The Week In Hardcore 7.15.06
Posted by Sam Caplan on 07.15.2006
Thoughts on this past week's episode, analysis on the future of the brand, and more in this edition of The Week In Hardcore!
Coming off the heels of last week's incident, this has been a pretty quiet week on the ECW front, although they made good by having what was probably the best match so far on ECW On Sci-Fi between Big Show and Flair. The same people are getting pushed as usual, but some new faces are on their way in as well. So let's head to our usual starting place, Tuesday night for…
ECW On Sci-Fi Results: 7/11/2006 (2.4 Rating)
-Test pinned Tommy Dreamer (4:00)
-Justin Credible defeated Sabu via DQ (2:00)
-ECW Champion The Big Show defeated Ric Flair via referee stoppage in an Extreme Rules Match (13:25)
Thanks To Larry Csonka for match times.
Storyline Developments
-Paul Heyman came out for the opening segment and said that it was the fans who cost RVD the ECW Title, not himself, then promises that he will make all his decisions for the good of ECW, not any one person. He promises to take the ECW fans to the promised land.
-As Heyman returns to the back, Tommy Dreamer confronts him and demands an explanation. Heyman says he doesn't have time to give him a good explanation just at that moment, and books Dreamer into a match against Test.
-Ariel is backstage predicting the future, and the Vampire comes in and bites her, then spits blood at the camera. Still no hat.
-Kelly Kelly, the girl so nice they named her twice, is back this week for another of her awesome stripteases. A twist this week, as she has Candice Michelle out there stripping with her. I assume Candice is there in case Kelly once again can't figure out how to get her bra off, because if there's one person on this planet who definitely, definitely knows how to get her not just her bra, but any human being, man or woman, thrown in front of her off, it's Candice. Mike Knox again breaks up the festivities, and becomes the subject of this week's beating at the hands of the Sandman.
-CM Punk is still coming, and this week he turned Maria around and gave her a shot in the mouth instead. His tattoos tell a story, and he is here to compete with the best.
-We may laugh at the name of Balls Mahoney, but he's balls to the wall. Have you ever actually tried putting your balls on the wall? It's not an easy position to get into.
-Shannon Moore is coming, and he's looking at a picture of AJ Styles while he does.
ECW Top Five (As voted by...ME!)
ECW Champion: Big Show
All rankings are based on what happens on TV. House shows do not count. If it didn't happen on TV, it didn't happen.
1)Test - Quick wins over Al Snow and Tommy Dreamer, as well as Sabu's loss this week, propel Test to the #1 position.
2)Mike Knox - Although he didn't wrestle this week, his undefeated record keeps him at #2.
3)Sabu - Sabu finally moves out of the top spot due to his DQ loss this week, but could very well rise back up the ranks very soon barring more DQ losses.
4)Justin Credible - He got his ass handed to him by Kurt Angle on week one, and was getting beat up again this week by Sabu, but Sabu got himself disqualified. However, it counts as a win, and a win over the guy who had a death grip on the #1 spot is enough the get Credible into the rankings.
5)Tommy Dreamer - Record has been abysmal since ECW relaunched, but he has remained strong looking in his defeats and has become a storyline focus. Edges out the Sandman due to Dreamer having competing in more sanctioned matches.
Notes: Big change this week, as we go from a Top Ten to a Top Five. The reason for this is that, considering the limited number of people being focused on compared to the number of jobbers, it didn't make sense for me to pad out the list with guys who have spent their entire time on TV counting the lights just for the sake of having a full ten people on the list. This could change in the future when more guys start getting exposure, but this is the way it will be for now. Also, Sandman comes off the list due to inactivity in sanctioned matches.
Hardcore Backstage News
Backstage news was pretty scarce this week, but here's what we did get:
Rob Feinstein was backstage at ECW last night, but was escorted out by security.
I'm not going to make any smartass remarks about The Feinstein Incident Of 2004, but I do have to wonder why a guy who sells tons of bootleg stuff that WWE would probably sue his ass off over wanted to get backstage at a WWE-run show. It'd be like Kim Jong Il sneaking into Washington to sit in on a meeting of Congress.
Sci-Fi was very pleased with the show this week, especially at the blood and thumbtacks in the Show-Flair match.
This is a good sign, because as I mention again later, I thought Show-Flair was easily the best match on the series so far. Let's hope this means more of the same…just without Flair.
WWE is going to be discontinuing the EC F'N W shirt soon, feeling that it's too crass and may turn off advertisers.
This from the man behind Dr. Heinie, the Kiss My Ass Club, and God being signed to a sanctioned match, and that's just in the last year. Well, I guess they can't all be winners.
Paul Heyman didn't wear a hat because the hat is part of his babyface look, if he doesn't wear the hat, then it means he's a heel.
This has got to be one of the stupidest fucking things I've ever heard. It's not like when Hogan turned heel and grew the evil beard and began wearing all black. That was a real change, I honestly didn't even notice Heyman wasn't wearing a hat.
This week's episode of ECW On Sci-Fi pulled a 2.4 rating, its second best so far.
I don't mean to belabor the point, but isn't it amazing how a heavily criticized ECW, considered by many to be a mere shadow of its former self, can still more than double TNA's rating on a weekly basis, starting from day one? Just saying.
ECW.com has a new online feature called "Hardcore Hangover," where they will post an entire match from the show online each week. This week's match is Show vs Flair.
