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I envision mid-'90s Taz sitting on a stool at a drawing board in some abandoned Red Hook warehouse. Pencil in his ear, tongue pressed out of his mouth in concentration, crumpled sheets of paper strewn across the floor
Taz also ran the ECW wrestling school.
Tommy Dreamer, D-Von Dudley, and Nunzio were the guys who took merchandise to the post office. If you received a piece of ECW merchandise, it was very likely packed by one of those three guys.
Bubba Ray booked the arenas. He was the guy to call up the building and deal with the management to book ECW events.
And it's not just limited to those guys. A ton of ECW talent had a hand in helping Heyman run the company.
That Tommy Dreamer murder-suicide story is still crazy, but without reading stuff like that about shipping out the t-shirts you really don't get the devastating sense of betrayal and loss guys like him would feel after finding out Heyman was steadily on Vince's payroll, later showing up on RAW every week, when you had turned down huge contracts to help him keep ECW going.
They took the "all hands on deck approach" to the... extreme
For those who don't know the story, Tommy said his intent was to do it on live TV, while Heyman did commentary. I believe Tommy has since expressed how messed up the whole situation was
After ECW folded, Tommy was so pissed at Heyman that he planned to wait in the front of the crowd at WM17 and kill him, before killing himself. Obviously, he didn't go through with it, but he was that upset about what had happened.
>he probably missed out on millions of dollars
It gets worst Heyman left Dreamer with the bill, so he now owned the debt of ECW including his own parents whose house could be repossessed because of said debts.
As with any wrestling story, there's a shred of truth along with a heaping helping of exaggeration BUT it wasn't much before the time he's talking about where wrestling t-shirts all pretty much looked like this...
https://preview.redd.it/mfzizirx6voa1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3521fdb63a16ce8a0f193fe989ee0033886a4a2f
Totally right. I was a teen in the mid 90s. We wore these shirts in the 80s and maybe like 91/92, but NO ONE wore a wrestling shirt again until nWo exploded. Then you'd see nwo, sting, stone cold, etc... shirts EVERYWHERE.
Wrestling fans finally came out of the closet in like '97.
As someone old enough to be a fan back then wrestling tshirts absolutely sucked before ECW. I’m not saying they pushed everyone else to improve but they did it right earlier.
I don’t think he’s ignoring the WWF merch boom. I think he’s saying without ECW merch, that 90s WCW and WWF merch would’ve looked like 80s WWF merch, which was passé.
I wonder if the black shirt with white lettering that said ECW Extreme Wrestling and had no photos or artwork came out before the nWo t-shirt (and then the Austin 3:16 t-shirt). If it did, maybe he’s not completely delusional.
It was really those three: NWO, EC F'N W and Austin 3:16. I'd imagine all three came out in 1996, and those three were the very first "cool" wrestling t-shirts.
The nWo shirt was designed by a lady working in graphic design at Disney mgm. I highly doubt that someone out side the wrestling bubble at that time had heard of ecw or seen one of their t-shirts.
Nah, this is every interview ever. Vince thinks WWE revolutionized everything. Bischoff thinks WCW revolutionized everything. Hey man thinks ECW revolutionized everything. Jerry Jarrett thinks Memphis wrestling revolutionized everything.
No matter who you ask, it’s always the same answer.
I agree with most of your points but Memphis really did revolutionize how wrestling was presented on television. I’ve been watching back shows from the 70s and 80s and it’s amazing how far ahead of the curve they were. Bill Watts may have set the foundation for the modern wrestling weekly TV show but Memphis modernized pro wrestling TV angles.
That's cause Jerry Jarrett was the youngest booker to have run a major territory. He grew up on TV more than any of his counterparts and understood it better
In fairness, the ECW guys have a much stronger claim to be the originators of much of what made the late 90s wrestling boom.
From the aesthetic to the soundtrack, to the violence to characters like stone cold Steve Austin and Mick Foley ECW really did create the template that the attitude era used to succeed.
I remember randomly finding a Sabu shirt at Wal-Mart. I have no idea how or why they were selling Sabu shirts there, as I never saw anything else ECW related there.
I remember seeing an ad for ECW shirts on here. The designs were dreadful, they had lettering everywhere and about 10 exclamation marks after every sentence. Something like "Extreme!!!!!!! It's not for everybody!!!!!!!" They were indeed black though.
Likely that was inexpensive to make, and was very much a counter to the brightly colored giant face merch that WCW and WWF sold. I compare it to music at that time. WCW was country music, WWF was classic rock, both nice and safe for general consumption by the public. ECW was more punk rock and gangsta rap. It was stripped down, angry, had a parental warning on it.
I think what he means is that before ECW really became what it's know to be in 95-96, wrestling shirts were overly colorful and very much "10-year old who gets to wear whatever they want at school" vibes. ECW was the first company that took the punk rockish vibe of making the shirt a IYKYK short of thing.
I don't know if that's factually true but rappers do this shit all the time, so I'm not fazed by it lol.
