Ring of Honor had a PPV???

I was reading one of my new favorite pro-wrestling new website. In fact a "twittered" it a few days ago. Anyway I'm amazed to find out that this independent wresting promotion that calls itself Ring of Honor (RoH) has produced a PPV (check out the recap here). Oh yeah and as I start to write this I'm watching an introductory video for the promotion.

Anyway for some reason in the last few weeks, I've been having some nostalgia for the programming I saw from Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) that I started to watch in the summer of 1998. Never before have I seen wrestling as I have in ECW. It was violent, bold, and entertaining. I became a huge fan although I still call myself an WWF(or WWE) fan.

These days not as much a WWE. WWE now include the promotion that was ECW and now it just seems like another WWE wrestling program. If I wanted to watch more WWE, I'd rather watch Raw or Smackdown. Although I understand that now that ECW I watched so many years ago isn't the same ECW that was ressurected and under a big time corporate entity now!

That being said I'm glad to see Ring of Honor enter the PPV game. To be sure I've only read about them. I have never seen any RoH matches on TV or even online. I do know that the company emerged after the bankruptcy of ECW back in 2001. It may not be like ECW in every detail, but I'm glad that one more company is taking another step to expand.

When I first saw ECW probably August 1998, they probably already had a pair of PPV events under their belts. I had no idea about them, in fact, it was possible that I saw them on Monday Night Raw but I didn't totally comprehend what their role was or indeed the following ECW had. In any event what ECW did eventually I was able to see up close and personal on TV in less than a year's time.

Ironically enough I recently found out that ECW has been on Chicago TV long before I finally caught them one day on probably channel 62 WJYS-TV.  Since ECW didn't have great distribution or indeed their programs were geared towards an adult or more mature audience I'm not sure I would have caught up to them before 1998. The program jumped from either Channel 26 or surprisingly enough Channel 50 WPWR-TV which is odd since between UPN, Star Trek, or Babylon 5 my eyes would be on Channel 50.

From the time I started watching the program to whenever ECW stopped producing it, I would watch them on either channel 62 or more frequently Channel 26 (the "U") WCIU-TV. I had to love their promotion of live events, PPVs, even videos of their best matches. And the music whether heavy metal, funk, or gangsta rap was another thing that I remember about ECW.

So anyway I look forward to the expansion of RoH, and I hope that it'll be the number three wrestling company in this country behind WWE, and Total Nonstop Action (TNA). I just think it's more than time for another company to produce something that will be the next wave in professional wrestling. Right now having one company recycling the same angles that we've seen over the past decade and seeing a sanitized product of sorts.

Just for the hell of it, how about one segment of the program one known as ECW Hardcore TV embedded for your enjoyment. Especially important if you're a wrestling or ECW fan.

Oh and I should add ECW did have a national TV network program on the network formerly known as TNN (now SpikeTV). I had no idea that it has been just over nine years since August 1999 since the show premiered on TNN. SpikeTV would have WWE programming and much later they became the home of TNA not too long after WWE returned to USA.