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Loss

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  3. I take it another wrestler has taken on Psicosis' old gimmick. Maybe that's ancient news, who knows, I'm sort of out of it as it relates to lucha. I wish I had answers to some of this, but I'm thinking maybe Tim or Kevin Cook will know.
  4. Blue Meanie comments on JBL stiffing him:
  5. Where was that said? This kid said what he "heard", which is different from seeing the PPV. Watching the PPV, RVD didn't come across as "whiny" at all. Do you post there? If so, you might tell him that RVD was supposed to take the title from HHH at Unforgiven '02 in an effort to build the show around him, but HHH didn't want to do the job.
  6. I do think those are exceptions. The crowd has been ready to accept Rob as a top guy for some time. Considering the Goldbergian heat he was getting in 2001, it still blows my mind that they missed the boat on making him the new top star.
  7. The "Stone Cold" character really wasn't an ECW thing, though. Austin was still the same Austin he was in WCW, just with the gloves off and the opportunity to show that he was an awesome promo guy. Crazy looked the best of the three in the match, and the other two have been with the company for some time now. I'd suggest putting Crazy on RAW to feud with Taijiri, since that makes the most sense and could revitalize both guys, but really, what's the point without them having a juniors title to fight for on that show? I did mention steroids and painkillers when we talked about it a little bit more after the show, but at first, the guy was trying to chat about life when Rob Van Dam was shooting on the creative team. He needed to keep quiet. I've noticed that almost all casual fans never shut up during pay-per-views, and I'm the type that hates people talking during wrestling. Styles could have handled the final bit of commentary. Foley left the booth anyway to throw Bischoff to the wolves, and he still would have been doing a promo at ringside. I just really hate that Austin is still so protected and buries everyone every time he's around, despite his days in the ring being long over.
  8. So I had a change of fortune at the last minute and was able to see One Night Stand in all its glory. Overall, I'll say this -- the show *should* be a wakeup call to WWE, not because they need to give ECW another chance, not because they need to hire anyone specifically, not because they need to change their wrestling style even, but because it shows that when you really make an attempt to do something different, it will be appreciated. Wrestling fans will be loyal and they will support a good product. There were so many elements in place that I have to give the show props for -- I never once felt like my intelligence was being insulted; when the crowd did something unexpected, the announcers *acknowledged* it; backstory was explained and there was a strong effort made to keep continuity; wrestlers were encouraged to be gritty and heartfelt. The show had a messy, chaotic feel to it that benefitted it tremendously. WWE is so polished and planned, and while this was every bit as planned as a typical WWE show, maybe even moreso, it came off as being far more spontaneous. Fans who ordered the show no doubt knew they were watching something truly special, and they were made an important part of the show. There was never an attempt to override them to stick to any type of pre-planned vision; this was "real", at least as real as pro wrestling can be. I just hope this served as a wakeup call to those who have the power to change things in WWE that fans are willing and able to invest themselves emotionally in a storyline, in characters and in a company. There's another point I want to make, and I think it's an important one. Individually, everything was pretty ordinary on this show. Jericho/Storm was the best of the workrate matches, which should tell you everything you need to know. Rey/Psicosis and Benoit/Eddy were the worst matches those guys have ever had against each other. However, and this is the key, the strength of the entire show was so much greater than the sum of its parts, and that's what makes it work. That's why the crowd chants "EC-Dub!", because all the experiences and matches and interviews taken together as one viewing somehow manages to work. Compilations don't do it justice, and I'd never for a second suggest any of this stuff be put on a comp of any kind, and unless one was striving to make a "Worst of the Vanilla Midgets" set, so my recommendation is to watch the show from start to finish. Great wrestling is going to be minimal, if not totally absent, but this is how you put together a card from top-to-bottom. The structure, the build, the timing, the sequencing ... the bad seems tolerable and the good seems great because of it. Proof that Jim Cornette is a wrestling genius is evident once again -- it's like he's always said: wrestling isn't about the content, it's about the presentation. Joey Styles coming out at the beginning was a nice touch. There's a time to call him on the carpet for being a fucking hypocrite even working this show, considering the way he's used his available forum to bash WWE in recent times, but he added a lot to the show, and it wouldn't have been the same without him. Mick Foley ROCKED as a color commentator -- he was subdued enough to never overshadow the product, but he was still very much Mick. Get him on RAW and put Jerry Lawler elsewhere, and do it pronto! First match of the night was Chris Jericho against Lance Storm, for which the announcers did a nice job of explaining the backstory. You have two best friends who had their very first professional match against each other, and now Storm is going to have his very last match against the same guy. Jericho was billed as "Lionheart" from Winnipeg, and wore his old ring jacket and tights to give as authentic a feel as possible. Sadly, they