Customer Reviews

Forever Hardcore: Director's Cut

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This documentary had the "real" stars of ECW in candid form. I thought it was as good as "Rise and Fall of ECW" and better at times. While I got the DVD to hear some of the inside scoop on ECW, I think I heard a little more than I really wanted at times. New Jack explaining the Mass Transit Incident and the Vic Grimes Fall, and the Florida incident was disturbing and sick.

It was also strange that Paul Heyman was given less credit in this DVD than "Rise and Fall". This might be partially due to the fact that the wrestlers on Rise and Fall actually went on to bigger and better things and probably have less of an axe to grind than the others.

The highlights of the DVD were seeing Francine again (She looks great), hearing Sabu talk for the first time (he's actually a cool guy), and hearing Tod Gordon, Joey Styles, and Shane Douglas give their take on ECW and the landmark incidents that took place.

The downside was probably hearing about the disputes and gripes people had with Paul and at times each other. But even when they didn't like someone, they always gave some credit to most everyone who was apart of the company.

I wish there were more wrestling documentaries. There is tons of footage on these two DVDs and enough to keep any ECW fan happy. I only wish there was a Forever Hardcore II with even more footage. I could watch this stuff all day. Take the gritty, raw information from this DVD and mix it with the sugar-coated WWE version and you probably come out with a middle ground of how things really went down.

I liked the gritty feel of this documentary. The stars presented their stories and recollections with a great deal of honesty and color. Tod Gordon and Joey Styles were particularly vivid in what they said, especially when it comes to discussing the competition ECW had. I wonder if Joey regreats being so forthright now that he works for the WWE.

There were a few negative points, however, namely the small amount of matches and clips and the fact Paul Heyman was not involved with the project. I understand Paul E. has been under contract with the WWE for a number of years now and I'm sure that prevented him from signing on to do this, but a DVD about the HISTORY of Extreme Championship Wrestling SHOULD feature some sort of involvement from the guy who ran the company.

Just to get this out the way...the version Jim Bryan is talking about is the first draft of the Forever Hardcore DVD that came out months before the directors cut did. The directors cut has additional interviews, footage, chapters and bonus features but it doesn't have the Chris Candido tribute/blooper. If your looking for that Candido feature, check out the TNA Lockdown DVD cause it's in the Candido tribute section on that DVD.

This is the best non-WWE wrestling documentry I've ever have or probably will see. This DVD basically "fills in the gaps" for those hardcore ECW fans that the WWE DVD left. Unlike how the "Rise & Fall" DVD showed some bias towards WWE & their current roster (at the time) at the expence of those who did more for ECW (ala Shane Douglas & Tod Gordon), you hear stories from the icons of ECW that aren't under a WWE contract (at the time) so you get all the stories raw & uncut. Also they have opinions from those who were in WWE/WCW behind the scenes & wrestling historians. There are some handicaps here as they can't use any ECW copywrites (mainly footage) and can only use fan photos & footage from the Hardcore Homecoming event & the old XPW wrestling federation to get certain points across. Basically, it's alot of interviews cut together for different segments but the stories & profiles on wrestlers come across great.

On WWE's DVD, certain stories were told but you didn't hear from alot of major players involved in the angles & behind the scenes...those gaps are filled in on this DVD. Todd Gordon talks about how Eastern Championship Wrestling got started; Shane Douglas tells what was his motivation behind throwing the NWA belt down; Sandman & Raven defend their crifixation angle that involved Kurt Angle & how Shane Douglas was involved; you hear from all three participants from "The Night The Line Was Crossed" 3 way dance; Konnan tells his involvement of bring the lucha libre stars; New Jack's take on the Mass Transit incident; Todd Gordon explains the whole "mole story".

Just like on the WWE DVD, you get profiles & opinions on characters of ECW as alot of them are highly praised (Funk; Douglas; Styles) while others had varied opinions (Taz; RVD). There's also stories that WWE didn't tell on their DVD that get told here like the angle where Shane Douglas broke Pitbull #2's neck that result in fans attacking him; the hardcore fued between Axl & Ian Rotten; the incident where Terry Funk was caught on fire by Cactus Jack; the story behind the falling out of Francine & Shane Douglas; New Jack & Vic Grimes balcony fall that almost ended their lives; the story of the "Born To Be Wired" match between Funk & Sabu; the true story behind why WWE hired Public Enemy only to fire them later; and how former WWE writer Terry Taylor talks about how he openily stole ECW ideas for WWE storylines (which Vince denied on the WWE DVD).

