An ECW rivial

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

And no matter how you look at it and how different ECW will appear (operative word here) to be from WWE, it is still under the WWE banner. Everyone will know it. Even if there's a slim chance that the chosen formula will even have a semblance of taking off, Vince will cut it short so as not to overshadow RAW or Smackdown, as those are the two brands that have to put on PPVs (which will actually bring in the revenue, unlike this third brand).

 

I haven't even seen a lucid and comprehensive plan from anyone supporting this idea that will attract interest, or even make the wrestlers who will be involved happy. It's basically vague stuff like "making it different". Other ideas have a remarkable lack of foresight. Putting Paul London or Ultimo Dragon in there? What will they be doing there that the can't do or are not already doing on Velocity? How will that help their careers? And don't say that they can have matches longer than 3 minutes - they regularly DO have long matches on Velocity - Ultimo had one with Chavo last week, London with Noble 2 weeks prior. Putting them on the ECW brand is no different from them being on Velocity every week, except they are likely not going to be part of the regular house show tours anymore. How do you think RVD will feel that he's only appearing on Saturday nights when the majority of the fanbase isn't at home? Also, has anyone considered where Confidential fits into this? That coming right after this ECW show will only expose this brand as a cheap revival.

 

Bringing in past ECW mainstays is alright in fantasy but that will mean that Vince is going to be signing contracts and paying salaries just for a B-level brand. Of course, that wouldn't be the first time since Vince's payments to Heyman in the mid-90s indirectly went to their salaries back then.

 

But, despite all, at the end of the day this will all be under the WWE name, likely with the WWE watermark in the corner of the screen and the WWE logo at the beginning and the end of the hour, and unless the former ECW wrestling fans are willingly ignorant or merely hypocritical, it won't be taken seriously as a return of the 'true' ECW. This all comes out of the pocket of Vince McMahon, the Enemy.

[geniusMoment 0]

My computer desktop is a picture of mike awesome and RVD doing the Wrestlemania 3 Hulk-Andre staredown with the ECW title draped on the mat seperating them, and the arena crowd going nuts behind them.

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

Great post, Mulatto Heat.

 

Apart from the IWC, who knows? If ECW is brought back, it could be done so delicately that not a mark would know that it is a WWE branch.

 

Agreed with everything in your post.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Great post, Mulatto Heat.

 

Apart from the IWC, who knows? If ECW is brought back, it could be done so delicately that not a mark would know that it is a WWE branch.

 

Agreed with everything in your post.

That won't work at all. It would need the WWF logo attached or it would get eaten alive by NWA TNA and Ring of Honor.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Pretty much as soon as anyone started to get popular they went to either WCW or WWF.

 

Mick Foley, Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, The Dudley Boyz, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio, The Steiner Bros., Psycosis, etc.

 

They were all in ECW at one time.

I wouldn't put Austin in the "stolen" group. He was pretty much there just to bide his time between his WCW firing and an eventual WWF hiring.

 

The Steiners shouldn't even be mentioned on that list, considering they were WCW mainstays for a long time, plus had done a tour of duty w/ the WWF. Besides, they only had a handful of ECW matches, so I wouldn't even consider them "ECW".

 

Benoit, Malenko, Eddy, Rey - those guys are iffy. All had worldwide experience, so they were probably just there in hopes of snagging jobs on WCW or WWF. They weren't really "homegrown" ECW guys, but, yeah, I'd lean towards "stolen".

 

Dudz - yep.

 

Raven should be on the list. Even though he had experience in both WCW and WWF, he created a completely new character, so I'd put him in the "stolen" category.

[humongous2002 0]

I don't mind a stable with ECW guys on it, what i do mind is actually creating a wrestling one hour show on saturdays nonetheless and put the name ECW on it just to make a quick buck, being a former ECW fan i don't like the idea of a watered down ECW, just let that federation rest in peace.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

the Steiners did a few appearances after a Japan tour, they were not stolen.

 

Austin was there for 3 months at the most and he was a homegrown WCW guy, same as Mick Foley. They made their names in WCW not ECW.

[haVoc 0]

How long was Jericho in ECW? Only Jericho match I saw in ECW was against Sabu when the crowd was shitting all over him for being a "pretty boy."

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

8 months to a year maybe.

[chaosrage 0]

ECW was the highest rated program on TNN most weeks.  Their highest rated segment ever was a 1.5.  This came during a Awesome-RVD confrontation, in which Sabu turned heel by putting Fonzie through a table.  The segment was unbelievebly awesome, often overlooked when people discuss great ECW moments. 

I don't think most ECW fans even watched the TNN show. I was a huge ECW fan but I might've watched it about 2 or 3 times. I know I didn't see that one. Friday night is just the worst possible time to have a show. Let's hope they have the sense to put the new one on a Wednesday.

[humongous2002 0]

ECW was the highest rated program on TNN most weeks.  Their highest rated segment ever was a 1.5.  This came during a Awesome-RVD confrontation, in which Sabu turned heel by putting Fonzie through a table.  The segment was unbelievebly awesome, often overlooked when people discuss great ECW moments. 

I don't think most ECW fans even watched the TNN show. I was a huge ECW fan but I might've watched it about 2 or 3 times. I know I didn't see that one. Friday night is just the worst possible time to have a show. Let's hope they have the sense to put the new one on a Wednesday.

The RVD/Awesome feud would've been great, but Awesome had to fuck it up by going to WCW.

[Youth N Asia 0]

I loved how that feud started. I don't know why I remember this. But as RVD is doing a top rope sault onto Awesome who's on the outside Joey Styles is shouting out "Rob Van Dam is waging WAAAAAAAAARRRRR!!" as the show was going off the air. I marked for that like a bastard

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

ECW was the highest rated program on TNN most weeks.  Their highest rated segment ever was a 1.5.  This came during a Awesome-RVD confrontation, in which Sabu turned heel by putting Fonzie through a table.  The segment was unbelievebly awesome, often overlooked when people discuss great ECW moments. 