still used his WWE entrance music. I don't even remember what he used in ECW, but that's probably what they should have used here, but I also understand that Vince didn't want to pay too many royalties on this show. Storm was accompanied by Dawn Marie and there was a quick handshake before the match started. This was nothing more than a decent match, but it was quite decent, and it probably seemed better than it was because of Jericho bringing the big moves, doing all sorts of things he hasn't done in years. Storm was still Storm, and lacked aggression. My biggest problem here was that Storm teased the cradle piledriver, which the audience popped huge for, but they never actually delivered it. Having Credible interfere was nostalgic, and the finish was the right finish, with the right guy winning. This could have gone longer, and it would have been better for it. They cut to Pit Bull #1 who introduced a tribute video of all the ECW wrestlers who have died. Those who criticize them for missing Pillman and Rude are not getting the point here, as the video was to pay tribute to all the ECW talent that died AFTER THE COMPANY FOLDED. I watched this with a casual fan friend, who immediately asked why all these guys are dying so young. I kept it simple and just said wrestlers make a lot of sacrifices to get noticed, and that sometimes life on the road is hard to deal with. There are answers, though, and this is just a sad reminder that tough questions need to be asked. What was especially chilling was that the oldest person in the video package was Rocco Rock, who died at the ripe old age of 49. Next up, we had the Three Way Dance with Guido, Crazy and Taijiri. This wasn't much of a match, and at six minutes, it was way too short, considering that it had two pinfalls. The highlight was Super Crazy's dive, which may have been spot of the night, but honestly, this wasn't even a good spotfest. The fans seemed to like it, though, and from watching this, I do think Crazy might have a future in WWE if he's programmed against guys that can work against him, and he does need a new look. I'm proud of them for using the ECW library to its fullest tonight, as next up, they played some great clips, and also to their credit, plenty of them featured Shane Douglas prominently. Whether things were missing or not, the clips captured what ECW was about nicely. Rey v Psicosis was the next match. Psicosis seemed game and took some amazing bumps, but the crowd couldn't get over the fact that he was wrestling without his mask. I do agree that Psicosis is another guy who'll need a bit of an image makeover before debuting on TV, but it's nice to see that his bumping ability is still there in spades. It was obvious that Rey knew he missed the mark here; you could see his frustration. The 619 got huge boos because that's not what fans wanted to see, and this match needed about 10 more minutes and more balls-out highspots to really be what the fans expected it to be. Unbelievably, the match was only given six minutes. The Smackdown guys showed up at this point. I have stayed quiet about the WWE involvement in this show on purpose, because it all depended on how the angle was paid off. I'll get to that a little later, but I do agree with Wade Keller saying that he thinks guys like Angle, Edge and JBL will walk out of this as better heels because they'll have experienced huge heat and the bar will be raised for what they think they can accomplish. Roadkill introduces the next set of clips, which was also well done. Joel Gertner approached the Smackdown guys at the balcony, but Angle and JBL knocked him on his ass. Angle did a great heel promo, one of the better ones I've seen from him, but I know they'll play it up for comedy on Smackdown. The crowd chanted "You suck dick" at him, to which he replied, "Your momma taught me how." As great as Angle's promo was, though, JBL's was far better. The guy did a Fred Sanford impersonation and about that time, Rob Van Dam's music (his WWE music) played and he did what was easily the best interview of his career. Some have expressed disappointment that he didn't take any potshots at HHH, and I did expect him to and was wrong, but this interview wasn't about that. This was about showing that he had the goods to do a good, long promo, and he showed that he could. Him talking about a time when his vocabulary wasn't just limited to the words "cool" and "whatever" was fun, and he made sure to bury the creative team for not doing anything with him in WWE. Van Dam will be huge upon returning, whenever he does return, and it will be the last chance WWE has to make him a bonafide superstar. He needs to be pushed very hard out of the gate, and put against heels that can work his style, bump well and won't try to sabotage him politically. That eliminates HHH, Angle and JBL from the equation immediately. The one weakness RVD's promo had is that he had already said some of these things verbatim on his website just days before the show. Rhyno interrupted by goring him, and Sabu made the save, giving us an impromptu match. With everything I'd heard about Sabu's state, I was honestly surprised he could even walk to the ring, much less perform all the highspots he did. The match was fun enough, and Sabu having a match was pretty much a necessity, so they handled it well enough by keeping it short and letting RVD get some post-match revenge. This segment, and others, was hurt by all the censoring, which they really shouldn't have worried about at all, considering that anyone who bought this show knew what they were getting. Al Snow and Head introduced the next set of ECW clips, this time focusing more on the big highspots and weapon shots. Benoit v Eddy was not what it was hyped to be at all. It was hyped to be wrestled in the style they used in Japan, but this was total WWE style, with the only difference being Benoit busting out the Northern Lights suplex. The crowd was distracted for much of this, as