The bonus disc includes more interviews & outtakes. You'll hear Terry Funk talk about the end of ECW; Sabu, Raven and Sandman talk about their times in WCW & why they left ECW; Shane Douglas talks about why he left ECW & the incident involving Scott Hall being thrown out of the ECW area; Joey Styles does name association with those involved with ECW; New Jack tells about his latest court case in Flordia; Kid Kash tells the story of how he broke his jaw but still wrestled on PPV the next day; Simond Diamond & Sinister Minister talk about the orgins of their characters; and Jerry Lynn talks about his past as a breakdancer?

You also get bonus matches from XPW such as Sabu vs. Terry Funk; Shane Douglas vs. Chris Candido (different than the one on Hardcore Homecoming); New Jack vs. Vic Grimes (not the Freefall scaffold match); Jerry Lynn vs. Chris Hamrick; Sandman in a brawl against Konnan, Psichosis, and MMW. Hidden extras are two bonus matches between Chris Chetti vs. Chris Hamrick; Sabu vs. Kronis; and a tour of the newely remodeled ECW arena.

Again, if your a hardcore ECW fan or just want the raw & uncut truth on some issues...this DVD is for you. If your just starting to get into ECW or just want to look at some classic ECW footage, get the WWE's DVD first.

While they can't say it in the description due to WWE, I'll let you in on a little secret, this movie is about ECW. And its great. I bought an early copy through the companies website, so I have seen it. It is the perfect companion piece to WWE's version of history previously set forth in R&F. This movie has all the guys that WWE wouldn't or couldn't interview. All of the major players previously unheard from are here, including Raven, Sandman, Terry Funk, New Jack, Shane Douglas, Joey Styles, and for the first time ever, Sabu~!

Here New Jack's take on the "Mass Transit Incident." Raven talks about the night he crucified The Sandman in the ECW Arena, an event so controversial that future WWE star Kurt Angle walked out of the building and refused to ever work with ECW. Todd Gordon gives his side to the "mole" story. All the questions left unanswered in WWE's version of history are answered right here!

I thought this was going to be kind of a dull looking movie with lots of guys sitting in front of white walls, but this is a beautifully shot movie. Lots of pictures from the glory days and even some clips of ECW in other wrestling promotions. It was nothing like what i expected.

If you are fan of ECW and want to hear the truth about the "rise and fall of ECW" I cannot recommend this movie enough. It is a must have for any wrestling fan.

Much like Heroes of World Class Wrestling (Director's Cut) was to WWE's The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling, Forever Hardcore is the perfect compliment to WWE's The Rise and Fall of ECW.

This documentary is pretty identical to WWE's but they do cover topics that weren't covered in "Rise & Fall." Plus, those that were mentioned but noticably absent from "R & F" were on this release. Stars such as Raven, The Sandman, Shane Douglas, Terry Funk, New Jack, Francine, Joey Styles, former ECW owner Todd Gordon, Kid Kash, Jerry Lynn and others. Also, you get to hear Sabu speak for one of the rare times in his career!

On this one, you get their take on Shane Douglas' infamous "throw down the NWA belt" speech as well as get to hear from Shane himself. You'll also get their take on the "Mass Transit Incident" (in which you would get to hear from New Jack as he was a participant in that deal) and the infamous Sandman/Raven "Cross" angle which offended current TNA star Kurt Angle. Both Raven and The Sandman speak on this and has some choice words on the incident concerning Paul Heyman and Angle.

One subject which caught my attention was the falling out between Shane Douglas and Francine, mainly due to her off-camera relationship with Tommy Dreamer (a fact that I wasn't aware of at all)! Both Shane and Francine have opinions and versions of what happened.

This documentary also comes with a bonus disc with matches from XPW that featured mainly old ECW stars. You also get bonus interviews from some of the people featured and the uncut versions on subjects discussed in the main documentary.

On the whole, I would HIGHLY recommend this one! Much like "H.O.W.C." and "T.A.T.O.W.C.C.W.", what one lacks, the other makes up for! Recommended release!

Wrestling has been peeking my interest again as of late after not watching it for a good 10 years. Being a child of the ECW boom of the 90's I've always been fascinated with the promotion, it's wrestlers, and the semi-brotherhood the close knit group has had. After watching more recent TNA and seeing the ECW guys flounder about with nothing more then a big losing streak I decided to go backwards and get some of the old ECW dvds to show my friends. They were completely blown away by the intensity and sheer talent of the matches. My next purchase was said DVD. This is a perfect and less refined companion piece to WWE's Rise and Fall of ECW.

