ECW Coming Back Full Time in Sept

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

They already acknowledged that Vince owns ECW last summer.

 

Heyman said something to the degree of, "Remember our agreement Vince, you may own ECW but I control it!"

 

Aww..I dont remember that..but I suppose I was right that about the continuity.

[Hawk 34 0]

I doubt WWE did this on purpose, but smart move by having it in Dayton. That has always been a hot ecw market.

[Downhome 0]

More from PWInsider:

 

Our pal Devin Cutting sent word that The USA Network's schedule for Wednesday 6/7 lists the 9 PM-11PM timeslot as "To Be Announced." We have heard that the "WWE vs. ECW Head to Head" special would be a two hour special, so it appears that it will air on 6/7, either live or via tape delay.

 

Devin also sent word that the 2 AM replay of AM Raw is now listed as "To Be Announced" on the USA Network website for the entire month of June, which will strongly add to speculation that WWE's revival of Extreme Championship Wrestling may be slotted in that timeslot. There is nothing confirmed beyond that at this time, however.

 

For ECW fans, the impossible dream may be about to become a reality. WWE has entered negotiations to book the former ECW Arena on Saturday 6/24 for an Extreme Championship Wrestling house show in Philadelphia, PA. The venue, which has been remodeled since the company shut down operations in 2001, is now known as the New Alhambra Arena.

 

During ECW's legendary run, the former Bingo Hall was the base of operations for ECW during its rise into a cult phenomenon in 1993, hosting major ECW events every few weeks. It was also the site of the company's first PPV, Barely Legal, in April 1997.

 

With the reputation of having the best ECW shows, the Arena was a throwback to the legendary old "smoky arenas" where the in-ring action was so intimate that you could end up with the ECW stars landing in your lap, diving over (or past you) into the third row onto their opponents, or even decimating your entire section of seating during bloody brawl. The venue quickly evolved into a special destination point for hardcore fans to converge from all over the globe for major events. Many of the fan chants and antics that have become synonymous with ECW over time were born in the venue, which was considered at the time to have the greatest of any ECW venue for atmosphere.

 

The last official Extreme Championship Wrestling event held in the building was December 11, 2000, headlined by then-ECW World champion Steve Corino defeating Justin Credible and the Sandman in a Three-Way Dance that saw fans throw dozens of chairs into the ring. The undercard featured Mikey Whipwreck and Yoshihiro Tajiri defeating the FBI in a best of Three Falls bout, Jerry Lynn defeating Spike Dudley, CW Anderson defeating Super Crazy, EZ Money defeating Nova (now known as Simon Dean), and a six man tag featuring EZ Money & Julio Dinero & Chris Hamrick defeating Tommy Dreamer & Christian York & Joey Matthews (now known as MNM's Joey Mercury). Other stars who appeared included the final ECW World Tag Team champions Danny Doring and Roadkill, Da Baldies, Rhino, The Blue Meanie, Chilly Willy, Bilvis Wesley, Balls Mahoney, Joey Styles, Joel Gertner, and Cyrus.

 

Since ECW shut down operations, the venue has become a haven for independent wrestling promoters. Hardcore Homecoming has run several successful events in the venue, shattering it's all time gate record last June for their debut event. Other companies past and present that have run the venue since ECW closed it's doors include Combat Zone Wrestling, JAPW, Pro Wrestling Unplugged, XPW, CHIKARA, IWA Mid-South, Ring of Honor, MLW, MECW, Women's Extreme Wrestling, among many others.

 

TNA is slated to make their debut in the Arena on Friday 6/9, with a show titled "Hardcore War" that will be headlined by AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels for the X-Division championship.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

The Philly house show thing is very interesting. I thought, with the exception of ONS, that the revival wasn't taking place until September. Now we're hearing Sabu may be on Raw as early as this Monday (although probably will just be there for a backstage contract signing) and house shows and TV specials are happening in June.

[Downhome 0]

Is ECW.com the actual ECW website that WWE owns? If so, maybe WWE will actually allow ECW to become it's own entity. I don't see a single mention of WWE, no links or nothing, on the entire website other than mentions of WWE in the profiles of the wrestlers.

