Has TNA Surpassed The Original ECW?

[Scott Free]

Lucha Libre as seen now is nothing like what Mil Mascaras, his brothers and peers did. You can see it however you want, WCW and Bischoff showcased Lucha first.

Right, one could also say that US pro wrestling as we know it now, is nothing like what Bruno Sammartino and his peers were doing at about the same time, as it has evolved just like Lucha Libre did.

Michinoku Pro was also mentioned in WWE just a short time later when Taka Michinoku made his debut and eventually won the light heavyweight title. For all we know, he was another of WWE's ECW plants just like Al Snow was.

Right again, except in the WWE they only mentioned Michinoku Pro and had Taka perform, in ECW, they showcased an all Michinoku Pro match during their first PPV I believe, that match gave you more of a taste of what that promotion was about.

I can assure you, i didn't skip it on purpose. Then again if you want to go there, TNA during it's young years was also quite innovative. The Lucha/puro/cruiserweight mashup called the X-division was unlike anything done before. The big difference is that TNA put that style aside on their own and now are coping with a giant identity crisis. ECW was, on the other hand, consistently copied by both WCW and WWE and simply couldn't come up with another sticking point for their product.

Right again, don't get me wrong, I'm all for TNA becoming more successful, but I'm disappointed in the way they are flushing becoming their own entity down the toilet in favor of just being a WCW/WWE clone. Take the 6 sided ring for example, some people think it's stupid, yet I thought it was a brilliant and innovative concept, the design allowed more room for their extremely fast X-Division talent to perform and added two more turnbuckles from where to perform high spots from, what did they do ? They put talent like Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash in there, which does make the whole ring set-up look stupid. Unless they start taking chances, they will never be as innovative as ECW was.

 

[RicSpade]

In a nutshell, TNA has tried to recreate three companies into 1 since going from a weekly pay per view to being on Fox Sports to going on Spike. Now what do I mean by this, you have the 1990 WWF aspect of TNA of putting silly characters on TV like Curry Man, Black Machismo, Suicide, Shark Boy, etc. (Shark boy may have been in the indie scene I am in now, but he still qualifies as one of those 1990 cater to kids element), as for the WCW its the Vince Russo poison of making some of the strangest match decisions in the company making it more gimmicky than need be, do we remember the Miner 49er match with the crates on a pole? and then we had to do a referees vs wrestler match in TNA? Seriously, now in terms of ECW its been toned down with the exception of Abyss but they had some pretty brutal matches in TNA most of which was when ECW original Raven was still in TNA with clockwork orange matches and monsters ball and what not.
The reason to know all this is important is because while we reviewed that revenue wise TNA was superior and in terms of talent there are many recognizable talent bases in TNA right now, the two main things are wrong with TNA and it makes them under the Orginal ECW.
#1 99% of the original TNA talent are unable to get over in WWE like the ECW originals such as RVD, Taz, Tommy Dreamer. Take Chris Harris for example, Lance Hoyt will probably be another example when the time comes.
#2 There product is staler than ECW was, do you remember the unpredictablility of ECW? I remember seeing guys who weren't even scheduled to be on the card fighting, titles changing hands multiple times in a night, New Jack jumping off of anything he could, burning tables, Spike going into crowds, this is what made a non-WWE/WCW product great to watch, and this is essentially what TNA is missing right now.

 

[hater]

TNA has failed to make any of its own talent into stars. All they have are guys who established themselves in other companies. At least ECW made their own. [Taz,RVD,Raven,Dudley Boyz,Sabu] Who has TNA made besides A.J. Styles? And he's even been pushed to the back. Abyss sucks even more than Kane. The Machine Guns probably fist each other. Samoa Joe destroyed the talent in ROH and now he's a gimmick. ECW just didn't have the resources that TNA has. As far as comparisons, who wouldn't just love to see (Taz -vs- Samoa Joe),(RVD -vs- A.J.), in their prime of course. Almost forgot, how long are they going to let Jay Lethal disgrace the Macho Man? That is straight crap.

 

[GameOver]

Well IMO if ya look at what they are doing atm it seems obvious thats the way they wanna head to that ECW shock factor. probably common thought but does it not seem they are heading towards some sort of ECW originals invasion. Assumedly Dreamer/Tazz will join in the future,

They could also bring back Spike and Balls.

then we have atm
Rhino, Team 3D, Raven, Stevie Richards, Shane Douglas, Daphne, Mick Foley, amongst others that skip my mind

Couold be interesting....