[1998-02-11-ECW-TV] Tommy Dreamer and Justin Credible

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[soup23]

Sandman takes the match and says that ECW considers itself and the fans as a family. We learn Tommy's grandfather passed away and Tommy gets emotional as the crowd chants his name. A ten bell salute goes off and some idiots cant even shut up for that. Justin Credible interrupts the tribute and Tommy takes him down amateur style. Beulah slaps at Justin too. They were on a mission to get Credible over and used their old friend Tommy as a vehicle to allow that to happen.

[Migs]

This was really awkward and weird. Credible is obnoxious but in no way entertaining.

 

In some ways, I think the Credible push was Heyman picking up on something - that the "cool heel" was becoming an industry-wide problem. WCW has the nWo getting a good chunk of the cheers and certainly selling the most merchandise. DX is mostly trying to entertain the fans and is only staying heel because they're against Austin. Credible is despicable and not presented in any way that would make him "cool." It's honestly a smart move, except for the fact that Credible isn't actually good enough to pull it off.

[Loss]

Sandman takes a match for Tommy Dreamer since his grandfather just passed away, and yeah, the mutants respond very much in character. This was very strange. I wasn't offended, but this was still pretty exploitative. If WWE hadn't made this sort of thing common with with using real deaths to get heat on heels, I think this would stand out more as a disgusting promotional tactic.

[PeteF3]

I get the idea behind not making Credible a heel who ends up getting cheered, but he continues to look SO low-rent and indyriffic. He doesn't have 1/10 of the panache of the Big Boss Man, who was in a similar spot almost two years later but was able to (well, sort of) make it work and also not be remotely "cool," either. Really, in about two months Vince McMahon is going to give us all a lesson in how to be a top heel without any cool factor, and it's going to leave Mr. Montoya in the fucking dust. I wasn't offended by this either per se, even though Dreamer's grandfather dying was a shoot, but it does seem more than a little desperate and a rather pale imitation of the Douglas-Pitbull halo angle. Credible's delivery of the big line isn't any good, either.

[TravJ1979]

I think Credible should have waiting until the 10th bell or at least the 9th. Gave this away too early with the crowd already shitting on him before even getting to the punchline. Thought Credible would bleed when he came out in spotless white tee. It was a nice touch to have Jason be disgusted by it though.