the RAW guys arrived right before, and they were making chants at Edge involving Lita and herpes, so they weren't really paying attention to the match. Eddy, to his credit, did a Larry Zbyszko-style stalljob until they were ready to pay attention that rocked, but it didn't lead anywhere, so it was useless. Joel Gertner approached Eric Bischoff and begged him for a job and Bischoff cast him aside and did a short little heel promo to further the big angle that would come later. It's funny that Awesome/Tanaka was the only match that got more than 10 minutes, and it's also funny that they had the best match of the night. If you liked their series in ECW, you'll like this, because it was just as good. I'm not a huge fan of that style, but they took all the risks here, worked in all the cool spots, and delivered. No way Awesome should ever work in WWE, as limited as he'd be, but he was portrayed as a major monster here, despite the match being totally carried by Tanaka. The false finishes are what totally carried this match. I'll let Keller sum up the Heyman promo, because he said pretty much everything I would have. Finally, we have the main event, which was extremely typical of a normal ECW main event. The Dudleyz are in awesome shape, actually. Their whole act is stale as fuck, despite them not even being on TV in six months, but this was the right main event featuring the right guys. And holy run-ins, Batman, everyone from the Impact Players to Kid Kash to the bWo to Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney to Francine and Beulah McGillicutty showed up at some point. A few things stand out here. First, Balls Mahoney is a no-talent bum, but this shows how you can totally get over just about anyone if you allow the crowds a reason to care and give them some audience participation spots. I still think it's hilarious that the crowd says the word "Balls" every time he punches someone. Sandman's entrance was done perfectly, and he held his own in the match as well. The post-match with Austin being involved was so wrong, just because I would have had the ECW guys beat him up and throw him out of the building too, and I didn't like the idea of him sitting back and bossing around all the WWE guys and ECW guys, but the audience was definitely glad to see him. Foley in that spot would have been so much better though, just because Austin is identified too much with WWE. The interplay with Bischoff and Styles at the broadcast booth was fantastic, and at least the WWE guys got their comeuppance to end the show. This wasn't perfect by any means, but the night was chock full of excitement and emotion unrivaled by anything WWE has put out in probably five years.
  9. I was supposed to go watch this with a friend this evening who lives about 30-40 minutes away from here. I call earlier this afternoon, 4-ish, and say "Let me know when you're ready for me to come over" and he says, "All right, I'll call you back in five minutes and let you know", and then he turns off the phone. Bastard. Anyway, the PPV is tonight, and I'm missing it now, sadly. Too bad, because it looks like the Heat crowd is rocking it, chanting "Shut the fuck up!" at Michael Cole (and getting past the censors) and filling the arena with anti-WWE signs.
  10. ... go here. Now, as goodhelmet and I were saying online, this wouldn't be nearly as funny if it were anyone but Kevin Nash, but he's always prided himself on being so cool, and just recently, he said that to be a star in this business, men had to want to be you and women had to want to fuck you. Considering that his fan club has a dozen members and they're all middle-aged housewives, I think this is hilarious. The guy has almost filled his karmic void after killing WCW.
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  14. "Ladies and gentlemen, here they are, the team that has made more men run than milk of magnesia, Loverboy Dennis and Beautiful Bobby, the Midnight Express!" -- Jim Cornette
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  18. Yes, but in WWE think, it only makes sense to move the greatest wrestler of all time to the show you want to be stronger.
  19. I think Bischoff will trade Ric Flair off to Smackdown just to piss off HHH and then HHH will later follow. There are all sorts of ways they can get around that, but I never would have pegged them moving him if word hadn't leaked that they are trying to make SD a stronger show so they can shop it around.
  20. I don't think RVD would get in trouble at all for shooting on HHH, simply because if anything, Van Dam will be doing a fake shoot. You have to remember that the whole idea that RVD is going to have an unscripted promo is just as much a work as Heyman accuses JBL's promos of being. It may not be written word for word since that's not Heyman's style, but RVD isn't going out there without some clue what they want him to say. Vince and Dunn are overseeing the show, and if Heyman pleads the case strong enough to allow plenty of WWE bashing, all the while selling it like they "weren't allowed to say that", it would fit the whole ECW image and it wouldn't surprise me in the least. Everything being told to us is ga-ga, not just what we see on TV. That really shouldn't surprise anyone; that's wrestling. The WWE writer I used to chat with told me WWE was very aware of HHH's Internet rep and many stories were purposely exaggerated to help him get over as a heel. When they were originally going to turn him face in 2004, you started hearing things about him being willing to put over Benoit and helping Orton and Batista and listening to Flair for career advice. Much of that is by design.
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  23. "Do you get up early on Saturday mornings and watch cartoons?" -- Dutch Mantel "No, I prefer Richard Simmons." -- Jim Cornette Memphis 1982 What makes this great is that Cornette is totally serious saying it.
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