Hello everyone and welcome to Week 2 of the only column that takes ECW on Sci-Fi and looks beyond the surface to catch what you may have missed during the show. That is, if you actually watch the show at all. Come on, let's be honest here. How many of you PWTorch readers regularly watch ECW? If it were my guess, it would be as many people who were fans of Braden Walker, and folks, that's not very many.
Whether you watched the show or not, join me as we take this week's ECW and put it Under the Microscope...
We start off this week with a rec ap of the ECW Title match at Summerslam. Here's a fact for you: Last Sunday night's match clocked in 33 seconds. This recap lasted 1 minute, 9 seconds. There is no excuse for a pay-per-view match, especially a world title match, lasting just over 30 seconds with a cheap, cop-out finish.
I'm not saying that this particular match sold viewers on buying the pay-per-view, however when fans are dishing out good money to see a show featuring what should be a culmination of a feud, you can not pass off a garbage finish like this and expect people to continue to buy into the product. As for the recap, the video focused on both Matt and Jeff Hardy standing tall after getting their revenge on ECW Champion Mark Henry.
Did you notice Matt Hardy appears in the ECW opening video eight times? Mark Henry, Finlay and Hornswoggle appear in the video six times as well.
Surprisingly, The Boogeyman appears in the video, if only once. Even more surprisingly, The Boogeyman still has a job. If they can get rid of guys like Big Daddy V and James Curtis, what is the reason for keeping him around?
Matt Striker provides viewers with the standard, "This could very well be the most important ECW broadcast of all-time" line to sell tonight's rematch between Henry and Hardy for the ECW Championship. Have you noticed that even though ECW is recognized as WWE's third brand (even if it's not always presented as equal to its counterparts), announcers have stopped referring to the belt as a "World" title? Despite this, while hyping the match, the commentators noted it could be Hardy's first "major" title win.
On Tuesday night, ECW came to you from the iWireless Center, formerly known as the Mark of the Quad Cities in Moline, Illinois. The arena was home to the WCW Great American Bash in 1997 and has held several WWE tapings over the years. This is a very historic venue.
While watching the Summerslam recap and the main event later on, did you notice that both Mark Henry and Matt Hardy wore the exact same clothes they wore at Summerslam? Hardy donned the same orange/brown cargo pants from last Sunday night and Henry defended his title in the same black tights outlined with gold trim that he wrestled in three nights ago. It's just an observation.
Speaking of clothing, have you also noticed that in every single appearance he's made on ECW, Tony Atlas has worn the same black suit? Hey, we're putting this show Under the Microscope, nothing is off limits, remember? Ton ight, Atlas took off his suit jacket to reveal a white short-sleeve shirt reminiscent of WWE road agent Mike Rotunda, otherwise and perhaps best known as evil tax-collector Irwin R. Schyster.
Just in case you missed it, Mike Rotunda and fellow road agent Dean Malenko were among the officials in the midst of a very good pull-apart brawl between Mike Knox and Finlay. Right before the physical exchange took place, did you notice Hornswoggle crawling underneath the ring? If you caught that, did you realize that Hornswoggle never crawled back out? Is poor Horny still underneath the ring, hiding from Mike Knox?
After watching John Morrison's entrance for over a year now, am I the only one who finds it interesting that he can affect speed of motion, but cannot slow sound? When Morrison does his pose on the stage, he starts moving in slow motion, while his music continues like normal. It's also good to see the inclusion of The Miz in his entrance did not hinder Morrsion's time-changing abilities.
During his entrance, Matt Striker referred to Chavo Guerrero as "the legendary Chavo Guerrero." As much as I respect Guerrero, I think Striker heaped a bit too much praise on him. Do I have to remind you of his days as Lieutenant Loco and Kerwin White? How can anyone forget Chavo's fixation on his wooden horse Pepe?
