Any wrestling fans?

metsfan531941 wrote:

ya know for the first show of the new ECW it wasnt that bad.

metsfan531941 wrote:

let me guess you have gone to over 100 ECW shows at the ECW Arena. this post is not meant to be cocky or an asshole post. i just want to know thats all

metsfan531941 wrote:

who knows maybe it will get better.

ECW ON SCIFI: LOOKING AT THE WORST HOUR OF WRESTLING TV IN YEARS
by Mike Johnson @ 11:00:00 AM on 6/14/2006


What can one say about the travesty that was the first edition of ECW on Sci Fi? It's unfair to even compare this new version of ECW to the original company, so I will refrain from doing that. That said, after the last two years of ECW One Night Stand PPVs, everyone who tuned in last night was hoping for a Led Zeppelin reunion and instead found William Hung on stage. Instead of Eminem, Vanilla Ice was standing there, smiling on stage, doing his Ninja Turtles rap.

Although in hindsight, it was probably impossible to expect anything but what fans received, WWE is absolutely lunatic in forgetting that the entire idea of an alternative brand is to have it be something alternative to Raw and Smackdown. With the exception of some cheesy characters that served to do nothing but make Science Fiction and wrestling fans both roll their eyes, there was nothing alternative about this new ECW.

In WWE's eyes, Extreme Championship Wrestling is a brand that failed miserably, therefore the only way it's going to work is to have the WWE spin on it, from a marketing, creative, and production standpoint. Last night only served to prove that this new ECW will be exactly what the original company rebelled against.

From a production standpoint, it was a third hour of Monday Night Raw. We had all the elements: outside cutaways of the Arena, DX reunion promos, an in-ring talking segment opening the show, backstage vignettes, a replay of what happened 30 minutes ago, a pointless Diva segment, and (since this was "Extreme"), a bunch of guys hitting each other in the head for a hardcore match. It would have been compelling television, if ECW fans hadn't already seen it in 1995 and WWE fans hadn't already seen it during the Attitude era. WWE had the chance to do something outside the box, but beyond having wrestlers walk through the crowd and setting up another pair of hard cameras in the Arena, they failed to do anything unique.

From a storyline standpoint, we had the same plot holes and backwards logic that we usually get on Raw and Smackdown. Why would a bunch of wrestlers on the same "team" want to beat the piss out of each other in a Battle Royal? How in the world does Paul Heyman have the power to book John Cena's match on a WWE PPV? How in the world does John Cena lay out three ECW stars, tell the world he's coming to ECW, and then proceeds to get away with whatever he wants? Edge comes to ECW after talking tons of crap about it and trying, for two years in a row, to stand against it, then "tricks" Van Dam by spearing him?

From a storyline standpoint, ECW looked like the old WWF Job Squad. Three of their stars got their asses handed to them on Raw and they knew John Cena and Edge were both coming. Throwing some campy characters into a Raw-esque show does not make ECW a unique brand. Throwing 11 names into a Battle Royal does nothing to get over any of the talents, none of whom should be blamed for that hour of TV.

All this episode of ECW did was serve to anger fans who paid money to see what they want - a wrestling show featuring the old ECW work ethic with some old and new faces. Instead, they got Raw mixed with Mystery Science Theatre 3000 material.

This is the new breed unleashed? This is launching a brand? It looked to me like the only things that were promoted were John Cena, Edge, Raw, and Vengeance. ECW fans who had their hopes up deserved better then a one hour episode of WCW Thunder with Zombies.

Several weeks ago, I wrote, "The problem is that, much like every other brand WWE will be running, ECW will be held under the scrutiny of Vince McMahon and his creative team and this will be his vision of what he thinks ECW should be. It will have the same haphazard builds and illogical plotline holes that Raw and Smackdown do, because it’s all coming from the same source. ECW is going to be everything that the original ECW revolted against, unless things change now. It’s not too late for WWE to realize they’re going about this the wrong way. All it will take is one person, Vince McMahon, to admit that just because his way has made him a ton of money, doesn’t mean another way can’t make him that money as well. It's going to fall on McMahon as to whether he lets the golden goose lay him the eggs, or whether he has it rubbed out, gangland execution style. He's already going down the path to the latter."

It looks like McMahon has not only positioned the goose in front of the firing squad, but he's jumping up and down, stomping on the bloody, beaten body to ensure it goes into oblivion in the most painful way possible for those who choose to witness the murder. I wrote last week that the new vision of ECW was going to be "Raw with Vampires." I have never been more disgusted in my life to have been correct. Congratulations WWE, on the worst hour of professional wrestling produced since the end of WCW.

