Reported by Mike Siciliano of WrestleView.com
On Friday, July 14, 2006 at 4:42 AM EST

Dungeon is the appropriate word, if you ever saw where I am working from at this present point and time.

You would assume, with a new fledgling brand, that anyone who is new, or who is being promoted as a newcomer, would get a push with that brand upon his debut. With that being said, you're going to have Test, with wins over Al Snow and Tommy Dreamer already, Shannon Moore en route, CM Punk en route just to name three that are going to need time on television to develop their reputation and character for the world to see.

Then you need to sprinkle in the originals. The Balls Mahoneys, the Sandmans, the Sabus, the Justin Credibles, the Rob Van Dams.

Then the new established talent of the brand, the Kurt Angles, the Big Shows.

Sprinkle in some talent from Raw on loan, i.e. Candice Michelle, Ric Flair, John Cena, Edge & others.

Stir in the expose segment with Kelly Kelly and the idiotic idea behind her 'boyfriend', Mike Knox.

Add to the fact we're still without tag team titles or a secondary title to the so called WORLD championship of this brand.

Put that all in a blender, stir it up, and what do you have?

One major league cluster - F.

Welcome to ECW, ladies and gentlemen. Ok, let's call this as we see it. I picked up the One Night Stand DVD, more for the possession of ECW's first PPV, Barely Legal, which accompanied it than the ONS card, although seeing the card, as much as I have to this point, I was impressed.

I have a few comments to say trying to compare what I witnessed for Barely Legal in comparison to what is being shown on Sci-Fi at this time.

Who in the hell ever thought you would see a match in ECW end in a Disqualification? You got flaming tables as a regular occurrence in the ECW of old, but this past week, Justin Credible gets put through a table by Sabu, and wins the match in the process by DQ because it's not extreme rules.

Heyman as a heel booker is ridiculous. Heyman was the friend of the entire locker room back in the day, or at least, most of the locker rooom back in the day, and now he is basically hated by the entire world because of what he did to RVD. Remember something, ladies and gentlemen. Van Dam did that to himself, and his reaction, from what I have read on the boards, is nothing short of abyssmal. While it appears Sabu has shown a tremendous amount of remorse and embarassment, Van Dam's making jokes about cleaning garages and seeing you in 30 days. Maybe someday down the road when Van Dam realizes he'll never sniff a world title again under the WWE umbrella, he'll realize how idiotic he has been made out to look like after this 'incident' in Ohio. And, to top it all off, this incident in Ohio is still to this very minute having reprecussions throughout the entire ECW brand.

Oh, one other thing, the terms MESSIAH and MARTYR can stay out of wrestling. Ok? Shawn Michaels wrestling with "God" is one thing, but hearing Heyman call himself the Messiah of Hardcore is just plain offensive in my mind. And regarding Shawn Michaels, I'll get to him later.

Is it me, or does Tommy Dreamer really looked pissed? The heart and soul of ECW wrote either a hell of a sell column last week, or is geniunely disgusted with where the product is going at this time, and truth be told, he should be. Test beating Dreamer in any type of match, but especially under the ECW brand is absolutely insulting to the Innovator of Violence. When did Dreamer turn in to a jobber?

Last note on ECW, and yes, this is a positive one, kudos go out to the Big Show and Ric Flair for putting on a hell of a hardcore contest for the ECW World Title this past week. Whether or not it was a show to Foley that Flair can do it hardcore, or one more dip in in the time machine for the Nature Boy, Flair took all the Big Show had and then some. It took thumbtacks to the back to piss off the champ enough to slap the cobra clutch backbreaker on and get the choke out win. Nice show of respect by the Minnesota faithful giving Flair his due for putting it all out there for that main event matchup.

If Big Show is consistently willing to get that dirty in title matches, it may be a blessing in disguise to have the title on his shoulder. He showed me a lot taking barbed wire ball bat shots and still kept coming at Flair throughout the contest.

