Former World Champion Explains Why ECW Couldn’t Exist Today

Back in the 90s Extreme Championship Wrestling became one of the most talked about wrestling promotions in the world, but eventually the company went under. The stars of ECW turned a lot of heads by taking things to the extreme, and Rob Van Dam recently explained on his 1 Of A Kind podcast why he doesn’t think the company could exist today.

“[ECW] would be canceled instantly. You couldn’t do any of that stuff. … We were lighting fans on fire, you know what I mean? And jumping onto the fans. And even back then, they were starting to sue more towards the end, it seemed like. I had a few lawsuits and ECW just paid the nuisance fee.”

Rob Van Dam went on to say that while ECW couldn’t exist today he praised AEW for providing an alternative when he added, “It was awesome for what it was, but in order for there to be a new ECW, it would have to find a new way to, all of a sudden — boom — stand out and be super cool. In some ways, AEW has done that, because of everything they’ve done and their success.”

With WrestleMania being held in Philadelphia next year many fans are hoping to see some familiar faces from ECW get inducted into the Hall of Fame. Whether or not that will end up happening remains to be seen.

H/T Wrestling Inc.