Fancam Follies intro

Introduction by Matt D


Fancams are the hidden jewels of pro wrestling. They're matches that shouldn't exist, that shouldn't be available. They weren't meant to be taped. They weren't meant to be kept. They weren't meant to be watched twenty years later. Yes, it's debatable whether or not any match from the 80s or 90s was meant to be watched twenty years later, but most house show matches absolutely weren't. They tell us so much about the wrestlers and their craft, however. With TV matches, there's a specific purpose, time constraints, style constraints, more room for egos and agendas. House Show matches are there to entertain the crowd and the wrestlers in the ring and in the back. They get more time, more freedom and they can tell you a lot about someone. Do the wrestlers go all out for one-hundred and fifty paying customers? Do they stick to a basic formula? Do they just go out there and go through the motions or do they try to have fun?

ECW's fancams are particularly interesting. There's a massive amount of material out there and people have seen so little of it. This is essential, even primal material. This is the bread and butter of what ECW was, the night in, night out shows. People's opinions of certain WWE wrestlers have changed dramatically due to WWE 24/7 and the MSG and other shows released over the last five or six years. There's every reason to believe that there are a number of underwatched ECW fancam matches just waiting to do the same. Vic's fancam project is one big step in rectifying this gap.

Trying to figure out the "best" matches of any single promotion is a difficult task. ECW was a mish-mash of different styles, a nexus of deathmatchs and chain wrestling and brawls, of crazy spots and dueling two-counts and incited crowds. It was full of guys who stayed around for a few months or just a few shows and guys who lasted the brunt of their career there. One thing I appreciate about Vic is that he always looks at the question of "best" in context. Even in a promotion as disparate as ECW, it's downright counter-productive to look at matches between two outsiders or matches that could have existed anywhere when trying to gauge the "best." To do so is to try to figure out what people think to be the best matches that just happened to take place in an ECW ring, not the best ECW matches. It muddies the point, maybe even defeats it. It's also completely unnecessary. ECW matches could be so many things in so many ways that there's no reason to be limiting. Figuring out the best of the best is to embrace the company for what it was.

That's exactly what Vic's trying to do here. He's looking at shows people haven't seen, that they haven't even heard of, shows full of matches that his own specific familiarity and expertise led him to track down and he's unearthing them for everyone to see. Sometimes the matches disappoint. Sometimes they completely exceed expectations. Each and every one of them tells us something about these wrestlers and about ECW. They're all missing pieces of a puzzle, pieces that a lot of us didn't even realize were missing.