John Mortell’s blog

Just read this book over two days (more than two days ago though because finding the time to write posts is getting troublesome) and realised when I saw it that the DVD ‘the Rise and Fall of ECW’ was the exact same thing word-for-word nearly. Well, at least the clips of it I saw seemed to be. D’oh! But anyway, I have some notes on it that apply to either (though I would recommend the DVD – wrestling is a visual entertainment so…). The book by Thom Loverro is pretty good overall I have to admit – apart from a somewhat weird piece at the start which links Greek/Roman/etc. traditional wrestling games with the modern version (technically true but… seriously like) the book gives a very good history of what Paul Heyman then moves onto his work in Eastern Championship Wrestling before it morphed into Extreme Championship Wrestling.

In general Loverro has a pretty good feel for the work and the people involved and through the many interviews really manages to flesh out the feelings of the people involved and what happened at various points. There are the odd moments of confusion though which is kind of annoying. A major example that I couldn’t get my head around was how the NWA was double crossed by Paul Heyman – I get that right after spitting in their faces (metaphorically anyway) getting Dennis Coraluzzo (on behalf of the NWA to agree to some of the things he did agree to looked bad for the NWA but double-crossed? The general explanation may make more sense if your a major wrestling historian but… The same happens later regarding Mike Awesome and his departure – how exactly was he involved in a title match barely weeks (which is what the books timeline seems to suggest) after he left the promotion under very bad terms? Again, someone who remembers this from the time or is a major, major fan may know but given that ECW is in many ways better known in death than life it seems a bit much….

The other major fault with the book seems to be in its assertion that ECW could never have been big – while I understand that a book dealing with the people (and written to tie into a WWE production) would never be too critical the book never quite explains how ECW went ‘wrong’. There a few obtuse references to bad decisions by Paul Heyman on a business sense but these come out of nowhere and are never really gotten into.

Despite these flaws the book is still pretty interesting and gives a fairly good feel for the whole thing so for any wrestling fan looking for some good reading for the summer (wonderful as it has been in Eire) I can happily recommend it…..