Counterculture to Mainstream
Paul Heyman envisioned Extreme Championship Wrestling as an underground, counterculture revolution. Comparing ECW to Nirvana, the promotion disrupted the gloss of glam rock-style wrestling. Like Nirvana, ECW’s punk roots oozed through not just the promotion’s gritty aesthetics and mentality, which preserved an authenticity that has protected a love of the promotion to this day.
Nirvana synthesised elements of punk rock with everything from classic rock and The Beatles’ melodic pop to The Pixies’ “loud-quiet-loud” progressions and Lead Belly’s folk blues. Heyman, similarly, took from what’s old to make something new. The emphasis on brawling, shoots, and violence had roots in Memphis, where Heyman once worked and had his jaw broken by Lawler. Hardcore elements were inspired by Japan’s Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW).
Yet, more like the Sex Pistols, ECW’s controversy and attitude alienated some and could not compensate for the promotion’s deficiencies over time. WCW and WWE, needing to change, underwent cultural assimilation. They co-opted desirable elements of ECW, embracing a cultural shift driven by disenfranchisement and distrust for authority.
Hulk Hogan and the NWO, in aesthetics and attitude, developed a selfish, ironically corrupt version of anti-establishment values. Heyman has never been shy in calling out how The Attitude Era copied ECW’s homework. Like WCW’s approach and mainstream, WWE took what was commercially appealing rather than adopting the ethos. But then, so did ECW. Rather than empowering women, ECW sexualised them, and borrowed heavily also from rap/hip-hop culture and other elements of other subcultures.
DIY Indies to an Elite Revolution
Post-ECW, a wave of imitators emerged. Yet besides violence imitators like CZW, the original MLW, and IWA: Mid-South, ROH best embodied ECW’s punk spirit. Not just because ROH took the emphasis back to in-ring action and athleticism, which Heyman claims would have been the next step in ECW’s evolution, if it survived. Like straight-edged punk, ROH’s stripped-back approach to the artistry of wrestling was a counter-culture approach to mainstream WWE. Yet ROH could be violent, provocative, and brutal.
The indies fostered a DIY culture that forced wrestlers to make themselves stars. Wrestlers like Punk, El Generico, Kevin Owens, and Bryan Danielson grinded across the world, becoming wrestling folk heroes, distinct from WWE’s typical “superstars”. When assimilated into WWE, some of them were even mocked. Yet, ROH alumni redefined the WWE style. They caused WWE development and NXT to pivot.
Elsewhere, Colt Cabana and The Young Bucks proved that they didn’t need WWE with their DIY approach to business. Revolutionizing merchandising, printing shirts, selling, and mailing their own merch before developing larger partnerships. Like Black Flag, Fugazi, or early Misfits, The Elite proved they did not need the establishment.
It was that spirit that led to the first AEW All In. In turn, the creation of All Elite Wrestling. A promotion that, while corporate in nature, has more than punk rock roots. Constantly criticised for excessive violence and not being accessible to “the casuals”. Emphasizing wrestlers’ artistic freedom and expression, and repeatedly showing that wrestling traditions aren’t sacred. AEW might have the money, but in philosophy, it sounds more punk rock than any promotion before it.