Todd Grisham then chimed in with this jewel: "Bam Neely is paid to protect and serve Chavo Guerrero." First off, when did Bam Neely become a police officer? Secondly, since Neely is an official part of the ECW roster, isn't he paid to you know, actually wrestle? By the way, is it just me or is Bam Neely the world's lousiest bodyguard? When was the last time he protected Chavo from anything? He always gets beat in his matches and always fails to save Guerrero when he's needed.
It just wasn't a good night for the ECW roster's wardrobe as Super Crazy entered the ring with his ECW t-shirt on backwards. The night featured Super Crazy's first appearance on the brand after being drafted from Raw back in June. Even though he was drafted to ECW, Super Crazy is supposedly listed as a Smackdown superstar. So, if he is on the Smackdown roster, then why is he appearing on ECW with an ECW shirt on? If he was really a part of the blue brand, wouldn't he support his home show? Even worse, when he does appear on Smackdown, he wears an ECW shirt! Are you confused by this as much as I am?
These are the types of risks you take when you go Under the Microscope!
Matt Striker proved to wrestling fans everywhere he has very little street cred, referring to Tommy Dreamer as the "O.G. of Extreme." The term "O.G." refers to "Original Gangster," or someone who has been around for a while. While I don't agree with Striker's word choice, he does bring up a good point. Dreamer is a former ECW World and Tag Team champion, with Raven, Masato Tanaka, and believe it or not, Tom Brandi.
Striker dug up another old school wrestling reference this week as he mentioned The Miz and John Morrison as being in the same class of rulebreaker tag teams such as the tandem of Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. Anderson and Blanchard found success as part of the Four Horsemen stable in the NWA and later as the Brain Busters in WWE. They are notable for being the first team in wrestling history to win the NWA and WWE tag team titles.
Does anyone else find it intriguing WWE just now devoted the Raw Rebound segment to feature the Chris Jericho-Shawn Michaels feud, even though those two have, without a doubt, had the best feud in all of wrestling for the last three months?
Does anyone else find it even more intriguing that even though ECW is the clearly the least watched of WWE's three brands, the show never gets an ECW Rebound segment on any of its sister shows?
Gavin Spears also made his first appearance as part of the WWE roster, although he's no stranger to appearing on WWE television. The self-proclaimed "crown jewel of ECW" has wrestled several times on Heat against Rosey, Gregory Helms and Super Crazy. He was a licensed blackjack dealer in Canada before he got his start in wrestling. Spears trained with TNA star "Showtime" Eric Young. Hopefully he won't turn into a superhero in his WWE run.
Aaron Davis made his WWE refereeing debut last night as part Teddy Long's New Superstar Initiative. Matt Striker had to hand it to Long on the success of the initiative, calling it "wildly successful." Remember Braden Walker? Me neither. I know, two Walker references in one column may be a little much. I'll lay off the guy, at least for this week.
On a serious, general note on the entire brand, have you ever thought to yourself that if WWE made the ECW brand a serious priority, perhaps the show could perform better in the ratings? I'm not talking about making the show the level of a Smackdown or Raw, but all I'm asking for is an obvious attempt to make ECW look like a serious brand and not a joke like it has been treated for the past two years.
Just think, if WWE really wants to do something with the brand, they have a solid roster and a few guys to really build the brand around. If they continue to produce quality shows like what we saw last night, featuring first-run content, instead of the usual segment-long Raw and Smackdown recaps, then ECW can carve its niche and develop a devout, loyal fan following every Tuesday night. It's just an observation.
That does it for our weekly look at ECW "Under the Microscope." If you have any suggestions, complaints, praise, or anything to get off your chest, please feel free to drop me a line at Sironsim@aol.com. All feedback is appreciated. Thank you for reading, and join me next week as we take yet another road trip through the Land of Extreme.
Michael Simmons has been a wrestling fan for 17 years. He likes to think he has a pretty inquisitive mind. Quite often, he goes into deep thought about some of wrestling's greatest mysteries. You know, thought provoking questions like, "If the Boogeyman hails from the Bottomless Pit, how does he crawl out of the pit for his matches?" If you know the answer, please e-mail him at Sironsim@aol.com.
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