RetroBuzz: Awesome Gimmicks

This week, RetroBuzz is dedicated to the genius that was ECW.

ECW was really ahead of the curve when it came to using pop culture to fuel its gimmicks. In the 1990s, there was a moral panic over gangsta rap, a bunch of dirty guys from Seattle wearing flannel shirts, and a sudden resurgeance in marijuana use following the Just Say No '80s. ECW put these things through the filter that was Paul Heyman's brain, and The Gangstas, Raven and Rob Van Dam.

That said, not all of the ECW's gimmicks were that clued in. Al Snow, for example, thought of the "head" angle after finding an abandoned mannequin head in the street, and the Full Blooded Italians were basically just a joke that got out of hand.