WWE Wrestling Discussion thread...

[avatar]

If it was a real ECW crowd Cena'd be booed out of the building.

They don't care. A response is better than no response and Cena isn't being booked as a heel.

[Korly]

Post-Smackdown scores:

Rank Team Score Average
1 genericname.com 1169
2 Team Korly 1151
3 TRiPLE BREAK INC. 1041
4 Chucker Would! 1002
5 Thompson's Teeth 972
6 Team CEO Advocate 846
7 team avatar 826
8 'Roid Rage 766
9 Team Kennedy! 618
10 blaze fire 435
11 E-Town Drunks 351

ECW (WEEK 5, 6/22/06)

In regards to ECW, the Fantasy Board has reached a determination on “extreme rules.”

On ECW on Sci Fi, Joey Styles and Tazz have repeatedly said that “ECW rules means anything goes.” Normally in WWE, this would fall under the category of a Specialty Match. However, it would be unfair to make every ECW match a Specialty Match, as that would virtually make ECW Rebels higher scorers than RAW or SmackDown Superstars and skew scoring completely.

Likewise, it would be just as unfair to not do that, as the use of foreign objects is rampant and encouraged in ECW. As such, the ECW Rebels could again become the “best” scorers simply from object use.

So in the interest of finding the best way to avoid Fantasy becoming centered solely around ECW, the Fantasy Board has made the following ruling effective in Week 6 of Season 7:

On ECW programming, foreign object use will be considered inherent to any match; therefore, ONLY foreign objects used before or after the bell or during a non-match segment will be scored. Furthermore, specialty match points will only be awarded if the match alters standard ECW match rules (as in any WWE Specialty Match).

For Weeks 1-5, no retroactive points will be awarded and no points already awarded will be taken away. While it is understood this decision may not be popular or conventional, the Fantasy Board believes that this is the best way to address the issue at this time and will revisit the decision prior to next season if necessary.

Kelly and the Little Bastard have been added to Fantasy. And Mr. Kennedy now has his Kenton Bomb as a valid finisher.

We've got a PPV on Sunday night, and that's where the real points will come from.

You can check out the latest edition of WWE Fantasy Weekly (with special guest host Steve Romero) on your Fantasy homepage.

[Jeremy]

The reason for OJ's firing is now crystal-clear.

[Tommy Tallarico]

The reason for OJ's firing is now crystal-clear.

o rly?

[Chux]

homo rly

GET IT?!

[avatar]

On ECW programming, foreign object use will be considered inherent to any match; therefore, ONLY foreign objects used before or after the bell or during a non-match segment will be scored. Furthermore, specialty match points will only be awarded if the match alters standard ECW match rules (as in any WWE Specialty Match).

So for example none of the weapon attacks that took place during that ECW battle Royale would have counted?

[jonas]

Remember how good tag team wrestling was? Well relive:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lnOhm5iK0-o&search=WWF

I wish Vince would hire a bunch of teams. Give us 6 teams who AREN'T going to be broken up.

[pdapuffin]

Super Card is a miniature mobile GBA(SP) file Manager and Bakup device. Fore backuping files it uses Mini-SD. It will allow you to run a variety of software, Play Game, Watch movie, E-book, Music and Photo albums.

Features:

Game save file store in SD card. Can save game into SD card at any time. Never losing game save. Without game save space limit
Plays movies, music, FC games and e-books on your GBA or Nintendo DS
This product is not licensed, endorsed or sponsored by Nintendo
Support Real Time Save
Detail:
***Spam link removed***

[Korly]

I wonder if he just looked for the thread with the most posts, and dumped his advertisment here.

Pretty funny that.

[Korly]

JOHN CENA FANS FIGHT WITH THEIR ECW COUNTERPARTS IN PHILLY - AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE NEW ECW'S DEBUT AT THE OLD ECW ARENA
by Slade Bracey

ECW fans are nothing, if not passionate. They love the company, the personalities who built it, and the legacy it carries in the world of professional wrestling. And because of this passion, they want only what is best for the promotion and desperately seek to protect their fond, maybe overly grand, memories what ECW once was. Saturday night was supposed to be the another in a long line of those fond ECW memories, when ECW, after 5 and half years, through a total collapse, a complete takeover and 2 revivals, finally made it back home to the corner of Swanson and Ritner in the depths of South Philly. It was supposed to be the victory party, when everything was finally set right with the world, but what ended up happening was something far different.

