Everyone knows what hardcore wrestling is. While some absolutely love it and some can't stand it, one thing they can all agree on is the impact it had on the business. Hardcore wrestling became an integral part of professional wrestling in the 90s, when Extreme Championship Wrestling popularized the death-defying, bloody style. As the 90's progressed, even larger organizations like the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling started doing hardcore matches, which were, of course, a bit watered down. However, with the downfall of ECW in 2001, it seemed for a while that hardcore wrestling was over.

Enter the independent promotions. Many promoters decided to take the concept of ECW and try to improve on it. And by improve, I mean turn the violence knob to just plain grotesque levels. Fluorescent light tubes became a mainstay, as well as sheets of glass and even staple guns. While a very small minority of people are attracted to this new type of hardcore wrestling (which Combat Zone Wrestling has aptly dubbed "ultraviolent"), most veteran ECW fans believe that it epitomizes everything wrong with wrestling today. They loved and respected the wrestlers, and although they did enjoy violence, they didn't want them to kill each other. However, many indie promotions seem to have not picked up this memo, and continue to jump off two story buildings and staple things to each others bodies.

Another prime example is backyard wrestling. Now, I know that some backyard wrestling "federations" don't do "extreme" things and just wrestle, and that, I'm okay with. However, what has really made it popular are the kids who jump off of their roofs onto their scrawny friends; the kids who think it'd be cool to smash their scrawny friend's heads in with a golf club; the kids who do it for the sake of it looking cool. And I'm sure everyone agrees that this is just plain stupid, and if it's one of our alternatives to hardcore wrestling, count me out.

Nowadays, when they have hardcore matches on television, chances are it'll be a very watered down product, even more so than the former WWE hardcore division. Chances are the most you'll see people use as weapons are garbage cans and stop signs. Blood" Nah, they don't want to put that much of it on TV, save it for the pay-per-views. Also notice how things like tables have become very uncommon, when in the 90s, they were part of what made the style popular. Let's face it, the era of extreme wrestling is dead. Just like the kayfabe era, and just like the Hollywood era. Sure, we have countless copycat indie federations that give out a hardcore product, but they'll never be able to popularize it again. Hardcore wrestling is dead, and although I enjoyed it, I can firmly state that the era is over.

by Wes 'The Demon' Martinez ..