Shining a Spotlight 12.08.06: The Rise and Fall (Again) of ECW
Posted by Michael Weyer on 12.08.2006
How both Vince McMahon and the fans bear responsibility for the failure of the new ECW, how Paul Heyman might work in TNA and another classic ECW mark-out moment.
I was planning a short column this week due to my having a very, very bad week. Thanks to a patch of "black ice" during Thursday's Midwest storms, ended up smashing my front and rear bumpers off. Then, the snow on Friday prevented me from getting it to a body shop immediately. Then, I discovered the bizarre fact that for some reason, body shops don't work on Saturdays. Now, driving my broken car while figuring out insurance and a makeshift ride in the meantime.
So, I was planning on maybe talking about some loose odds and ends like how TNA misjudged the reaction to stripping LAX of the tag titles or how stupid the Voodoo Kin Mafia are (and I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Russo tried to come up with a name to fit the VKM initials).
Then, lo and behold, as so often happens, real life drops a big item in my lap to talk about.
As I'm sure most everyone on the IWC has heard by now, Paul Heyman has evidentially left WWE. Already the speculation is that Heyman was made the fall guy for the disaster that was December 2 Dismember, despite the fact the show's poor showing was clearly due to Vince's influence. Of course, there's also the talk that this is all a complicated work to boost attention for ECW.
The latter is a possibility with Heyman perhaps coming back later to "save" the company and return it to its past glory. But a lot of people believe it's for real, mainly because it's something we all expected to come sooner or later.
Frankly, I'm amazed Heyman has lasted as long as he has with WWE. We all know the guy has a pretty intense ego. Just witness the ECW DVD where he still holds to the idea that if ECW had gotten a new network after TNN canned them, they'd have survived, which flies in the face of the massive problems the company has. Add to that his intensity and his "my way only" planning and you knew there was going to be a blow-up sooner or later.
The issue, it appears, is the current ECW. A lot's been written about it since it began in June, most of it negative. I admit, I haven't caught as much of the shows as I'd like. Between Boston Legal and the NBC Tuesday lineup, my VCR and DVD have been busy. From what I've heard, I haven't missed all that much as what started out as an attempt to go back to ECW classic times has now turned into a third brand for WWE.
December to Dismember seems the epitome of that as instead of a stalwart ECW guy like Sabu or RVD, the title wound up in the hands of Bobby Lashley, a guy who had never been affiliated with ECW until a few weeks ago and who was still working to get over well after his failed test. Now, I like Lashley and do agree he's developing well and could use a big push. But ECW doesn't seem right for him, let alone as champion. I shudder to think how the main ECW crowds will react to this when Lashley shows up with the belt. Then again, placating the ECW faithful has never exactly been the point of this new version.
That, in essence, has been the problem from the start. While I respect and admire a lot of what Vince McMahon has done for wrestling and would even go so far as to call him a genius, the man has several severe character drawbacks. One of (if not the) biggest is his inability to admit that another company, at any time, could come up with something more innovative than WWF/E. There are signs now and then that he could be letting that go like the original ECW DVD and the more recent AWA one where he has it stated how the AWA was bigger than any other company and it was Verne Gagne who helped Hulk Hogan become a big star.
Sadly, for every good example like that, McMahon just lets even worse come in. It's staggering to realize the amazing opportunities promoters have let slip through their fingers due to ego and inability to give credit where it's due. Sure, Vince is the most famous with Flair, the Radicals and the Invasion. But there's also Gagne with World Class and CWA and Jim Crockett with UWF. TNA has pretty much the opposite problem in putting guys like Christian, Angle and Sting over the loyal TNA roster but that's a different rant altogether.
The point is, Vince has never been able to admit how powerful the original ECW was and the loyalty (some might even say fanaticism) of its fanbase. The entire point of the original ECW was that it was the opposite of what was around at the time with WWF and WCW and its cartoonish antics. But Vince, a man who can be said to be a classic case of someone drinking their own kool-aid, insisted the product be more like WWE, completely missing that that was the last thing the ECW fans wanted. Sadly, the results speak for themselves.
On the one hand, you can understand why Vince took the steps he did. A common comment made on ECW, which I covered in my column on the various DVDs and books on it back in June, was that Heyman could never quite understand how to take something that appealed to a narrow part of the fanbase and make it work on a national level. Vince no doubt remembered that and so he felt it was natural that this new ECW needed a bit more WWE influence to bring in fans. Let's not forget, slam him all you want, but Vince could very well have left ECW to linger on only in memories after the ONS shows. He didn't need to go to all the cost of hiring more workers, sets, TV deals and such. Yeah, it backfired but he at least gave it a chance when everyone else wrote the promotion off as long dead.
