Post by saintpat on Sept 7, 2012 14:11:28 GMT -5
Help me out here. No doubt that by all accounts and beyond all doubt, the three-way dance between Shane Douglas and Terry Funk and Sabu was a classic.
But what line was crossed on the Night that the Line Was Crossed?
First of all, Paul E. comes up with an idea to do a three-way match in a different manner than was the custom (at least in the U.S.) at the time -- where the first guy pinned is eliminated and the match keeps going until one of the remaining two wrestlers gets the final pin to win the match (instead of the first pinfall deciding it like a Triple Threat match).
And then he books it to be a 60-minute broadway, so there isn't a first pin (much less a second). That could be seen as a brilliant swerve -- building up a match with an unusual set of rules and then booking it so those rules never come into place, hooking the audience with the unpredictability of the outcome. Or it could be seen, if looked at through a difference lens, as bad-WCW style booking -- like a Russo no-DQ match where the ref starts counting to break a hold when a guy grabs the ropes, or a falls-count-anywhere match that never leaves the ring.
I'll go with the former, but it's hardly line-crossing in any regard to have a time-limit draw.
In the Rise and Fall of ECW book, Heyman clearly says "that's where the line was crossed" when talking about the press conference after -- where Funk is bathing in the glory of it all (and his own blood) and Shane Douglas basically plays The Franchise and says, 'F U, I should be given the belt anyway.' And then Funk and Shane throw the belt at each other and get into a brawl and decide they'll settle it later.
What line was crossed at the press conference? A heel disrespecting a babyface? Really?
Great booking, spinning the feud forward so you take a great match as bait to make the audience come back for more to see resolution.
Yes, three men went in as psuedo-heels (although it seems to me Sabu was getting face pops and Funk was hardly a dastardly villain at that time in that promotion, more a rough-customer elder statesman who the fans respected far more than they disliked him) and the booking (including post-match booking) left Funk as a pure babyface, Sabu as a face/circus attraction and Shane as a pure heel.
But is that line-crossing?
I admit I don't get the reason this is regarded as something so out of the box, something that made up a new set of rules -- if that's what line-crossing means, which it does in most senses of the phrase.
Was it the night that put ECW over and started it on the rise? Certainly part of it, maybe even the one moment you can kind of point to as an anchor event for the promotion.
But compare that to what happened later, when Shane won the NWA belt and then threw it away and proclaimed the Extreme (instead of Eastern) Championship Wrestling the belt that mattered.
On this night, ECW crossed lines for real -- screwed a rival promoter with a bait-and-switch and screwed the NWA alliance of promoters who voted to allow their belt to be decided in this tournament (and no, the NWA wasn't in any way what it had once been, but a lot of people in the business who were hanging their hats on the NWA were screwed by burying their championship).
THAT is line-crossing. THAT is the moment that really made ECW -- it's the moment it went from regional promotion to the EXTREME and gained its own identity. THAT is the moment that made Shane Douglas as The Franchise.
In reality, isn't the NWA screwjob the night that was historic, the night that changed wrestling and changed the rules, rather than the time-limit draw?
But what line was crossed on the Night that the Line Was Crossed?
First of all, Paul E. comes up with an idea to do a three-way match in a different manner than was the custom (at least in the U.S.) at the time -- where the first guy pinned is eliminated and the match keeps going until one of the remaining two wrestlers gets the final pin to win the match (instead of the first pinfall deciding it like a Triple Threat match).
And then he books it to be a 60-minute broadway, so there isn't a first pin (much less a second). That could be seen as a brilliant swerve -- building up a match with an unusual set of rules and then booking it so those rules never come into place, hooking the audience with the unpredictability of the outcome. Or it could be seen, if looked at through a difference lens, as bad-WCW style booking -- like a Russo no-DQ match where the ref starts counting to break a hold when a guy grabs the ropes, or a falls-count-anywhere match that never leaves the ring.
I'll go with the former, but it's hardly line-crossing in any regard to have a time-limit draw.
In the Rise and Fall of ECW book, Heyman clearly says "that's where the line was crossed" when talking about the press conference after -- where Funk is bathing in the glory of it all (and his own blood) and Shane Douglas basically plays The Franchise and says, 'F U, I should be given the belt anyway.' And then Funk and Shane throw the belt at each other and get into a brawl and decide they'll settle it later.
What line was crossed at the press conference? A heel disrespecting a babyface? Really?
Great booking, spinning the feud forward so you take a great match as bait to make the audience come back for more to see resolution.
Yes, three men went in as psuedo-heels (although it seems to me Sabu was getting face pops and Funk was hardly a dastardly villain at that time in that promotion, more a rough-customer elder statesman who the fans respected far more than they disliked him) and the booking (including post-match booking) left Funk as a pure babyface, Sabu as a face/circus attraction and Shane as a pure heel.
But is that line-crossing?
I admit I don't get the reason this is regarded as something so out of the box, something that made up a new set of rules -- if that's what line-crossing means, which it does in most senses of the phrase.
Was it the night that put ECW over and started it on the rise? Certainly part of it, maybe even the one moment you can kind of point to as an anchor event for the promotion.
But compare that to what happened later, when Shane won the NWA belt and then threw it away and proclaimed the Extreme (instead of Eastern) Championship Wrestling the belt that mattered.
On this night, ECW crossed lines for real -- screwed a rival promoter with a bait-and-switch and screwed the NWA alliance of promoters who voted to allow their belt to be decided in this tournament (and no, the NWA wasn't in any way what it had once been, but a lot of people in the business who were hanging their hats on the NWA were screwed by burying their championship).
THAT is line-crossing. THAT is the moment that really made ECW -- it's the moment it went from regional promotion to the EXTREME and gained its own identity. THAT is the moment that made Shane Douglas as The Franchise.
In reality, isn't the NWA screwjob the night that was historic, the night that changed wrestling and changed the rules, rather than the time-limit draw?