Walking back into Viking Hall/ECW Arena/New Alhambra Arena, I was shocked to see how understated the setup was for the show. A WWE-produced version of ECW was actually less heavy on production than your average CZW show. They made no use of the Arena's video-screens, and used the automated moving lights on sparingly during the course of the show. I took that as a positive sign of things to come, as it seemed to emphasize a return to classic ECW form - stripped down and straight forward. The only noticeable addition that WWE made to the standard setup was floor matting. But even that small addition, which is put there for the safety of the performers, caused early grumblings in the crowd that would manifest themselves further as the show went on.

The show opened not with something fitting, like say, the AWOL duo of Joey Styles and Tazz welcoming everyone to the show and taking in their praise for finally making it back home, but rather with an ominous pre-recorded message from the WWE regarding photo and recording policy, as well as the standard legalese that waived us of our image rights in case the SINGLE HANDHELD CAMERA might have panned by us. I found it mind-boggling that they wouldn't at least want to film the show for posterity's sake, as we all expected it to be a truly special evening for everyone involved. Again....more foreshadowing of the night to come.

Following the announcements from the great lawyer in the sky, and the subsequent, semi-hypocritical "F*** You Vince" chants, we heard the opening chords of the classic ECW theme song...."Bodies" by Drowning Pool, and were greeted with the sight of legendary ECW announcer Justin Roberts making his way to ringside. And if you can't feel the sarcasm oozing of the back half of that sentence, I feel for you. Roberts got tormented throughout the night, mainly with a near constant "You Suck D***" chant anytime he got near a microphone. If anyone could tell half the roster's generic entrance music apart from one another, they probably would have continued straight through the introductions as well.

The opening match featured a classic ECW tag rivalry renewed as the Full Blooded Italians of Tony Mamaluke and Little Guido (minus Trinity and Big Guido) taking on the last ECW Tag Team Champions, Danny Doring and Amish Roadkill. The crowd and the wrestlers seemed to have fun dusting off the old "Where's My Pizza ?" and "You F*** Sheep" chants. The match was an entertaining way to start the show, albeit a bit shorter than anyone would have hoped for. There was a strong "Tracy Smothers" chant going for a minute in the match, but any similar chants for JT Smith were poorly-received. The highlight of the match was Roadkill, who was in position for a top rope splash on Tony Mamaluke, opting to walk about 1/4th of the way out along the rope and dive onto Little Guido, who dodged and left Danny Doring to take the full-force of the dive. Everyone involved put in a solid effort for the short time frame they had to work with, but they set the overall tone of the show as well - it was fun to see the old faces, but the storylines and characters are so underdeveloped at this point that it felt like a throwaway match.

Next up was the unassuming ECW debut of the next great wrestling superstar - CM Punk, taking on Stevie Richards. Crowd put Punk over huge during his entrance, breaking into big "CM Punk" chants as soon as they recognized the familiar strains of "Miseria Cantrae" by AFI. The crowd definitely made Punk feel like an established upper-level talent right out the bat. The match itself was a slow burner, with Punk breaking out a lot of headlocks early on. For as much as Punk had the crowd in his pocket for the entrance, a good bit of them were vocally unimpressed with most of this match. Not a bad contest by any means, but definitely tight on time and worked very safely by both men. You can't blame them either - there's no storyline reason (outside of a one-off angle in ROH) for these two to tear into each other, and there's no cameras rolling to make a big risk worth taking. Punk teased the crowd with an attempt at the Pepsi Plunge, his old top-rope Pedigree finish, which Stevie wiggled free from. Punk got out on 2 after the Stevie kick, and eventually cinched in the Anaconda Vice submission, for the quick tap out. Afterwards, both men shake hands and Stevie leaves the ring for Punk to soak in the cheers. Anyone with half a brain can see that Punk is going to be one of, if not THE top guy in ECW within a year or so. His connection with audiences is effortless, and his work in-ring is first-rate, especially when you give him a good storyline to work with.. Expect big things.

Following up the future of the business was a steep regression in the form of an "Extreme Bikini Contest" between Francine, Trinity and Kelly. The crowd gave Franny the requisite love that every ECW alumnus received, but wasn't wildly into her. Trinity got the middle of the road reaction one would expect for an unestablished character. But the joy in this match came in listening to the crowd boo Kelly out of the building. If we can't convince WWE to drop her from the ECW roster, at least we can finally vocalize our displeasure with it. The rest of the segment was pretty well formulaic, with Francine winning the contest and catfights breaking out. The crowd was pretty well over the segment until Trinity threw Francine to the outside and went for a moonsault press from the top, at which point Francine side-stepped the move entirely and Trinity took an absolutely hellacious bump to the floor. Franny turns her attention to Kelly again, which leads to Mike Knox charging the ring and pie-facing Francine. Out come Balls Mahoney to defend her honor and an impromptu match is on...