I don't think most ECW fans even watched the TNN show. I was a huge ECW fan but I might've watched it about 2 or 3 times. I know I didn't see that one. Friday night is just the worst possible time to have a show. Let's hope they have the sense to put the new one on a Wednesday.

The RVD/Awesome feud would've been great, but Awesome had to fuck it up by going to WCW.

Yeah FUCK HIM for wanting to get paid!!!!!!!!

[Youth N Asia 0]

While I don't blame him for leaving...he should have dropped the strap first

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

While I don't blame him for leaving...he should have dropped the strap first

I consider it Heyman's fault for not paying him and not having him under any kind of contract. That's always asking for disaster.

 

Though Awesome never did appear on WCW tv with the belt and then Heyman turned around and let Tazz have it and then be made to look like a chump on WWF tv.

[JJMc 0]

Owner: Paul Heyman

General Manager: Mick Foley

Play-by-Play Announcer: Al Snow

Color Commentator: Tazz

 

WRESTLERS:

 

Rob Van Dam

Yoshihiro Tajiri

Nunzio (Little Guido)

Rhyno

Buh-Buh Ray Dudley

D-Von Dudley

Lance Storm

Dawn Marie

Tommy Dreamer

Steven Richards

Nova

 

 

That would be the roster without having to bring in anyone new. Of course, they could add to it, but it would be more feasible than suggesting Joey Styles, Joel Gertner, Don Callis or any wrestler under NWA:TNA contract....

 

If they did bring in people, they could bring in the little pieces to complement the above list. For example, Tony Mamaluke to reform the FBI, Justin Credible to reform the Impact Players, Chetti to team with Nova again, etc.

No MOTHERFUCKING General Manager/ceo/sherriff/commish/president/advisor. NO!

[Guest Coffey]

It has to happen. This is WWE.

[Guest MikeSC]

Pretty much as soon as anyone started to get popular they went to either WCW or WWF.

 

Mick Foley, Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, The Dudley Boyz, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio, The Steiner Bros., Psycosis, etc.

 

They were all in ECW at one time.

I wouldn't put Austin in the "stolen" group. He was pretty much there just to bide his time between his WCW firing and an eventual WWF hiring.

 

The Steiners shouldn't even be mentioned on that list, considering they were WCW mainstays for a long time, plus had done a tour of duty w/ the WWF. Besides, they only had a handful of ECW matches, so I wouldn't even consider them "ECW".

 

Benoit, Malenko, Eddy, Rey - those guys are iffy. All had worldwide experience, so they were probably just there in hopes of snagging jobs on WCW or WWF. They weren't really "homegrown" ECW guys, but, yeah, I'd lean towards "stolen".

 

Dudz - yep.

 

Raven should be on the list. Even though he had experience in both WCW and WWF, he created a completely new character, so I'd put him in the "stolen" category.

The Duds were hardly stolen. Vince gave Paul MONTHS of advance notice saying that he's taking them (and, again, at that point, Vince was keeping Paul afloat anyway).

-=Mike

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

So really the Dudley Boyz were the only people "stolen" although Vince lent out wrestlers to Heyman now and then, so Vince stealing talent isn't even an option.

 

 

And Tazz.

 

 

Everyone else on that list went to WCW and most of them were made outside of ECW.

[NoCalMike 0]

Malenko & Guererro were really sad about leaving ECW because they said working in ECW allowed them to also work Japan, but Bischoff was not about to let them do that. They said it was basically for the money, which at that point in their career was understandable. So Heyman being the innovator he was, replaced Dean/Chris/Eddy with North America's first exposure to cruisers, a few of the best at that.

[NoCalMike 0]

So really the Dudley Boyz were the only people "stolen" although Vince lent out wrestlers to Heyman now and then, so Vince stealing talent isn't even an option.

 

 

And Tazz.

 

 

Everyone else on that list went to WCW and most of them were made outside of ECW.

Al Snow was ripped out, not technically stolen because he was a WWE employee, but it was confirmed that Snow was gonna win the ECW title from Shane, but Vince ripped Al Snow back because of the "head" gimmick. Well, actually, the 2nd version of the "head" gimmick.

[NoCalMike 0]

And for the record, Vince didn't do half the "raiding of talent" that Bischoff did, but the difference was, at least in the early days Bischoff was interested in putting on a good wrestling show. Vince could care less about the "3 greatest workers in the world" Bischoff was raiding workers based on talent, thus making Nitro an overall better wrestling show then WWE(F) at the time. Well on the undercard at least.

[Damaramu 0]

Well I didn't really like the original ECW so I don't see why I would like a new crappy version.

 

And for the record.........most guys just used ECW as a stepping stone to something major.

[NoCalMike 0]

I dunno why the ECW hate is even being spewed in this thread. This is gonna be a third show, you don't have to watch it. I mean all it is really gonna hopefully be is a show for guys that don't get any air time on Raw/Smackdown, the "ECW" is probably not going to even be the important part of the show. So, no one should really watch/not watch the show based soley on it being called "ECW"

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

I dunno why the ECW hate is even being spewed in this thread. This is gonna be a third show, you don't have to watch it. I mean all it is really gonna hopefully be is a show for guys that don't get any air time on Raw/Smackdown, the "ECW" is probably not going to even be the important part of the show. So, no one should really watch/not watch the show based soley on it being called "ECW"

It's going to be Velocity with over-the-hill nobobies who wrestled for ECW.

 

Bring on the 8.0 TV Ratings!