Is ECW that desperate for talent to get ratings that they needed to pull Flair in for the main event, and have Candice dance with Kelly? (Don't get me started on that one?) If that's the case, the newcomers coming in to ECW have their work cut out for them, and I wonder if they'll be given the chance to succeed and shine. Or, is this brand going to end up being a bunch of WWE re-treads like Test and Shannon Moore? Only time will tell.

Lastly, why has Terry Funk not been brought in for name recognition to the new ECW since One Night Stand? Good question, don't you think?

Moving on.....

Shawn Michaels needs to shut up. He needs to realize that, at this moment in time, the DX thing is working out well. I didn't catch the Triple H/Candice situation, but I did catch a good portion of the antics that Michaels and the Game ensued in, and they have managed to keep Michaels' beliefs in check by scooting him out of potentially offensive situations. While I disagree totally with the "feces" setup from previous involving the McMahons, Michaels should realize this for the immediate future that this angle does work, it does produce the results, the pop, and the ratings that will keep WWE flowing in the right direction, and whether he likes it or not, he should roll with it, because if he doesn't, he'd be very liable to getting fired, quicker than a hiccup, if you ask me.

If Randy Orton and Rob Van Dam can be publicly suspended for the situations they have been invovled with, albeit Orton's was for more 'disciplinary' than drugs, then why can Masters and Mercury's time off television be addressed? What makes their cases private while the others have to deal with the stigmata of being labeled a drug user?

Has there been an explanation of the "punjabi prison match?" And if so, can we find out what it is?

I watched a good portion of Raw this week. BTW, special thanks to my wife for taping Raw and ECW for me. Obviously, I don't know how to program a VCR. DOH! Raw was OK, not the greatest, but OK. I am so sick of Edge as champion already, but he is doing what a heel champion is supposed to do. I am not going to sit here and demand Cena get the belt back, but there should be some nice exchanges of violence between the two, and personally, any violence drawn upon the rated R rooster is a ray of golden sunshine for yours truly.

I give Trish credit for wanting to move on with her career, but this jobbing thing is not doing well for her wrap up with WWE. I would try and figure out a way to quietly exit the scene and return to the ring if needed for a brief departure soon after her wedding. Jobbing to Mickie James and Melina on a regular basis will invalidate Trish's 6 times as Women's Champion faster than you can shake a stick at. If this is also true that Stratus is getting set to leave, perhaps the WWE would be wise in considering halting the Women's title until some of the newer divas are ready to compete long term with the likes of Lita and Mickie James, otherwise, this will be one major league mismatched division from start to finish.

How many more times does Lilian Garcia have to get involved in storylines? And why are we being forced to subject ourselves to Viscera and Charlie Haas when Shelton Benjamin is begging for a feud to showcase his skills, and Haas is sitting there on the Raw roster, just waiting to be plucked.

Hulk Hogan at Saturday Night's Main Event. This deal is going to cement Brooke Hogan's career as a joke in the music business, and it further cements my belief that Vince McMahon does not hold the key to the WWE''s success. It's held in the hands of Hulk Hogan, and he turns it whenever the hell he damn well feels like it, and in the process of getting what he wants, Hogan gets his jollies by watching Vince McMahon twitch around like a marionette.

Moving on to TNA for a brief to close it out. Picked up a few titles this past week. Samoa Joe's best of, and two TNA Pay Per Views, Against All Odds 2006 where Cage wins the belt from Jarrett, and Turning Point 2005 when Sabu battled Abyss in Barbed Wire Massacre.

I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but for ACTION, for WRESTLING, PPV cards on DVD are best when they eminate from O-Town and are promoted by the NWA. TNA PPVs are head and shoulders above anything the WWE dishes out. And this is from the same guy who, yes, like I said, bought the One Night Stand PPV this past week, and I have every intention on buying Vengenance when that comes out.

I guess Rhino found his voice. Some of the best promos I have heard in my life have come the past two weeks with Rhino and Samoa Joe. Joe has some definite heat going with Scott Steiner, and I hope Steiner can handle the abuse, and Rhino has shown some intensity that we never saw throughout his entire time with WWE, and I love it. I think it's tremendous.

I'll come back this weekend with a pick em piece for Victory Road.

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Beaucoup cenabling!