History is a funny thing. The old saying goes, “History is written by the winners”. If this is to be believed, then history will obviously be slanted towards the viewpoint of the winner. In reality, this isn’t always the case; I’m sure the history books don’t paint the American Revolutionary War in such bold and patriotic colors across the pond as is done here in the States. Hell, look at the American Civil War and the ill will that, 150 years later, this event STILL riles up between the north and south. In reality, the “losers” are not always rendered silent as the grave, and the “winners” sometimes find history baring their transgressions for all to see (Custer is a great example of this).
One place, though, that you will find history being written (re-written?) by the winners is the unique industry of professional wrestling. Courtesy of the WWE’s dominance in the industry, history is constantly being re-written and updated, like the newspapers and books in George Orwell’s 1984, to reflect the “correct” viewpoint. A great example would be the Monday Night Wars, and how the WWE’s turning point in the ratings war has now become the D-Generation X invasion of WCW. Nobody in the industry save Vince and Triple H believe this, but thanks to the DVD, we have a whole new generation of fans who will grow up thinking that the gospel truth. The only people who know better are either A) people within the WWE, who have to tow the party line or risk their paychecks, or B) people who are on the outside, who conveniently get painted with the “bitter outsider” brush, rendering their opinions to the cranky dominion of “guys who just don’t get it”. This is especially true since the WWE discovered the gold mine of history via well-written (if slanted) autobiographies and well-produced (if also slanted) DVD compilation sets.
However, this gold mine is a double-edged sword; the Monday Night Wars DVD had a lot of former WCW employees like Paul Wight, Hulk Hogan, Booker T and Eric Bischoff, but they’re all WWE employees too … you didn’t see anything from Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, Tony Schiavone, Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner or Bill Goldberg. You only got the winner’s side of things, not the loser’s. And fringe companies have picked up on this untapped source to create a sort of counter-market: the outsider’s histories. The Forever Hardcore and Beyond The Mat documentaries (yes, I know BTM was done while WCW still existed … it still fits the milieu), the excellent book The Death Of WCW by RD Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez … and, in the past year or two, Sports Publishing LLC, who have discovered a whole vein of history to tap in autobiographies of wrestlers who stand outside the WWE sphere: Bill Watts, Harley Race, Terry Funk, Dusty Rhodes, and I’m sure more to come.
This brings us to the subject of today’s review: Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story Of ECW, by Scott Williams (co-author of the excellent Terry Funk autobiography) a book that stands as both an outsider’s look at a whole company (a la The Death Of WCW) and a tale of the company’s rise and fall from those not under the E-umbrella (in contrast to the Rise & Fall Of ECW DVD). Since 2005’s Rise & Fall Of ECW DVD from the WWE, the value of the ECW name has gone from cult fascination to a viable franchise all its own, now five years removed from its demise. The sales of the DVD inspired a revival ECW pay-per-view by the WWE, a competing independent event put on by Shane Douglas and Tod Gordon called Hardcore Homecoming, and the aforementioned Forever Hardcore documentary. This book stands to capitalize on a vast and hungry market of old ECW “mutants”, hungry for any new product they can get their hands on, and newcomers to the extreme cause, looking to learn more about this phenomenal little company that couldn’t. But the question here is … does the book do the job?
(Reviewer’s note: In the course of this review, you’ll likely see many comparisons to two pieces of media: the Death Of WCW book, and the Rise & Fall Of ECW DVD. Many might feel this either an unfair comparison, or repetitive and obvious, but I feel justified in doing so, for the following reasons: 1>The WCW book, as far as I’m concerned, stands as THE template for an “outsider’s” wrestling non-fiction book [thus giving me a comparison point for style and formatting]. 2>The WWE’s DVD is, like it or not, the most widely viewed/known document for the history of ECW, including the points of view of many former ECW stars and the man most synonymous with the company, Paul Heyman [thus providing a comparison point for historical and political purposes]. Both of these comparisons are necessary to accurately judge the book either a success or failure from all the necessary viewpoints, in this reviewer’s opinion.)
