Mad Scientist

Actually, how do we know the possible contenders have never written more than 1000 words? Is this something inherent in "RP" feds or something? I admit, I know absolutely nothing about most efeds. There is an issue that someone who might be able to write up a helluva roleplay could be incapable of writing any kind of decent match.

I'd love it if they had someone who had (a) writing talent, and (b) a familiarity with professional wrestling. The problem with hiring most "hollywood writers" is that they have no real knowledge of or feel for the professional wrestling business. That's the problem with most of the stuff the E does right now. It feels like a badly written dramedy that just has wrestling tossed in as an afterthought. I could watch regular network TV for crappy sitcoms or lamebrained drama; I want to see wrestling as the central point of my wrestling show. Why is that so hard?

Doesn't sound like a bad idea at first blush. In fact, the worst that could happen is that we add a temporary no-show to the roster; no harm, no foul, from the SWF perspective. And we may actually drum up some new interest, which can only help. On the other hand, would it possibly dilute the SWF title if someone, say, failed to defend it on the "return match" under SWF rules, then kept claiming to be the champ in some other efed? As a N00B, I don't know if that would be a problem or not, but it's the only downside I can see from the plan.

After watching ECW last night, I really felt like the match order should have been inverted. Why give away that excellent handicap tag match first? Shouldn't they have built that up the whole show? The face between the Cyber Sunday contenders could still have worked, and Punk could have just smiled and said that they and all the fans would have to wait and see who his partner was going to be. Morrison vs. Miz would have been a great opener, after their obvious friction. Have Armando walk out and announce a "showcase" match for them to win a few votes. Then still have BDV come out and pummel them, leading to even more friction and anticipation of how the handicap tag match would really work. I'm nitpicking, I guess, but it felt like the show blew its wad way too early. I enjoyed the Jesse and Festus match. It's kind of weird to have hillbillies wearing wrestling tights, but it worked. I also kind of like having Morrison as a sort of face. His flashy moveset does lend itself more to a face persona. And he never really seems to cheat...it's almost always a clean win since he came to ECW. The turn could be easy, especially against the right heel. Miz could fit that bill...but dammit, I want them to play out the Balls/Miz/Kelly thing first.

And you also ask them to do this in a medium (professional wrestling) that they almost certainly disdain and just as certainly don't really understand. Bad idea all around.

And the nail is hit dead on the head. The E isn't about wrestling anymore; it's about TV, or a bad attempt at it. They want to focus on providing lackluster dramedy and sort of tack "wrestling" onto their crappy dramedy, which means that they provide matches that are overbooked nonsense to push the crappy overbooked nonsense in their angles.

For my money, it's a dead heat between the following three villains: Doctor Doom Lex Luthor The Joker

Hah! You expect the E to engage in some honest, rational, and potentially ground-breaking booking? While I and just about everyone else on the internet would blow a collective wad should that scenario take place, I cannot see it happening in any world where WWE wrestling is basically controlled by anyone with McMahon in their ancestry.

For Punk to really get over as a credible champion, he has to go over V convincingly, not some overwrought DQ or countout finish. Does that have to happen in the first real meeting? Not necessarily. V should not become champion, though, as he has no competition on ECW now...he will have squashed everyone, including the champ. Would they bring Morrison back at that point as a face to beat him? Draft some other behemoth from another show? God, I hope not. Thus, I see only two really plausible outcomes, even in the WWE: (1) Punk goes over V convincingly, or (2) DQ/Countout due to interference leaves Punk with the title. In the E, option 2 is by far the most likely. I don't think the E is going to build Punk up as a giant killer right now, if ever.

Cornette forgot to take off his used car salesman jacket before he came to the TV tapings...

Gail Kim and Jackie...now this is at least a showcase in opposition to most of the E's product...some women wrestlers that can actually wrestle.

Team 3D buries a few more of TNA's forgotten assets. So, their X Division champ looks like a chump by getting beaten up by some old overweight midcarders from the WWE. Ah, such a great start to their two hour show.

I realize that they can't always give the fans exactly what they want when they want it, but the point is ultimately to tell a good story. The point I've tried to make is that I've lost faith that the E, in any incarnation, will give me the ultimate payoff that this sort of screwjob should result in. Thus, I can't bring myself to enjoy these kinds of twists...I see it as one more story that will disappoint me in the end. A personal problem perhaps, but something I'm sure others have experienced/are experiencing with the E.

I'm voting for just a Halloween show...October is gonna be a crazy month for me. And I'm naturally lazy to start with, so that just exacerbates the problem.