 

If you could pick any five or so normal WWE type workers to move to the new ECW who never really worked in ECW before, who would your picks be? I'm not talkig about guys like CM Punk (or Joe Styles, since he's obvious) or other guys not on the RAW or Smackdown roster:

 

http://www.wwe.com/superstars/raw/

 

http://www.wwe.com/superstars/smackdown/

 

I wouldn't mind seeing the following jump over:

 

-Finlay

-Jamie Noble

-Matt Hardy

-Trevor Murdoch

-Val Venis

-William Regal

[Dangerous A 0]

You are fooling yourself if you think Vince lets ECW just do their own thing.

 

The website means little in this. The big thing will be if ECW creates a star,a guy who catches on with fans, will WWE let that person stay in ECW or call them up? That will be the test of whether Vince lets ECW become it's own entity.

[Downhome 0]

I don't mean Vince wont have his hand in it, of course he will behind the scenes since he is over it all. He'd be a fool not to have his hand in it at all since it's his thing when it comes down to it.. I mean as far as TV goes, etc... I think we might see this brand evolve to the point, after the upcoming WWE vs. ECW feud, where ECW is it's own TV show without much WWE mention. No WWE logos and all of that.

 

I don't think it'll be any different when it comes to stars being in ECW and staying there than it was before. When people would reach a certain point in ECW, and WWE liked what they saw, they would try to bring those people in to WWE TV. Heck, Vince even helped ECW in other ways as we all know back in the day.

 

I know Vince's history is shit when it comes to certain things, but maybe he sees that he fucked up the invasion storyline five years ago, and since it was half a decade ago, maybe he's going to try to do now what should've been done then, only without WCW being involved.

[Guest burth179]

I still want Steph to be acknowledged as the Owner of ECW..maybe Heyman could kidnap her/HHH's baby in exchange for ECW (which would be even more awesome if its RVD vs HHH at ONS)..I just want there to be some continuity, which I know is stupid since this is the WWF from 5 years ago that Im hoping they'll acknowledge.

 

 

And who said the days of Kayfabe were over?

[World's Worst Man 0]

You are fooling yourself if you think Vince lets ECW just do their own thing.

 

The website means little in this. The big thing will be if ECW creates a star,a guy who catches on with fans, will WWE let that person stay in ECW or call them up? That will be the test of whether Vince lets ECW become it's own entity.

 

The initial test will be whether or not ECW is allowed to use an ECW-esque wrestling style, or whether it'll be more watered-down WWE crap. If Vince really wants to let ECW do it's own thing, he won't exert any control over what kind of wrestling style they use or what kind of angles they run. If the "WWE style" is forced on the wrestlers, I wouldn't doubt that the whole thing is being either a) intentionally sabotaged from the start or b) used to develop wrestlers for the main WWE roster.

[Dangerous A 0]

Good point. I think we'll know quickly whether this is a real second run for ECW or OVW: Extreme.

[Downhome 0]

I just listened to a PWInsider audio, and it reminded me about how WWE had an ECW style ring build for ONS last year. Since they have this, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to tape the ECW matches before a RAW and/or SD.

 

When this finally happens, I doubt that's the style they'll go with. There are plenty of reasons why that's a horrible idea.

[razazteca 0]

Fuck all of this BS just cancel AM Raw and put OVW on USA.

[Dangerous A 0]

OVW would be a lot less effective if it were made available on a national scale. First, you'd see how bad developing wrestlers are. Second, it'd be harder for WWE to overhaul guys they want to bring up since they insist on doing that to a lot of the guys OVW has produced.

[Guest burth179]

You are fooling yourself if you think Vince lets ECW just do their own thing.

 

The website means little in this. The big thing will be if ECW creates a star,a guy who catches on with fans, will WWE let that person stay in ECW or call them up? That will be the test of whether Vince lets ECW become it's own entity.

