Making An Impact Again

[flunked]

About a decade ago, the wrestling business was at the highest point it ever had been at. On one side, you had the WWF (now E) led by Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and The Undertaker. On the other, you had WCW led by old timers such as Hulk Hogan, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and Kevin Nash. While these two wrestling giants went at it every Monday night, a smaller company was beginning to make a name for itself. This of course was ECW. Yes, the old ECW, led by Tommy Dreamer, Taz, and The Sandman, was making its own impact on the wrestling world. Their extreme style of wrestling changed the way the other promoters (mostly WWF) ran their companies. ECW showed promoters how fans wanted to see wrestling run. The old ECW proved that wresting fans wanted to see a more extreme style wrestling, unlike that of the 80s. ECW made a huge impact on everyone and without them, the wrestling that we see today would be forever different. Today, ECW is still making an impact on the wrestling world.

First off, let me give you at little background on ECW's return to the world.

Current day: 2006. Vince McMahon has produced a third brand of the WWE, seemingly reviving the old ECW. Or at least that is what he said. This revival started at this year's ECW One Night Stand PPV with Rob Van Dam defeating John Cena to become the new WWE champion. For the next few weeks, we would see RVD competing on RAW and ECW shows as both the ECW and the WWE champion. During the course of these weeks, we saw that only few ECW originals (The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, and Sabu) were getting pushed while the WWE was heavily pushing WWE originals such as Kurt Angle, The Big Show, Test, Hardcore Holly, and Mike Knox (I wont even get into Kelly Kelly). On the weekend of the fourth of July, RVD and Sabu were both in a car and were arrested for possession of marijuana. When Vince McMahon found out about this, he had RVD lose the WWE title to Edge on an edition of RAW. The next day RVD lost the ECW title to the Big Show, thanks to a Paul Heyman heel turn "screwing" him out of the title. After that, RVD was suspended for 30 days while Sabu only received a fine. For the next couple of months, we were forced to witness The Big Show not only squash RAW and SmackDown! superstars such as The Undertaker, Ric Flair, and Kane, but also almost every ECW original on the roster.

Now let's bring you to early September. Kurt Angle has been released by the WWE after a settlement. We later find out that Kurt feels that Vince McMahon overworked him in WWE and ECW was the last straw. This is the beginning of how ECW has made an impact again.

In late October, another wrestling company, TNA, shocked the world by hiring Kurt Angle.

In the past couple of weeks numerous rumors have been heard of WWE superstars wanting to make the jump to TNA. Two of these rumored superstars are Chris Benoit and Rey Mysterio. If you haven't heard already, the WWE has just lost two other superstars as well. These two are Paul Heyman and The Big Show. In the Big Show's case, he left for a reason similar to Kurt's. The Big Show now has major back problems and cannot keep up with the difficult schedule of the WWE. With about 3-4 shows a week, he is now unable to work this difficult schedule anymore. This week is his last time in a while to be in a WWE ring. Although a WrestleMania appearance with Hulk Hogan is possible, it is not likely. Paul Heyman's release comes after a big argument with Vince McMahon. Right off the heels of ECW's first WWE PPV, December to Dismember (which I think is the worst PPV of all time), Paul and Vince had a big argument witch resulted in the sending home of Paul E. Along with that, it seems that RVD and Sabu are not currently happy as well.THE ONLY BRIGHT SPOT IN ECW NOW IS CM PUNK AND PLZ VINCE GIVE HIM AN OPPORTUNITY SOON. WWE HAS ONLY SOMETIME LEFT UNTIL VINCE DECIDES TO PULL THE PLUG ON THE WWECW.

Since its revival, WWE HAS DONE NOTHING BUT KILL THE LEGEND OF ECW AND DRAGGED IT AROUND THE DRAINAGE. I am not saying that WWE is in major danger, but it potentially could be. Just imagine if Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, RVD, Chris Benoit, Big Show, Paul Heyman, and Rey Mysterio all were to jump to TNA. The WWE would then be in some major trouble. ECW is indeed making an impact from the grave. I say from the grave because ECW truly is DEAD. This that we see today is not ECW and Vince McMahon's attempt to bring it back and have a "new vision" for it jusT goes to show VINCE SCREWED ALL OF US AND ALL HE NOW CARES ABOUT IS THE "E" ON THE WWE AND HOW HE CAN MAKE MONEY BY GIVING US THE FALSE HOPE IN ECW. The impact that ECW is starting to drive away many of the talents that the WWE holds dear. This failed revival of ECW has started to aid TNA on its quest to compete with the WWE and this impact may start to be felt even more.

TNA SHOULD ATLEAST RISE TO THE TOP AND CHALLENGE THE WWE NOT BY SOME WASHED UP STUPID VKM...WHO WERE GOD AWFUL AT TURNING POINT
BUT BY THE TALENT THEY HAVE IN JOE,STYLES,DANIELS,CAGE,SABIN,SENSHI,STING,ABYSS AND ANGLE.I HOPE THE WARS BEGIN AND VINCE REALISES THAT TRUE WRESTLING MATTERS THE MOST WITH SOME GUD HARDCORE ACTION...