Well, I would imagine it would be. I know it had stiff competition from Sabu-Credible and all, but I think the right match won out in the end.
Many posters on Sci-Fi's message board are giving ECW a second chance after initially being upset that there would be wrestling on the network.
I bet they're just hoping that William Shatner will make his long awaited return to the ring. Maybe Shatner can beat up Lawler again, only this time for ripping on ECW.
Ponderings Of A Stu-Man
This will be a new weekly feature where I give my opinions on stuff that doesn't fall under the umbrella of any of the other sections.
-I think this week we saw the winning formula for the Big Show title reign. It's pretty obvious that they don't intend to run with Big Show as a long term champion just because of RVD's situation. I'd say it's a good bet that Van Dam will get the title back pretty quickly upon his return. But in the meantime, Show just needs to go in there with guys like Flair who can carry him to watchable matches, sell their asses off, and put him over as a monster. Don't worry about trying to get him over with the crowd, it's not going to happen. In fact, the best thing you can do with him right now is to put him in there with guys you know the crowd digs and wants to win the title, and just have Show demolish all of them, and that includes guys like Sandman and Dreamer, while all the while building to the Show-RVD rematch which will hopefully do a good rating.
-Speaking of Tommy Dreamer, I'm glad to see him actually being treated as a marginally big deal in the new ECW. Considering how much the brand means to him, and the fact that he was originally slated to be part of the creative team, it's nice to see him become a focus of the shows each week. Now let's just hope the continued beatings are leading somewhere.
-Dunn's comment about Ariel the goth chick going to her blog on MySpace and complaining about how fake the kids at her high school are was awesome. Dunn is the man.
-So yes, I was remiss last week in not mentioning that Big Show has become the only man to win the WWE, WCW, and ECW World Titles. But does it count since Vince owns it now? Everybody has their own opinion, but I say it does. Nobody questioned the validity of anybody's title claims after Ted Turner bought WCW, nor should the validity of a title claim be in question because ECW's owned by a different person now. Does this mean nobody from the Tod Gordon ownership days should be counted as a past ECW titleholder? Seriously, what's the criteria here?
-Interesting bit of trivia I would like to point out: had Ric Flair won the ECW Title this week, he would have immediately broken the record he is tied with Big Show for by becoming the only man IN HISTORY to have held four different World Titles. (NWA, WWF, WCW, ECW) I don't think that's a record anybody would ever have broken.
Extremist Of The Week: Ric Flair
Just so you know, you're not normally going to find an outsider (ie a Raw or Smackdown guy) being considered for Extremist Of The Week, for the same reason you're not going to see them in the ECW Top Five. But I have to make an exception this week for Ric Flair, he cut a promo that I enjoyed a lot and showed that the old Flair personality is still in there somewhere, and then he went out and put on a better match with a much more limited opponent than I thought him capable of at this point in his career. For a guy who's pushing 60, he came to work this week. He's Ric Flair, he doesn't need to take bumps on thumbtacks, but he did it anyway and did his best to work around Big Show's limitations and put on an awesome match. He walked out of that ring a bloody and beaten mess, and earned the respect of everybody watching, both live and at home, in the process. Maybe he does deserve that last World Title reign after all. Maybe.
Extreme Outlook
The man of the hour is Paul Heyman. He turned his back on his longtime associate Rob Van Dam and cost him the ECW Title last week, but now in RVD's absence he seems to have shifted his attention to Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer lost this week, but Test had to cheat to beat him. This would seem to indicate that Dreamer is being primed to become a headliner and battle Heyman. Will this just be filler until Van Dam returns, or is Dreamer being considered as a possible alternative to RVD, especially when you consider his recent feud with the Big Show?
And if not Tommy Dreamer, what is next for the ECW Champion? He's been indestructible since entering ECW, but somebody will have to step up to the plate. Could it be Sabu, who also has yet to be pinned or submit since returning to ECW? Maybe Test, who also has yet to suffer a defeat?
After the end of this week's striptease featuring Kelly Kelly, it appears that the Sandman finally has an actual feud on his hands, with newcomer to the big time Mike Knox. Both men have been focal points of ECW TV over the last few weeks, so this will likely be a headline feud as we progress through the summer.
And what of CM Punk and Shannon Moore? They've both been hyped in promo packages (that you would have never seen on Raw or Smackdown, by the way), and both are really talented guys that have the potential to make a major impact on the third brand. Will they make their debut soon? I hope not, because I get a kick out of making dirty jokes at their expense, but whenever they do, keep an eye on both of them. Ditto for Balls Mahoney…as long as he's gotten away from the wall by now.
Banging Out
Before I go this week, it's reader polling time! What I'd like from you, the readers, is your thoughts on the new ECW after the first five weeks of programming. As I've said in the past, I'm not looking to compare this ECW with the original ECW in any way, shape or form, but judge it on its own merits. So it follows that I'm not looking for feedback like "Vince McMahon sucks. The old ECW was so much better. I can't believe Big Show's the champion. Fuck Test." or anything like that. Whatever your thoughts are, good or bad, what you'd like to see from them, what you think can be done better (and not necessarily meaning by dropping it completely), and anything else you can think of. Send them in and I'll run as much feedback as I can in next week's column. All feedback can be sent to stuwrestling@hotmail.com.
That's it for me this week, folks. Be sure to check out That Was Then on Friday each week and be back here in seven as we again review The Week In Hardcore!
