[ECW] Special Rating, Cena, Molly Holly, Taz on O&A

Archive

– ECW.com has added several news items and interviews heading into Sunday’s PPV, including a new match announced on Smackdown (and previously announced here, due to being on the back of ECW t-shirts on WWE ShopZone): Super Crazy & Tajiri vs. FBI. These articles include Tommy Dreamer talking about former ECW stars Mick Foley and Lita not remembering their roots, Kurt Angle being named the greatest shoot wrestler of all time by USA Wrestling (and announcing that he will be debuting a new ECW mouthguard on Sunday), and Rey Mysterio talking about being prepared for the match vs. Sabu. These can all be found here.

– The 3.1 rating for the WWE vs. ECW special was at the level WWE was expecting internally (3.0 or better is what was hoped for). The show did hours of 2.9 and 3.3. WWE management apparently feels that a big reason for the show doing the number that it did was John Cena’s appearance on the broadcast. They are extremely high on Cena up in Stamford. A good test barometer will be the debut on Sci-Fi next Tuesday

– Edge was said to be “hurting from head to toe” after the match Wednesday night when he landed on his head, but he said he would be fine and be able to do his share on Sunday.

– ECW wrestlers were given a pep talk by both Vince McMahon and John Laurenaitis after the ECW-WWE special on Wednesday night. Vince said he really liked their energy level.

– At the production meeting, Jim Ross was slated to be the straight, not an advocate for either WWE or ECW. On Raw on Monday, he stated he was an ECW fan, and didn’t take the bait to join Jerry Lawler in being anti-ECW. Joey Styles was supposed to be pro-ECW, but the idea was for him to step back and let Lawler and Tazz handle most of the digs at each other’s respective brand. Styles, though, got wrapped up in the moment, and with Vince’s encouragement during the show, got into it. Knocking Ross’s hat off was not scripted. Ross was said to be concerned about whether there was too much arguing and insults and not enough focus on the storylines and matches headed into the PPV, but McMahon was extremely pleased with the way the announcing went.

– The show on Wednesday was run like a typical WWE TV event. There were no major changes in terms of production crew or how things were operated backstage.

– Sandman and Balls Mahoney followed WWE dress code.

– The ECW return to the ECW Arena still isn’t settled with the latest rumor being that there may in fact be a house show on June 24 with live TV on July 4.


– Molly Holly will be appearing at tonight’s OVW show in Corydon, IN at the Youth Center and on Sunday’s show in Louisville at the Derby Park Expo Five at 6 p.m., which takes place before airing ECW One Night Stand on the big screens. She will be signing autographs, but not wrestling.


– Tazz hung out on XM Satellite and CBS Radio’s Opie and Anthony Show this morning for a couple of hours.

Tazz noted that he had not talked to the guys since Opie came to a live edition of MTV Heat at the former WWE New York. Tazz then said he just got a text message from (his words, not mine) Bubba Ray Dudley, who the boys know. Tazz said the text message said Bubba was listening, that he had XM in his car, and that this is the radio show he listens to every day. Before getting to the specific nature of Tazz’s visit, he participated in “Jimmy Day,” a day devoted to comedian Jimmy Norton in anticipation of the premier of Jimmy’s new HBO comedy Lucky Louie and the release of his HBO stand up DVD, by doing things such as commenting on the quality of women in the studio. He also said after Jimmy leaves the show because he’s going to be so huge, he should be the 3rd cohost as he’s local. Tazz also participated in an FCC conversation when Opie and Anthony were doing their daily dump report (a portion of the XM show devoted to going over what items on the CBS portion of the show were “dumped out” of), in addition to tooling on the Wiseguys Show on Sirius Satellite Radio for being too over the top stereotypical Italian.

They then talked about ECW and the PPV. He promoted the TV show, and described ECW now as “the old ECW with a Vince McMahon attitude.”

Opie asked if Mick Foley coming back is a real match, or will it just be a 2 minute match because he’s retired and people will just be happy he came back. Tazz joked that the 2 minute match will be his own match/challenge with Jerry Lawler. Opie and Anthony said how much fun they had with Lawler’s previous personal situation (Stacy — fired) in the past. Tazz joked that he didn’t want to get into it because he has to work there still. Tazz then said that Lawler is actually a really nice, laid back guy.

Tazz then said he has a huge announcement on Smackdown tonight.

They asked him about Hulk Hogan and his reality show. Tazz said it’s possible for Brooke to get lost on an island with a camera crew (jokingly). They all joked about how scripted the show is. Tazz said Hulk is a great guy.

Opie and Anthony then played the “It’s still real to me dammit” clip for Tazz, saying “here’s your fanbase,” prompting a laugh after Tazz said “so that’s why I have 3 BMW’s.” They then played an old Iron Sheik clip they have where the Sheik tried to cut a promo/I.D. for the show that took a long, long time. Tazz said that even though he’s crazy, Iron Sheik is still a very dangerous man.

The Opie and Anthony Show is heard on XM Satellite Radio every day from 6AM-12PM, with replays daily, in addition to being heard on CBS radio stations in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, West Palm Beach, Columbus, Rochester.

Credit: ECW.com, PWInsider.com, WrestlingObserver.com, PWTorch.com, Tom Donnelly

Matthew Michaels is editor emeritus of Pulse Wrestling, and has been since the site launched.