RedJed

So Van Dam gets suspended for 30 days, while Sabu will get a push to Show likely and will job to him (and start scrapping w/ former manager Heyman too of course)....can't wait. This is their punishment apparently. If this happens, the most I can at least hope for is Fonzie returning w/ Sabu to counteract Heyman, but that's far from entertaining in the big scheme of things. Sabu jobbing to Show leading to a possible Van Dam/Show rematch isn't anything remotely smart either as it just screams boring. I just wish both Sabu and Van Dam would be allowed an "out" right now and be able to leave the company instead of having to now accept the politics behind things. I know WWE needs to make an example out of them to a point, but they should think that they have too much riding on the ECW deal to piss on their positioning in the brand at this point.

Whatever the case with having to get the belt off Van Dam ASAP, this was the complete wrong move tonight on top to do. TBS got really awful go away heat in Philly a few weeks ago at the ECW house show and for Vince/Dunn to decide to now rush this move of Heyman/Show rejoining as the focal point of the companies current direction is out of nothing but pure spite to the old fans of the product and more in particularly, to the same people at that house show that i would have assumed the company thought would be here tonight. They made it crystal clear tonight this is the WWE "new" ECW, not the "old" ECW, from top to bottom you could tell they were trying to drive that point home to the crowd and "fanbase" in general more than any other week. It was the strongest potential killing/burial of a brand as a whole we'll probably ever see, really making the WCW deal in Tacoma seem like an afterthought due to the whole Philly dymanic of the crowd tonight in how most of them, by the end of the night, were clearly shitting on the product as a whole for the most part. Examples of insanity that was tonight..... -Night starts with a small chance of the hour being at least an attempt to capture Hammerstein-like interest in the show, since they should have seen that the ECW Philly crowds demanded something less insulting than the house show, with Styles trying to mention Philly is the home of ECW.....but gets cut off by production. I'm sure there was a point there to be made in the writing of the show tonight. Its like WWE's way of saying "out with the old, in with the new" -Kelly Kelly? Followed by a Mike Knox squash, oh boy. Guido gets to do the job this week, himself, Mamaluke, Doring and Roadkill, (all of the last four guys in the company that held the tag titles) have all done consecutive squashes in the past 3 weeks on the shows......suppose there is an underlined point the company is trying to make there as well? I'd be surprised if any of those four still have jobs by months end. -Test returns to take on Al Snow in a squash. We even get the old Test WWE theme to make sure we dont forget we're supposed to be watching......ECW? Any semblance of interest in a rehashed Head gimmick for Al Snow dropped QUICK....again, fuck the old, in with the "new" -WWE having Justin Roberts again calling the matches in Philly after the negative response that recieved the first time. -Tony Devito doing some one time gimmick and the Tazz/Styles not even mentioning the guy used to be an ECW regular - ie "insulting the intelligence of the former ECW fan" or should I say, be able to? -Speaking of the announcing, it seemed blatantly obvious lines were being fed all night to them, putting over Big Show as this great thing when the crowd is audibly shitting on him during rest holds? -The main event in general, crowd reactions were telling of things. Heyman himself even had the company paycheck face with the heel turn, as call me crazy, but you could almost SEE Heyman did NOT want to do it and he looked sheepish in front of that Phily crowd, as he knew they would hate it and not in a "wow that was killer heat" way. But even Heyman himself has to go along with it or suffer breach of contract, it's all a very surreal situation where Heyman has to play a character now taking a direction that will only hurt the product as a whole. All seemed so forced, hotshotted, and downright WRONG. It's a huge strike against this attempt for a "new" ECW and either WWE can accept they fucked up (which they won't), allow Heyman the full book before its too late, or else the company will start a pretty quick plummet downward, probably killed by end of the summer, would be my prediction. On a side note.......between the Jarrett shit in TNA and this, instead of those two companies trying to compete, its a game of who will drop lower by the end of the summer versus higher. These two companies are going to be fighting for even a 1.0 if this keeps up. Within the last two weeks, both companies made really mind blowing bad moves in their choices of heel world champion runs, be them tranistional or not is irrelevant. In both cases with this and with TNA, the crowd clearly is shitting all over the guys the companies want on top. TNA's only hope is if they can use Sabu and Van Dam soon and really can take advantage of this mess the ECW brand is in right now.

