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The rights to the acclaimed 2013 documentary Barbed Wire City - The Unauthorized Story of Extreme Championship Wrestling, directed by Kevin Kiernan and John Philapavage, has been acquired by Highspots. The film is now streaming for the first time at www.HighspotsWrestlingNetwork.com.
The film, designed to analyze the sub-culture that was ECW, featured countless interviews with ECW alumni and fans as well as journalists who covered the promotion over the course of its lifespan. It was very much a labor of love that began filming in 2000 off and on through 2013 and was featured at numerous film festivals before being released on DVD for a limited run.
Promotional material from the film's initial release:
"The Most Accurate Telling of the ECW Story" - Joey Styles, the voice of Extreme Championship Wrestling
Utilizing a recipe of over the top theatrics, balls to the wall violence, vibrant characterizations so deep they cut to the bone and an audience so passionate they became part of the show, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) exemplified the excess of its era, becoming the punk rock pro wrestling product.
So what happens when a wrestling promotion so steeped in originality sees its concepts poached by larger, international companies with a far wider audience and far deeper pockets? Co-Directors John Philapavage and Kevin Kiernan's critically acclaimed documentary digs deep into the psyche and history of the ECW culture to examine what made it tick, why so many lived and died by the initials and what happened to these hard-living, hard-performing eclectic personalities when ECW ceased to exist.
Often compared to Nirvana's influence on music, ECW changed the professional wrestling landscape as well as the lives of its performers and fans forever. BARBED WIRE CITY took a decade to film and complete in order to provide a final epitaph on the gravestone of the only pro wrestling promotion in history that saw it's audience rescue it from the brink of oblivion...and then resurrect it.
This marks the first time the film has been officially available for streaming.
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