?Reported by Mike Siciliano of WrestleView.com

On Tuesday, June 28, 2005 at 11:35 PM EST

Ok. I live on Long Island, in Nassau County. Let's put that on the table. I watched Raw monday night. I saw the release date for the ECW DVD. I was thrilled. I loved the pay per view from start to finish, and was dying, dying to pick it up on DVD.

Now, if you're not interested in a personal story detailing the hell I went through today, this is where you stop. If not, enjoy. I hope it makes you laugh, and think.

Disclaimer over....

Around 11am, my wife mentions to me that it may be wise to make phone calls to ensure that the local retailers have the DVD before venturing out in to the field looking for it. And so, I did. I called two Best Buy locations in both Westbury, and Levittown, Long Island. BOTH locales told me that the DVD is not in, and not due till the middle of July, and the funny part was, one said the 12th, one said the 19th of July. I went nuts.

So, I called WWE. Directly. I called Stamford, and got sent to the marketing department. I left a message with the marketing department of WWE, and didn't think I would get a response, but hey, it was the obvious next step.

I started calling other retailers that I won't mention specifically nearby me. I was told by one of them that they had the DVD. I was thrilled, so I high tailed it to the local mall where this retail store was, excited to get this DVD.

Wrong.

Being a resident of Nassau County, with limited exceptions, well, let's just say the professional performance level may be just a little bit off. When I mentioned the initials E, C, W, obviously I should've made sure to write the words ONE NIGHT STAND in nice big block letters, either that, or the retail help needs to go back to school and learn how to read, because how does ONE NIGHT STAND, and RISE AND FALL look similar to you? I would say not too much, but hey, I could be wrong.

Discouraged, but not giving up, I tried a second retail location in my local shopping center. Big mistake. Dump city. Trying to find a single title in a locale such as this is like trying to find a cheese grater in a hardcore match when your name is not Bubba Ray or Tommy Dreamer.

En route to the second retail location, my wife told me the marketing department from WWE called back saying the DVD was shipped. It should be in the stores, according to WWE. Galvanized by that information, I tried a THIRD location in my local shopping center. Obviously, thinking I would get this done easily should have been my first mistake. Third time is not the charm, another zero, no dice.

I returned home, basically pissed off, and ran in to Ryan online. Ryan and I discussed my initial quest, and we parted ways when I left for the first retail location outside of Best Buy. I never would have guessed what I was going to be forced to do to get this job done after that.

I called the two Best Buys again, both Westbury and Levittown, and again, one store told me that the DVD would arrive next week, the other telling me still sometime next month, even when I told them I spoke to WWE directly, they did not bother to further check the situation, infuriating me further.

My wife then suggested trying areas outside of my local area. First thought, Huntington Station. They told me they have 5 copies of the DVD, but they couldn't hold it for me. I said OK, and we started out. I had to do some small business, but we got out there as soon as we could, about 45 minutes after the initial phone call, give or take. I went in, all 5 copies, gone.

I then asked the Huntington Station store to try and call another one, specifically the one in Mick Foley country, in Setauket, nearby the Smith Haven mall. According to the Best Buy so called computer system, that store had copies, along with the Patchogue store. However, the gentleman in Huntington Station couldn't get a body on the phone, so I gave up, and we left for Smith Haven Mall, and the Best Buy in Setauket.

Do you think I got lucky there?

Guess again.

Another no dice. I am now flying mad. I went to the customer service counter, and as professionally as I could, asked them to call another store to find this DVD for me. 10 minutes later, I was told that the Patchogue store was going to hold a copy for me for one hour.

Now, listen to the scenario I am in. I am literally almost 45 to 50 miles from home. I got 20 minutes to get to Patchogue's Best Buy to find this CD in the span of an hour. I have three kids who are bored being driven all over Long Island, and a wife who is beginning to get mad at me because this thing has gone to the extreme, literally, no pun intended. By the way, in the course of these Best Buys I tried to check, I was told by their so called computer system that the Levittown and Westbury stores, the ones I called TWICE had close to 20 copies between them of this DVD.

Now, and I publicly thank my wife for this, because I didn't expect her to do it, we drive to Patchogue. I literally run in to the store, head to the customer service counter, and not one person has a clue about this so called call that Setauket was supposed to have made on my behalf.

Mt. St. Helens got nothing on me right now at this point. I am ready to erupt. BUT, the Best Buy representatives at the Patchogue store went above and beyond, and checked their stock, and came up with six copies of the ECW One Night Stand DVD. I literally had to go almost 60 miles away from home to get this thing. Now, here's the comedy.

I went back to Smith Haven Mall, which has a couple of movie stores and DVD locales. ALL of them, three of them specifically, two of them small establishments, had the DVD. How pathetic am I?

Ok. Now, about the DVD. First and foremost, WWE needs to be shot for the hack job they did on Sandman's entrance. It is pathetic. They were able to secure the rights to Enter Sandman for the PPV itself, but not the DVD? It takes away the ambience of the entrance of the Sandman, and affects the purity of the DVD package. I think it's pathetic that WWE didn't make the effort to get this thing out as it happened, EVEN IF IT MEANT WAITING A WHILE. I understand why WWE decided to rush the release of this DVD, because the response to the PPV was that incredible, but come on, it needed to be done right, and it wasn't, just by this one exclusion.

As I am writing this, I am listening to the initial commentary. I also did check out the alternate commentary from John "Shoot Promo" Layfield, and honestly, its pathetic. The quality of the alternate commentary is piss poor, and not worth the effort to listen to. There was no inside booklet to the DVD packaging, which I thought should be there, at least deciphering the chapter lists.

Also, the extras, why couldn't they show pieces of the ECW invasions that occurred on Raw and Smackdown prior to the pay per view? They have the funeral, where Heyman is initially confronting Bischoff, but they didn't get the other episodes from Raw and Smackdown, and I think it's an omission that hurts this package.

It's also mentioned about the editing of the 'colorful metaphors', if you will. Ok, yeah, the obvious ones, ala Heyman's EC-F'n W shout during his promo needed to be edited. Did we need to see Bischoff flip Heyman the bird? How many Holy S chants that could have been edited weren't? If they took the time to edit the Sandman theme song, they could've edited the rest of this stuff, and made this thing at least verbally clean.

Overall, this package is impressive, nonetheless, even though it is a little small. It's not worth what some of the retailers are asking for, $26.99. Not in the long shot. This is a $20 package. Bar none.

Reason why I am writing this for you people. Be sure to look before you leap. God knows I should've looked a lot longer. This day was too damn long.

However, a quick aside, I picked up VHS tapes of three PPVs from 2002 and 2003 for $12. 2002 King of the Ring featuring Undertaker vs. Triple H for the undisputed championship. 2002 No Mercy featuring Hell in a Cell, Brock vs. Undertaker. And 2003 Bad Blood with Trips vs. Nash in Hell in a Cell.

Not bad for a $12 purchase to try and stem the nightmare finding this ECW DVD.

BTW, they talk about the editing of the curses for the DVD? When the Smackdown crusaders arrive, can't you tell what the chant the crowd is saying? I could tell you, but I don't want to lose my job.

I added some content last night that I thought about overnight, and realized that it was inappropriate. It was more emotional than thought provoking, and that is not the basis of my columns. I want to make people think, not make people angry. I have since deleted that content.

If anyone read that content fromn last night to now, about 10:40am on Wednesday, I humbly apologize if I offended anyone.

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