It was an ok match, but I just didnt feel it was that great, and the Edge spear at the end was just dull. But to each their own. Maybe this is the best I can expect out of the product at this point.

This is not ECW's money match IMO - not unless they get away from a goddamn WWE TV style of working it. Thats the only problem I have with this match, I feel like I'm watching it from Raw years ago. WTF are they doing w/ Angle? I give them props for giving Van Dam some strong credibility, but its at the expense of him like that? I just dont see the value in putting Angle over him so cleanly if there is any chance of them building a real main event program with those two. With that said, I wasnt feeling Angle/RVD there at all and hope they reconsider a feud with the two down the road. I think they'd be better off getting a strong heel to take the belt from Van Dam at some point, and have Angle chase whoever that would be to get the belt down the road. But they need a strong heel for this role, and nobody is even close to ready at this point. CM Punk maybe long term, but thats going to take awhile as things are now.

Here is another thing I dont quite get about this brand after tonight......so the first match was "Extreme Rules" meaning anything goes, but now apparently all other ECW matches AREN'T? Huh? God next week's show is going to be interesting as hell, I'll say that much. Considering where things stand with this ECW shit right now and how the first house show in Philly went, something has got to give, one would think. The crowd reactions alone, like if they do Dreamer-Show for a third straight week, will be different than they are expecting, more than likely.

God, a We Want Cena chant at an ECW show. I wonder if this is from the same fans who would glady give him heat on a WWE show. Its ironic as hell.

Yup, and not that have ever been a huge Heyman mark, but I can't believe he actually wrote this tonight. He's better and more creative than this. The fat stripper v Sandman reeked of Vince's request of using a concept "that worked from Raw" over to his project he's so concerned about making it his own with most importantly, his own vision. Sad. Also, booking Angle v. RVD out of the gun like this is typical WWE book on the fly rush job to it. On a total side note, the production for this show has gotten so WWE formulmatic too, even when it comes to how the treat going to commercial breaks and hyping up the big matches right before, as an example. I dont like it at all as it really needs to be a really unique presentation visually as well and its just not there at all.

This show sound surprisingly dull and weak, sans the main event. Scott-Kennedy might be ok though. Smackdown, to me, has been really strong for weeks now so didnt expect this. Must be banking on the cage match selling the show so to speak.

Jesus christ, this is just wrong on so many levels (meaning the Sandman segment). The least being that I'm begging Heyman to start getting creative here or should I say begging Vince to keep his nose out of the book as he's definately dipping his hands into the product here with so many similar Raw traits. You know what I mean. And the structure of this show is just way too similar to last weeks I feel like I'm wasting an hour watching this. But Angle-RVD should be good. Raw seemed unpredictable and newsworthy last night, and this just seems....boring. Predictable. Too self contained to work.

Well hello there cameltoe

Fuck, this structure of the show is just too similar to last weeks.......so we get more skin from Kelly each week? And sad to say but this is actually one of the few things I enjoy about the ECW product right now

They had a pretty good advance for a 7/10 house show in LaCrosse, WI too and now moved it to 10/27, because, believe it or not, WWE didnt realize til just lately that the roster is so slim that since most of the upper level ECW guys would have to be on RAW most Mondays, they could hardly fill up a house show card. So thus they started scheduling ECW Monday night house shows next month and now are taking them all off until further notice apparently when they realized this fact. I bet there are headaches internally with that snafu. That was a decent squash there, Knox is the guy who Cornette kept beating up that lost him the OVW job, I believe. Heyman is real high on him for some reason, but that looked better than anything I've seen of him so far. So maybe theres something there. I wonder if they'll reschedule the one on August 14th, a monday, that I got good tickets for? The word I got (I was working on advertising some local shows for them) is that most, if not all, of the Monday house shows will get cancelled soon here.

They had a pretty good advance for a 7/10 house show in LaCrosse, WI too and now moved it to 10/27, because, believe it or not, WWE didnt realize til just lately that the roster is so slim that since most of the upper level ECW guys would have to be on RAW most Mondays, they could hardly fill up a house show card. So thus they started scheduling ECW Monday night house shows next month and now are taking them all off until further notice apparently when they realized this fact. I bet there are headaches internally with that snafu. That was a decent squash there, Knox is the guy who Cornette kept beating up that lost him the OVW job, I believe. Heyman is real high on him for some reason, but that looked better than anything I've seen of him so far. So maybe theres something there.

