ECW Barely Legal 1997: A look back at ECW’s first PPV | Column
On April 13, 1997, ECW Barely Legal, the promotion’s first-ever pay-per-view, aired.
Dave Meltzer covered the event in the April 21, 1997 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, available in its entirety in our archives for subscribers.
In the nearly three decades since, certain aspects of the event have been immortalized through wrestling history, whereas others have been forgotten. Below is a look at Meltzer’s original review of the show.
Dave Meltzer on ECW Barely Legal 1997
Meltzer wrote of Barely Legal:
“The show was a very slightly toned down version of the product, with a high work rate, a few, well not death defying but certainly injury defying spots, some sloppiness and nervousness, several booking swerves, a few technical problems, some excellent matches and undoubtedly the best pre-game show for a PPV in the history of the business.”
The pre-show featured a taped promo with Funk at his father’s grave (Dory Funk Sr.). An ECW fan page on Facebook posted the full pre-show here.
Funk says the following on the pre-show:
“This is the Texas Panhandle, and this is where my father is. I come here a lot whenever I need strength. Sometimes I get a twitch in my eye and a dadgum lump in my throat. I’m going to try and not let that happen today. I loved him. We all loved him. And he loved this part of Texas. I think this is a great place for him to be.
His gravestone says, ‘Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not here. I did not die.’ And he didn’t leave me. My wife and kids are going to be there Sunday night, April 13th at the ECW pay-per-view. The people that I love are going to be there. And I’m sure my father will be there. His spirit.
If I make it through the three-way dance with Stevie Richards and Sandman, if I make it to Raven and beat him for the ECW World Championship, I have to do it one step at a time. One step at a time. Dad, this one’s for you.”
Terry Funk and Gran Hamada at ECW Barely Legal 1997
Meltzer wrote that the show was “stolen by the two oldest performers” in Terry Funk and Gran Hamada.
“Actually the best worker on the show, amazingly enough since he was in a match doing a style that isn’t exactly geared for someone who is past 30, let alone 44, was Gran Hamada, the undersized Japanese star who became a lighter weight major star in Mexico in the late 70s.
Hamada is one of the few survivors who has remained a top worker from the original class that put junior heavyweight wrestling on the map in Japan in the early 1980s original Tiger Mask era (actually the only other survivor as a top star from that era is Bret Hart). Hamada has always been something of an unsung star in the business, his prime coming during a period when people of his size weren’t given breaks,” Meltzer continued.
Hamada teamed with Masato Yakushiji, Shinjiro Otani and The Great Sasuke against Dick Togo, Taka Michinoku and Terry Boy on this show in a match Meltzer rated 4.5 stars, the highest of any bout on the show.
ECW Barely Legal Main Event timing and generator issues
The closing moments of the pay-per-view were not without incident. However, an inadvertent bell ringing and timing issues that led to Raven vs. Funk only going seven minutes did not sour the fans on watching Funk win the title.
Meltzer wrote:
“Dreamer hit the ring, had a short brawl with Raven and DDT’d him. Funk covered Raven, who kicked out, but the bell ringer blew it and rang the bell anyway. Funk then inside cradled Raven and the ref counted the fall and the bell rang again.
Under normal circumstances, this would have been so anti-climactic because of the bell ringer screwing up, but things were at such a frenzy at this point that it was okay. The place went nuts with fans hugging Funk as the show went off the air.”
As was mentioned on The Rise and Fall of ECW documentary produced by WWE, the show was just seconds from disaster, as a generator blew right after it went off the air.
Meltzer wrote:
“Just 24 seconds after the show went off the air, the generator blew and all power for television went off. Had this happened five minutes earlier, it would have destroyed the climax of the show. Heyman along with Funk, Dreamer, Eliminators and a few others got in the ring and thanked the crowd in the ring in a short speech.”
What else was happening in wrestling at the time of ECW Barely Legal 1997?
ECW Barely Legal took place three weeks after Bret Hart and Steve Austin had their famous submission match at WrestleMania 13. Hart reunited with his brother Owen and brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith on the March 25, 1997 Raw, leading to the Hart Foundation/Canada vs. USA angle that would last until Survivor Series that year.
In WCW, the nWo angle was in full effect, with Hollywood Hogan holding the WCW World title, Diamond Dallas Page feuding with Randy Savage, and the company building to a match at Slamboree the following month with Ric Flair and Roddy Piper teaming with football player Kevin Greene against Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Syxx.
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Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.