Downhome

It was right after Kelly's strip tease, also the point when Tazz and Joey made complete asses out of themselves and shilled for that terrible stuff. NOTE: I had to cut this down to get it a decent size. Also, at the point he puts his head down he actually kept it there longer, but I cut it a bit there to get to the end. Anyway, here is what this fan thought of the debut of ECW:

Oh come on, you can't read anything into the ratings. It was the return of ECW on TV, and they promoted Cena and Edge/Lita as being a part of the debut show. Just wait for the next show, and the one after that. I don't think there's a chance in hell that the rating stays at that point.

Well, SciFi is happy, from PWInsider:

I was just about to post it also. :lol: Yes, the first show has clearly sent a very strong message indeed. And no, there is no more wondering what would happen if ECW returned, no more of that at all. There have already been reports that Heyman was mad backstage saying how much he thought the show sucked, and we know this is just a scripted comment on the web site, but still...it's just wrong.

Well, they went ahead and did that for the very first show.

From PWInsider: I guess all of their creative juices went into that shittacular ECW show.

Now that the board is back up, here are some news bits from PWInsider: And here are two articles by the guys at the site, one of which is by Mike Johnson who was at the show last night:

I'm going to watch again, but that's just because I'm a fucking sucker and I admit it. I will say though that I'm sure that the majority of all of those ECW fans who haven't watched WWE at all and this was their "coming home" in terms of watching mainstream wrestling, I doubt they'll ever, EVER, tune in again.

One more thing. If the shows continue to be like this, I think it's plain as day that the plan right now is to pull in a few new fans to check out ECW, then put on horrible shows only to make RAW and SD look that much better in hopes that those new fans that ECW draws in based on the talent and name only then change over to watch RAW and SD full time.

Like I said on another board, if they are going to have a zombie (even if it's just for one night), I think they should have Roadkill feud with Burger King's "Big Buckin' Chicken" ASAP. We had Joey telling the fans, being dead serious, to not chant dirty things. Then to open the show we had a segment no different than anything on RAW and SD. The first match was Kurt Angle squashing a former ECW tag champ and WORLD champ. I know it's Justin Credible, and many of you don't care, but that isn't what should've been done, not at all. Not to mention it looks like yet another WWE guy just squashing ECW talent. Then, for no fucking reason, we have a chick "strip". Hey Vince, Kimona she was not, and you just know that's what they were going for. She couldn't even get her bra off. We had the entire Tazz/Lawler segment on the show. And besides that we had recap after recap, one of which was going over what happened just minutes earlier at the start of the show. It's a one hour show for the love of God, that's not needed. I guess Sandman's gimmick will be that he beats the shit out of horrible gimmicks (Eugene, Zombie). That wont get older than dirt in a matter of weeks, not at all. Heck, it's already old if you ask me. Yes, I know the point of The Zombie was to pick on SciFi, but still, come the fuck on now. The crowd was horrible, oh my God. The majority of the fans looked at Sandman like they had no clue at all what was going on. We had a random shot of an OMG vampire. The main even consisted of TBS squashing the entire ECW roster, except for Sabu. Not only that but the match was a pure WWE version of their old hardcore bouts. I have no clue how Tazz can sleep at night after saying things like he likes the new ECW better than the old one, really. Also, as of right now, we don't have any ECW feuds at all. We have Cena/Sabu, RVD/Edge, and Angle/Orton. Maybe we can count TBS/Big Guido, but I don't know about that. The best thing to come from all of this so far, to me, is Sabu. Not just because of his work (I've always been a blind mark for his matches, they entertain the hell out of me), but also because he deserves to be making this money now, and he deserves to be on this big stage. He's worked his ass off for years, so I'm very happy to see him getting this huge push. I know I said we need to wait until after the ECW/WWE stuff to die out before we judge the new ECW show, and I still stand behind that, but holy lord was tonight's show a mess unlike most other messes in the history of wrestling. There's no way in hell that Paul Heyman had a hand in putting the majority of this together, I just refuse to believe that at all. Maybe since the WWE stars are involved and WWE creative wants total control right now, I'm not sure. Like I said, I'm willing to wait it out, but they have a hell of a lot to improve on after the show tonight.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR~!!!!!!!

As of right now, I can't express in words how I feel about the debut show of ECW. I'll try my best to think of a way to do so.

