During a recent episode of ARN, Arn Anderson spoke on ECW’s place in wrestling history. Here’s what he had to say:
Hats off to what all those guys did to their bodies making it that extreme. It really was extreme. They beat themselves up, they went to extremes. I’m sure if you went back and took an injury toll of what happened in those days, you just didn’t publicize it. A guy would just disappear off TV for a couple weeks or whatever it was. Man, those guys did things that I would’ve quit the business before doing. As much as I love the business, it really was extreme – falling out of the ceiling, going through four tables, this exploding, baseball bats with wire around them. You could walk in the back door, and you could sense that it was a different environment.
These guys who had probably tried to get jobs with bigger companies, they landed with ECW, and to a degree, that had a lot of misfits but misfits in a good way. Guys that were willing to do anything to be part of something. It was like a bunch of renegades. It was a wild atmosphere, and it was different from anything on television. I think there was a niche crowd for ECW. You had a lot of general fans that watched WCW and WWE and the other shows. It was a niche audience that once those people grew out of that, I don’t know who would’ve stepped in to replace them as far as looking at the network and seeing how many hits you get on ECW vs. the other stuff.
You can listen HERE.
Credit: ARN. H/T 411Mania.