sek69

Doug Gilbert shoots on Brian Christopher, Randy Hales, and Jerry Lawler live on Memphis TV while Dave Brown stands there holding the mic looking like he just shit his pants.

You could say the same about easily 75%-80% of the guys Bobby Heenan managed in the 80s.

It warms my heart and restores my faith in the WWE audience that Armando Alejandro Estr(rrrrrrrrr)ada is getting over. He was one of the most entertaining parts of OVW when he was there, especially when he was going around saying he was going to get a question put on the ballot asking the people to elect him the Dictator of Los Kentuckos. He's proof that pro wrestling isn't rocket science (and I mean that in a good way). Everyone scoffed when Umaga made his debut but they went with the tried and true formula of Big Silent Monster Heel + Manager With Mic Skills. It worked for all the stiffs Bobby Heenan managed in the 80s, and hopefully it'll remind Vince that it can still work now.

So just because ECW fans consider themselves smart, WWE shouldn't even try to kayfabe them? I'll have to make a note of that. Besides, I'm talking more about the current fans who are new to ECW, not the jaded old school ECW fans who are above being worked and kayfabed. They're also trying to make ECW TV look like a non-WWE show, complete with the ECW bug in the corner of the screen instead of the WWE logo. They also make it clear "WWE" and "ECW" have different rules, rather than how RAW and Smackdown are pretty much the same show with different colored rings. It just seems silly to me (and it plays into the "Vince wants ECW to fail" theory over at DVDVR) that they spend so much time stressing the differences then you go to ECW.com and it undercuts everything by making it clear that ECW is nothing more than a wholly owned subsidiary of WWE. Of course the smart fans already know that, but we also know Stephanie is the head writer too but they don't go around yelling that from the rooftops.

Some of you may remember when Vince brought the nWo back they started selling the classic nWo shirts, only this time they had a giant WWF.com logo on the upper back which kinda kills the whole thing the nWo was about. Now I see that ECW.com redirects to a subpage of WWE.com instead of having its own domain. There's of course banner ads for WWEShopzone.com and a big paragraph of legalese at the bottom stating how everything is property of World Wrestling Entertainment. I thought they were supposed to be getting back to kayfabe on the websites, why can't they stop reminding people that all these factions that are supposed to be separate on TV are really all owned by the same company?

I still get goosebumps when I watch that. Especially now considering what happened to Liz, it's a nice reminder of How Things Used to Be and perhaps of How Things Should Have Been. It's nicer to remember her that way than as just another senseless wrestling death. Ironically, as I was typing this I was listening to an mp3 of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo`ole which is probably best known as "the song playing when Dr. Green died on ER".

This isn't directed at Dave, but his post reminded me that I'd be willing to wager that very few of the ECW marks coming out of the woodwork now ever watched ECW back when Dean/Eddy/Chris/Rey were there. We didn't even get the syndicated ECW show until 1996 here in Pittsburgh. If you didn't live in the NYC or Philly era from 94 to 96, you probably weren't watching when ECW was all about introducing wrestling to the masses. A lot of people talk like they were front row sitting next to the Hat Guy for that shit instead of copping to not watching it until they scored a copy of the tape.

WWE doesn't like to have Savage matches on their DVD releases unless they were at Wrestlemania or involved Hogan somehow.

Not bad, considering the limitations I guess. The Cena match just looks way out of place with some of the other stuff though.

Loads of Dusty speak will be in my head at work son of a plumber man

It was just Dusty and Dustin plainly discussing how they let a woman get between a man and his son for like 5 years. Hearing Dustin talk about hugging his dad after so long is just a great moment for anyone who's ever been close to their own father. Kinda reminded me of the famous Field of Dreams scene.

Vince needing to push small guys in a hurry due to his trial helped a bit too. Actually there's the idea that HBK became a superstar overnight after leaving the Rockers, but he was opening and mid-carding for quite a while before he got his groove with Diesel and Razor.

