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Archive for the ‘Columns’ Category
Sunday, August 8th, 2010
AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
From the trivial to the not-so-trivial…
So let me get this straight.
WWE owns the word “extreme”? Even EVOO….er, EV 2.0?
Everyone knows that they have the legal right to the letters ECW; but now WWE, not being content to annhiliate TNA in buyrates, PPVs revenue, weekly ratings, and pretty much everything else short of match quality from time to time, now has intellectual property/copyright lawyer Jerry McDevitt chomping at the bit… suggesting that even a reference to ECW may infringe on copyrights.
Late last week, WWE intellectual property/copyright attorney Jerry McDevitt said in an interview to Newsday’s Alfonso Castillo regarding TNA’s Hardcore Justice that: “WWE is the sole owner of the ECW marks, and as with all of WWE’s intellectual property it will be vigorously protected. TNA acts at its peril if it infringes upon WWE’s rights.”
(Note: this column is written and first posted on Sunday morning…) For God’s sakes…does McDevitt want to have a process server slap fans with a lawsuit if they chant “ECW”? Does Tommy Dreamer have to shush fans if they DO chant it?
WWE getting self-righteous about this reminds me of a little child breaking a toy when it’s about to be taken away by their parent, so no one else can play with the toy either. WWE couldn’t make money with their bastardized WWECW show, so any show that might give a few guys a payday (and trust me, TNA isn’t going to wind up making money off of this) should somehow be threatened. If it weren’t for the PPV industry probably telling WWE to back off, I wouldn’t be surprised if WWE would have tried to kill the show at the last minute to kill off TNA.
Hell, I use the phrase ECW Arena every time when referring to the building at Swanson and Ritnet in south Philadelphia. Becasuse that’s what it is. Mind you, I’m not trying to make money by doing it as McDevitt is alleging TNA is doing. But these guys DID work for ECW. That’s a fact. Is WWE going to say that Mike Tenay and Taz can’t acknowledge someone as a former ECW Heavyweight Champion? Pre-determined as a title reign may be, someone having the belt is a statement of historical fact.
Before I get the inevitable e-mails scolding me…yes, I understand the concept of intellectual property. And yes, I agree that this PPV won’t accomplish much, since it was no doubt done with the thought that Paul Heyman would be coming in alongside the former ECW talent…and without Heyman running the show , it’s little more than a payday for the former ECW talent. It won;t help TNA’s long-term problems with lack of coherent storylines and profitability
But isn’t this threat by McDevitt to sue if those those three little letters are somehow used WAY past overkill?
Now for the not-so-trivial…
I looked at the calendar earlier this weekend and thought…Lord, it’s been almost five years ago.
On August 18, 2005, that CZW wrestler Christopher “Chri$ Ca$h” Bauman Jr. was killed as the result of a motorcycle accident near his home. Bauman had been riding a motorcycle on Ellis Street in Glassboro, NJ when a Ford Taurus turned in front of it from Higgins Drive, striking the car on the driver’s side of a vehicle driven by Daisy Gwin of Glassboro, NJ.
Christopher J. Bauman Jr., 23, died at the scene, as did his cousin 27 year old Jeremy Bauman, 27, of Franklinville, NJ the driver of the motorcycle. Gwin, 68, of Glassboro, died en route to Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Washington Township, NJ.
Chris was always genuinely friendly in a way that a lot of wrestlers aren’t, but had the wild side we all had at age 23. He was a nice young man, in every sense that the phrase used to mean; and always felt obligated to call me “Mr. Magee” when I came to a show (even when I told him he didn’t have to), would
always say hello when I saw him at a CZW show and tell me he’d seen something or another on my PWBTS.com site.
Bauman worked for CZW from 2001 through 2005, with many non-CZW fans even taking notice of him at Cage of Death 5 in his absolutely psychotic ladder match with Blackout’s Joker (who left the promotion shortly afterwards to serve in the US military over in Iraq for one of his tours of duty). The oddest thing is that this match wasn’t even supposed to happen in the way that it did; as it was originally scheduled as a tag team bout, involving Deranged and Azriael, who were working the Jersey All Pro Wrestling show in Rahway, NJ, then come down to Philadelphia for CZW.