Keep in mind, it's a different wrestling climate than when ECW first began its rise. WWE has let go of the classic "good guy versus bad guy" stuff in exchange for a much more daring and yes, extreme, climate, which ECW in no small part inspired. It also has a virtual monopoly on the country with only TNA and ROH as serious contenders (and even they come far distant in terms of mainstream attention). The fanbase has changed as well as a lot of the young guys who were ECW fanatics grew up and moved on with their lives for the most part. So yeah, I can understand why Vince felt it wouldn't work as well the second time around. Hell, I even agree they couldn't recapture that feeling again as it really was something that came with the time period it was created in.
But that's no excuse for not even trying their best. To be fair, Vince did start with a rub by having Rob Van Dam win the WWE title at ONS II, a move I still can't believe he did. Making RVD the first ECW champ was a no-brainer too. It's not Vince's fault that RVD wrecked the golden opportunity he'd been handed on a platter with his arrest and breaking the wellness program guidelines. Giving the belt to the Big Show seemed a bad move but Show actually did better than I thought as a champ. Still, it was clear that Vince did not like what Heyman was trying to do, which was to recreate a past time (ironic considering the return of DX) and wanted something more "accessible" to regular WWE fans.
Thus, the ECW roster was soon home to castoffs from the other brands. A big one is Hardcore Holly. A lot of people were upset that Holly was put in the Elimination Chamber matchup but I think the fanbase might actually bear some responsibility for that. The one match of this new ECW that has gotten attention was Holly's battle with RVD where Holly took that nasty gash on the back. That got huge raves for Holly which had an unintended effect. While I disagree a lot with Scott Keith, he's made the good point that quite often Vince can be a "what have you done for me in the last five minutes?" kind of guy. Vince too often will take the first reactions of the fanbase and use that for angles and pushes. That's what led him to decide the fans wanted Randy Orton as a face back in 2004 among many, many other misjudgments. So, you've got a guy named Hardcore who the fans seem to respect and in Vince's mind, it makes perfect sense to put him in the big title match. As we all know now, it was a bad move but as Stephanie herself once noted, the more people who tell Vince something's a bad idea, the more he wants to do it.
To be a bit fair to Vince, there's the fact that the "classic" ECW guys are not in their primes anymore. Age and injuries have taken their toll on Dreamer, Sabu, Credible and others so fans expecting an instant return to ten years ago were in for a disappointment. In some ways, they've worked well like Sandman now taking on the role 911 used to have, running in and beating the hell out of someone the crowd doesn't like. So, I can understand Vince's thinking that he needed to beef up the roster for it to work. The drawback, of course, is that rather than find new faces (which was something ECW really did do well), he just puts in WWE guys who don't quite mesh as well in this environment.
As O'Dogg notes in his own column this week, the first weeks of the new ECW did show something different. Say what you will about Kelly but a striptease on TV is something somewhat different and there was an emphasis on wrestling more than talk. Indeed, one can argue that even now ECW does do more action than talking, which even TNA hasn't worked out quite yet. Take the main event of their show this week as Lashley and Show actually got 17 minutes to work a not-too-bad match. Now, if it were just between workers the fans cared about, it might work a bit better.
I was a bit dubious about ECW coming back as I thought it was perfectly good to just let it remain dead with its legacy intact. Now that legacy has been tarnished by this revival which has turned what was once a groundbreaking company that shifted the cultural base of wrestling into just another regular WWE show, albeit one with more action than RAW or SmackDown. The proof that WWE has given up on making ECW that unique was when they didn't announce previous matches for D2R, thus giving no real incentive for fans to buy the show. The troubling part is that reportedly WWE is considering using that same strategy for their regular PPVs which is a huge mistake. WCW did the same thing in their last couple of years and we know how well that did for business.
Despite my fears, I had hopes for ECW as I thought Vince would let Heyman do the booking, which was always his strong suit. But sadly, that hasn't happened and now Heyman appears to be out. Assuming for the sake of argument this is not a work and his exit is legit, what does the future hold for him? Perhaps a long break is in order first. Get with the family, take some time off, write a book (we know he has to have plenty of stories to tell), just stay away from wrestling for a bit. The guy's been in this business almost non-stop since the late ‘80's, he could use a vacation.
Already, fans are frothing at the idea of Heyman going to TNA. On the one hand, it's a perfect match, as TNA mixes in great action with some extreme matches at times. However, there are some problems. For one thing, if Heyman is hired, Jim Cornette would walk out instantly as his problems with Heyman are well known. Another stumbling block is Vince Russo. Russo was inspired by ECW and its style for his own booking methods. The problem being that Russo went a bit too…well, extreme in putting the swerves over the in-ring action. Heyman knows how to balance both. The question is whether he'd be welcomed by the TNA roster and management and if he'd be given the freedom to do what he wants.
