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Rep Power: 4  | ECW On SciFi: Looking At The Worst Hour Of Wrestling TV In Years
Credit: PWinsider.com
by Mike Johnson @ 11:00:00 AM on 6/14/2006 Quote:
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.
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06-15-2006, 08:11 AM
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