But in an almost unprecedented moment for those who know CZW… the show was actually running ahead of schedule. As a result, Deranged and Azriael were not yet at the building. Another version of the story had the two calling the building, telling CZW they were just leaving…and were told not to bother, because they’d never make it in time. In any event, this forced the promotion to go ahead with a singles ladder match, which turned out to be the best thing that could have happened, as it made two stars for CZW in one night with Cash and Joker nearly stealing the entire show. Psycho spots in this match included Cash bulldogging Joker while his head was inside a rung of a ladder off the ropes onto a chair, a top rope superplex onto a ladder stuck at a 45 degree angle into the rungs of another ladder; ending with one of the sickest spots I’ve ever seen in my years of shows at the ECW Arena, as Joker hit his Joker Driver (tiger driver from an electric chair position) off the top of a high ladder with Cash through a table for the pin.
Cash also main evented Cage of Death 6/War Games, as part of the babyface Team Ca$h (Nate Webb, Sexxy Eddy, Cash, JC Bailey) against heel team (turned babyface and heel again) Blackout (Ruckus, Sabian, Kingston, and Jack Evans. As usual, the match featured the daredevil spots for which Cash was known throughout his all-too-short career; including dumping Jack Evans via backdrop off the COD to the floor, and giving Sabian a Cashflow off of the scaffold through four tables, landing in the second row of the ECW Arena.
All I could think when I heard the news four years ago was: God…Chris was easily young enough to be my son. Sons aren’t supposed to die before the parents…or their contemporaries. At the same time, I can’t imagine Chris as a 40 or 50 year old. His spirit was too free and wild to have ever been anything but young.
Until next time…
If you have comments/questions/event announcements/results, if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, or if you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), e-mail me at the address above. Advertising consists of banner ads, available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are also available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.
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Monday, July 12th, 2010
AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
In an emotional afternoon at the ECW Arena,”Acid-Fest” took place yesterday afternoon, before an estimated crowd of 750 honoring the late Michael “Trent Acid” Verdi. The Verdi family did attend, and were seated ringside with neighborhood friends up in one of the Arena boxes.
The afternoon started with a video of some of Acid’s best stuff; then in a surprise, Trent Acid was inducted into the ECW Arena Hardcore Hall of Fame by the ECW Arena during the opening ceremonies of the “Acid-Fest” Memorial show in Philadelphia, PA. His induction was done by CZW owner DJ Hyde, where Hyde talked about how much Acid loved wrestling and how much Acid appreciated his fans.
To open the show, Helter Skelter (with Missy Hyatt) won the Trent Acid Memorial Rumble. A VERY partial list of participants in the Rumble includes Balls Mahoney (replacing Axl Rotten), The Messiah, Matt Walsh, Kwame, Ron Starr, Earl Cooter, Nate Stein, Eddie Valentine, John Dahmer, Lil’ Greatness, Slayer, Deranged, Billy Angus, Danny Angus, The Rockin’ Rebel, Greg Matthews, Kid America, Flash Wheeler, Aramis, Cory Kastle, and “Dirty Deeds” Darren Wyse
Nick Berk/Z-Barr defeated Don Montoya/Robbie Mireno (with Reckless Youth). Both Mireno and Z-Barr were visibly breaking up at the beginning of the match.
Acid’s Angels (Missy Sampson/Annie Social/Amy Lee Murray) defeated Alere Little Feather/Roxie Cotton/Detox
In the Scramble Tag Match, the S.A.T. defeated Carnage Crew, H8 Club and Da Hit Squad. The shocker of the entire day was seeing Justice Pain coming out with real-life brother Nick Gage and Nate Hatred. The finish saw a killer Spanish Fly by the SAT on Monsta Mack
Homicide/B-Boy defeated Sonjay Dutt/Ruckus
In the main event, Johnny Kashmere defeated Devon Moore. Both were clearly having a hard time emotionally in the ring.
After the main event, all the afternoon’s participants assembled back in the ring, with gave Acid’s mother a check of $7.500 they raised at the show. This included the proceeds from the auction of a “spinner” watch personally donated by WWE´s John Cena.
This afternoon came off very well, and clearly honored Michael Verdi in a heartfelt, emotional way. The politics and personal bullshit that can all too often be a part of wrestling were left aside for at least one day by a number of people who have had long-lasting personal issues, ranging from family issues to professional ones.
I mentioned about something that happened back at CZW’s Tournament of Death only days after Acid’s passing where a ten bell salute for Trent Acid with Devon Moore and DJ Hyde (who was having a tough time getting through talking about Acid) in the ring. In a truly eerie moment for those of us sitting on one side of the area set up for the show (the one side where there were large trees providing some shade)…. as the ten bell sounded, the one cool breeze of the entire day came through our side of the seating (near a grove of trees) and stopped as the ten-bell ended.