Point taken, but that would presume that I thought the show was somewhat real; everyone who watches should know that whole deal's a show, right? Or am I being hopelessly optimistic here? My real problem, as noted above, is that when you pull something like this, you need to make it part of a long-term program that ultimately results in the bad guys getting the short end of the stick. I have no faith that the E is going to follow this up properly. I pray that they will surprise me and do things right, but given the E's general record, I just don't see it. Sure, ECW is the best show overall for wrestling at the moment, but it's still part of the E, and usually the company's policy of overpushing misbehaving or talentless humps wins out in the end. Guys that work hard and put on a good show generally get tossed into the morass of the dead-end midcard.

I'll give them a shot at making the storyline work. I understand that the point was to get people mad. But the point is supposed to be that we are mad at Estrada or Striker for being the evil heels. I'm annoyed at the writers/bookers, which is not what they should want. ECW is definitely better on continuity within its show than the other shows are, but that is really like saying ECW is the prettiest troll in a pack.

The new submission system is supposed to be keyed to one of the analog sticks (they call it Struggle Submission or something like that), where your opponent and you seem to engage is some sort of contest with the analog movements to see if you can put pressure on the hold or if they can escape it. Also, has anyone seen the latest countdown on IGN featuring Cor Von/Brown? That armbar thing isn't even a submission according to their finisher list. How can you even include that move (which I kind of liked) and not have it be a submission? I know they've been doing that with the Iron Claw for years, but still...

So we'll get another match of Killings working his BUTT off, 3D blundering around as usual, and Pacman sitting on his hands until he sprays someone or there's a run-in. Not that I begrudge Killings the work; he's a joy to watch, but this Pacman foolishness needs to end. Why no X-Division title match for the first 2 hour show? Sloppy booking. I swear, it's like TNA management is trying to experiment with how badly a show can be booked and written and still be on TV.

Yeah, and I didn't fucking like it when they hotshotted the title to Credible...without ever showing Dreamer's victory on TV...in 2000 either. It also doesn't make any sense to throw him into the Elimination Chase, and no, "Estrada's a heel GM" doesn't cut it. The plan since Viscera came to ECW was to make him a top heel monster on the program and eventually have a CM Punk/BDV feud, if last week didn't clue you in to what was eventually going you happen, then you're naive. You honestly thought Dreamer was going to get the title shot, and the whole thing with BGV destroying CM Punk would be ignored? C'mon now, I saw this coming from a mile away. I'm interested to see how this match will play out. While BDV isn't a good worker by any means, he isn't a big lazy slug and can actually move around pretty good for his size. If CM Punk can drag a decent match out of him, I'll give him all the respect in the world. One thing I also wanted to throw out, a few weeks ago (I think it was a few weeks ago), Dreamer went to Astrada and asked for a title match, Astrada didn't think Tommy deserved one so he screwed Tommy over by feeding him to Big Daddy V. It's all part of a story that has been happening for weeks now. I understand that this is what they intended to do, but man, did it annoy me. Now, that can be mollified if they follow this up with Dreamer doing an "Against the Odds" feud with El Commandante over the next couple of months, culminating in possibly another shot at the title as Dreamer slowly builds up enough wins or AAE backs himself into a corner by guaranteeing a title shot if Dreamer wins some ridiculous gamut of matches and Dreamer pulls it off. I just don't expect the E to follow up on this in any way other than as another nod to Dreamer as the perpetual loser.

Yes, why don't you think Knox wasn't used for so long? He just jobbed to Balls Mahoney on ECW TV about two weeks ago. You can count on one finger how many people have done that job over the past year. I know it's the E's policy to expect fans to ignore all previous history and bookings of any wrestler they repackage (see Big Daddy V and Snitsky), but damn they brought him back and have him go over Balls once with interference from The Miz of all people, then get handily taken down by Balls one week later. Not saying they couldn't build Knox as a legitimate threat, but they haven't even started considering starting such a thing. They haven't even changed his previous jobber look or gimmick.

Blech. I marked out like a little kid for a minute there.

Dammit!!

Holy CRAP! Dreamer!!!!

Tommy is really kicking it up a notch tonight. It still amazes me that ECW is still the most watchable wrestling show on TV right now. And the E treats it like their C Brand. Of course, that's probably why it's so good lately...the "creative team" pretty much ignores it, leaving it to someone who actually knows how to book and write a wrestling show.

One thing that troubles me about Burke...if he's a former amateur boxer, shouldn't he do a little more boxing or something...I mean, as far as I've seen he just uses one kneeling uppercut that he stole from Golddust.