ECW'S DEBUT ON SCI FI A TRAIN WRECK THAT CAN BE FIXED BUT PROBABLY WON'T BE
by Dave Scherer @ 11:23:00 AM on 6/14/2006


Folks, I am here to tell you that I am a sucker. A big sucker. An all day, big fat lollipop sucker. Why, you ask, am I admitting to you all today that I am a rube? Well, I went into last night's ECW debut on Sci Fi show actually believing Vince McMahon when he said that he understood that this show had to be different from other WWE programming to succeed and he would make sure that it was. Yep, I am a sucker. I should have known better.

Now, I want to make very clear at the outset that I don't expect the new version of ECW to be like its predecessor. I think comparisons between then and now are just not fair, for a number of reasons. I don't expect this product to be like the ECW of the mid nineties. It's just not a realistic expectation. This company is owned by McMahon. It's his money and he has control of the product. I appreciate and respect that, believe me, I do. I want to be clear in saying that I am not yearning for the old days here, I am just a long-time wrestling fan looking for an alternative product that is written for a more mature fan and not so obvious in all of its storylines, like Raw and Smackdown are. Again, I just want an alternative. By definition, that would be a product that is different from the other brands that WWE currently offers. Last night's debut was anything but that. Basically, it was a really, really bad episode of Raw.

There was no edginess. About the only thing they could point to as being "hardcore" was Kelly's striptease and while she is ridiculously hot, is it any different than anything we see on the "big two"? Nope, except for the fact that the other divas actually know how to unhook a bra.

There was no intelligent booking either. It's a good thing there were a lot of little kids at the show because it was written for them.

As you can tell, I hated the show, hated it with a passion. I hated it so much that I didn't even want to write about it today. I didn't hate it because "it defamed ECW". I hated it because no matter what measure you judge it on, it was a wretched hour of wrestling. What made it worse was that I was hoping for a fun alternative to Raw and it was anything but that.

But, I will try to be constructive here and point out some of the problems I saw last night:

*The presentation. The show looked exactly like Raw and Smackdown in the way it was shot, presented, formatted and announced. There was no "grainier" production. It was a very obviously a WWE show and that hurt it because when it looks like WWE, it will be compared to WWE and will finish a distant third behind their other programs.

*No character development whatsoever. The only guys that got a push on the show were established WWE wrestlers. Sabu? He lucked into the win in the battle royal. Edge and John Cena got pushed harder than anyone on the ECW roster. Of the guys in ECW that did get a push, the two that did were WWE talents. Now don't get me wrong. I realize that they don't have a lot to work with on the ECW roster since many of the guys were jobbers on WWE shows, but the point of creating a new brand it to build guys up. That sure didn't happen last night.

*Raw was clearly more important than anything else. I understand that this is a fledgling brand and that WWE wants to cross-promote Raw with ECW to get it an audience. But last night, the focus was so strong on what was going on with Vengeance and Monday's show that last night, when it wasn't mind numbingly bad, just came across as secondary filler from a bunch of wannabes. They are going to invade Raw? RVD and Paul Heyman were left for dead by the Raw guys. Big Show, a recent Raw start, threw out everyone in the Battle Royal, including Sabu who luckily didn't hit the floor. Kurt Angle destroyed another former ECW champion. Yeah, that makes the rest of the roster look real tough to me (and believe me, I understand that many of the guys on the roster have jobber written all over them which is why it's important NOT to portray them as such). I am sure the Raw roster is shaking in their boots. Hell, even Sabu's win meant that he wrestles John Cena, on a Raw PPV. Wouldn't Sabu rather get a shot at the ECW Title? I mean really?

*It was taped in the wrong buildings. They can't keep taping in Smackdown buildings. It makes for an apathetic crowd, one that isn't there to see ECW. The crowd was always a huge part of why ECW worked. Without it, the brand loses a lot of what makes it special.

*Most importantly, it just wasn't "extreme". It's obvious to me that Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn have no idea what an alternative product is. I understand that because they have their way of booking and presenting wrestling, and that's what we get four hours of every week on USA and UPN. The only way I can see this project even having a chance to succeed as alternative is if they step away from it and oversee it from afar. Put control in the hands of the people who understand the concept and give them a chance, with whatever restrictions they need to have placed on them, to run the product. If not, we will have more nights like last night. Vince's vision of ECW is what we saw last night. It's the same as his vision of Raw and Smackdown. If they want to provide a truly different product, they need to step away from it (which for the record I don't see happening). We don't need another Raw Vince. We need something different (and I mean different in a good way).

That, in a nutshell, encapsulates the embarrassment that was ECW on Sci Fi last night. I would love to sit here and tell you that I think WWE will take these very legitimate concerns and criticisms to heart and implement change to fix the mess that was that show last night but I won't. Why? Because they made me a sucker once. They ain't gonna do it again.

Carlos D wrote:

I don't think wrestling needs ECW.With TNA,ROH,CZW and numerous others as good as they are now I think ECW pales in comparison.