When I looked at the family (one associated with CZW), they looked at me and said “Did you feel that too?”. There wasn’t a one of us who had a thought that it was anything but Trent Acid sending us a shout-out. Days later, I mentioned that via e-mail to CZW owner DJ Hyde who responded “I thought Devon and I were the only one who noticed that”.
CZW, Johnny Kashmere and all those responsible for “Acid-Fest” should be proud of what they did yesterday afternoon….they did it well. I suspect Trent was somewhere around watching and enjoying it all.
Until next time…
If you have comments or questions, or if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above.
If you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), banner ads are available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.
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Monday, June 28th, 2010
AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
CZW returned to “Markland’s Little Acres” in rural Townsend, DE for Tournament of Death 9 before a loud, large and enthusiastic crowd who got a hot day full of ultraviolence yesterday afternoon.
The day opened with a ten bell salute for Trent Acid with Devon Moore and DJ Hyde (who was having a tough time getting through talking about Acid) in the ring.
In a truly eerie moment for those of us sitting on one side of the area set up for the show (the one side where there were large trees providing some shade)…. as the ten bell sounded, the one cool breeze of the entire day came through our side of the seating (near a grove of trees) and stopped as the ten-bell ended. When I looked at the others I was sitting with (a family associated with CZW), they looked at me and said “Did you feel that too?”. There wasn’t a one of us who had a thought that it was anything but Trent Acid sending us a shout-out.
First round
JC Bailey defeated Danny Havoc after a Brainbuster onto light tubes wrapped in barbed wire.
In a “Weapons of Mass Destruction” match, Big Japan Pro Wrestling’s Abdullah Kobyashi defeated Hardcore Nick Gage by pinfall after hitting an elbow drop off the top onto Gage who had tubes on his chest. At one point Kobyashi decided to chew on the light tubes as calmly as if he was working on the celery sticks that come with your buffalo wings
Scotty Vortekz defeated Dyfunction after nailing Dysfunction with the Dragon Fly through a pane of glass
MASADA over Devon Moore (replacing Zandig who was injured in a recent car accident). In the one sour note of the day..while Zandig’s non-appearance was only known at 12 noon (or later to those at the venue)…3 hours before the scheduled event start time , which left CZW understandably unable to get a name substitute…the promotion could easily have told people when the show began. MASADA and Moore were pretty much screwed with the crowd reaction to Zandig’s no-show.
Non-tournament/Fans Bring The Weapons match
Switchblade Conspiracy (Sami Calihan/Joe gacy) over DJ Hyde/Greg Excellence after Excellence was powerbombed through a pane of glass covering a TV.
Semi-finals
In a 3 out of 5 Light Tube Log Cabin Death Match. JC Bailey defaeted Abdullah Kobyashi after breaking his third light tube log cabin by laying it on Kobyashi, follweod by a senton off the top rope
Scotty Vortekz defeated MASADA by pinfall
Non-tournament
Brain Damage over Drake Younger by pinfall Brain Damage hit Younger with a Package Piledriver.
Tournament finals
In a “Tables, Ladders, Light Tubes, and anything else they can find Deathmatch” (their words, not mine), Scotty Vortekz over JC Bailey to become the Touranament of Death winner
Despite all the assholes from rival promotions, and the nutjobs who don’t watch hardcore wrestling and don’t want to let anyone else watch it, including one loon sending me a set of e-mails from fake Gmail addresses telling me they were going to try and get Tournament Of Death cancelled, with the last one telling me I was “going to hell” for promoting CZW’s product…and claiming CZW’s Toys for Tots drives were “phony”…this event came off without a hitch Saturday.
News bulletin to the asshole with anonymous e-mail addresses: God has a lot bigger problems on Earth to deal with than hardcore wrestling. Oh, and those Marines who stood guard at the toy boxes last December didn’t think the Toys for Tots drive was phony. Three of the four who stood at that “phony” toy box are now on duty in Afghanistan. They have a lot more guts and have done more for their country than you’ll ever have.
Haters notwithstanding…kudos go out to David Markland and family, the CZW workers, and all the hardworking CZW staff for having an event that was fun and well-organized.
Until next time…
If you have comments or questions, or if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above.
If you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), banner ads are available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.
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Thursday, June 17th, 2010
AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
I was getting all ready to write about the NXT angle. Then, one of two things happened.
