sek69 Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 From PWInsider's hotline last night: A meeting was held before last night's Smackdown/ECW taping with Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn, and Paul Heyman. The decision has been made to pretty much break away from all the old ECW characters, ideas, and style of booking. The new plan is to make the show a full fledged third C brand of the WWE. Vince McMahon was really let down by the reaction of the crowd at the ECW Arena house show, last week's 15% ratings drop, and the so far low ticket sales for the Smackdown/ECW tapings especially for the July 4th taping at the Wachovia Center. Those things were said to be huge factors in this decision. Paul Heyman now has even less control over the product while Tommy Dreamer has none. Heyman did script last night's show but alot of it was re-written by the WWE writers. Heyman did book the Sabu segment, as well as the RVD/Angle segment, but the rest of the show was because of Vince and the rest of creative. Also for the first two weeks Heyman was in charge of running the shows backstage but that all changed last night as the show was ran pretty much like the usual for Raw and Smackdown. A decision has been made starting with last night's taping to only fly in the ECW wrestlers that are scripted to work on the show. Only for the house show events will the entire roster be flown in. Also the old ECW referees are expected to get the axe very soon like former ECW ring announcer Stephen D'angelous did last week. Kurt Angle will be taking time off very soon. As of late, Kurt Angle has been walking around like "the walking dead". People say that he's hurting all over all the time, but being injured isn't what he's taking time off for, and instead it's because of some sort of personal issue. Kurt Angle stayed totally to himself at the last ECW show Tuesday night and hasn't been sociable at all with anyone in ECW. He also showed up very late for the ECW show at the ECW Arena. They speculate that Kurt Angle is now looking at everything like this just isn't worth his time anymore (being in ECW that is). Makes you wonder what will last longer, ECW or Kurt Angle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Flyboy Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 I just when I forgot why I stopped watching... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Unless ratings go into a complete free fall, forcing Vince McMahon's hand, I can't see ECW being scrapped. He'll have to prove, for his ego's sake, that his vision of ECW was right and Paul Heyman was wrong all along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kevin Cook Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 ECW has been much more entertaining than some horrible show pandering to smarks would be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bruiser Chong Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Kurt needs to get out. He sounds like he's on his way to become this generation's Dynamite Kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dorian Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Sadly, Bruiser. From the sounds of it, he's already there. Hell, I'm half tempted to say he was there when he got that radical spinal surgery performed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cam Chaos Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 I wonder how long it will be until Heyman buys a gun, walks into Titan Towers and does a Columbine. After proving his brand could be successful on both PPV and TV even 5 years after it's closure, now it's being taken away from him once again. I seriously wonder how much longer he's going to take this kind of treatment considering if it weren't for Heyman, there wouldn't have been an Extreme Championship Wrestling at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DylanWaco Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 What the hell is Heyman going to do? Quit? Do a poor job booking OVW? Spike RVD's pot with PCP before SNME? Vince is the only show in town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted June 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 What the hell is Heyman going to do? Quit? Do a poor job booking OVW? Spike RVD's pot with PCP before SNME? Vince is the only show in town. Heyman could go to TNA or ROH (where he'd be over despite what the ROH fans might say). Vince might be the best paying game in town, but he's not the only one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Lets keep in mind that if it wasn't for Vince McMahon that ECW would not have existed as long as it did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 If Heyman had a better offer he would have gone when his contract was up a few months ago. But TNA had no serious interest in him and his other options alluded to in the Observer didn't come to fruition (Wasn't he interested in promoting MMA or something?). Of course, I wouldn't put it past Heyman to make up such stories to bluff his way into getting a better deal with WWE than he would have got if they thought he had nowhere to go. Anyway, this is a no lose situation for Heyman, because if ECW gets completely screwed up he won't get the blame for it and he'll be able to maintain the mad booking genius image that he's crafted for himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHawk Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Edit the thread title to "Vince McMahon signs ECW's death warrant" so it can be accurate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bravesfan Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Hell, I'm half tempted to say he was there when he got that radical spinal surgery performed.His minimally-invasive neck surgery, compared to the fusion surgery, had a faster recovery time and comparably less pain and strain in the future. In the short and long-term, it was the better choice. The problem they didn't forsee was unprotected chairshots to the head. He was completely fine (as fine as he could be) until a chairshot from Lesnar a few months later. According to Meltzer, his neck basically "exploded" after that incident. Similar to Austin, he thought he could gut it out (only taking time off when forced to, which led to the GM angle), and now he's facing the consequences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 I think a C brand is a good idea, not just named ECW. They need to expose their young talent to veteran workers. They should have veteran workers working with the Punks, Mike Knoxs, and the Lashleys of developemental. They should have a crew of experianced hands working with the developemental guys like Dreamer,Richards,Venis,Jannetty,Snow types. Young guys can't learn as well working with other young guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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