Raw is E.C.W.

[TheOneBigWill]

I could stand alone in this, and a lot of you may not know exactly what I'm talking about, however.. does anyone, anyone at all believe, feel or get the impression that Mr. McMahon is allowing Paul Heyman to book Raw lately?

Yes, I realize Heyman isn't with the W.W.E., it was a joke. You know, ha ha? Anyways.. Raw is being booked, or rather not seemingly being booked, and things are happening on the fly. Noone is running the show, order is out of wack and chaos is running all over the place.

Monday Night Raw is exactly, or at least very similar in the most watered down mainstream viewers way that the old school original E.C.W. was. Tell me I'm wrong. Prove to me I'm wrong. (other than saying they aren't the same because of their names)

The fact is, in the old school E.C.W.. the show had like 3 definate matches, and the rest were just randomly started matches, and off-shoots of matches that spawned from run-in attacks. An example, on an E.C.W. Pay Per View from 1999.. a match involved Simon Diamond. At one point during that match, Jazz interfered, followed by two sets of Tag Teams. Without any segway.. the match went from Simon Diamond against whomever it was.. into a Tag Team match.

Now, take last night's Raw. Mickie James defeated Katie Lea, and without any segway more or less.. Kofi Kingston rushes out, saves the day, then wants to fight Paul Burchill and it happens. Title on the line and everything. Noone agreed to the match, except the wrestlers. Thats Old School E.C.W. stuff right there.

Another example would be the recent finishes. It was just started in another thread about how W.W.E. is getting stupid with matches not having finishes. But its another similar issue. In E.C.W., matches would end without a regular winner/loser a lot of times and noone would care because the action was so intense and out of control, noone would truly notice.

So, with all of this being said. Who else feels this is like a watered down version of the ORIGINAL E.C.W.? Also, if thats the case, do you feel they should continue with it, or stop and go back to being W.W.F./E. based?

I for one love this new version, and while its under a W.W.E. banner, the fact remains its very much E.C.W. based.. whether people want to see it that way or not. What are everyone's opinions?

 

[HBK-aholic]

I know what you mean. Raw is no longer Raw, as it once was. And Raw has been Raw for the last 15 years +.

Personally, I don't like it. I was never a huge ECW fan, and I really hate matches which end with no clear cut winner, unless it's beneficial to a storyline which it rarely is, especially in the last few weeks.

It's Raw which got the highest ratings ever, not ECW. Raw needs to work on going back to it's roots, not something elses. ECW has never been as big as WWE for a reason. Putting the 2 together was a good idea. But separately. I don't want to see Raw = ECW. I want to see Raw, Smackdown and ECW. Raw has been the numbwer 1 promotion for a while now. That may have shifted to Smackdown now, but this type of booking, or lack of, has no place in Raw.

 

[Derf]

I personally like the road RAW has been taking lately. I never watched the old ECW, but I see the point your making. But with all good things, there has to be a down side. And as much as this "story" is bringing the ratings up, It's only a matter of time before Vince returns. And when he does, who knows. Maybe they will find a way to keep things fresh, keep things good, and not drop the ball. I'm hoping the surprises and action keep coming, even after Vince returns.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

I know what you mean. Raw is no longer Raw, as it once was. And Raw has been Raw for the last 15 years +.

Raw has went through a lot of growing up staged, as it were. They started out similar to E.C.W. in a very small arena, taping its weekly show in the same place week after week. They grew up, and moved out. Branching all over and gaining bigger audiences.

I honestly believe Raw has survived 15+ years because it evolves. I think this is its next evolutionary step in the chain.

Personally, I don't like it. I was never a huge ECW fan, and I really hate matches which end with no clear cut winner, unless it's beneficial to a storyline which it rarely is, especially in the last few weeks.

How would you say the no contest finishes don't have meaning in storyline? Each one has, while the finish of two specific matches (Jericho/tight hooking and JBL/partner saving) were downright stupid.. they at least had meaning.

Jericho: never should've lost that second match to Kofi via a straight finish. It would've killed Jericho's momentum going into his match against H.B.K. -- Jericho dropping the Intercontinental title because of H.B.K.'s interference didn't hurt him to lose it, but Jericho losing for a second straight night via a clean finish would have. So albeit a dumb ending, the no contest/DQ finish was understandable.

