The Rise and Fall of ECW was a 2004[1] direct-to-video documentary produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It chronicles the history of Philadelphia-based professional wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling. The documentary features interviews with various performers who worked in the promotion including co-founder and former owner Paul Heyman as well as performers Tazz, Tommy Dreamer, Dawn Marie, Stevie Richards, Mick Foley, Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam, Rhyno, Nunzio, Spike Dudley, Bubba Ray Dudley and D'Von Dudley.[2] The documentary also featured interviews with ECW rival company executives, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and former WCW Senior Vice President Eric Bischoff. A book with the same title was published by WWE and Pocket Books in 2006,[3] with much of the same information and interviews from the DVD transcribed and included. A 2.5 hour version of The Rise and Fall of ECW is available on demand, on the WWE Network.[4]
| The Rise and Fall of ECW | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover of The Rise & Fall of ECW | |
| Directed by | Kevin Dunn |
| Written by | Paul Heyman |
| Produced by | Paul Heyman |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | WWE Home Video |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 365 Minutes |
| Language | English |
Reception
The documentary proved to be one of the most popular pieces of media ever produced by WWE, with DVDs of the documentary selling in the 100,000s.[5]
Wrestling Observer Newsletter awarded the DVD the "Best Pro Wrestling DVD" of 2005.
In June 2005 an unauthorized DVD called Forever Hardcore was written, directed and produced by Jeremy Borash in response to The Rise and Fall of ECW. The DVD featured interviews with ECW alumni who were not employed by WWE telling their side of ECW's history.[6]
The success of Rise and Fall of ECW and Forever Hardcore led to WWE reassessing the value of the ECW brand and directly resulted in WWE hosting ECW One Night Stand 2005 to further test how much strength remained in the ECW fandom.[5]