 

The initial test will be whether or not ECW is allowed to use an ECW-esque wrestling style, or whether it'll be more watered-down WWE crap. If Vince really wants to let ECW do it's own thing, he won't exert any control over what kind of wrestling style they use or what kind of angles they run. If the "WWE style" is forced on the wrestlers, I wouldn't doubt that the whole thing is being either a) intentionally sabotaged from the start or b) used to develop wrestlers for the main WWE roster.

 

I think this could be a "feeder system" to WWE, but all the while still allow the wrestlers to work an "ECW/Indy style"? Why can't they have the best of both world's? An authentic ECW that feeds to the WWE would be the ultimate goal of WWE. But can they pull it off? I think they could.

 

I mean, it would be just the same as before when guys like Taz, RVD, Dudleys, etc, etc. came over from ECW. Those guys adjusted (well, maybe not Taz but he is a hell of an announcer) well to WWE style if you ask me (at least well enough).

 

Yes, some of the guys that would potentially come over to WWE from the new ECW would have to adjust to a new style at first, but I think eventually they will pick things up.

 

So, I do think that this certainly COULD be a "feeder system" to develop future WWE stars, yet all the while still not sacrificing any of what ECW truly is.

 

I do feel that some of the more super hardcore aspects need to go (or at least toned down a bit), but I feel if you break that stuff out every now and again on PPV that will suffice. As long as the actual wrestling that goes on in ECW (not hardcore stuff) is of high caliber ala ROH or a Benoit vs. Eddie (RIP) match. I think that most of the hardcore ECW fans could warm up to the fact that times are changing. That we are not going to see New Jack falling off of a 25 foot balcony on a regular basis, or one of the Rotten's getting massacred with a cheese grater anymore. Not to say that you won't get that every now and again, but it's not going to be on a continual basis. I think Vince is smart enough to know that the wrestlers HE IS PAYING should not be allowed to jump off of 20 ft balconies on a continual basis.

 

But what you will get is a nice dose of the other styles that made ECW what it was, and none of that is going to be sacrificed here. The Malenko, Eddie, Benoit, types. Or the style of what you currently see in ROH. The London's, Noble's, and Kendrick's of the world will have a chance to "let 'er rip" like they did in ROH. And I think that is what will make this new ECW, and not necessarily the blood and guts.

[World's Worst Man 0]

I wouldn't mind if it was a feeder system as long as the ring product was different from WWE. And actually, I don't even care to see the old "ECW style" (meaning garbage brawls), but what I do want to see is the attitude in ECW where the wrestlers were allowed to go out and have whatever sort of match they were capable of having. That's the only thing I personally care about. They could even tape the show before RAW or Smackdown (meaning it won't even be close to having the ECW feel) and I'd be happy as long as the wrestling was good. But I also don't think they'll draw many old ECW fans with that approach, since it wouldn't be an authentic ECW experience. Although to counter that, there would be a good chance that they'd draw a bunch of indy/workrate fans simply by putting good workers out there and letting them cut loose. What Vince simply must not do however, is use a watered down wrestling style combined with an atmosphere that bears no resemblance to an ECW atmosphere. I think the whole concept will completely bomb if it's carried out that way.

 

So in my opinion, either the atmosphere or wrestling product needs to be good, preferably both, in order to draw any new fans. If both are there, it will have the most success. If neither are there, it'll fail.

[Guest burth179]

I wouldn't mind if it was a feeder system as long as the ring product was different from WWE. And actually, I don't even care to see the old "ECW style" (meaning garbage brawls), but what I do want to see is the attitude in ECW where the wrestlers were allowed to go out and have whatever sort of match they were capable of having. That's the only thing I personally care about. They could even tape the show before RAW or Smackdown (meaning it won't even be close to having the ECW feel) and I'd be happy as long as the wrestling was good. But I also don't think they'll draw many old ECW fans with that approach, since it wouldn't be an authentic ECW experience. Although to counter that, there would be a good chance that they'd draw a bunch of indy/workrate fans simply by putting good workers out there and letting them cut loose. What Vince simply must not do however, is use a watered down wrestling style combined with an atmosphere that bears no resemblance to an ECW atmosphere. I think the whole concept will completely bomb if it's carried out that way.

