Reported by Mike Siciliano of WrestleView.com
On Thursday, August 10, 2006 at 12:25 PM EST

It's almost to the point for me that I am more interested in watching an hour of ECW rather than two hours of Raw or Smackdown. I have to admit, though, that Smackdown may become more interesting with all the new faces, Elijah Burke, Idol Stevens, KC James, the returning Boogeyman, etc. Anyway, back to ECW. I watched it this past week thanks to my wife recording it for me, and I have to say, it wasn't half bad. As much as I hated Test as a WWE superstar, this fighter persona he has taken in ECW suits him well. He can throw down with the best of them, and teaming him with this sick bastard Mike Knox seems to be a match made in hell.

I mean hell for Barbie Blank, aka Kelly Kelly, who has been the victim of a sick cane shot, a spanking of ultimate proportions, and I think that's just the beginning of the physicality the 20 year old blonde bombshell is liable to endure. What I am going to get annoyed with is because of the bull with Van Dam and Sabu, if this feud continues to be influenced by the changing persona of Paul Heyman, that will make me violently ill. While I can understand the idea of Heyman going against the ECW originals to levy the spotlight off of Van Dam so he can recover publicly from his stupidity, it does affect some aspects of the show that are just silly, and this is one of them. How many more times is Dreamer going to have to endure the beatings before things turn around? How many more times is Sandman going to lose by DQ because of the no extreme rules thing. (That still is a sore topic with me, but let's move on.)

With Van Dam gone, it seemingly has become, ECW, I mean, CM Punk's to gain. The world is talking about Punk. CW Anderson, an ECW Original, is changing his name to ensure Punk's singularity remains in tact. Punk gets a promo, even when he doesn't wrestle the week after his debut. WWE appears to be letting Punk go with his mike skills, and anyone who has watched ROH and early TNA knows that Punk can talk his way out of a paper bag and back again, so, as much as I wanted to see Punk wrestle last week, at least his garnering more time in front of the camera is nothing more than pure beneficial for his eventual push within the brand.

More newcomers approaching. Rene Dupree, which confuses me, although the rougher exterior look may be good for the brand, Shannon Moore, as "The Reject". I won't go down that road. As talented as Moore is, he has become the gimmick, and I think that will be his undoing. Kevin Thorn. Ariel, (Shelly Martinez), is a perfect fit for the role she has been given. If Thorn is a tenth of the wrestler they want him to be, he will be a good mid card heel for feuds to build up new comers and originals in to title contnention.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, mentioning, for one, CW Anderson has not made his television debut yet. Terry Funk is listed as an extremist, but he has not been seen whatsoever since One Night Stand. Perhaps the FBI will resurface when Trinity recovers from her knee surgery, but where did Big Guido go? You have the ECW title picture, which is cloudy at best, but the real source of the forthcoming challenges for the brand.

Instead of trying to continue to bring in their own people, ala Justin Credible, ala Steven Richards, ala CW Anderson, they bring in Kane, Undertaker, Ric Flair, & Batista to challenge Big Show for the ECW title. Now, does this provide some main event push for ECW, sure. Hell, I wanted to see Batista win the match, even Kane. Taker I don't think would go anywhere with the ECW title, so I doubted that would happen. But, in the interim of the quick fix of well known WWE talents trying to get instant push for the brand in the ratings, the long term product suffers because men that have bled, poured the sweat, and paid the price for the brand of E-C-Dub are being squashed by outside influences.

Is there a solution? Yeah, I think so.

Bring back the World television title. Make that the "title match" to bring the fans to Sci Fi every tuesday night. Bring in tag titles. Bring in more new talent from OVW and DSW to bolster a weak tag team division. Give the talent a chance to fight for a viable goal instead of the opportunity to get their collective asses handed to them by the current ECW World title holder. Let's go down that road to finish this off.

I was super stoked for Kurt Angle vs. Sabu. I love Angle's new persona. I think it's amazing. Sabu, although I am still annoyed by his stupidity, his remorse has gotten me back on his side, and I would absolutely love to see a series of matches between Sabu and Big Show in a myriad of stipulations. Can you say, Sabu vs. Abyss? It would be almost the same, with about 200 pounds difference, but the intensity would not dissapate whatsoever, even with the size difference.

Sabu vs. the Big Show could begin a trilogy of matches that would give some serious, serious push to the ECW title picture, and show some vulnerability for the seemingly indestructible Big Show. And personally, I thought it was going to happen as I sat down to watch Sci-Fi tuesday night at 10pm. I should've guessed what was going to happen.

And sure enough, after an intense, hard hitting, massively hardcore match without a blood droplet spilled, Angle & Sabu are attacked by the returning Rob Van Dam, and the ECW title picture in to Summerlsm. How do you solve it?? Angle vs. Sabu vs. Van Dam vs. Show in a four way? Love it, but make it extreme rules. Van Dam gets the rematch? Doubtful. Angle vs. Sabu round two, extreme rules? Love it. A lot of possibilities, but what I love about this, even with the predictability of Van Dam's run in, is the unpredictability of where they can go with this title picture.

Any way they do go, Big Show is in for one hell of a fight.

Ok. that's it for now. Hope it's more positive, people. Click here to yell at me via email if you have to. :)

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Click here for information next week on two signings in Long Island. Sunday with Sabu and Sandman, Friday with Cena & Ashley. I will be in attendance on friday night.

Beaucoup cenabling!