It would be a good thing for TNA as Heyman is just the guy who can give them the drive and care they need to really succeed. Heyman would probably want it as his nature would almost drive him to do whatever it takes to make TNA top-notch and finally a true power against WWE. And that would be good for WWE too as we all know how Vince thrives on competition. Having TNA really step up to the plate will make Vince adjust WWE programming to compete with this upstart and that could lead to great action just as it did back in '97 and '98. Not to mention, Heyman can give the company's workers some great boosts and bring in new viewers who were unsure of TNA before but might hook onto it now that Heyman is involved.
For now, however, the ECW experiment has failed once again and put a bit of a blight on the legacy of that name. And I think the fanbase bears some responsibility. Yes, the fans. Vince was fine letting ECW stay dead until people made the DVDs best sellers and went wild for One Night Stand. As I said, Vince didn't have to go to all the trouble and cost of making this new ECW. He could have let it die as WCW did but the fans, those wild crazy fans, demanded it be brought back. Sadly, those fans have now realized it's not 1995 anymore and the ECW they knew is long gone. Yes, Vince's interference and RVD's problems hurt. But the fact is, fans were hoping they'd get a blast from the past, realizing too late that the past is often just an echo.
WWECW will continue for a while. Vince has made his investment and won't quit it just yet. Heyman will no doubt bounce back and again, going to TNA might be a good thing for the sport. But the long and short of it is that this entire experience has proven that you can't catch lightning in a bottle a second time around. ECW was as much a product of its time as it was workers and action. That time has passed and ECW might have been better off staying dead. Defunct, its name was still legend. Its revival has done more to damage that legacy than even Eric Bischoff could have dreamed. And as much as you can rail on Vince for it, it's the fans who bear a lot of responsibility for making that happen.
All this talk has made me think about my second biggest ECW mark-out moment. I shared my first in my ECW history column. This one, in some ways, was even bigger, a true emotional moment that should be remembered by every ECW fan.
October 23rd, 1999, ECW House Show
A few weeks earlier, in that moment I mentioned, Raven unexpectedly came to help Tommy Dreamer win the ECW tag titles. The two old enemies were a surprisingly good unit, quickly getting into a feud with the Impact Players for the titles. Lance Storm and Jason Credible were challenging this night and the match was a wild brawl. Rhino interfered for the Players as Francine and Dawn Marie got into a catfight. With help from Chris Knight, Storm and Credible managed to lay the champs out and went for a double-pin…
At which point the lights went out. The crowd was instantly abuzz, confused but excited. If there was one thing every ECW fan knew, it's that when the lights went out, something big was about to happen. But few could imagine it would be as big as this.
A single spotlight cut through the darkness to illuminate the table at the rear of the ECW Arena. As one, the crowd turned to face it. As one, they saw the figure standing atop it. And as one, they erupted in what has to rank as one of the five greatest pops in ECW history. The figure stood there, soaking it all in. He was shirtless, clad in baggy camouflage pants, a Singapore cane in one hand pointing down, a smirk on his lips, which were pursed around a cigarette. He stood there and listened to the ovation that filled the arena as the crowd reacted in joy to his appearance.
The Sandman had returned.
For the last several months, the Sandman had been in WCW under the name "Hak." He obviously suffered as WCW just wasn't that willing to go for the same violent style where Jim Fullington had made his name. After a dispute with management (no strange thing for WCW in those days), he was allowed to leave and Paul Heyman wisely made his first appearance a memorable one.
As the crowd roared, that familiar Metallic song began to play. As it kicked in, the Sandman pulled a beer can out of his pocket and opened it, pouring it down his throat. He then marched around the crowd to ringside as Jason Knight and a few jobbers raced out to try and restrain Rhino from going after the Sandman. He posed with the cane over his head before nailing it on Rhino, Knight and a jobber, sending them all scattering. By this point, the lyrics had kicked in and you haven't lived until you've seen several hundred wrestling fans singing every word of "Enter Sandman." After the Players and their ilk had scattered, the crowd shifted to a massive "Welcome back!" chant before singing the song again.
It was a classic moment that no one in the arena that night could forget. It was a throwback to the classic ECW that fans remembered, one of the few truly great moments the promotion would provide. You Tube used to have a clip of it before it got yanked in the WWE-inspired legal purges a few months back. It's a shame that sort of thing couldn't be seen in the current ECW as it might have lasted longer.
Also around the columns on 411:
As noted, O'Dogg also talks about the failure of the new ECW.
Meehan gets the year in review stuff off early by taking a look at RAW in 2006.
JP joins in with the 10 Biggest stories of 2006.
The Fink looks at what indy talent to bring in.
Getting Over continues it's nice look at Monty Brown in WWE.
Piledriver Report looks at the growing WWE tag team scene.
Truth B Told talks about how it might be time for Cena to drop the belt.
Story Lines gets a new day as he examines Mick Foley's first book.
Evolution Schematic examines William Regal.
Don't forget Column of Honor, Week in Hardcore, Ask411, Triple Threat, Three 3's and the rest.
Gotta get my car stuff taken care of. For now, the spotlight is off.
