Forever Hardcore

With TNA trying their hand at an ECW reunion pay-per-view tonight, I thought I would look back at a documentary which was released in - or around - 2005 which highlighted the rise and fall of the Pennsylvanian company.

WWE released The Rise and Fall of ECW in the autumn of 2004 but the independently released, Forever Hardcore, came out a while later.

Forever Hardcore didn't have the ECW tape library to back it up as WWE own it so many of the incidents talked about in the film are shown via photographs.

The lack of video footage was one of the reasons I hadn't bothered to see the film until last weekend. I felt WWE's DVD was good enough and I didn't need to see another documentary on the company.

How wrong I was.

The lack of video footage and the inclusion of photography did manage to tell the story well.

There are wrestlers on this film that weren't on the WWE release so that worked well as well. With both DVDs, you can source them both together and have a clearer understanding of ECW.

With the benefit of hindsight, I believe that ECW -despite how it shaped pro wrestling in the 1990's - had a detrimental effect on the industry.

The style of wrestling wouldn't work in today's society. There is more of an awareness of concussions and welfare than there was back then.

The main thing that both of these DVDs acknowledge is ECW is well and truly dead. This makes the need for the reunion PPVs all the more sadder.

Move on, folks. Nothing left here.