I've kinda fallen off the TV wrestling map lately. WWE has just never really been my thing. Back in the Monday Night Wars era, I watched exclusively WCW. After they went under, I switched to RAW and stayed pretty faithful up until the last couple of months. I just can't make myself care about it. I would love to get into TNA, and thought I would once they got primetime, but they are just too zany for my tastes. That basically leaves me with indies and my DVD collection, so here is what I've been into:
Last night I watched the match disc from "Rise and Fall of ECW". Even though you've seen this stuff a million times now, you have to appreciate the passion those guys had, and the genuine concern they pulled from the crowd. Say what you like about "the mutants", but ECW fans loved their wrestling, and I won't fault them for that. Watching the Pitbulls vs Raven and Stevie match reminded me that I had once seen Pitbull 1 at a local indy show. It had to have been shortly before his death, I'll have to dig around to find the dates because it has been a few years. Despite his roid-rage personna, he was a very nice, gentle guy that night. That team may have ad more mainstream appeal than anything else in ECW had the tragedies not struck them down. Hey, whatta you know? We're talking about pro-wrestling and untimely tragic death comes up. Go figure.
I recently purchased the "OMEGA: Uncommon Passion" documentary done by Highspots. It was well done, if only a bit underwhelming. It is still incredible to me how many major leaguers came out of this one tiny promotion, which eaither tells me that Matt Hardy has an eye for talent, or is very persuasive in getting jobs for his friends. The interviews were good, but not too deep-digging. Matt's were the best. He dished a little more dirt than some of the others. Listening to Cham Pain was a little sad, as he seemed like the one friend who got left behind. He actually was a talented guy too. The matches are OK, but much like old ECW matches, if you aren't up on the stories the matches just don't mean as much. Still, the DVD is easy to watch, and while you may not be really moved by it, it won't hurt you.