The Blue Meanie gives his take!
Former UPW Internet Champion and ECW star Blue Meanie was in Europe recently and on his trip he spoke with Danny Stone of 'Mirror Sport'.
Blue Meanie debuted in the sport of professional wrestling in the 90's and has done his part in adding more meaning to the word "hardcore". During his time in ECW, Blue Meanie, alongside Stevie Richards and Simon Dean formed the 'Blue World Order' which was a parodied version of the n.W.o..
Blue Meanie along with many others are forever edged in the original ECW including being a part of the company's 'Barely Legal' pay-per-view in 1997. Blue Meanie and Simon Dean accompanied Stevie Richards to the ring at that event for a Three-Way match featuring Sandman and Terry Funk to crown a new #1 contender to the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. ECW reportedly pocketed nearly $66,000 in ticket sales and 100,000 pay-per-views buys but at one point it appeared that the show was not going to take place. The same triumphs and growth of 'Barely Legal' in 1997 reminds Blue Meanie of the first NXT TakeOver that took place in May of 2014 and he explained why when answering the question of does he think that the ECW brand will ever be brought back to life:
"Well it kind of did return with NXT, I think. Especially the early days of NXT. Just watching the product and seeing how the crowd was at Full Sail, it was like an ECW arena crowd, very ECW-esque. Now they're doing the Takeovers - that first one reminded me of ECW 'Barely Legal' – with a better budget - then they grew, but to me NXT is what ECW was." He shared. "It started off independently, but Vince helped out. He would send WWE guys to ECW like Droz and a few others just to get some in-ring experience, before he brought them back up - much like NXT now. So to me, NXT, in a way, is the next ECW."
While on the topic of NXT TakeOvers, TakeOver: War Games II is on November 17th and to get a look at the updated match card for the event, head over to Fightful's "events" section.
