In the thirty-fourth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson (Seems Obvious to Me) and I welcome friend of the podcast Ryan Schriml to discuss the innovative nature and legacy of Extreme Championship Wrestling — or, ECW! ECW! ECW!

In this episode, our discussion focuses on how the innovations of Paul Heyman and ECW have had long-lasting impacts on all aspects of professional wrestling. While not a major player of the Monday Night Wars between the WWF and the WCW, the indie federation nevertheless impacted both of those pro-wrestling promotions by introducing wrestlers who would go on to superstardom in either federation.

More than that, ECW innovated on how to promote and portray wrestling, including how to utilize the new technologies of the Internet to distribute and market content as well as connecting with and empowering fans. ECW’s do-it-yourself, outsider identity continues to influence the WWE and indie federations around the world to this day.

As always, you are encouraged to become a part of this conversation by visiting any of the podcast’s social media sites. You can also talk with Christopher Olson on Twitter (@chrstphrolson) and at his academic blog seemsobvioustome.wordpress.com. And you can talk to me on Twitter (@mediaoracle).