Steveo checks in this week with an e-mail entitled “not hate mail”. Thanks for the heads up Steveo.
dont worry dude im not gonna tear you a new one about how hardcore holly is ecw. im less than excited about him too. dont get me wrong holly is……good enough in the ring an most fans seem to appreciate his work in the ring without getting too excited about it. also one more thing. this is not ecw. it is wwe owned ecw which is just basically luring in old ecw fans wilth the name and trying to get them hooked. i am a fan of this ecw but this is not old ecw at all. the only similarities are the fact that they have ecw superstars. or as they are now wwe jobbers and sandman,rvd,sabu. if you want a program with the old ecw feel you should watch tna. same basic premise of talented wrestlers (and jeff jarrett) who were never given a chance by wwe. for the most part at least. they also have old former wcw guys but i didnt say it was a carbon copy of ecw. it is more like ecw than anything else you will get because it is not wwe.
peace,
steveo
Ah, Steveo addresses two issues that I was hoping to get to one day. The first is:
i am a fan of this ecw but this is not old ecw at all. the only similarities are the fact that they have ecw superstars. or as they are now (known as) wwe jobbers and sandman,rvd,sabu.
You’re right Steveo, this isn’t ECW on 1998. Hell, nothing is. This is another brand of the WWE, up there with RAW and Smackdown!. That doesn’t mean I can’t hold it to old standards. I see some of the faces and names that were part of the old ECW, but not the heart. I enjoy the show enough to watch it and write this up every week, but not enough to say that I love it.
(TNA) is more like ecw than anything else you will get because it is not wwe.
I have a dispute with the claim that TNA is most like old ECW than anything else on TV. I actually liken TNA to the WWE just before the Attitude era. The talent is there and they’re showcasing some of it, but not exactly like you’d hope when watching the show. The main event in un-watchable at times, and it just seems like the same thing week in and week out. But the under card really provides the meat to the show, the programs and the company. It doesn’t ACTUALLY feel like watching those shows, but that the closest way I can describe it as. I’ll say this though- if Sting isn’t on his way to losing the belt to Samoa Joe in less than 6 months, I’m pissed.
I’m not addressing the Holly issue because I’m pretty sure that I’ve made my feeling clear about him. It’s wonderful and all that he survived what killed Candido, but it doesn’t mean I have to be happy about him in the new ECW. Screw that. I’m still pissed he’s in ECW.
I enjoyed that e-mail so much Steveo, I’m giving you a new nickname: Dime.
e-mail: blatt@4sternstaging.com – Send some.
Anyway…
DX arrives in ECW
Trips says “bingo” when asked by HBK if they were in the right place. Funny, that’s the answer to the question “Will DX ruin ECW this week?” too.
RVD & Sabu over Knox and Test by double super leg drops on a table
What fun! I didn’t believe that they gave this some time to heat up and they let the originals win. This certainly means that the feud with Dreamer and Sandman is finished and Dreamer is headed backstage for a while. The thing I didn’t understand about this was that there was no reason for the match. Very easily could this match have reason if Test and Knox interfered with the main event last week, but they didn’t. I’m all for competition for the sake of competition, but they could have built to this one a bit. Knox and Test did well and proved that maybe they can hang with the ECW guys. It has yet to be completely proven to me, but well see with time.
One more comment I’ve got about this one is that when in longer matches, RVD and Sabu’s styles change. they don’t have to hit all the signature moves in succession when they’re given some time to use some psychology. I pretty much guessed that this was going to be the longest match of the night and the main event might wind up being a wash.
The Big Show puts on elbow pads
Look at those eyes! He’s a monster! Look at how he puts on his elbow pads, only a madman would put on elbow pads like that! They couldn’t get something out of Rene Dupree this week that they showed this?
Brains over Brawn by Chalk, a Blackboard and “SUX”
You know, the last time I really remember seeing a Matt Stryker match was the Angle invitational. I know I’ve seen him wrestle since then, but nothing memorable. Thanks to his gimmick, Stryker’s got a long road of feuds ahead of him. If he comes out on top of Sandman, this means that they’ve got faith in the character. Let’s hope so, because this brand is in need of a few good mid-card heels.
Stevie Richards over Balls Mahoney by Walking Stick to the Face
Ariel climbing over the table to get Joey: kinda odd. I think hearing Joey pleading to get Tazz to help him was a nice tough. I agree with JC’s ECW recap, “Tazz this woman has fangs!” was a golden moment. I guess you can’t change the tarot cards. I’m not sure how that works, maybe Jeff Hardy’s fan base could enlighten me. Anyway, Ariel and Kevin Thorne are ringside to watch, but not do commentary.
Man, two good matches in a row? Am I really watching ECW? The deal here is that now that the characters are established (see Moore and Punks interaction later on) we can finally get some competition amongst the wrestlers. The ending irked me about this match though. Without the restrictions of the regular match rules, we can still have the same match with the same ending. It just takes a little more imagination on the part of the agents on how to end matches that would normally end in DQ. Instead of Ariel distracting the ref, the ref sees the low blow AND the hit by Thorne and then counts the 1-2-3. The match doesn’t change, the outcome doesn’t change, but we still are rockin the extreme rules. IF they’re looking for something to make this brand stand out and not look like RAW junior, that’s it.
Punk over Poser by bitch slap
Man, this could get interesting. I’d be curious to see what they’re gonna do with this if Moore always acts like a little girl when he’s confronted. I think that’s the way to go. It would be Seven of ECW to do that. (Seven the Dustin Runnels gimmick, not Seven the movie where Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are the same guy in the end) It’s good to see them pair up Punk with someone who can go, that is if they feud at all. It’s possible Moore starts to follow Punk and becomes a disciple or an acolyte or a member of the Flock. Okay, all I’m saying is that Moore works best when following someone, not when leading.
DX over Big Show by DQ
Can you imagine a way to make ECW as un-ECW as possible? Put DX on the show.
So they advertise an extreme rules match, then Heyman changes the rules. For two weeks in a row that main event has been boring, tame AND has involved Hardcore Holly. Can you imagine, a DQ finish in a main event in ECW? No? Me either. Basically, nothing happens all match, HHH is trying and Michaels looks completely uninspired, the crowd cheers DX louder than anyone on the ECW roster and the whole main event is an exercise in why ECW needs it’s own tapings. The crowd isn’t there for ECW, they’re there for Smackdown!.
The matchup of the main event wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be though. When Vince was talking on RAW about something he’s never done, I thought he was going to talk about how he’s never been on an ECW show and headlined. I don’t know if they’d actually put Vince on ECW and ruin the image that it’s run by Heyman.
Overall: **3/4 ECW isn’t it’s own brand yet. They continually invite in superstars from RAW and Smackdown! to fight on the show. Their champion is involved with other brands’ storylines. They’re gotta separate ECW from RAW and Smackdown! for a bit to let the audience know that they are watching something different. Last week scored a 1.9 in the ratings, I think we’ll see a jump this week back above 2.0, probably the usual 2.1. I hope they don’t attribute the ratings jump to DX, but more the opportunity that advertising on RAW provides viewers to know what’s going on.
Don’t forget to chime in on the forum’s Tuesday Night ECW thread either.
See ya next time, same Blatt time, same Blatt channel.
