?Reported by Dale Mills of WrestleView.com

On Friday, June 3, 2005 at 6:56 PM EST

Greetings grapple fans. It's time once again to delve in to the murky depths of In This Very Ring...

Now, I will be the fist to admit that when ECW was in its prime I wasn't really a big fan of it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed some of the matches and I enjoyed some of the gimmicks that were used but as a whole I could take it or leave it. And most time it was leave it. Maybe it was due to the fact that over here in the U.K all we got was heavily edited versions of the show on the Bravo channel on Sky. Maybe it's because at the time I borrowed some tapes of ECW the WWE was having it's massive boom period I dunno. But the fact is that I really couldn't get in to it. I found it a lot like TNA. Enjoying bits and bobs but not really giving a hoot whether I missed it or not. So when WWE announced that it was going to be running an ECW PPV I wasn't really Interested. Sure, I'll watch it but it wasn't going to grab my full attention like a WWE Pay Per View did. Even when I realised that I was on holiday the day of the show I didn't have the same 'DAMN! I'm missing a PPV' feeling that I would if I was missing a WWE show. And then they go and do it. The WWE go and put out a promo to promote the PPV. Eric, Paul E and Vince all in the ring cutting promos on each other with a real hint of realism in what they were saying. A real hair's standing up on the back of your neck moment and suddenly my feelings towards missing the PPV had changed. Then, to make matters worse for me, the WWE go and add the angle with some of the guys joining up to make an anti ECW faction. Sure, the guys that popped up to help Eric and The Edge on Raw were jobbers but it was still sowing the seeds and leaving it open for someone big to join up. SmackDown on the other hand went right to the main event with Angle and JBL leading the anti ECW charge. Nice continuity on Angle bringing up his briefest of stints in ECW. Suddenly I was real interested in the whole angle. Now, as we all know, history dictates that the last time that another wrestling group came up against the mighty WWE one of the best storylines in Wrestling History was blown due to the fact that egos ruled the day. Hopefully as this should be ECW's official swansong and they are being promoted as the good guys, the ECW brand should come out on top. Surely a repeat of 2001's botched Invasion angle isn't on the cards. Just as I was getting used to the fact that I was going to have to tape the PPV and watch it when I get back from my vacation when the WWE drop the bombshells to end all bombshells on me. Who was going to be on the One Night Stand PPV? None other than Al Snow.... WITH HEAD!!! Rats, Rats and Rats again!! I must keep telling, myself that it's good to have something to look forward to when I get home. Something to look forward to.... to look forward to.... forward to...

So after weeks of teasing it on house shows, Victoria finally pulled the trigger on her heel turn during one of those excruciating Diva segments. At least Vis came down to save Lilian from all the 'excitement'. Funny thing was that it looked like the crowd were as about interested in the whole thing as I was because when Victoria started handing out the beatings, even when she kicked the King in the crown jewels, the fans cheered. Maybe that is a sign that the fans finally expect a little more from their Divas than parading in their skimpies. And we have Trish Stratus to thank for that. Although I will say one thing for faceless Divas, I absolutely love watching Maria. I just love her deer in the headlights look that she has on her face in every segment that she is in. It doesn't matter if she's interviewing, Diva-ing or just standing in the background, her expression always makes me laugh. I get the feeling that she has no idea what she's doing or how she even made it to the WWE. Just ace!

After a few months of treading water Jericho has been given something to do. What he is doing though I can't quite put my finger on. It looks like they are pushing Jezza as someone who doesn't need wrestling as much as he should. Whether that it will turn him heel or not, even if that is the plan, I don't know as cool and cocky most of the time elicits cheers. At the end of the day I'm just happy that Jezza has some decent air time with something worthwhile to do. Oh, and I can justify giving him some inches. Column Inches that is!!! Jeeze.

Once again, Christian was the most over wrestler on Raw. Yeah, they were in Canada but so.... Capt Charisma cut another one of his stellar promos as the fans ate it up. Ol' CC is in real danger of becoming huge. Although I did find funny that when the Capt. was listing all the places represented on SmackDown he said Americans, Mexicans, Japanese and French wrestlers. Um, did Chrissy forget about Carlito the Caribbean? Well, I guess it's easy done as making the Big Show puke is the only thing of note that CCC has done. Oh well, Maybe CC's gonna face CCC in wrestling's first ever 'Right to use more than one 'C' in their name' match. Hey, Booker and The Edge fought over shampoo.

Isn't it funny that it was this week that Batista(with great new music)chose to become the big dumb animal and get DQed against still unbeaten on Raw MOhammed Hassan. I'm still not convinced about Hassan and Babu, I mean Daivari. As with all the racist gimmicks they soon wear thin and its then down to the in ring ability to continue the gimmick. Unfortunately Hassan is still pretty lame in that area while Bab.. Daviari has show potential. Focusing on the wrong grappler? Maybe. I think that the only heat that Hassan gets now is due to the fact that he is unbeaten and the fans want to see that end. So, we are in to the angle but not the character. Shame really as when he first came in Mohammed showed flashes of brilliance in delivering solid truthful promos before they went all over the top and cartoon like. Still I still get a kick out of singing along with their entrance music. All together now... Aaaayaaaaaaaahyaaaaaaaaaahayyyyyyaaa....

That's it for me for a couple of weeks. Hey I need a vacation!

I will still have access to email now and again so don't be shy....

Email: big_d@wrestleview.com

MSN: big_dalebowski@hotmail.com

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Laters...

D