Sucks considering his segment on Dusty's DVD was one of the best things ever seen on WWE produced video. I hope he lands in TNA, as "Goldust let go by WWE" has become wrestling's version of Gangstalicious getting shot again.

What he said. I hate how people act like it's some hypocritical statement on steriod use when it's pointed out that HBK is built like an old lady but is booked like a superhero that can beat five guys at once.

I noticed that too, I guess it's just another sign that they totally cheaped out on the WM set. I love how everyone kayfabed around the "was the polka dot thing a rib?" question with the final answer being "yeah, pretty much, but Dusty made it work". I love how Dusty pointed out that it was the most money he made in a year with a "stick that up your ass" look in his eyes. Also, Bruce Pritchard's Dusty impression is as shockingly accurate as his Roddy Piper impression. He's like wrestling's Rich Little. The stuff with Dustin was wrenching, and a textbook example of Bitches Be Trippin' as you'll ever see. Nice to see them get a mention of Cody Runnels and his athetic background in as well, since he's in (I think) OVW right now.

Yeah, the old ECW syndicated shows that were basically an hour of Taz, Raven, and Shane Douglas promos were much superior. The more I see people bitch about the new ECW, the more I think they never watched the old ECW.

Being hypocritical isn't something unique to ECW fans. You see it in pretty much any group of fans.

They need to have the first ECW TV show start off with RVD throwing down the spinner belt ala Shane Douglas and declaring himself the new ECW Champion.

BAH GAWD, BIDNESS IS AHBAHT TAH PICKUP!!

JBL might be the greatest heel in wrestling right now, and Foley's probably not too far behind.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to be in that building if Cena wins tonight.

Cornette is on the new Greatest Wrestling Managers DVD (and shown in a positive light no less) and he's still a co-owner of OVW, so I'm guessing that James E. and Vincent K. can still do business no matter how hard Corny rails against WWE in his "shoots". Apparently right after "significant" became "promotions that guys who became stars for us worked in previously".

That kinda ties in with my next unpopular opinion: Vince McMahon might actually know something about professional wrestling, at least the business side. You'll get no argument from me that Vince is a flop in pretty much every other enterprise he tries, and that he's probably got a first class ticket to Hell already punched, but the guy seems to know a thing or two about pro wrestling. It seems to really get under a lot of people's skin that his brand of SPORTZ ENTERTAINMENT has taken over the industry in North America. East Coast J had an excellent post at DVDVR about how the territory system wouldn't have been able to work on a national TV level, and that the way WWE does televised wrestling is pretty much the only way it could succeed on a 24/7/365 basis. Individual angles or gimmicks may be lame or pointless, but by and large the WWE does wrestling on TV better than anyone else has ever done from the 70s on. I don't know the exact date he retired, but I wouldn't be surprised if the decline in the product of late started around the time Pat Patterson stepped aside as Vince's #2 guy. No one since has had the career confidence Pat had (he had the reins when Vince was on trial, after all) to tell Vince when something is flat out stupid. The only people who have the security to step up when something's idiotic usually don't unless it involves them directly.

Synn hasn't been around OVW since before Cornette left as booker, and Cornette pal and former top OVW heel manager Kenny "Starmaker" Bolin hasn't been around since right after Heyman took over.

People who stop watching WWE because of the wrestling quality confuse me. Match quality has never been a priority since Vince Jr has run the company, hell good matches tend to come from people who had nothing else to lose than to go out and bring the house down. Think about it, what's the most lasting memories of WWF/E and how many of them involve wrestling? Piper hitting Snuka with the coconut, Quake squashing Hogan, Warrior's insane promos, Jake's creepy promos, etc. Hell, wrestling quality in the WWE has never been higher than it is now. Don't believe me? Watch the houseshows on WWE 24/7 one day and see all the endless jobber vs jobber matches and complete borefests that filled up most cards from the 80s up til the Monday Night Wars era.