The book
Emblazoned across the top ridge of the cover (which depicts Sabu in mid-air, ready to hit a chairless Arabian Facebuster) are 6 words that, to the more seasoned of wrestling smarks and ECW loyalists will carry much weight: FOREWARD BY “THE FRANCHISE” SHANE DOUGLAS. If anything lends credence to the teaser in the inside jacket flap about this book being potentially controversial, the inclusion of the opinions of Douglas is certainly tops on the list. The title of the book, as well, immediately conjures up preconceived notions; historically, unauthorized stories/biographies have, to say the least, suspect veracity, and their content more often then not falling somewhere between “strangely biased” to “utterly full of it” on the Bullshit-o-meter.
Putting that aside for a minute, though, the book starts off with history even the DVD skipped: ECW’s origins, rising from the ashes of Joel Goodhart’s Tri-State Championship Wrestling. The narrative takes the reader through the very brief rise and fall of Tri-State, in whom Tod Gordon was a partial investor. From that fed’s death, one sees the birth of Eastern Championship Wrestling, and its formative fire year, when the late Eddie Gilbert acted as head booker, trying to turn ECW into (to quote the author) “Memphis north”, how Paul Heyman ended up coming aboard ECW, and how a difference of direction ended up removing Gilbert and installing Heyman as ECW’s lead booker.
From there, the book takes up where the ECW DVD starts, with Heyman reshaping ECW’s style, presentation and roster, starting with the arrivals of Public Enemy and Sabu. One place where this book delves a little deeper into then the DVD did is the infamous NWA Title tournament where Douglas threw down the NWA Title and cut the “I will not accept the torch …” promo; the case is presented here (but left open to the reader’s ultimate decision) that this might have been an angle even to the NWA, as an ECW-NWA feud was being booked prior to this; the concept that Heyman just simply reneged on the feud and convinced Gordon to keep ECW to themselves is presented, but nobody says “This is how it was” one way or the other.
And the story moves on, documenting Heyman’s desire to grow and Gordon’s resistance to it, which resulted in a change in ownership. All the familiar subjects to us ECW fans come up, all from a slightly different perspective: the numerous roster problems and talent that left the company for greener (as in $$$) pastures, the crucifixion angle that led to Kurt Angle not joining the fed after all, the Mass Transit Incident and the problems it caused with the first PPV, the “mole” incident, and of course, Heyman being a flat-out horrible businessman. In some of these, you’ll find little new information; things like the Mass Transit incident are cut and dry, no matter who tells it. The “mole” incident, however, gets a little more detail, naming names as to who was involved in the potential jump, and who brought down the house of cards. The freedom of not having a corporate overload is helpful here, as the WWE can’t afford to expose the minutiae of the issue, whereas an outsider can do so without having to worry who’s toes are being stepped on. Some of these, however, suffer from a certain problem, one which we’ll discuss a little more in a minute.
The book runs through the PPV years, the TNN debacle (including the origins of the $500,000 that Vince said he was “owed” in the build-up to ECW: One Night Stand, which has to do with the TNN debacle), and the company’s dying days, all with a little more detail then the DVD sometimes went into (again, them damned corporate overseers and their vested interests). Based on the narrative alone, the book stands as a sort-of “fill-in-the-blanks-you-didn’t-know-existed” companion piece to the DVD, giving you the pieces that the WWE didn’t want in there as it wasn’t in their best interests.
