Badseed’s Bottomline
June 28, 2010
By: Jon Minners of Wrestleview.com
Badseed’s Bottomline: It’s Time To Get Extreme Again
TNA is certainly planning an ECW-type angle; that’s for certain, but it has been reported that the writing team behind this plan is uncertain about how to structure this highly anticipated angle. Well, leave it to the Badseed to help. After years of absence, this special Badseed’s Bottomline comes at the right time with hopes of creating the summer’s hottest angle and teaching the WWE a little about how to make an ECW angle work. If you’re reading this Dixie Carter, I have a resume ready to go; just ask.
I would continue having Tommy Dreamer show up with ECW alumni in the audience; whether it is Stevie Richards and Raven or having a surprise re-emergence of Rhino. Continue this as Bubba Ray and Devon have their issues between themselves and Jesse Neal. I want to turn that feud into a three-way dance for the Victory Road PPV with some type of extreme rules stipulation. This was an ECW staple and could be the sign that gets ECW fans buzzing. They will know something will take place with this match, but will not know how the rest of the show will transpire. They will conduct interviews with Jesse Neal, where he will talk about being just as hardcore as Bubba Ray and just train the crowd to chant he’s hardcore.
After a bloody battle that will be won by Bubba Ray, the ECW contingent will hit the ring with Spike Dudley by their side and confront Team 3D, who will shake hands, hug and join the ECW contingent. Jesse Neal will stand up, a bloody mess, and the entire group will stand there looking at him. The pause will cause the audience to chant, “He’s hardcore” and Bubba Ray will grab the mic and cut a promo on Jesse Neal before telling him that he’s earned their respect. And Jesse Neal will be the first non-ECW member to join the group, letting viewers know that this will be about ECW stars of old, assembling a new group of hardcore legends to carry on the tradition. They will not have a name just yet. Also, Shannon Moore will be left out in the cold for a bit, but this will lead to an angle where Shannon Moore tries to fit into the group and must pass an initiation. Jesse Neal wants him in the group, but has no say, and it’s up to Moore to prove himself.
The group will be in the locker room celebrating a great showing when RVD walks by. This could be when Tommy Dreamer asks him to join the group and reveals their name – EV2 (Extreme Evolution 2.0). RVD will balk at the idea. He will say that he tried to recreate ECW once before and watched it become a bastardized version of the organization he loved. He doesn’t want to do that again and he’s with TNA now. He likes what Hulk Hogan is doing and is happy to represent the company. Bubba Ray gets upset and needs to be held back from RVD. And the group just looks on as RVD leaves.
During the world title match, EV2 will hit the ring (maybe with New Jack and a cart full of weapons. ECW veterans can come and go. They can be paid on a nightly basis as needed) and they will take out Ken Anderson and Jeff Hardy. Tazz will claim that RVD set them up. The group will turn to Abyss, but in a swerve that many will have expected, but still be surprised by, attack RVD, leaving him unconscious for Abyss to pin and win the title. Raven will take the mic and announce war on TNA and make reference to a New World Order, but not the tired worn out one left behind in WCW. They will spray paint the belt EV2, as a direct message to Hulk Hogan.
On the following Impact, Abyss will hit the ring only to be confronted by Hulk Hogan. Abyss will simply state, “They’re Here, (obviously, They will be EV2)” sounding like the Poltergeist chick, as EV2 comes out and handcuffs Hogan to the ropes. Dreamer will lay out Hogan with a chair shot heard round the world (not sure if Hogan would take it), before TNA wrestlers come out and try to make the save.
Eric Bischoff will try to get revenge and bring out his ring generals, Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle to do battle with Abyss and Raven. The war will be on when Tazz stops announcing and starts going to ringside. Samoa Joe will just look at him and then turn on Kurt Angle, signaling his entry into EV2. We will find out that it was EV2 that kidnapped Samoa Joe and that the “they” he was referring to in his cryptic video was EV2.
Here is where you can hype different angles. They hate Eric Bischoff and always have, so they took out his #1 boy Hulk Hogan. They hate Kurt Angle because he turned his back on ECW, declaring that the company was without morals, only to join WWE’s version when they watered it down. Raven could confront Angle, because it was his angle with Sandman that led Kurt to threaten Heyman back in the original ECW. They could attack Jeff Hardy for calling himself Extreme. Cactus Jack can come back through the ECW angle, as a way of getting back at Bischoff. Desmond Wolfe can join EV2, as he fits their mold, and can declare war on Fortune for not allowing him in their group. RVD is their prime target for not agreeing to join EV2. And when all is said and done, Paul Heyman can end up being the brains behind the group. You can even turn Sting face here somehow when he realizes that Hogan wasn’t the one plotting an NWO-style takeover. Kendrick can be remodeled into an extreme persona and Generation Me can join him. Doug Williams can now declare war on extreme to keep his angle fresh. Homicide can join their group, too. He fits. Throw in guest appearances here and there from Sandman, Little Guido, Justin Credible, and Jerry Lynn (rematch with RVD anyone), and you have a great angle that will have people talking again.
Yes, the group will be large, but many of paid by appearance members can be used as jobber fodder until the PPV where the main ECW talent can have the matches with the main TNA talent. Written right, you have ECW main stars also pinning TNA jobbers regularly. Make the PPV something worth buying.
And if they are smart, they will only have extreme angles when EV2 is involved to separate their group from everything else going on in TNA. If done properly, this could be the actual “angle that changes TNA forever” they keep hyping that never actually happens. But what do I know. I’m only a “dirt-sheet” reporter.