ECW HAS ONLY ONE FAINT HOPE OF GETTING IT RITE......CM PUNK
any feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated
Thanks a lot

 

[Matisyahu]

I dont think ECW would be so bad if they just changed the format a little making it a cross over show for SD and RAW they could maybe change the name completely. For example Cena could challenge Booker T or something and they could meet on neutral ground so to speak on the ECW show and battle it out in a no dq match I mean they don't have to go all old school ECW with cheese graters and shit but you know more of the WWE hardcore match style with cookie sheets and those weak ass aluminum foil grade trash cans that bend when you swing em. Plus you could do cross promotion stints where guys like the Sandman could go and attack people on Raw or SD and challenge their guys to matches on his show and vice versa.

I mean it doesn't have to be a total wash this thing can be salvaged but all that really needs to happen is just either change the name or give it a little harder edge. I know I'd like to see Finlay cross over and challenge Lashley for the ECW title considering no one owns Lashley like Finlay does I mean he always gave Lashley a run for his money and he consistantly had great matches and really great chemistry with Lashley that no one else did and this may give some credibility to the show and Lashley especially. Personally I'd love to see King Booker back on ECW again acting all disgusted and put out by even being in an ECW building and this way maybe they can start some good storylines and feuds leading into Wrestlemania. Chris Benoit would be a great addition to ECW because he has the reputation there already for nearly crippling Sabu hence the Crippler moniker and everyone knows he has that intensity that would fit in quite nicely there. The thing everyone forgets is that WWE has a list of ECW originals that don't mention as starting out there such as Benoit, Mysterio, Super Crazy, Dean Malenko and Nova who are road agents now but can still do it in the ring if needed, etc.

Or once again they can completely overhaul it, change the name to something else but still keep the talent there, add in some under used guys from other shows, and do some matches that could further storyline for all three shows or matches just for the hell of it that people want to see like I said before where people from the two bigger shows challenge Lashley for the title thereby giving it and him more credibility like Kennedy vs Lashley or any or variation that could come up.

Maybe even put in on the weekend to where they could get a better timeslot for two hours where they can really take off with the thing instead of having two meaningless matches and a world title squash match at the end like every week since the inception of what we see now. thats all I got anyone like it or is it totally crap?

 

[Punisher1205]

i agree pretty much 100% with what was said here. CM Punk is needed to be pushed very hard, very soon.

and i like the idea of changing the name, and having it a nuetral ground with some WWE "Hardcore" weapons.

 

[Xander]

You have to remember that The Big Show, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, and even Kurt Angle now have been in the buisness a long time, and yes, it is getting difficult as they're growing older. You can't stop the aging process, and if they're gone, they're gone. Let it be that they want a lighter schedule. It'll be better for them.

As for CM Punk, I didn't like him in the beginning, but he's starting to grow on me. Yes, he does need to be pushed, but they need to bring out a TV title first. I love Test. His heel status is great in ECW, perfect because they hardly used him before, and the same can be said with Hardcore Holly. Also, Mike Knox and Kevin Thorn are being mold perfectly as heels.
They need more faces. All you have is Balls Mahoney, RVD, Sabu, CM Punk, and Lashley, with the likes of Stryker, Rene Dupree, Daviri, and a couple of others.

If they port over more wrestlers with potential, ie Val Venis, Gregory Helms (I think he'd have a great fued with CM Punk), Joey Mercury, Super Crazy, and others, the roster could be banging.
They just need more titles, and make it an hour longer show, but since they don't have the roster size, they can't.
No tag teams, no other belts. It's just . . . bland at the moment.

I sitll have faith in ECW, but like everyone else, I'm waiting for that one big moment to put it over.
They don't need to have crossovers, but they can change the name if they wish, but I do believe that Thunder, Heat, and Velocity were pretty gay names.
Just keep it ECW, have less and less cross overs, create more belts, and expand the roster. That's all they need to do. If that doesn't happen by June, expect it to be a real flop.

 

[healyz84]

One major problem that I see with the revival of ecw is the ecw originals themselves. Think about how many years ecw had been dead. In this time period, a number of the ecw wrestlers went to wwe(Richards, Nova, Tazz, RVD, Tajiri and so on) while many of the wrestlers went on the indy circuit, wrestled in Japan or just stopped wrestling altogether. So the revival of ECW, to me, happened too late. A lot of the ecw wrestlers in wwe could not wrestler the syle of a wwe wrestler and subsequently were buried within the company. So with a wwe owned ecw, these wrestlers would not have much of a chance. A number of the ecw stars have also gotten up there in age, and so I believe cannot do what they were normally able to do, or to wrestler long enough matches for a good enough show, so wwe and vince were forced to bring in wwe originals in order to supplement the roster. So while there are some ecw originals on ecw, the show is not the same and at the same time, they are not the same wrestlers either, so its a shame ecw took too long to revive.

I think the only chance of ecw to survive and be somewhat viable is by the bringing to ecw of younger talent who can wrestler the new vision of ecw. CM Punk is hopefully the beginning. What Vince needs to do is to train talent that are going to be suited for the ecw.