» Reported by Ben Hagen of WrestleView.com
» On Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 1:57 PM EST
There has been some recent discussion on the Wrestle View forum about the debut of WWE’s version of Extreme Championship Wrestling set to replace Velocity and, hopefully, to find a home on the USA Network before too long. Of main concern for fans, it seems, is the potential roster list. Vince and company have been snatching up various ECW vets such as the Sandman and Sabu (apparently) and already have other alumni under contract (Taz(z), Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer, Chris Benoit, etc.). Perhaps we’ll even get to see appearances by some foreign regulars like Masato Tanaka (one of the greatest human rag dolls ever). The bigger issue, however, is how true-to-Heyman’s-ECW Vince’s vision will come.
I’ll admit it right now, I’m not too hopeful. Vince’s current brand of professional wrestling promotes a style that, while certainly workable, often appearss limiting and awkward in situations where it shouldn’t. The idea of “limits” or a “toned down” style seems counterproductive to a company hoping to resurrect a brand that had a word as explicit as “Extreme” in its title. Yet neither I was hopeful for ECW One Night Stand last June. And what did we, as wrestling fans (some ECW fans, some not) get on June 12, 2005? Let’s be honest. The match of the night in terms of work rate (someday I’ll come to a nice definition of what that really means) was probably Lance Storm and Chris Jericho’s opening contest (which in and of itself was probably only a “pretty good” match). From a workrate perspective, ECW One Night Stand didn’t give us any MOTYC’s. But I’ve given up hoping for Match of the Year Candidates. The reason isn’t because I’ve become more pessimistic; it’s because I’ve realized that my enjoyment of wrestling doesn’t just come from analyzing it as a piece of performance art, but as a fan that gets caught up in an atmosphere. The past year or so I’ve realized that, despite his limitations, Hulk Hogan can still be exciting to watch (whether against Shawn Michaels last Summer Slam or against Randy Savage at Wrestlemania 5). This past year I’ve realized that, regardless of whether or not I’m watching a match that would get a rating less than ***, I can still enjoy such a match. Whether or not Benoit embodies the grandness of professional wrestling in the ring or the Spirit Squad makes me laugh by bouncing off of trampolines, I am a fan of professional wrestling. And to be a fan of professional wrestling means more than just digging classics or gems or MOTYC’s or MOTDC’s or the like. But I’m off topic. Back to my question: What did we get from ECW One Night Stand last year if we didn’t get any amazing in ring performances?
For those of you who experienced it, ONS wasn’t about what we “saw,” was it? It was about what we felt, a certain something sparked by the rabid crowd that, en masse, seemed to have a relationship with each individual performer. Do WWE crowds actually sing-along with any of the theme songs? Have you ever heard a crowd sing “Real American”? How about “I’m an Ass Man”? I will grant that WWE crowds outnumber ECW crowds by several thousand (sometimes tens of thousands). However, I can’t help but feel that there is certainly a large difference in mentality between the fan bases when someone like Sandman shows up at an ECW venue. When Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” played at One Night Stand (cut out of the DVD release atrociously), how many of us teared up as at the crowd sang the verses AND the chorus while some fat, possibly drunk guy who certainly is no Shelton Benjamin when it comes to athleticism, holding a big stick came stumbling through the crowd? Whether or not you teared up, you “felt” something. And that is what ECW is all about. When he stared up at JBL, Kurt Angle, and the rest of the WWE contingency on an upper balcony and dared them to come to the ring, who didn’t feel like they were watching something special? Who didn’t feel touched that these guys were finally getting their moment?
The following match (Tommy Dreamer and Sandman against the Dudley Boys) wasn’t a good match. It, in all respects, resembled a train wreck. Yet, I loved it. And I still love it because ECW isn’t about (was never about) whether or not there were “technical” wrestling matches. True enough, Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko had some decent one-on-one matches. True enough, Al Snow and Chris Benoit had a hell of a match. Yet these bouts did not embody what ECW represented, that is, what Extreme Championship Wrestling really was and what it needs to be in order to be successful again. The respect given by ECW fans to Guerrero, Malenko, Jericho, Benoit, Storm, and other workrate-oriented wrestlers does not stem from some idea that ECW fans were (are) “smarter” than WWE or WCW fans. The respect stems from a personal relationship between the actual characters performing for the fans and the actual fans themselves. While ECW’s best spot-oriented matches (often involving Rob Van Dam or Jerry Lynn) aren’t fantastic wrestling matches, while matches involving Sandman or Sabu rarely break the **1/2 snowflake-barrier for me, they are spectacles that connected (and still connect) on a personal level with ECW’s fan base.
Where else does a monolingual English-speaking crowd count in Spanish when a certain wrestler does the ten-punches-to-the-head-in-the-corner?
Where else does a crowd scream, “Balls” every time a certain performer punches his opponent?
Where else does a crowd chant, “RE! SPECT! WALK!” on cue during a wrestler’s entrance theme?
Is there a prouder fan base than the ECW fan base?
I would give up a whole lot to see that sort of personal connection between WWE characters and their fanbase. I would give up a lot to be as proud of World Wrestling Entertainment as ECW fans were of Extreme Championship Wrestling. Just tell me what I have to do in order to be as proud of Vince McMahon as ECW fans are of Paul Heyman. Not long ago, WWE had its rabid crowds. Not long ago, WWE had a roster that did elicit responses from their crowds throughout the show. But never . . . never . . . has there been an era of WCW or WWE where the relationship felt as raw and personal as it did between ECW and its crazy fans. So when Vince is thinking about restarting something like ECW, he isn’t promising something that delivered great matches (it rarely did). He isn’t promising something that delivered “garbage wrestling.” He is promising something that connected with me and a lot of wrestling fans on a personal level at a time when RVD’s theme song by Pantera meant more than its words denoted. The connotation behind every character from Yoshihiro Tajiri to Jerry Lynn to 911 to Taz to Sabu to Rob Van Dam to Joey Styles to Joel Gertner to the Dudley Boys to Balls Mahoney to Shane Douglas to the Pitbulls to Tommy Dreamer to Francine to Beulah to Chris Candido to Tammy Sytch to whoever the hell else any of you would like to mention.
And this personal connection often translates into close-to-real life segments charged with what feels like real emotion, what is real emotion. If you want an example, look to Joey Styles’ promo a week ago on RAW. Who didn’t feel his promo?
With that, I must bid you adieu. Until next time . . . think . . . consider . . .
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