Credit: Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com
I received a copy of WWE's new ECW Magazine, which should hit newsstands in the next week or so. It's a really well done tribute to Extreme Championship Wrestling with lots of photos culled from the archives of Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the entire magazine, including ads for other WWE-related products like their online Jukebox and WWE 24/7 given ECW themes. The WWE logo doesn't even appear anywhere on the cover of the magazine.
The magazine features short introductions by Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer, as well as a series of "In Their Own Words" features with former ECW stars Tazz, Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, The Dudley Boyz, and Nunzio/Little Guido. Heyman and Dreamer are listed as consultants for the magazine.
The 96-page magazine features eight articles on ECW's history, the influence the company had on professional wrestling as a whole, a look at ECW's best matches, a look at the women of ECW, a series of bios on ECW personalities (including many who don't work for WWE), ECW's most extreme moments, ECW fans, and a preview of the ECW One Night Stand PPV. The articles all feature comments from a slew of former ECW stars including Heyman, Dreamer, Tazz, The Dudleys, Woman, Francine, Beulah McGuillicuty, Nunzio, Dean Malenko, and more.
The magazine comes bagged with an awesome foldout ECW poster featuring a montage of different stars. It has a tremendous presentation and captures the ECW feel in every way that WWE's current ECW One Night Stand website does not.
ECW One Night Stand PPV Notes from ECW Magazine: WWE will be releasing ECW One Night Stand hats, t-shirts, and hockey jerseys, which feature the ECW logo with the PPV information on the back. They have also released an ECW pendant. I'm really surprised they aren't rolling out shirts for Tazz, Tommy Dreamer, The Dudley Boyz, etc...ECW Magazine promises One Night Stand "will not be a polished, politically correct version of ECW. It will feature a small crowd of loud, hardcore ECW fans, a limited number of cameras, and a collection of familiar faces, including former ECW stars, referees, and other personalities who haven't been seen on TV in some time."....According a quote by Tommy Dreamer in the magazine, there won't be many, if any matches announced at all for the PPV so it remains true to the "ECW tradition."