What would have been more fun, IMO, is if Edge kept his title up to when Christian won the NWA title. A Team ECK sig would have been great. Yeah, I was hoping for Edge/Christian/Angle to all be the champs at the same time. I don't think we're going to tell much by this first show, or even the show next week. I'm going to reserve judgement on this ECW deal until the shows really start to take off after this WWE mess is finished up with. That is if they end this ECW/WWE stuff after the upcoming PPV. The purpose of these first few shows is just to get as many normal WWE viewers as possible.

Chirs, your sig is fucked up. RVD, Rey Mysterio, and Christian all being the world champs at the same time? Wow.

Let's try to keep this thread spoiler free. Here are some more notes from PWInsider, and it doesn't look like anything that will air at all so I think it's save to post this: As for the part in bold: -It's hard to tell on paper how that was meant. If it was meant in a sarcastic way just to get the crowd to do the chants that much more, then it's great. -However, if Joey was told to go out there and say that, and actually mean it, then it's some of the dumbest bullshit I've ever heard of. Not only because they would be trying to tell the fans what they can and can't do, but also because they should know damn well that it'll make them want to do it more. What's next? Wildcat Willie coming out so the camera can't see him holding up a "Boo" and "Cheer" sign?

ECW will not air live tonight after all:

Bits from PWInsider: -There are no plans at all for WWE to pull the plug on ECW, even if SciFi doesn't pick them up again after this initial run of episodes. It's rumored that this might be a plan to get USA ready for another wrestling show. If ECW pulls a solid rating on SciFi, it's likely that it'll be moved to USA down the line. -Vine McMahon is going to continue to allow Paul Heyman to book ECW just as it used to be, in terms of the violence, action in the ring, and all of that. The reason for this is to hook in all of the old ECW fans who don't watch WWE, or any other wrestling for that matter, and to get them hooked on the new ECW brand. As of right now, that's only going to be the case for the next few months, after which they are going to slowly tone it down, simply because of the fear of injury. Back in the day, ECW guys only worked about three days a week, so they feel they need to, even more so, WWEize ECW down the line, but not totally to the point of what we see on RAW and SD, so that ECW still feels different from those two brands. -Just as was posted earlier in the thread, PWInsider also states that there is no chance at all that Sandman will ever use Enter Sandman as his theme in this new brand. Metallica was demanding 10-13 million bucks a YEAR for the rights to use that song for Sandman's theme. It's said that that total is more than the rights for anyone in WWE, from the most major stars on down. Many people feel sorry for Sandman because of this, and feel really bad for him, since he has really worked hard to get into what many are saying is the best shape of his career for this new ECW brand. -They also say that the ECW is still just as much of a dump that it's always been, even with the changes. Paul Heyman wanted the return to the ECW arena to be for the live show on July 4th so he was asking for the show on June 24th to be canceled, so that the actual return would be live and it would mean more to the fans in the building. Vince didn't want that, and refused for that to go down, so the plan now is to have a show at the ECW arena on both the 24th as well as on July 4th. -Many people are concerned about SD fans and ECW fans clashing as an audience, and are really eager to see how that all goes down tonight and over the next few weeks. -There are talks that after this initial run of SciFi episodes, ECW will actually get it's own taping instead of sticking with SD as we'll see for now. As time goes by, many behind the scenes are realizing that eventually that will be what needs to be done for the ECW shows to really be what they need to be. Not to mention, again, how the fans might clash with one another. They realize that the SD fans and the ECW fans are very, very different. They're worried that they might even be hostile towards one another and they're thinking that some SD fans might actually leave before the ECW taping begins, and on and on.

I fully expect for them to do the exact same thing that we saw on the WWE vs. ECW special in terms of set, entrances, etc...

No matter how this show turns out, am I the only one who fully expects the ECW show to have a much better flow than TNA television right off the bat? I've never thought that TNA made the correct use of their TV time.

So what you are saying is that it'll make a profit and be a success?

Oooo, this is good...

I like that most of you hate this. I love it, of course.

Ok, fess up, which TSM member is that?

Ummm, this is odd: -They have the ECW book and shirt package for $18.92. -Then they have the ECW book by itself for $16.92, which makes the above a pretty good deal. -And all the while they have the same shirt that comes in the above book/shirt package by itself for $25.00.

Like I asked before, are you even going to bother watching the new ECW TV? Or are you going to give it a chance even after the PPV?