Except for one problem … the list of contributors. Lending quotes and interviews to the book are a number of ECW alum … Shane Douglas, Terry Funk, Ian Rotten (?!?), Steve Corino, Raven, Jerry Lynn and CW Anderson. With the exception of Funk, all of these guys have something in common: they’ve all been shit on, screwed, misused, abused, ignored or buried by the WWE at one point or another. The author tries his best to keep the book apolitical, and even mentions how both Shane Douglas’ Hardcore Homecoming reunion shows and the Forever Hardcore have a touch of anti-Vince/Bischoff/WWE bias running through them. And, obviously, current WWE employees with ECW pedigrees (Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, Steve Austin) are out of bounds for interview purposes, so the book is all but forced to go to the aforementioned list of people. This cast of characters who give in the insight into ECW that only a wrestler can provide unfortunately pushes the book into a bad position: a position of saying the WWE got it wrong because they hate ECW, and this is how it really. It is a problem the WCW book managed to get around by avoiding quotes and interviews at almost every turn (save for one brief quote from Bobby Heenan), sticking to the facts, the on-screen happenings and the available numbers. Here, you get a lot of negativity towards not only Vince and Bischoff, but even the former ECW wrestlers who participated with the ECW DVD; Douglas calls Benoit and Eddie Guerrero “footnotes in ECW history”, and that none of the people who participated in the DVD or the PPV can say they were integral to ECW, or there during the end, obviously overlooking people like Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer. Author Scott Williams never comes out and endorses viewpoints like this, or any of the other anti-WWE/Vince viewpoints from Corino, Raven and others, but their repeated use and appearances throughout the book all but contradict any apolitical, outsider status Mr. Williams might be trying to maintain. Again, this is where the WCW book succeeded so well, in that, by eschewing interviews and sticking to the hard numbers and exposing the on-screen/backstage craziness, the book was able to pull off being a respectable historical document. Honestly, what sounds more believable: Heyman’s heartfelt comments on the DVD, or Shane Douglas, who obviously still bears a grudge when he tries to get the WWE to pay him $144,000 to appear at One Night Stand knowing they wouldn’t pay it, and says he had “the pleasure of telling Vince McMahon to f*ck off” when they balked at the amount? Those kind of tacit admissions of bias and outright hatred handicap the narrative and make it look less like an author accurately trying to explore ECW’s history, and more like he is a tool of these bitter, disenfranchised wrestlers who have an axe to grind. Tommy and Lance Storm admitted to bounced or missed checks in ECW on the DVD, and more then a few people questioned Paul’s ability to run the money side of a company (I believe the former Bubba Ray Dudley, Mark LaMonica, said he was a “shitty businessman”, or something to that effect), but they did it while still harboring a respect. Does this lead to a slanted, tow-the-line viewpoint? Maybe. But what holds more credibility … a viewpoint coming from a corporate employee, or one coming from a hate-filled, spiteful outsider who harbors a grudge?
In summation …
I find myself very torn by this book. When it sticks to the hard facts, the book is engrossing and informative, and it fills in a lot of spaces you didn’t know the ECW DVD had. Williams is a very capable writer, and the book reads as easy as you please. At times, the wit even approaches that which you can find in the WCW book (although not as clever … RD Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez are just too damned witty for words). And when the contributors are talking about the early days, you get sucked in. If I could just stop right there, I’d give this book an overwhelming endorsement, and almost force Sports Publishing to quote me on the cover.
But then you come to the “Vince is a liar, he just stole from us like WCW did”, “Vince is a bastard, he should burn in hell”, “nobody but us knows what it was like in ECW, not those guys who jumped to the other feds” line of thinking, and the credibility falls through the floor. I’ve met Shane Douglas, and he’s a nice guy; he’s not anywhere near the bitter, harsh, obnoxious person he seems when he shoots on someone. I wish I’d seen that Shane Douglas in evidence in the book, or the soft-spoken Raven I met at the same event (the Sabu benefit show, case you were wondering). Instead, we get venom, and lots of. If the goal was to serve as en effective counter to the WWE-sponsored Rise & Fall DVD, the bitter diatribes and hatred coming from the group of contributors not only fails to deliver, but undercuts the entire book’s quality. It makes you wonder if a definitive history of ECW can EVER occur, with so many opposing, polarizing viewpoints that contradict one another in almost every facet.
Ultimately, this book has to be judged as a whole, and how well it hits its target markets, namely: Old ECW fans who want to see a little more, and newcomers who are looking for a little history. For us old timers, we can screen through the bullshit venom, but 250 pages of it is tiring, and it still hurts the overall message of the book. For newcomers, the book will either paint the worst possible picture instead of providing a valuable, neutral history lesson like The Death Of WCW, or will make newbies discount everything they, and the book, have to say, when there is stuff to learn in here. In the end, I can do no more then give this book a dreaded thumbs-in-the-middle, and wonder if we’ll ever see a real, unvarnished history of ECW.
Final score: 5.0
Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story Of ECW retails for $24.95 and is available:
At major chain and independent bookstores.
By calling Sports Publishing toll-free 24-hours-a-day at 1-877-424-BOOK (2665) in the continental United States (outside the continental US, please call 217-363-2072).
Or, online at the Sports Publishing website.
