| Not
a Review...Just a Complaint:
ECW on SCI FI
06-14-06
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I
cry out in the wilderness...
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I can’t say I didn’t see it
coming, but ECW looks to be in trouble because Vince can’t
trust any vision of wrestling other than his own. That’s
right, he bungled it, and even if Paul Heyman has control,
it’s tempered with Vince’s tampering.
The
show on Tuesday just plain sucked. It didn’t help
that there were far more commercials than I’m used
to, but they really didn’t give us much that was ECW.
Yeah, we had a weapons battle royal, but can anyone think
of a time when ECW did a battle royal? Where was the outlaw
nature of the ECW product? It was hiding behind Kurt Angle,
who was one of the few bright spots, and The Big Show, who
was put over like a monster.
Still,
Sabu did get to shine a little, but not nearly enough to
make things feel like they were special. Even the opening
with Rob Van Dam was awful as the crowd booed him despite
him getting a bit of his old character back. They also awarded
him the ECW belt, which is terrible as they should have
had a tourney like the one Shane Douglas won in 1994 which
changed ECW forever.
Where to start on how they ruined it?
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Them's
some sparkly pants..
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The
big thing is they aren’t letting go. They need to
let guys like RVD do their promos the way they did in the
old days, completely without scripting. Let RVD get out
there and run his mouth.
NBC
Universal, the parent company of USA Networks, wanted things
toned down and demanded they do things with a delay so things
could be edited out. That’s idiotic as it’s
that crowd reaction, no matter how vulgar, that keeps people
coming in. It’s no good to block all of that out.
They
also need to push the ECW guys as the stars -- RVD, Sabu,
Sandman (who really needs the Enter Sandman music back)
and even guys like Balls Mahoney. They also need to start
bringing in young stars who might make an impact using the
ECW style. There are a lot of guys in OVW who could be repackaged
like Heyman did with so many guys in the past.
The fact is an ECW show needs the violence,
needs to fly somewhat under the RADAR so that it can get
away with things like excessive blood and brawling and using
copyrighted music. Mostly, they need to have Paul Heyman
as El Jefe and Vince just sitting back and counting the
money.
The
brightest spot? Other than Kurt Angle, who they really are
positioning as the new Taz, The Zombie is going to be the
best thing ECW has going for it. They had him even cut a
promo, which was nice. The Zombie was a big F-U to the good
people at SCI FI who said if they were going to get stuck
showing wrestling, it would have to have aliens.
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Starving
in Vince's office...
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I love
The Zombie bit and I hope they do something with him in
the comedy sense, which looks like the direction they’re
going.
I’m
hoping for a better week too, but I know it won’t
happen until Vince sees that he has to give it to Paul.
They
may have realized that there were some issues. My old buddy
Dave Lagana has been shuffled off from SmackDown! to ECW.
Now, Dave’s the one you want working with Paul if
they insist on having one of the WWE guys on the ECW writing
staff. He’s a long-time fan of the product, is a protégé
of sorts of Paul Heyman and is a good booker. That’s
a positive step.
The
final rating, after everything was in, was a 2.8, which
is huge considering. Still, I’m not sure how much
of that will translate into a second week with the episode
being less than stellar. Only time will tell.
Talk
about today's column in the forums!
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