Reported by Mike Siciliano of WrestleView.com
On Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 1:38 PM EST

Since lately I have been told that I have been too negative, I'm going to try and make this comparison of the world premiere of ECW on Sci Fi a little different in its format. Let's go good point, bad point.

GOOD
Joey Styles and Tazz as a broadcast team is tremendous. Both men know what they're talking about, and can call the match to the letter, no matter how brutal it may be.

BAD
Homerism at its best! I know Cole is Smackdown through and through, and I am bothered by that. Ross & Lawler are not as rooty tooty toward Raw, but they do sometimes favor their own brand, which is a little easier to stomach. Styles and Tazz last night were so PRO-ECW and against anything else, it was just sickening. I mean, if the product warrants it, then go ahead and flaunt what you got, but most of the product last night was, well....I don't want to sound negative, so let me stop here.

GOOD
Kurt Angle vs. Justin Credible. A new match. Regardless of how Credible ended up like fodder for the Wrestling Machine, it's matches like this that makes me want to see more of ECW. At least it gives us something new to observe and analyze.

BAD
The Sandman vs. The Zombie. I am a huge Sandman fan, being literally inches from the man at a UXW show when he made his entrance, but this match was so brutal to watch and this guy, whoever he was, was beyond laughable. It was pathetic.

GOOD
I liked the opening segment. Was it corny? Yes. Was it almost predictable? Yes. But all in all, I liked it. I even liked Edge's role in the whole segment, and I am such an anti-Edge guy its not funny. I loved the part where Cena decked Heyman, and Heyman's subsequent aneurysm to begin the next segment. What I also thought was pathetically funny is how Styles and Tazz found it offensive that Cena knocked out Heyman. After what happened Sunday, I'm surprised it was just that.

BAD
I know the show's an hour. I know you can't pull much in the way of matches in an hour. Although Kelly (Barbie Blank) is beyond smokin', and I wouldn't mind seeing her on any given day of the week, and twice on tuesdays, can we have a little more than a squash, a pseudo-squash, and a battleroyale? I know ECW's talent pool isn't fully loaded yet, but if this cross promotion thing is still going strong, then let's take full advantage of it.

GOOD
Speaking of cross promotion, similar to the invasion angles of the Alliance, I liked having the Raw guys invade the ECW show. It provides name recognition, and some people to make sure they tune it in to see what happens. Honestly, I wasn't going to until the end of Raw when I saw Cena's segment. While I enjoyed the opening segment with Cena, Heyman, Edge, and RVD like I said before, overall, the entire product was..... can't be negative... let's continue.

BAD
Make up your mind which promotion you're going to be a champion for, Van Dam. Are you going to be the ECW champion, or the WWE Champion? This cross promotional championship idea doesn't fly. It hasn't since Lesnar went to Smackdown exclusively, and I don't think it's going to work here at all, especially since we're talking TWO TOTALLY different kettles of fish in Raw and ECW. When it was Raw and Smackdown, it was possible, because technically it was under the same umbrella. Although the same can be said for ECW, the rules obviously make it a different animal. Besides, RVD couldn't hold on to that much gold!

QUESTION
Why couldn't we get an answer on tag championships and the World Television title? Did we really need to see Kevin Fertig in another ridiculously lame vampirish outfit?

GOOD
A lot of the bumps in the battleroyale were sick. I enjoyed the entire length of the match immensely. Big Show being a major force in ECW is going to revitalize his career, I would believe. Sabu winning the battleroyale looking like he had been through an atomic explosion was also tremendous. Major props go to Dreamer for another INSANE bump through a table after being press slammed by the Show. Sabu vs. Cena at Vengenance is VERY INTERESTING, but how far will WWE let Sabu go under the "Raw" umbrella? It gets a tad confusing, don't you think?

OVERALL OPINIONS
A cluster-F. Yeah, this was. It was the debut. It was obviously a new enterprise for WWE. But, WWE has to realize something quickly. They cannot make ECW work trying to tape it before or after a Smackdown taping in a Smackdown arena. It's too damn big. Sandman took 15 minutes to hit the ring because he came in from Guam, for the love of Pete!

ECW should be taped in places like Hammerstein, like the Mid Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, like the ECW Arena, (I know its coming, but I'm trying to prove a point here.) ECW being "grouped" to tape with Smackdown will not work. It looked really awkward, the whole scenario from start to finish.

Is it going to work? If Vince doesn't make it "WWE style", then sure, it will. if Vince doesn't get offended by how quickly Styles is insulting WWE product, it will, if Vince lets Paul E. be Paul E., then it will. It is quite obvious from the numbers that Vince could use some money out of this product. Perhaps he should stop changing his mind, and let the mad scientist do what he does best.

Now, like I said, in closing, this is one man's opinion who has the ability to express it. If you'd like to debate me on it, or call me a whiny idiot, well then, here is the place. Click here to complain about how negative I am in my columns.

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Beaucoup cenabling!