Either WWE is pulling off a really good work…or WWE has completely lost its mind, with the alleged claim on WWE.com that they fired Bryan Danielson due to the part of the NXT angle where he choked Juston Roberts with his own tie.
Various versions of the story claiming the firing is legit have everything from Justin Roberts threatening to sue WWE because he wasn’t in on the angle (doubtful since I can’t imagine Roberts wouldn’t have been fired on the spot if he’d tried it), advertiser Mattel was pissed off (possible, but hard to believe), all the way to… and I especially love this one, HHH raised hell because the two McMahon-Levesque daughters cried watching it.
If WWE has done something like this legitimately, they’ve given wrestling fans one more reason to find something else to do with their Monday nights.
The out-of-nowhere and God forbit DIFFERENT nature of the NXT angle is the one thing that gave wrestling fans with a IQ over 6 any degree of hope in recent weeks that WWE TV will be something other than Y7 programming. It’s gotten so bad that the write-out angle for Undertaker (out because of a broken orbital bone in his face in a match with Rey Misterio, Jr.) apparently can’t say Undertaker is “dead”. Instead, he’s said to be “in a vegetative state”, a dastardly deed done by who Creative thinks of (my bet here on Kane, since WWE wouldn’t actually do something that would elevate another wrestler).
Wonder if WWE is allowed to say that someone beat him up…or if WWE now makes them say that someone went “nyah” way too hard? Either that, or Undertaker tried to understand a Hornswoggle promo one time too many.
Guess I wasn’t too far off with my projected SummerSlam main event of Fuzzy Bunny against Sammy Squirrel in a “loser has to tell the other wrestler he’s nicer”.
Somewhere, L. Brent Bozell is laughing his ass off. Because WWE has done to itself whwt the Parents Television Council tried to do to them.
If we turn on our TVs Monday night and in coming weeks and this turns out to be legit, then people REALLY need to explore other options for their Monday night viewing. Hell, for the next month, you could DVR a World Cup match and watch it for the two hours RAW is on. Maybe, if the Mattel thing turnes out to be true, people could at least quit buying their toys. For Christ’s sakes, fans need to do SOMETHING to show they’re pissed if this is legit. The sad thing is that the people that are still wrestling fans and haven’t turned to MMA or sitcoms won’t do that. WWE could put on a test pattern or a best of Hornswoggle three-hour marathon and they’d still get a 3.0 from 9:00 11:08 pm.
People (usually with justification) make fun of TNA. About the only difference these days is that WWE makes money. Let WWE keep up crap like this, and THAT won’t last long….at least on the levels that the McMahons are used to making. PPV buyrates in North America are already going down. WWE makes money on PPV because of increased foreign marketing
Speaking of TNA, the 1,287,543th “big surprise” is scheduled for tonight. The two favorites online are TNA going to 3D broadcasting or Paul Heyman getting creative control. The last “surprise that would change wrestling forever” was Hogan coming back to TNA and supposedly running the show.
PLEASE let this be different. Please. Give us something to watch that won’t make us have to hide the fact we’re wrestling fans to our friends. Please.
Until next time…
If you have comments or questions, or if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above.
If you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), banner ads are available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.
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Saturday, June 12th, 2010
AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
As many readers, especially in the United States and Canada, know…Philadelphia’s Flyers are tied 2-2 in the Stanley Cup Finals as of this writing on Sunday. This is one more improbable step in a Stanley Cup Playoff series that has seen:
The Flyers’ two top scorers out hurt with broken feet, then coming back…
The top shot-blocking defenseman suffer the SECOND puck in the face this year while blocking a shot, suffering a brain contusion, then coming back from THAT…
A revolving door of 7 different goaltenders on the Flyers roster this season after multiple injuries…and yet another injury to the #1 goaltender, suffering two injured knees, yet coming back somehow from THAT…
Being behind 3-0 against the Boston Bruins, improbably coming back to tie the series 3 games apiece, then falling behind 3-0 in game seven and coming back from THAT…becoming only the fourth North American professional sports franchise to come back and win a playoff series after being down 3 gaems to none.
Being behind 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, and coming back Friday night to tie the series at 2-2.
If someone in Hollywood came up with this as the script for a movie, the script writer would be thrown out of the studio executive’s office. If it was used by WWE as a storyline by one of the writers, Stephanie McMahon would be pissed and try to get them to come with something more probable…like Evan Bourne beating HHH on RAW next week. But it’s all happened here in Philadelphia for real this spring and summer. Regardless of the way this all turns out Sunday and the rest of the week, they’ve given Philadelphia a thrill ride this city wil lremember for years to come.