 

So in my opinion, either the atmosphere or wrestling product needs to be good, preferably both, in order to draw any new fans. If both are there, it will have the most success. If neither are there, it'll fail.

 

 

I agree with just about all of that...

 

And I'll tell you what, I think their TRUE motivation for all of this is to win over those indy/workrate fans that they've lost to TNA, and to once again show people "not to screw with McMahon". I think Vince is trying to put TNA out of business, and in fact if this show is on TV I bet it will run directly up against TNA...

 

What I envision is an authentic ECW, accept just not QUITE as much risk taking. Which, you are right, the hardest of hardcore ECW guy will scoff at, but I feel MOST fans would accept.

[World's Worst Man 0]

Indeed, good observation. For the ECW roster, Vince could definitely pull together a bunch of guys who would compare favourably to TNA's x-division talent. London, Spanky, Gibson, Punk for starters. I'd assume Cabana would be a good possibility. Then there's also the 2nd best wrestler in North America, who hasn't committed to TNA or WWE yet. I wonder if he'll end up somewhere by the year's end. TNA could end up being beaten at their own game if they're not careful. Of course, this is all assuming WWE handles ECW the right way

[Guest burth179]

EXACTLY..

 

And I assume you are referring to Danielson as the 2nd best wrestler? If not, who?

[Dangerous A 0]

It's Danielson.

[World's Worst Man 0]

Right, Danielson. If TNA and the new ECW brand really do go to war over the indy fan demographic, Danielson will be a big coup for whoever signs him.

[Dangerous A 0]

I think a huge key to this lasting and getting a good momentum and following is TV. I think only the hardest of hardcore fans are going to watch TV on the internet.

[Hawk 34 0]

ECW, has the upper hand in getting Danielson. Dragon, has said he wants to work WWE but not right now, as he has turned down offers before. He is a protege of Regal and Benoit is tremendously high on Danielson. TNA, would more likely rescrict Danielson worse then ECW would.

 

Heyman could work with Danielson better then whoever is running TNA at that particular moment. Jarrett would never let Danielson (a brilliant heel) shine.

 

Cabana and Danielson, are two workers I would perfer to work ECW over TNA. Of course, selfishly I would perfer them to stay in ROH/Indy (Dragon more then Colt) because ROH lets them shine best. Although TNA allows workers to do ROH dates, there will come a time that TNA changes that ruling (something Gabe has already prepared for by introducing new talent and phasing out other names)

[Dangerous A 0]

Judging from the posts the last 2 or so pages, one thing I think we all want is a different and better pro wrestling product than what WWE and TNA are currently churning out right now, wouldn't you say?

[World's Worst Man 0]

Well, one that's on free TV at least.

[Guest Coffey]

I'm amazed at how many people are already referring to this...thing as "ECW." In my eyes, ECW died a long time ago and this is going to be pretty far from it. From everything I've read, it looks like OVW is going to have a name change and sign some has-beens.

[Hawk 34 0]

I'm amazed at how many people are already referring to this...thing as "ECW." In my eyes, ECW died a long time ago and this is going to be pretty far from it.

 

It'd be confusing/annoying typing "WWECW".

[Guest Coffey]

Well, we had people typing WWF(e) for over a year.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Someone here STILL types "WWE" (going to say... Marvinisalunatic). Get over it, dude.

 

Anyway, reading an Observer post ONS 2005, it was interesting that Meltzer referred to ECW being like the nWo in WCW (meaning while the group was just part of the base company, it made the base company look unhip and uncool). I know I'm not the first to say this, but the bottom line might come down to an authenticly run ECW making WWE look bad, ending the project / toning it down. Things that can make money vs. Things that egos say should make money is a war where the biggest casualty may end up being the fans.

[Downhome 0]

A new WWE vs. ECW angle would be a great way for us to finally see how the nWo angle could have ended had they not fucked it up so badly.

[MrRant 0]

Which nWo angle? The "poison" or the WCW kill/restart/kill/restart?