Where Rise and fall was very well produced and had a lot of company information and such, this dvd has more shoot interviews of opinions and stories from the wrestlers themselves. We hear about New Jack's stabbing, the mass transit incident, and even him purposely trying to kill Vic Grimes with the scaffold incident, Sandman seems like such a nice guy who talks about his WCW stint and random behind the scenes stories, Raven touches upon the crucifixion and a few more fun stories, and the Franchise and Francine both tell a different story about their falling out and Francine says she wouldn't mind making amends with him and working together again. Terry Funk gives a few very heart felt tear jerking speeches and talks about the company and what he admired about it etc. Overall the documentary is very fun and has tons of character to it. It almost feels like you know these guys in some way afterwards, or that you'd like to possibly get to know them because they seem pretty down to earth and friendly. The extras on the bonus disc are pretty much just longer running speeches or alternate information, still good stuff though. The matches is where I drop a point on the review. These are XPW matches that had ECW stars in them.

It goes from Franchise,New Jack, Grimes, Candido, Konnan, Chris Hamrick, Chetti, and a few more. The matches aren't very memorable, everything seems slow paced and sluggish, the arena is so dimly lit that sometimes you can't even see what's happening, the camera angles completely give away any moves or misses that the wrestlers do, and last but certainly not least the announcers are atrocious and annoying. We are "graced" by Kriss Kloss who sounds like a grating Joey Styles rip-off and tends to repeat himself and make these very weird noises when something sort of big happens. But even worse, we have the Brujeria bassist Pat Hoed who refers to himself as "Chico".

He constantly throws the word Chico into the match every few seconds, speaks in a horrible broken English and even tries to make some stupid jokes on occasion. Who in their right mind thought either his accent was good for the show, or perhaps his shtick of saying Chico about 30 times a minute was fun or funny was out of their minds. If ECW was low budget, XPW seemed to be backyard wrastlin'. Overall the documentaries are very cool and great to watch in conjunction with WWE's Rise and Fall Documentary, the matches I almost wouldn't say to even bother with really. Stick to your old ECW dvds on those, or even the newer WWE ECW releases like the most Violent Matches or Extreme Rules DVDS. Worth any ECW fan's viewing at least once.

No bs No WWE guys just the guys that bled and led a revolution. Just guys and ladies (Francine)among others that were the real back bone of that company.

Of course some other main players TAZ RVD & Dudleys were not there due to their WWE careers but I mean guys that are still labeled too extreme years after the company went under. Individuals like New Jack and The Franchise Shane Douglas Sandman yeah guys like that. If the ECW went out of business why can't WWE handle guys like them? Too real. Too extreme. Guys like Terry Funk are too dedicated and loyal to the guys that he went up and down the roads with. Even if he participates in the next WWE One Night Stand you know his heart is with the real ECW.

You dont get some cue card comment like : "ECW was cool". You get the real deal and behind the scence story and the amazing thing about it is a tell all shoot interview but listening to the guys talking there is so much more to tell.

On this dvd you get the story of the crucifix angle. But you don't get it from the supporting cast you get the boys take on things but you hear it from the two main characters of that angle. Raven and Sandman. First hand info is always better than others take on things.

There are many topics that I guess, overlap the two dvds. But if you want the truth and you guessed it "Great First Hand Info". There goes that title again I would suggest and command you to go out and purchases this dvd. Loaded with extra commentary and matches. I love it.

Its the truth.

If you want a really well done documentry about ECW's history buy the WWE's Rise and Fall of ECW...but if you're a fan who knows the history and want to know some inside stories from the guys who lived them buy this DVD.

Forever Hardcore is pretty much all interview. I found the interviews very entertaining (New Jack cracks me up) but a lot of people I know thought the documentry started to drag midway through.

There are five bonus matches included:

Terry Funk vs. Sabu
Shane Douglas vs. Chris Candido
New Jack vs. Vic Grimes
Jerry Lynn vs. Chris Hamrick
and Sandman vs. Konnan

This DVD is Raw and uncut. It goes deeper into the truth behind the storys. These ECW stars have a chance to tell the the real story and not what WWE wants you to here.

If you don't know much about ECW I suggest "Rise and Fall of ECW". Then watch "Forever Hardcore" to find out what really happend behind the storys.

For example on "Rise and Fall of ECW" they talk about Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA belt and begining the Extreme....

On "Forever Hardcore" They tell you that NWA were at ring side when it happend and did not know that was going to happen and only Shane and Paul E. knew.

This DVD reveals the truth behind Raven, Sandman, New Jack, Terry Funk on their thoughts, storys and hate for each other. This is the best Wrestling Ducumentry I have ever seen. It is a Must Have.

This DVD is good to watch since shocking things are said like sandman's approval of the 'Crucifixtion'and Shane a nd Francines current seperation.The Extras are good but the matches are not that "Hardcore".Its a good buy I must say.