***watch the video version here***
https://rumble.com/v7av924-retro-wrestling-re-view-ecw-podcast-ep.-0-setting-the-table-before-extreme-.html

Before the Retro Wrestling Re-View ECW Podcast officially begins its watch-along journey through 1993 ECW television and beyond, Gene Jackson and Brandon Wheeler kick things off with Episode 0: Setting the Table, a primer on how Eastern Championship Wrestling came to exist before it became the ECW fans remember.

This episode is not about tables on fire, balcony dives, New Jack, Raven, Dreamer, Sandman’s Metallica entrance, or Joey Styles yelling “Oh my God!” Not yet. This is the story before all of that when ECW was still a small Philadelphia wrestling promotion trying to survive after the collapse of Joel Goodhart’s Tri-State Wrestling Alliance.

Gene and Brandon walk through the roots of ECW, starting with Tri-State’s influence on the Philadelphia wrestling scene and how Joel Goodhart helped create the blueprint for the “super indie” style of promotion: local talent mixed with national names, hardcore fans, wild dream matches, and a rabid audience that wanted something different from the mainstream.

From there, the episode follows Todd Gordon as he moves from wrestling fan, advertiser, investor, and ring announcer into the man trying to keep wrestling alive in Philadelphia. After Tri-State shuts down, Gordon joins with names like Larry Winters, Bob Artese, and Stevie Wonderful to create Eastern Championship Wrestling, hoping to build something more financially stable while still serving the fanbase Tri-State left behind.

This is the ground floor. It’s ECW before it found its identity. Before Paul Heyman, before the cult following, before “extreme” became the brand, this was a small promotion full of local guys, aging names, too many managers, strange booking choices, and a promoter learning on the fly.

If you’re joining Gene and Brandon for the full Retro Wrestling Re-View ECW Podcast ride from 1993 through 2000, Episode 0 is essential listening. This is where the road begins, not with a bang, not with a flaming table, but with a bar in Philadelphia, a jewelry story/pawn shop owner, and a group of people trying to figure out what comes next.