a lot of WWE superstars. Definitely me. It revitalized my entire career when I moved to ECW.

I think ECW itself was a gimmick. I think getting the audience to chant ECW was really something. I don't care if you draw 70,000 people in a dome for Wrestlemania - nobody chants WWE.

In ECW, the fans would warm me up. I'd walk around the ring and slap hands with everyone and get ready for the match. I'd feed off that energy, I would use that to create positive energy. In WWE, it's different. It's a timed show; everything is timed. We know - when we get to the ring, we know when there's a commercial.