Many have compared this 2009-2010 Flyers team to the legendary “Broad Street Bullies” Philadelphia teams of the mid-1970s; a team known for being the outlaws in a tradition-bound National Hockey League, winning through the brawling of Dave Schultz, Bob Kelly, Moose Dupont and Don Saleski along with the grit of Bobby Clarke, the scoring of Rick McLeish and Bill Barber, along with the coaching of eginmatic coach Fred Shero. They won the Stanley Cup in 1973-1974 and 1974-1975 and made the Finals in 1975-1976 (also beating the Soviet Red Army hockey team that year).
That team was memorialized in a HBO documentary called “Broad Street Bullies” that aired back in May (see it if you can…perhaps on your InDemand on cable or satellite). The Broad Street Bullies became the outlaws in the NHL As much as the league hated it, they were great for business in NHL cities that couldn’t draw crowds in those days. Fans would come to see their team beat the Philadelphia Flyers. The Bullies got death threats on a regular basis. Effigies of Flyers players were hung from the upper decks of arenas. Our Flyers were the league’s bad-asses, and gave a somewhat stagnant sports a badly needed lift.
The Flyers team of this era has far less brawling, due to NHL rule changes….rule changes which came largely out of the actions of those Broad Street Bullies teams, but have had more gutsy comebacks than an entire series of Rocky movies.
In many ways, the appeal of those Broad Street Bully teams and the current Flyers team fits right in with the appeal to Philadelphians of a certain wrestling promotion based in Philadelphia called ECW.
ECW succeeded because of Philadelphia’s mind-set, one seen in its love for the Broad Street Bullies…and in this year’s Philadelphia Flyers team. It was an outlaw promotion back in the mid-1990s, one seen by traditionalists as too violent and too hardcore.
It’s a city that has always had a blue-collar mentality, derived from the manufacturing sector that once existed in Philadelphia. Many of those manufacturing plants left Philadelphia, but the blue-collar mentality never has. Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods and strong allegiances to those neighboorhoods and to Philadelphia. That creates, in turn, a fierce loyalty to local sports teams…as long as those teams have the same kick-ass, hard-working mind set that Philadelphians have. Philadelphians love unique characters. They loved the local Mob bosses who were larger than life characters back in those 1970s. Hell, they even elected a cartoon character “law and order” type as Mayor in Frank Rizzo.
The Broad Street Bullies had that attitude in large helpings. They had Bernie Parent, superstar goalie, who would go and play street hockey with neighborhood South Jersey kids, and then go watch the Three Stooges. They had a whole squad of players known for hitting Rexy’s Bar in South Jersey nicknamed “Moose’, “Hound”, and “Big Bird”.
ECW clearly had that same attitude of the Bullies of the 1970s…and the current Flyers team. Hell, they even had the same kind of characters. It wouldn’t be a stretch to compare some of ECW’s roster to the legendary “Broad Street Bullies” (in terms of their respective roles). ECW had the brawlers like Schultz, Kelly, Dupont, and Saleski in Ted Petty, Johnny Grunge, Axl and Ian Rotten. For the talented Clarke, McLeish, and Barber, ECW had the talented Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and Dean Malenko. As for ECW’s Fred Shero, the master manipulator and philosopher whoe came up with motivational messages (such as the day of the first Stanley Cup win…”Win today and we walk together forever”); who else was better at making a group of guys do the impossible in wrestling on next to nothing than Paul Heyman?
ECW also had the strong real-life characters and personalities both literally and figuratively. A case in point was Jim Fullington whose Sandman character was 98% a shoot…who in real life used to call in to Philadelphia sports shows as “Hack”; and talk about the Phillies, Flyers or what have you like any other over-opinionated Philadelphia sports fan. Who he was wasn’t exactly a secret as his distinctive voice was pretty easy to pick up from sports stations like WIP. Still another (of the many) was Johnny Grunge whose fun-loving character was pretty much a 98% shoot, Grunge hung with the fans because he saw himself as one of them. His character in ECW was pretty much what you’d guess he’d like to see himself if he flicked on the TV and looked for wrestling.
Hopefully this column told a little about what those Broad Street Bullies teams of the mid-1970s, their current incarnation, and a scruffy hardcore promotion like ECW have in common and why they were all popular…in this crazy city called Philadelphia.
Until next time…
If you have comments or questions, or if you’d like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at the address above.
