Introducing myself and thoughts on WWE's ECW (or WWECW)

Hello there.

Welcome to Behind The Barricade, my blog.

Who am I? I'm Mike Tedesco - a wrestling fan for as long as I can remember. I started watching wrestling at a very young age. I've attended numerous wrestling events all around the Tri-State area. I've attended many RAWs (I was there when Bischoff debuted and when Kane unmasked) and Smackdowns (I was there for the ill-fated Al Wilson funeral, unfortunately). I've attended shows for many local promotions, even an NWA event down in Wildwood, NJ. I was there at WrestleMania XX and Summerslam 2007 - I even sat front row at King of the Ring 2001! If you have the video I'm dead center in the ring wearing the red shirt and black hat, right in front of the legendary Tye Dye Guy.

I also run a Fantasy Wrestling website with my friends. If you'd like to join up with that I'll be sure to post when we'll be starting another season. In addition to that I'm a well of useless wrestling knowledge.

Having watched wrestling for so long and surfing the "dirt sheet" websites and reading columns written by fellow wrestling fans it's only natural that I'd want to follow in that trend and post my opinions for the world to see.

OK, now that I've clarified my wrestling credentials, we can get on with this.

Behind The Barricade begins NOW.

So what should be my first discussion? That's a tough question. Whatever I discuss first will be the first impression you people get of me and a first impression is a lasting impression... or so I've learned from selling cars.

OK, for my first column I'm going to discuss what went wrong with Vince McMahon's version of ECW. I know, I know. It's a topic that's been discussed over and over again by many wrestling journalists but dammit this is my blog and I want to get my opinions on it out there.

There's numerous points I'd like to bring up on why I play "Funeral For A Friend" on my piano every time I watch ECW but first I'll offer a brief history of how this ECW came into fruition.

It all started in 2004 when WWE produced the documentary "The Rise and Fall of ECW", probably one of the best DVDs they've ever come out with that isn't a Pay Per View. It sold like hotcakes and if I'm not mistaken it's still one of the best selling wrestling DVDs that has ever been produced. That showed Vince that there is an audience out there that still loves ECW and would want to see it back.

McMahon took the cue and BAM - we have an ECW reunion show titled "ECW: One Night Stand" in 2005. What a show it was! I still remember like it was yesterday racing to my friend's house just to see it (I'm too cheap to buy an actual Pay Per View, but that's another column). Awesome show even with WWE trying to throw it's stars in there and, from my understanding, it did awesome buyrates - probably beyond what WWE was expecting.

Towards the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 there were rumblings on the Internet community that ECW was going to come back and get a TV deal. Finally we'd have our ECW back! Our ECW that TNN robbed us of before ECW went bankrupt.

June 2006 comes and we have ECW: One Night Stand Part II. It didn't quite capture the magic of the previous year in my opinion but we now had confirmation that ECW had a TV deal on the Sci Fi channel and Rob Van Dam was WWE Champion.

Everyone expected RVD to do on the first episode what Shane Douglas did in 1994 with the NWA Title - throw it down and declare himself ECW Champion. That would have been awesome and I completely understand why WWE ultimately vetoed that idea but if Vince McMahon was really committed to seeing ECW succeed, why wouldn't he take a chance and allow ECW to make a statement by separating itself from RAW and Smackdown and truly become a separate entity? That was the WWE's first mistake fatal mistake.

The second happening that would ultimately lead to ECW failing was all at the fault of Rob Van Dam and Sabu. RVD, WWE Champion AND ECW Champion, and Sabu, ECW icon, were arrested for Marijuana possession. McMahon, understandably so, was pissed and that Monday's RAW RVD lost the WWE Championship to Edge in a Triple Threat Match also involving John Cena and the next night on ECW he lost the ECW Championship to The Big Show, of all people. Van Dam was then suspended for 30 days and Sabu stayed. What would follow over the next 30 days that RVD was gone were unbelievably terrible title defenses with Big Show facing off against Sabu, the highlight of their terrible feud being at Summerslam 2006. I believe Paul Heyman even dressed up as a purple gorilla during this feud and interfered in a match dressed as such. I'm not kidding.

The next dismal failure of ECW was the unfortunate December To Dismember. It did what it was intended to - completely dismember any hope the fans had of ECW coming back. The undercard, with the exception of The Hardyz vs. MNM, was atrocious. Absolutely unbearable. Then the Main Event - The EXTREME Elimination Chamber. The only thing extreme about that match was how horrible it was. You had Sabu taken out of the match and replaced with the hack Hardcore Holly. The match didn't even have a chance to succeed. You had the fan favorite CM Punk, who was undefeated at the time, being the first one eliminated and then shortly after that Test - yes, the same Test who Mick Foley lambastes in all of his books - eliminates Rob Van Dam. Then Bobby Lashley comes out, tears through everyone in about two minutes and wins the ECW Championship in one of the final straws the broke the camel's back in the eyes of the true fans. This was the Pay Per View that led to Paul Heyman leaving the WWE, sealing ECW's fate.

Since then we've seen Vince McMahon of all people win the ECW Championship, the emergence of the New Breed led by the extremely sloppy Elijah Burke, Johnny Nitro change his name to John Morrison in one of the biggest "WHY?" moments of 2007 and CM Punk get jobbed over and over again and his title run never given the proper due it deserved. How much worse can it get? Paul Heyman deep down must really be upset.

A few weeks ago, The Sun posted an interview with Paul Heyman and in it he discussed what he originally wanted to happen in the Main Event of December To Dismember and if McMahon didn't disagree with it the show would have actually been really good!

That's what makes me think that Vince McMahon, the genius promoter who brought WWE from being a regionally based promotion to a global phenomenon, only brought back ECW because he wanted to vanquish the ECW chants that would occur after a tremendous spot at all the events. He succeeded. I hear no more ECW chants. A sad reminder of that was when I was watching ECW last night and Tommy Dreamer was pounding on his chest to get fans to chant ECW and you couldn't hear a thing. "If the fans want ECW I'll give them MY ECW or they won't get it at all!" is what I can imagine Vince saying. I'd rather not have it.

How do you fix ECW? How do you fix something that is this broken?

I truly believe that you can't. It seems to me that WWE doesn't even want to fix it. They're content with ECW being a show like Heat, only televised. The ECW Championship means absolutely nothing - if it did Chavo Guerrero, ECW Champion, wouldn't have been in the Royal Rumble match. I call it the European Championship because that was another title that was viewed as a joke.

The only way to save ECW is for it to lose it's TV deal and go quietly into the sunset and let those fans of the original ECW keep whatever memories they have left of what it was like in the good ol' days.

Of course that won't happen.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my first column. Please feel free to shoot me some feedback - if you think it was good, if you agree or disagree. Anything would be a big help in helping me make this column be the best it can possibly be.

Until next time, wrestling fans.