J.B.L.: Again, both Cryme Tyme and Rhodes/DiBiase would've suffered to take a loss. And J.B.L. would've suffered to lose as well, yet with how Raw ended.. you wouldn't want Cena to both lose, AND get destroyed by a car. So the only logical way to end the match.. was by tossing it out.

Again, a stupid finish because J.B.L. more or less was DQed for saving his partner from tapping, when the last time I checked it was fine to do that. (of course not if you're going back decades ago when you as a Tag Team could only save your partner like once or twice, if at all, but this isn't yesteryear.)

So again.. I fail to see how you could dislike the no contest finishes, when you said you accept them if they set-up a storyline, and both of those did. If there were any others off Raw that were recent, like you said, then explain further please.

It's Raw which got the highest ratings ever, not ECW.

Define "highest ratings ever." Based on what, exactly?

And of course E.C.W. never got hugely high ratings. If you're refering to the old school version, it never had a proper chance. It came on Friday nights, on a station that wasn't really huge and still searching for an "identity".

Also, the W.W.F. has always been the top company, or second best compared to W.C.W. depending on the ratings war.. but E.C.W. was always 3rd best on the understanding that they had the lowest amount of coverage, and very in the dark talent. (In other words, noone knew of most of their talent, dispite most of them being good if not great.)

Raw needs to work on going back to it's roots, not something elses.

So it needs to go back to a bingo hall like setting, and tape from the same arena every week? Or it needs to go back to the same old week after week of boring, predictable matches that everyone complained about?

Last time I checked, short of the Punk Championship reign, everyone was more or less thrilled to have Raw the way its becoming. Surprising and unpredictable.

ECW has never been as big as WWE for a reason.

Yeah, its called mainstream popularity.. money.. proper booking.. and unfortunate situations.

That doesn't mean the W.W.E. can't take something from them, run with it and make it better though.. which seems to be what they're doing.

Putting the 2 together was a good idea. But separately. I don't want to see Raw = ECW. I want to see Raw, Smackdown and ECW. Raw has been the numbwer 1 promotion for a while now.

I think thats by Default though. Raw wasn't the Number One Promotion because it has been great these past few monthes. Its been Number One because Smackdown, E.C.W. & iMPACT! all sucked just as badly, if not even worse.

Raw wasn't #1 so much as just on top due to lack of better options. And don't get the current E.C.W. brand confused with what I'm refering to in the Paul Heyman owned and ran E.C.W. -- not that invasion shit either. I'm talking about the E.C.W. you weren't likely capable of watching due to being underage. (not that you couldn't, just that it wasn't "meant" for underage people.)

That may have shifted to Smackdown now

I believe Smackdown got a great deal of original talent from the same-old, same-old W.W.E. standard. Triple H., Edge, the Undertaker, Big Show. M.V.P., Kennedy, Umaga, Jeff Hardy. They definately have a lot of huge original name-brand players. But the question is whether they'll be able to equally use all of them.

Sometimes when you overstack so many stars on one show, half of them become boring and unwatchable because they don't have enough mainstream storylines for all of them to have.

but this type of booking, or lack of, has no place in Raw.

Why? Because its somewhat unique and fresh?

I find this funny, because you were also the same girl who not too long ago agreed with Indy Punk winning the World Heavyweight Championship (to a degree, at least) and now you're saying this type of booking (or lack there-of) on Raw has no place.

If it wasn't for this new way of doing things, Punk wouldn't be Champion. Someone like Cena would be. So how can you agree with one part of the new stage of Raw, yet disagree with how we got there?

 

[TheOneBigWill]

I personally like the road RAW has been taking lately. I never watched the old ECW, but I see the point your making. But with all good things, there has to be a down side. And as much as this "story" is bringing the ratings up, It's only a matter of time before Vince returns. And when he does, who knows. Maybe they will find a way to keep things fresh, keep things good, and not drop the ball. I'm hoping the surprises and action keep coming, even after Vince returns.

See, this is both the underlining and hidden point that I'm not sure too many people are waiting for.

The fact is, regardless of Mr. McMahon returning or not. Raw CAN NOT remain uncaptained forever. Raw CAN NOT remain without a leader, a General Manager forever. Why? Because even in this stage of "anything goes" it'll get old in time.