If you’d like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), banner ads are available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.
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Saturday, March 27th, 2010
By Jerome Wilen
Now that ECW is gone, what do I think the best wrestling night of the week is? It continues to be Tuesday nights. Even though WWE’s new so called reality based show NXT is scripted, the WWE has done an excellent job showcasing some younger talent and mixing them in with the veterans.
My hope is that despite the low ratings for this show, the WWE will ‘tweak’ it for the second season and make that much more interesting to watch. I still don’t think that the WWE belongs on the SyFy network. I do understand that NBC is trying to go after the younger demographic, but NXT might be a better fit on USA. I think they would be best to air on NBC itself, but that will never happen.
Yes, I miss ECW, but NXT will do just fine for me.
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Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
By Jerome Wilen
What I have felt has been the best wrestling night in televison has come to an end. Yes, while I do agree that the WWE version of ECW wasn’t working as a ratings draw. The hardcore longtime wrestling fans never really accepted the branded verison of ECW even when they first tried it with the TV-MA format back in 2006 and really drew criticism when the WWE changed last June back to TVPG. The big question was how could you make a program ‘extreme’ under a PG format? Being on at 10:00pm, they could have used a little blood and maybe a hardcore match or two which more moderate violence by still maintaining the PG theme.
The WWE could not re-create what Paul Heyman did with the original ECW. Would have things been different if the WWE used the WCW name instead? Probably not.
I will miss the show that I felt had the best action over RAW and SmackDown. I do look forward to ‘NXT’ which is a new version of tough enough that will makes it debut on February 23rd. I am excited to see some talent from Florida Championship Wrestling that have potetial to be the future of the WWE that could end up on RAW or SmackDown.
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Sunday, January 24th, 2010
By Jerome Wilen
ECW did it again this past week. ECW continues to be the show to watch. I wish that the WWE and SyFy would take a better look at this show and make it either two hours or back to the old school days and give it and extra 30 minutes. The main event with Christian and Ezekiel Jackson was great. I did not read the spoilers and I am glad that I didn’t. ECW takes me back to the old school days. The show is packed with great action and suspense.
The best part of the match was when Christian’s head was up against the ring post and Jackson kicked Christian in the face and the back of his hit the ring post. This is what the WWE and SyFy need to do more of to give the show that Extreme feel.
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Sunday, January 17th, 2010
By Jerome Wilen
The best wrestling action this week for WWE TV was once again ECW. There has been a lot of talk and spectulation that both SyFy and the WWE are going to re-brand ECW. Other rumors are that the WWE and SyFy could drop the ECW name or cancel ECW. The WWE and SyFy would be making a big mistake in cancelling this show. While I did not catch RAW, I did watch ECW and SmackDown. ECW had the best action and kept my interest for the entire hour.
ECW showcases a lot of very good young up and coming talent with a mix of veterans. While I do agree that the letters E-C-W really does not fit, a re-branded name might work better. The WWE could use WCW since they own the rights to the name, but it may devert people from watching who had a ‘bad taste left in their mouths’ when the company began to go sour in 1999.
They could showcase more talent from their developmental affiliate, Florida Championship Wrestling, using the FCW titles on TV, start the show an hour earlier again and expand it another hour and call it either FCW or Tuesday Titans which Andy Knowles from the Pro Wrestling Rewind radio show had suggested on a past show.
One talent on ECW that I think is getting overlooked is Byron Saxton who replaced Matt Stryker who went to SmackDown following Jim Ross leaving because of medical issues. I understand Byron was doing commentary at FCW. I like Byron’s neutral side. He supports both the heels and the faces, but tends to be that suttle heal like TNA attempted to do with Don West, but failed.
ECW deserves more credit that what it gets and the WWE should give it amore big time feel each week and more time on PPV.
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Friday, January 15th, 2010
By Jerome Wilen
Monday January 4th was a historic night. Two wrestling shows in the same night. It was the night of surprise which is something that has been missing from wrestling since the original Monday night war eight years ago – as you never knew who was going to show up on WCW Nitro when that show was in it prime before tanking in the ratings.
TNA not only took viewers from RAW, they also made the WWE step up their game, something that has been missing since Nitro went off the air. Having another show live on Monday nights brings out the best in Vince McMahon. Now reports indicate that TNA is going to have another live Monday night show in March.
TNA should not wait so long, as they can easily lose the momentum and not be taken seriously.
SPIKE should listen to Hogan and Bischoff, make the switch now.
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