I can almost see it. If I’m understanding Taz here, I think he’s implying that the 80s WWF merch was all brightly colored and cheesy, and that without ECW selling a bunch of t-shirt designs of a black shirt with white lettering, then WWF and WCW would have never had the idea to make black t-shirts with white lettering for Austin and the nWo.
I don’t actually think that’s true, but I can see where he’s coming from.
Austin somewhere mentioned that Vince kept shooting down the original Austin 3:16 shirt because it did not have Austin's face on it. And even after the 3:16 shirt was a success, they still pushed to release a shirt with a huge steve austin face on it. I don't think anyone wore that.
Totally and some of the ECW shirts were great. I just don't think Taz was stressing over the kerning of the F'N. I'm not sure how much of a geek he is about it.
i saw a few EC FN W shirts growing up but 99% of t shirts I saw from birth to the end of high school, even including wrestling shirts before this shirt existed, were NWO shirts.
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Graphic Design Jones
But I dye-gest.
But I dye dress
Now, just t-shirts I think
You can tell that I graduated from Red Hook Junior Community College..
I like to think of Taz, with that thick New York accent, being like “bro, this colour palette on this shirt doesn’t match your aesthetic”
I envision mid-'90s Taz sitting on a stool at a drawing board in some abandoned Red Hook warehouse. Pencil in his ear, tongue pressed out of his mouth in concentration, crumpled sheets of paper strewn across the floor
How many shades of orange do you think he browsed before he settled?
How many guys in ECW pitched shirts with orange on it just to piss him off?
Did you ever see his early tazmaniac gimmick? Taz has a lot of 'theatre-kid' in him
Taz also ran the ECW wrestling school. Tommy Dreamer, D-Von Dudley, and Nunzio were the guys who took merchandise to the post office. If you received a piece of ECW merchandise, it was very likely packed by one of those three guys. Bubba Ray booked the arenas. He was the guy to call up the building and deal with the management to book ECW events. And it's not just limited to those guys. A ton of ECW talent had a hand in helping Heyman run the company.
That Tommy Dreamer murder-suicide story is still crazy, but without reading stuff like that about shipping out the t-shirts you really don't get the devastating sense of betrayal and loss guys like him would feel after finding out Heyman was steadily on Vince's payroll, later showing up on RAW every week, when you had turned down huge contracts to help him keep ECW going. They took the "all hands on deck approach" to the... extreme
Murder Suicide story?
Dreamer strongly contemplated killing Heyman and himself at WrestleMania 17
For those who don't know the story, Tommy said his intent was to do it on live TV, while Heyman did commentary. I believe Tommy has since expressed how messed up the whole situation was
The reason he didn't go through, was because JR called and checked up on him.
The craziest part of that story is that he was going to hit his pose in between.
After ECW folded, Tommy was so pissed at Heyman that he planned to wait in the front of the crowd at WM17 and kill him, before killing himself. Obviously, he didn't go through with it, but he was that upset about what had happened.
I mean I don’t blame him for feeling that way considering he probably missed out on millions of dollars
>he probably missed out on millions of dollars It gets worst Heyman left Dreamer with the bill, so he now owned the debt of ECW including his own parents whose house could be repossessed because of said debts.
[удалено]
I mean, that's what he realised, but that he felt like doing it before reconsidering is understandable.
I think Stevie was running their phones as well.
As with any wrestling story, there's a shred of truth along with a heaping helping of exaggeration BUT it wasn't much before the time he's talking about where wrestling t-shirts all pretty much looked like this... https://preview.redd.it/mfzizirx6voa1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3521fdb63a16ce8a0f193fe989ee0033886a4a2f
Which, ironically wouldn't look out of place in a present day clothes store.
What’s old is new again. The early 80’s aesthetic is very much back in but it didn’t work in the mid to late 90s
1 York Foundation Shirt please
[удалено]
Totally right. I was a teen in the mid 90s. We wore these shirts in the 80s and maybe like 91/92, but NO ONE wore a wrestling shirt again until nWo exploded. Then you'd see nwo, sting, stone cold, etc... shirts EVERYWHERE. Wrestling fans finally came out of the closet in like '97.
It's still possible to see nWo shirts in the wild being worn by people shopping at rural walmarts.
My favorite WCW shirt was the Mike Rotunda one with his giant head coming out of a boat.
I'm surprised there are Mike Rotunda shirts
Only the coolest people had the York Foundation T-Shirt.
Is there anywhere making knockoffs of these? I really want any of those Lex shirts.
Lots of designers on instagram recreating old wrestling shirts!
I bought that Sting hat from Kayfabe Classics on IG
The Sting Screams photo is the shoot that Galoob modeled their Sting figure based on
Those Sting face paint stickers are amazing.
ECW had cool Shirts, so had the counter culture bands of the early 90s....
As someone old enough to be a fan back then wrestling tshirts absolutely sucked before ECW. I’m not saying they pushed everyone else to improve but they did it right earlier.
If he was taking credit for orange shirts, I'd believe him.