The crowd was all over Knox during the match, chanting "No one knows you" and "You can't wrestle" for most of his offense. The bulk of this match was nothing to write home about. The only notable point of this match was the continuation of what seems like a burgeoning storyline for referee Mike Posey, reworking Bill Alfonso's old role as the straight-laced official stuck in an lawless environment who is still making straight-laced calls during the matches. The finish saw Posey try to stop Balls from using the chair, which led to Balls trying to explain that anything goes in ECW, and the crowd chanting "Hit the ref", Balls looks like he's about to deliver on the request and gets rolled up by Knox for the 3. Post-match, Balls tries again to crack Posey with chair, but Posey scrambles to safety.

In the last match before the break, CW Anderson made his return to ECW, looking much healthier than he did at the last Hardcore Homecoming, to take on Sabu. Nothing really surprising in crowd reactions here - plenty of respect for CW, massive amounts of adoration for Sabu, and plenty of anti-Cena chants that would come into play later in the evening.. It was standard fare for both guys, with Sabu getting the win with a gorgeous Arabian facebuster on a slanted table. Like everything else on the card, it was a solid effort, but it just felt like a throwaway match. It lacked the time to really draw the crowd in, and didn't have anything resembling storyline development. This show is prime evidence as to why ECW needs to get away from RAW post- Vengeance. Heyman has to reestablish all of these characters with the audience and reset the battle lines in short order, essentially cramming years of work into 11 more weeks of TV. Even a few short promos during the show would have made a world of difference - why does CW want a match with Sabu? What does he have to gain? Everything felt thrown together so randomly that it was hard to get into the matches much more than cheering the highspots and booing the restholds. And with the seemingly clipped matches, it was even hard to do that.

Post-intermission, we get more harassment of Justin Roberts, followed by "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" and the arrival of Justin Credible. I found it kind of strange that both Credible and CM Punk can use unlicensed copy-written music for entrances, but the Sandman is still relegated to the generic metal entrance. Despite the lack of "Enter Sandman", the crowd still pops huge for Sandman. The match is a "Dueling Singapore Cane" bout, which is a bit misleading as there was only one cane in the ring for much of the match. It was short and forgettable, with Sandman getting the win via White Russian Legsweep.

At this point, it seemed the crowd had finally had enough of the lack of wild action that defined the original ECW. Loud chants of "This Show Sucks" broke out as Justin Roberts re-entered the ring. And as if on cue, "This Is Extreme" comes blaring over the house system and out comes Paul Heyman to rally his wandering flock. Heyman talks about how this moment is one he's been dreaming of since December of 2000 when ECW last ran the Arena. It's largely a mutual admiration society, with Paul even jumping out the ring to lay a large man-hug on Hat Guy and Hawaiian Shirt Guy in the front row. He says that despite the fact that the Sandman's music sucks (prompting a loud "Yes it does" chant in return) and the fact that there's a stupid stripper on TV every week, the fact remains that ECW is actually alive once again, and that alone should supersede all the negatives. This began to feel like one of the legendary Heyman morale speeches at this point, with Heyman stressing the importance of ECW fans attending the July 4th TV taping at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. He urged fans to skip the July 3rd combined RAW/Smackdown taping at the same building, and make sure that the July 4th show isn't populated by the kind of audiences they've been working with at the Smackdown tapings for the past two weeks.

There was definitely a vocal minority that wasn't buying into Paul's speech - crying sellout and telling Heyman that he sucked. Heyman tried to address them by making jokes out them, but at times it did seem genuinely hostile. It was almost surreal to see an ECW Arena crowd turning on Heyman, even in minor fashion, and then resuming singing his praises. Heyman then introduces Tommy Dreamer, putting over Tommy's loyalty to the ECW until the very end and telling the audience that Dreamer deserved "the biggest pop this building has ever heard." Dreamer comes out to his generic WWE reworking of "Man In The Box." Like Heyman before him, Dreamer and the crowd engage in a mutual admiration society, with plenty of "Thank You Tommy" and "Welcome Home" chants. Dreamer tells a story of how early in the day, his daughter, Brianna, took a nasty spill that caused JT Smith-esque swelling on her head. Even though the doctors had Ok'd her to leave hospital, Dreamer wanted to say with his daughter through the night, even if meant skipping the Arena show. He then told the crowd, with tears welling in his eyes, how his wife Beulah looked him dead in the eyes and said "Tommy...it's the ARENA." Dreamer went on to stress how amazing it was to be back in the building and that everyone from fans to wrestlers - in the building or elsewhere - were a family. Dreamer says that if you can make it in the Arena, you can make it anywhere and calls out Big Show to see if he can pass the litmus test of the Arena.