And people WILL complain when it returns to being "regular". Not because they're upset about the anything goes advantage being taken away, but because when it does settle down, things will go back to being booked regularly without as many shock events occuring, without as many random matches being wildly booked.

All this is, if anything, is a "sweeps week" type event, only in more of a month or two form. They'll allow Raw to remain this way, likely leading into Summerslam (which happens to be their second biggest p.p.v. of the year) then in all likelyhood, things will return to "normal" on the Raw before or after Summerslam.

The fact remains though, Raw will not and can not remain with chaos from now until forever. Because even "anything goes" will get boring in time.

 

[familymark]

Well I really thinkafter last night things will change if what the mcmahons said was true. I think they will now have a new GM to help get raw under control and i think it will be ric flair. Maybe thats why the whole stage collapsed to begin with so the childrean can bring flair in considering bad mcmahon hates him. so i see flair getting shit straight on raw then mcmahon coming back and having big issues with flair.

 

[slickman123]

come on who cant love raw now? i mean how bad was it a month ago? we had a triple h promos opening show long boring and draining about how good he is or john cena promos e.t.c raw is unpredicatble fresh and exciting we getting to see all the wrestlers and u have major storylines everywhere e.g jericho and hbk kanes mental problems cena and jbl punk and batista the show is no longer based on the world title theres other important issues that you want to know about. i just have a bad feeling they might go back to their predictable stale rountine again

 

[Jappa121]

Yeah as amazing as the last few episodes of RAW as been, There most likely just going to bring William Regal back bring RAW back to the was it was last month, same old boring stuff, I really really like how intense and over the top the last two RAWs were, Even the wacky stuff was amusing on the GMless RAWs, so much is going good, that in the next few weeks with the trends theyve been following, there really isnt any where to go but down if they go anywhere but the direction they are currently going

 

[mrtuddy]

Dude. Ric Flair is not coming back! There's no way that he would after retiring back in March. They wouldn't have built up that storyline just so he could return 4 months later. It won't happen. Flair's already been co-owner and Raw owner in the past.. i doubt he would do it again. If anything, I think either Regal, Stephanie, or Shane will take over. Regal's suspension is up this Saturday, I think. But to have Stephanie or Shane or both be RAW GM would be good... maybe have them start feuding over it eventually... but I doubt Stephanie wants to be on RAW right now because she's about to have her second child... maybe she'll return as an on-screen character in the later parts of August.

Oh, and I disagree with you on RAW = ECW. I think that you're focusing on little parts of the show, not as a whole. Overall it is still a very WWE product.

 

[Papa Shango]

I agree with what Will says. This is WWE's summer sweeps. They're getting people to tune into the show, hoping that, even once they end all the excitement and go back to "business as usual", people will continue to watch anyways. Personally, I only think a GM works for television when are either a great, tyrannical-like heel, such as Eric Bishoff or Paul Heyman, or someone who sets the standards of practices and "gives the people want they want", like Teddy Long a while back. (He got stale after a bit).

Ric Flair will not be the GM of RAW, he just retired. William Regal will get the GM position back when his suspension is up. Vince fired Regal, but Steph and Shane are in charge now, so they prbably wouldn't have a problem re-hiring him as GM. And hopefully, he'll be as on fire as he was before his suspension. Not necceasarily "King Regal", but still a power-obsessed heel with a huge ego. I really liked the direction they had Regal's character going in, as long as he doesn't keep turning out the lights.

 

[Shocky]

This is a much needed change for Raw. I've found myself watching it nonstop since the week leading up to the draft until now. It's fresh, it's new, and it's unpredictable, something you couldn't say with the likes of McMahon, Michaels, and Triple H hogging the spotlight week in and week out.

This is wrestling as it should be in my opinion. Not everything needs a grand storyline, just two guys wanting to wrestle and prove themselves in the ring, I think it's great. I think that this style of Raw is only going on to prove how chaotic it is. It's all a part of that storyline of Martial Raw at this point. Eventually someones going to comeback and re-establish order, and then I think we'll head into a very dull period of creativity once again.

I think it's great myself. Without a GM there isn't one central storyline that hogs up the entire show and everyone else plays supporting characters. Now we have many storylines of young guys trying to either prove themselves or notch their belts by taking established stars out, not sitting back and waiting for a GM to decide to give them a push. I'll take many small storylines over one feud that hogs the show any day of the week.