{Note: all videos in this post are uploaded for historical/accuracy purposes only. Image in this post is a screenshot from the August 1992 Eastern Championship Wrestling Weekly Episode #1. All rights go to the respective video library owners; and if requested then I will edit this post to remove the content}
Most ECW fans remember the TV commentary in the final years which had Joey Styles & Joel Gertner, and occasionally had Joey Styles & Cyrus (now Don Callis) doing commentary on some pay per view events. Old school ECW fans likely remember the team of Stevie Wonderful & Jay Sulli doing commentary as shown on ECW Hardcore TV episode #1, as confirmed by Chubby Dudley's (Bay Ragni's) recap of that episode here:
That first episode aired on April 6, 1993. Sulli & Wonderful also were the commentators for the late-1992 pilot episode which a few months later became ECW Hardcore TV, as seen here:
However, there were 4 other announcers/commentators who preceded the team of Sulli & Wonderful. In the summer of 1992 there were a handful of "Eastern Championship Wrestling Weekly" (ECW Weekly) episodes. The show was hosted by Bob Smith & Tod Gordon. Stevie Wonderful did ringside interviews; and the match announcing team was Dick Graham and Stately Wayne Manor.
Stately Wayne Manor confirmed this on his Twitter account back in 2018:
https://x.com/SWManor/status/1039204916454195200
Additional resources confirming this can be found here: https://ecwwrestling.com/trivia/ecws-first-tv-announcer
Others who would serve as color commentary during ECW's history, usually alongside Joey Styles on Hardcore TV episodes and on some Pay Per View events, included:
- Paul E. Dangerously (when with Jay Sulli)
- Eddie Gilbert in the TV studio (with Jay Sulli)
- Terry Funk
- Kurt Angle (did commentary with Joey Styles for one match with Taz)
- Cyrus
- Shane Douglas
- Rick Rude
- Tommy Dreamer (during the main event of Barely Legal, ECW's first PPV)
- Taz
- A handful of others
In addition to the in-ring roster changing over nearly 100% from ECW"s early 1992 days (only Pitbull #1, Sandman, and Little Guido - then as "Damien Stone" wrestled in ECW in both 1992 and 2000), the TV announcers & studio show hosts changed dramatically as well. This is a little-known aspect of ECW as you can hear how the announcing team of Dick Graham/Stately Wayne Manor was different than that of Sulli/Wonderful which, of course, was vastly different than the final team of Styles/Gertner.
If you have any comments about ECW's announcing team from the 1992 "Eastern" era all the way until the final shows in January 2001 then you are welcome to leave them on this post.