WWE: 10 must-see documentaries that are now free on the WWE Network
The Rise and Fall of ECW (2004, Length: 2h50m) & The Authentic Untold Story of ECW (2016, Length: 48m)
Yeah, I know I’m cheating a little bit here by combining two different documentaries into a single entry. This is also, by far, the longest entry with The Rise and Fall of ECW by itself, much less the extra 48 minutes of The Authentic Untold Story of ECW.
The Rise and Fall of ECW, by far the youngest entry here, was made all the way back in 2004, before we saw the revival of the name in WWE with ECW One Night Stand and the eventual WWE ECW television program.
It’s nearly three hours in length, but gives a truly complete retrospective of the company’s entire tenure, from founding and the birth of the name Extreme Championship Wrestling, all the way to their downfall and purchase by WWE. On top of that, The Authentic Untold Story of ECW is a great complement to it, filmed over a decade later.
While it does have some footage, this second feature mostly focuses on a roundtable of interviews and discussion where Corey Graves has guests Paul Heyman, Tommy Dreamer, The Dudley Boyz, and Tazz on to discuss ECW. If you’ve ever been fascinated by ECW, these two together give you most of what you need to know.
From there, you can decide if you want to subscribe to the WWE Network and watch some classic ECW pay-per-views or television episodes.