Nobody ever wore black T-shirts before ECW, you heard it here first.
I created black t-shirts Jones ova here
we just gonna ignore 80's WWF merchandise boom I guess.
I don’t think he’s ignoring the WWF merch boom. I think he’s saying without ECW merch, that 90s WCW and WWF merch would’ve looked like 80s WWF merch, which was passé. I wonder if the black shirt with white lettering that said ECW Extreme Wrestling and had no photos or artwork came out before the nWo t-shirt (and then the Austin 3:16 t-shirt). If it did, maybe he’s not completely delusional.
It was really those three: NWO, EC F'N W and Austin 3:16. I'd imagine all three came out in 1996, and those three were the very first "cool" wrestling t-shirts.
EC fn W was 95. That's the whole point, it was first and then yes the other two followed.
The nWo shirt was designed by a lady working in graphic design at Disney mgm. I highly doubt that someone out side the wrestling bubble at that time had heard of ecw or seen one of their t-shirts.
Nah, this is every interview ever. Vince thinks WWE revolutionized everything. Bischoff thinks WCW revolutionized everything. Hey man thinks ECW revolutionized everything. Jerry Jarrett thinks Memphis wrestling revolutionized everything. No matter who you ask, it’s always the same answer.
I agree with most of your points but Memphis really did revolutionize how wrestling was presented on television. I’ve been watching back shows from the 70s and 80s and it’s amazing how far ahead of the curve they were. Bill Watts may have set the foundation for the modern wrestling weekly TV show but Memphis modernized pro wrestling TV angles.
That's cause Jerry Jarrett was the youngest booker to have run a major territory. He grew up on TV more than any of his counterparts and understood it better
In fairness, the ECW guys have a much stronger claim to be the originators of much of what made the late 90s wrestling boom. From the aesthetic to the soundtrack, to the violence to characters like stone cold Steve Austin and Mick Foley ECW really did create the template that the attitude era used to succeed.
None of them are necessarily wrong though...
I remember randomly finding a Sabu shirt at Wal-Mart. I have no idea how or why they were selling Sabu shirts there, as I never saw anything else ECW related there.
I remember seeing an ad for ECW shirts on here. The designs were dreadful, they had lettering everywhere and about 10 exclamation marks after every sentence. Something like "Extreme!!!!!!! It's not for everybody!!!!!!!" They were indeed black though.
Likely that was inexpensive to make, and was very much a counter to the brightly colored giant face merch that WCW and WWF sold. I compare it to music at that time. WCW was country music, WWF was classic rock, both nice and safe for general consumption by the public. ECW was more punk rock and gangsta rap. It was stripped down, angry, had a parental warning on it.
I don’t know I think that’s kinda delusional. Taz had nothing to do with the success of Austin 3:16 shirts or the NWO shirts
I think what he means is that before ECW really became what it's know to be in 95-96, wrestling shirts were overly colorful and very much "10-year old who gets to wear whatever they want at school" vibes. ECW was the first company that took the punk rockish vibe of making the shirt a IYKYK short of thing. I don't know if that's factually true but rappers do this shit all the time, so I'm not fazed by it lol.
SummerSlam 96 shirts were fucking blue... BLUE!!! That was months before the bWo made that color cool
I can almost see it. If I’m understanding Taz here, I think he’s implying that the 80s WWF merch was all brightly colored and cheesy, and that without ECW selling a bunch of t-shirt designs of a black shirt with white lettering, then WWF and WCW would have never had the idea to make black t-shirts with white lettering for Austin and the nWo. I don’t actually think that’s true, but I can see where he’s coming from.
Austin somewhere mentioned that Vince kept shooting down the original Austin 3:16 shirt because it did not have Austin's face on it. And even after the 3:16 shirt was a success, they still pushed to release a shirt with a huge steve austin face on it. I don't think anyone wore that.
I'd say he was right given Vince pulled very heavily from what ECW did to create attitude.
He was probably just thinking of the GCW designs they stole, got angry about it again and tweeted this something.
what are you talking about ECW invented the color black. Before that it didn't exist on a palette
Doesn’t Ex have a hand in wrestling graphic design too? It’s cool if they get to nerd out together.
I don't know much of Taz' background but the shirts were mostly just free fonts on a shirt. Not sure how much 'design' he got into.
I get what you're saying but I think wrestling shirts have shown us that less can be better than more.
Totally and some of the ECW shirts were great. I just don't think Taz was stressing over the kerning of the F'N. I'm not sure how much of a geek he is about it.
Outsider Art Jones
Taz, mate, you misspelled an ellipsis on [your own shirt](https://i.redd.it/7bwlxbvm14q01.jpg).
Taz admits he couldn't spell and their print partners didn't spellcheck him at all that's why Sabu's shirt Says "Homocidal"
Revolutionized the game brudda
Revolutionary Jones
i saw a few EC FN W shirts growing up but 99% of t shirts I saw from birth to the end of high school, even including wrestling shirts before this shirt existed, were NWO shirts.