Well, Well, Well....

Unfortunately, I can't follow that up with an obscenity-laced Joel Gertner promo.

This will be a rare wrestling-related post, so you're forewarned. Also, to save time I'm assuming you know about the history of ECW.

This Sunday the WWE will try to serve us up some nostalgia with ECW: One Night Stand.

Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that.

When the concept for an ECW reunion was being tossed around, the idea was to emulate the 'ECW style'. There would be a noticeable lack of polish and glitz, to match the almost thrown together design of those early ECW shows. Only ECW alumni would work the show, and even assume their old identities, i.e Simon Dean/Nova. The stage was set for a show that, if done right, might have signaled a new life for the defunct organization.

SNAGS...

The WWE, sensing the scads of money this type of show could pull in, decided to price the event accordingly. The seats ranged from $100 to $400 ringside. When the show failed to sell out, it seems that WWE made an executive decision.

So far, the promotion of the show was almost non-existent, with one or two ads peppered into WWE shows. It was barely mentioned on camera as well. That began to change when Eric Bischoff, as GM of RAW, made a decree banning any mention of ECW on 'his' show. He then gathered a group of WWE loyalists determined to attend One Night Stand and kill ECW a second time. On Smackdown, Kurt Angle gathered a group of his own to avenge a perceived slight against him many years ago. Essentially, it looks like WWE thought that the ECW name wasn't going to be enough to sell the show, and that it needed WWE 'names' to rescue it from failure. I think it's a bit premature, but then again I'm not CEO of a billion-dollar corporation.

Nevertheless, the card looks like great fun:

-Lance Storm with Dawn Marie vs. Chris Jericho
-Rey Mysterio vs. Psicosis
-Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome
-Super Crazy vs. Tajiri w/Sinister Minister vs. Little Guido
-Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit
-Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman vs. Bubba & D-Von Dudley

Hopefully, the ECW faithful will dispose of the WWE detatchment in short order.

Finally, I want to make a final call to any and all wrestling fans. WWE Fantasy is now free, with a Monday afternoon deadline. If you decide to play, you can follow along in our own league. Just look for WildAssCircus, and click 'join'.

Courage,
Mike G.