WWE Is Reviving Wrestlepalooza — A Look Back at the ECW Classic

• Wrestlepalooza was initially a special TV event.
• Cactus Jack turned heel to cost Tommy Dreamer a big victory over Raven.
• Overall, Wrestlepalooza began as a good concept for ECW.

Back when ECW was beginning to gain some momentum, the promotion decided to put forth a brand new special edition of ECW television - Wrestlepalooza. With a fun, chaotic, groovy name, it fit the theme of ECW at the time. The show emanated from the iconic ECW Arena in Philadelphia, and it featured a whole host of names who ECW fans absolutely adored: Raven and his Nest, Cactus Jack, Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, New Jack, and several other stars who brought a big amount of star power like Eddie Guerrero and The Steiner Brothers.

The opening match set the “ECW tone” with JT Smith suffering a legit concussion with a botched suicide dive, being met with chants of “you f***** up” from the ECW audience rather than any sort of sympathy. Later in the night, the iconic ECW feud between Raven and Tommy Dreamer continued as they each brought their own teams to an eight-man tag team match, though Cactus Jack stole headlines in the night’s biggest moment, turning heel on Dreamer and costing him his first victory over Raven, playing a vital part in their years-long storyline. Wrestlepalooza also featured one of ECW’s best matches as Cactus Jack teamed with Dean Malenko and 2 Cold Scorpio to battle Eddie Guerrero and The Steiners. With this blockbuster match, the star power on display, and several big moments throughout the night, Wrestlepalooza became an instant hit.

Fans Loved ECW Wrestlepalooza 1997

• This is regarded as a great event by ECW fans.
• Tommy Dreamer and Raven sought to end their feud at Wrestlepalooza.
• Taz, Sabu, and RVD were involved in chaotic segments.

It took ECW two years to bring back Wrestlepalooza. When they did so, it came back with a bang. The 1997 event is often regarded as the best in this series, mostly due to a wild second half of the show that saw Tommy Dreamer and Raven tell another chapter of their feud with a high-stakes Loser Leaves Town match. A chaotic string of events saw RVD and Sabu, led by an invading Jerry Lawler, attack Dreamer and other ECW faithful, only for Taz to show up to a massive ovation and make the save. Taz would wrestle back-to-back matches against Sabu and Shane Douglas, ending the latter’s year-long World Television Title reign in one of Wrestlepalooza’s greatest moments.

Everything about Wrestlepalooza 1997 felt like prime ECW, with all of their biggest names on display, plenty of overbooked, extreme, nonsensical chaos, and an electric audience who lit up the ECW Arena. The success of the 1997 show convinced ECW to go one step further the following year.

Wrestlepalooza Was Eventually Presented As A PPV By ECW

• Many consider this one of ECW’s worst PPVs.
• Nearly every match under-delivered on the night.
• Even the best match on the card between RVD and Sabu wasn’t good.

ECW entered the PPV market in 1997 with the likes of Barely Legal, Hardcore Heaven, and November To Remember, with them driving forward in 1998 with Living Dangerously, Heatwave, and Wrestlepalooza. Unfortunately, Wrestlepalooza 1998 was so bad that it was never run as a PPV again. The whole event was a disaster with every match being handed mixed to negative reviews (leaning hard on the negative). Overbooking, bad in-ring action, messy bouts, and more led to one of the worst ECW PPVs of all time.

When the show returned in 2000, it was held as a live event, with the taped matches being split across multiple ECW TV shows, which was certainly a fall from grace. If WWE does indeed follow up on recent reports to produce a Wrestlepalooza PLE, then it will be the fifth Wrestlepalooza, but only the second “PPV” or “PLE” in the lineage of the show.