A Modest Response

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Welcome to this week’s A Modest Response. This almost didn’t get out. My world’s quite upended right now with my engagement ending and fiancée moving out plus me quitting my second job, needing a MRI due to a car accident and my father needing the same, so this weeks column will be a bit shorter than usual. Jimmy cracked corn and you didn’t care, I’m sure. On to the wrestling.

News of Honor

Bryan Danielson returns and may challenge for the NWA title, which will no longer be TNA property

The return of the Dragon seems huge. This isn’t specifically ROH business, but the company doing business with the NWA along with Japan can only add prestige and interesting storylines. Danielson as a second major champion to go with the absentee Morishima works wonderfully and can build to an amazing climax with the ROH Championship.

Here’s our link to that, by the way.

Naruki Doi and Shingo unseat the Briscoes as tag champions after only one week

I have no idea where this is going, but it is very interesting. Ring of Honor no longer has any titles held by ROH natives. The air of unpredictability hangs thick.

In other News

Bad News Allen/Brown dies

What a shame. He was a unique performer and by all accounts a very good man.

WWE may go international with more brands

This will be either awesome or an epic debacle. It’s impossible to say which until more information comes out. Still, this is definitely a story to follow.

Foley says WWE dropped the ball with Punk

Not really news, just rubbing it in.

Angle is linked to a steroid sting

Oh My God! There are wrestlers on steroids? I never would have guessed that!

WSX to have a Tuesday marathon from 11pm on to close the series

I’ll likely be drunk. Staff development day Wednesday makes life nice. If the world is staying still at that point in the night, this should be fun.

ECW Tag Titles to debut

Go Matthew Michaels (see below) and Dusty Rhodes (the man who lobbied for this)! This should really help the show. See A Modest Response itself below for more information.

Hogan and Lawler to face off in Memphis

in a match that ceased to matter almost two decades ago.

This Week on Pulse Wrestling

First a quick apology to those who mailed in this week. No Respondents of Honor for the week for the reasons outlined above.

Big Andy hits the relevant ROH information. If you like my column, you really should be reading his too.

Ditch discusses NOAH a bit too pessimistically in my view.

Scott Keith covers December to Dismember and thinks what everyone else thought when they saw it, “lord, what was that?”

Eric S explains why giving so much promo time in an hour show is stupid. Preach on.

Brashear covers Mike Awesome as ECW champion. A great read and one of the best ways to view his career I’ve seen.

Blatt owns ECW.

Column of Honor: Till My Head Falls Off: Tag in which Matthew Michaels discusses why a tag team division should be the exclusive property of ECW.

A Modest Response

Please, before you read this, click Matt’s column. It’s a great read and vital set up.

For now, I’ll be taking the fantasy booking out of Matt’s hands and placing them in far more capable (love ya Matt) hands: my own.

CM Punk is currently involved in an angle on ECW television where he has to choose between the New Breed and the ECW Originals. This is the perfect impetus for a regular tag division on ECW.

The first step is that Punk should refuse to join the ECW Originals because he’s Straight Edge and does not agree with their lifestyle. Lest this turn him heel, he should then immediately spurn the New Breed because they’ve got no honor, leading to a heel beatdown. This should continue on television for a good while, with Punk trying to fight back but regularly failing to the numbers game. Just like in a match, he must have his hope spots, where he gets the better of a heel or two and escapes, but he must remain isolated and beaten down the majority of the time.

The next major step is to wait for an opportune moment and book ECW in the Hammerstein Ballroom. This leads to a rabid and smark filled crowd who will eat up what is to follow.

The New Breed should emerge to decimate the ECW originals only for Punk to come out. Instead of making the straight save and joining the Originals, he should say he has realized that he needs someone to watch his back and that he cannot make it on his own. He needs allies with honor. By now I’m sure you can see where this is going.

With this, entering from the back should be longtime Smackdown tag champions Paul London and Brian Kendrick along with either Jamie Knoble or Matt Hardy. The pop for this from a smark filled audience would be absurd. The men involved would immediately become stars, just as Punk was made a star by his reception from the New York crowd in his first ECW appearance.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Brian Kendrick and Paul London were mainstays of early Ring of Honor. With their WWE success, they are the third longest running tag champions ever after only the Hart Foundation and Demolition, and with their smark credibility they would immediately make the tag belts a major part of ECW that crowds would care about.

Jamie Knoble, under his real name of James Gibson, was Ring of Honor champion. He’s a fantastic worker who’s completely wasted on Smackdown in nothing matches. Given time on ECW in this manner, not only would he be over, but he’d add quality to undercard matches every week regardless of the opponent. WWE has pushed him before so they clearly realize what he’s capable of.

Matt Hardy, when fired from WWE for complaining about having his woman taken by his best friend, wrestled three shows for Ring of Honor. This, combined with his rabid fan following who have been dying to see him reach main event status for several years, would allow him to achieve a height of popularity and perhaps even propel himself into the main event picture finally without the shadow of the Hardyz looming over him.

Any three of these four would be hugely over, add viewers both because of the buzz created and the quality of wrestling they’d bring, and, most importantly, establish a major tag team scene in ECW giving it a unique selling point as opposed to the other brands. Hopefully, WWE is listening because this is a golden opportunity to make ECW a success and ensure the overness of several future stars.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back next week for another A Modest Response.

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.