They need to do much more w/ Show than beating up Dreamer every week. MUCH more. Otherwise they better expect the crowd to shit on him pretty soon, esp on the house show scene. He just isnt even being booked close to anything at all that is going to work and get him over in an ECW environment. So he's beating the shit out of Dreamer, yay. See, they can do it with Angle.....the old and new ECW fans can and will respond to him because there is some difference there, some intensity, uniqueness of sorts, esp. with the new brand. I feel like I'm watching last week all over again, between the Sabu opener & Show-Dreamer angle consecutively twice in a row.

ter, alot of people may take that theme and then treat the X division the same way Nash portrays it. Also, another point in all of this is that the X division is supposed to be in reality, alot of different sized guys and not just "small guys." So why are they treating in the storyline the X division as a whole such AS that? Meaning on commentary, why doesnt Tenay at least say, "Well our X division champion certainly isnt 200 pounds, blah blah". Samoa Joe is the X champ and is over 200 pounds. Thats my point.........why is TNA allowing Nash to portray the whole division as 200 lb guys only when their champ is Samoa F'n Joe?!!! Why doesnt Tenay point this out when Nash constantly rips on what is now being percieved as a straight up cruiserweight division, even though the champ is clearly not that. Its like TNA WANTS the division to be that narrow minded as Nash proclains. Ya know? For what its worth, I have yet to see the ppv tonight, but also if Sabin doesnt go over, this shit isnt going to get any better. Only hope is Joe literally squashing Nash on an episode of Impact.

I definately agree with you there. Regarding the topic at hand, I think the pairing is a good thing with Nash and Shelley (although Shelley was getting over before without Nash too) but I'm not as gung-ho about this angle as most of you. It just seems like its fucking up the whole X division concept/idea, with Nash constantly making a point to mention that small guys are worthless, blah blah blah. From a known name like Nash doing that, and not really being a full "hated" heel character, alot of people may take that theme and then treat the X division the same way Nash portrays it. Also, another point in all of this is that the X division is supposed to be in reality, alot of different sized guys and not just "small guys." So why are they treating in the storyline the X division as a whole such AS that? Meaning on commentary, why doesnt Tenay at least say, "Well our X division champion certainly isnt 200 pounds, blah blah". If Nash actually puts Sabin over clean, I'll eat some of these words, but I just dont see the aftermath of this angle really benefitting anyone but Nash.

Feast, was the film that was documented on Project Greenlight 3. It's about a bunch of people trapped in a bar in the middle of nowhere by some mysterious monster. I imagine it's only Midnight Showings since it's not very good and was supposed to come out a year or so ago. I dont think it has shit to an opinion that its either "good or not good" as far as release goes. I've heard more positive reviews about it to be honest. The problem has been that this film has been shelved for so long because of the Weinstein/Dimension/Miramax shit, which is unforunate. Basically most of the people who helmed this film now have gone on to seperate from the Weinsteins, even though the Weinsteins were the major backers/supported of this project. In any regard, its a damn shame as I followed PG3 and it sounded like this was actually not a bad movie at all when all was said and done. The ball was definately dropped, as tying it into the Project Greenlight series should have given this film at least some buzz, but now its all but fucked. With that said, if they can get a cult following from the midnight showings, maybe there is potential for a more wide release. If not, get the fucking thing on DVD already!

lol good lord, we get tease of the week, now? I wonder where the fuck that is going to lead ---- or wait, I dont care, it's probably Jazz kicking the shit out of one of them.

I tell ya what, the entire bout of Scott/Hardy v. Finley/Regal was fantastic, even including JBL's verbal shots in on Hardy via his commentary. I guess they're pretty going to let Bradshaw shoot as he pleases. But Bradshaw did a GREAT job there establishing Finley/Regal as a hell of a team just by his commentary on them alone, and then add in that the team itself really is tremendous and they might as well move them over to London/Kendrink ASAP.