This match was probably the most engaging match of the entire show, if only because it was the only one with any actual back story behind it. The Arena crowd HATED the Big Show and let him know it from the time he walked out until the time he went through the curtain. Tons of "F*** You Big Show", "You Can't Wrestle", "You Still Suck" and "Don't Come Back" chants for Show. The match itself saw Tommy take his classic amount of punishment, and brawling through the crowd, where Dreamer repeatedly slammed Show's head off the brick wall of the Arena at the top of the South bleachers. Eventually, the two worked their way back into the ring (but not before Show could smack the hat off of Hat Guy on the way back), and brought out some plunder like stop signs and trash cans. At one point, Show tried to throw the trashcan out of the ring and ended up bouncing it off the top rope, prompting a loud "You f***** up" chant that enraged Show, causing him to throw the trashcan down the aisle, almost to the entrance. Dreamer hit the DDT for a 2, followed by Show press slamming him to the outside through a table for a 2 count. The finish came when Dreamer attempted a Spicolli Driver, but couldn't lift Show, leading to a chokeslam through a table and the aforementioned "Don't Come Back" chants leading Show to the back. The crowd exchanged more love with Dreamer and we were, roughly 2 hours into the show, on our way to the main event.

Unannounced, we were greeted with the pleasant surprise of Dean Malenko refereeing the semi-mystery main event, which turned out to be Kurt Angle vs. Rob Van Dam. While I was certainly excited to see it, I hope they realize this is the big money match for ECW, and needs a good slow build if they're going to do it on TV or PPV in the future. Angle got a mixed reaction for sure, while Van Dam was almost unanimously greeted like a conquering hero back from war. This was the type of match that seems intentionally booked to steal the show and hopefully make the audience forget how lackluster the rest of the show really was. Much of the early part of the match was dominated by dueling "F*** You Angle"/ "Let's Go Angle" that seemed to go on for 5 minutes straight. Lots of great mat work by both men at the start, and slowly working it's way into more of what the crowd expected, spot-wise. Plenty of action without going all out the night before a major PPV. RVD broke out a lot of the old chair spots including the skateboard, the Van Daminator, and even countering the Ankle lock with a chair shot. RVD takes the match clean with the 5 Star Frog Splash. Van Dam soaks it all in and the show comes to a close...or so it would seem.

After Van Dam heads to the back, the crowd begins to file out of the building, with quite a few people knocking over chairs and grumbling about the show. Roughly 2 minutes into filing out the building, all hell breaks loose near the entrance way as a group of about 10 people get into a wild fistfight. And do you know why they got into a fistfight ? Because a few of them had started a small John Cena cheer during Heyman's speech. And to top it off, someone recklessly throws a chair into the scuffle and ends up hitting someone that was just trying to get away from the whole situation. Security eventually breaks it all up and scatters the instigators outside. And what do you know? One of the geniuses picks ANOTHER fight right outside the building with a completely different person because of the same pro-Cena sentiment. As I said before, ECW fans are great because they're passionate about the product, but at the same time - they can also be some of the outright dumbest pieces of garbage around.

Say this aloud to yourself, "There was fistfight because one guy said he liked John Cena."

Sounds even dumber than when I type it.

Tonight felt like a first time-last time situation for ECW at the ECW Arena. The crowd, by and large, was not thrilled with the show, and showed it on the way out of the building. The July 4th taping at the Wachovia Center is an almost guaranteed bomb of a show, which could seriously affect WWE's willingness to run ECW in the Philadelphia market in the future. If tonight didn't confirm that the old ECW is dead and buried, I don't know what will. Tonight's event was a very good Smackdown house show. The rebel spirit isn't coming back any time soon. But that's not to say the show wasn't enjoyable, you just have to have the realistic expectations of what it will be before you go to see ECW live. You'll get a few tables, a couple chairs, and not much blood, if any. The wrestling will be good, but not long enough to be great. The little things that made ECW great will be done all wrong, and that may affect your enjoyment off the show. It may seem as though wrestlers are put together at random, and only vaguely defined as characters. The show may just plain underwhelm you.

But if you believe Paul Heyman, and in my heart, I'd really like to....the important part is ECW is alive and running, even if it is with some compromises. And maybe, if you still want to buy into Paul's word, those compromises really will lose out in the end.

So if you're a real ECW fan, and you're saying to yourself that you're passionate about the product - have the passion to let this project grow again. It's 3 weeks old for Christ's sake. If there is no improvement in 3 months time, then I'll gladly admit that the naysayers were right. But the vibe I got coming out the Arena tonight was that ECW was dead in the water with a dud of a house show. It seems like the fans that built the company have turned and walked away at the first sign of faltering.