Ok well I will say this much, maybe compared to some really shitty Thunders and "C" shows like Heat, and whatever else, this may have not been the "worst single wrestling show ever" (it came close though) but there is no question that this had to be one of the most dissapointing "debut" wrestling shows in history. Period. There was NO spark or feel like there is any reason whatsoever to check out the show next week. How they promoted ECW "invading" Raw next week also made me have flashbacks on how ho-hum they always played up that supposed "interpromotional feud" during the Alliance days where it came to the fact that week to week, they were doing too much of the shit that had no point between the brands, which in turn made the product overall just hard to follow, or more importantly, care about. Another strong tie to now and the Alliance days is that in both periods, there was a pretty strong theme of that no characters on all brands were really being developed when there is too much going on. So all characters were bland and nobody got over, and/or the fans didnt care about shit because it was either just boring or plain bad. The writers are not talented enough in WWE to do it as they clearly lose focus when you have to juggle projects (understandably), especially ones they dont get. This is what it has now returned to in a way with the ECW/WWE interweavings on and off screen. Raw/Smackdown interaction has worked for me 75 percent of the time because you feel like there is more spark or thought put into it because at least there is some understanding of the definitions of the WWE brand. This now feels booked on the fly, pointless, unintersting and generally just not focused enough for it to work for the success of either WWE or the ECW brand. I found myself still wanting to watch the whole show in its entirety last night, hoping it would get better or at least "feel ECW" as an oldschool ECW fan, but also it got to the point where it turned into the "car crash" syndrome where I kept watching it knowing it was only going to probably get more fucked up, but yet I was interested to see just how fucked up it got. I would have paid $$$ to been an observer inside Titan Towers today just to get what the internal buzz about last night was, thats all I know. I'm sure everyone is creaming over the rating and now the problem is that they may not want to stray far away from what they did (or more importantly, what they didnt do) last night, thinking that its working.

Thats my thoughts exactly. Having guys like Gerwitz or Steph or whoever the fuck else writing last nights show except for maybe Heyman with ideas also coming from Lagana and maybe Dreamer on a small level is just plain retarded and that appears to be what we got last night. I'd be shocked if Heyman had basically no creative input on the show last night with the way it was booked. Alot have already covered the changes that NEED to be done, some are valid like the obvious being moving them off the Smackdown tapings as well as moving the ECW show to be either a tape delayed broadcast of a part of what may visually look like just a house show, or else always having some low production running on all the ECW shows, and the TV broadcast bunches the "best" of that 3-4 day run, spread out within the show. The obvious change which needs to happen NOW is bottom line, getting the fingerprints off the product so it clearly doesnt at least "seem" like WWE is that knee deep in it. The way they handled and presented both One Night Stands worked great, but the show last night was just a complete opposite of that. Some things like Sandman and others having their original entrance songs now into these Jim Johnson produced tracks is acceptable in reality as long as other parts of the product remained authentic, but turned into more hybrids of those authentic ECW structures from before. In other words, they have to walk before they can crawl with this brand and not worry about the small things like getting Enter Sandman back right now, as there are much more vital things that need to be changed now before we see perhaps XFL like drop offs in the brand interest week to week.

For what its worth, that report on Kane has never been in any WON I've read, including the one I just got today.

After a round or two of smokin up, this is one great munchie attack meal, thats all I know. Corn and mashed potatoes go together perfect-- was surprised it took them so long to figure that out. The cheese on top isnt nearly as big of a deal as some think it is since its not smothered in cheese or anything really.

Hmmm, well on one note the franchise is probably better off "starting over" or whatever after Halloween: Resurrection, but then again there is a great amount of mythology in the franchise that someone could really give justice to a great sequal if they played upon such. Maybe Rob will explore that fact, but from the way it sounds, we may be looking at a completely different vision here. I dont like the fact that he's only done 2 films in his career, as reinventing a franchise such as this should take more experience to do so. It could very well be a good thing that he's helming this, but I think the odds are more against it.

Is there any reason why Nightcrawler was completely written out of the story? Also, I didnt enjoy this nearly as much as I expected for sure. The difference between Ratner's vision of this franchise versus Singers was as clear as day. The two first films had a solid flow and formula that seemed to play towards the characters more, where this third chapter kind of just seemed all over the place with some really bad dialouge and characters just appearing out of nowhere with no real emphasis on any of them, even the already developed ones. Sure, the effects were fantastic, but you take that stuff out and the story wasnt nearly as impressive at the first two films. Plus it was obvious Halle Berry put up a stink and demanded she had more scenes and a larger general role in the film, which also hurt it when there wasnt a point for her to even be in most of the scenes. It was all just kind of "there" with her, and I enjoyed her role as Storm much more in the other two films as well.