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Post by Viking Hall on Oct 15, 2018 12:52:00 GMT -5
Honestly, thinking about it...and this may be a weird one but... Ron Killings. Probably playing something like his more edgy (not severely so) character when he won the NWA title. I did an ECW fantasy booker a few years back (because I'm super cool) and Ron Killings was one of the people I planned to bring in with New Jack as his mouthpiece. Someone else I brought in was Dustin Rhodes, he was a free agent until he returned at the 2002 Royal Rumble and also had the link to Dusty being there in 2000 and could have mixed it up with both the brawlers and the more workrate based workers too. Other than that I think a lot of the JAPW wrestlers would have probably bulked up the roster, with Low-Ki probably getting the biggest push while in terms of other Indie standouts I could also see Christopher Daniels getting an immediate push having already been there briefly in '99 and also arguably being one of the biggest names on the fledgling Indie scene. As for what would have happened to other Indie promotions I don't think we would have got ROH but would have seen Gabe Sapolsky's influence increase in terms of talent recruitment within ECW. However, in terms of the rest of landscape I don't see many major changes. The likes of XPW, IWA:MS and CZW were already far more extreme than what ECW were doing and therefore were already catering to a different audience than ECW. ECW would have needed to bolster their roster but there would have still been only so many spots and therefore I still see an Indie 'boom' period occurring perhaps just with some slightly different names involved. Which promotion takes up the mantle of being the home of technical wrestling is another question altogether, but with the gap there I'm sure someone would have filled it. |
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Nosnorb
El Dandy
Nachos and Fraggle Rock are TIMELESS.
Posts: 7,685
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Post by Nosnorb on Oct 15, 2018 12:53:05 GMT -5
Would we have gotten Braden Walker?
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Post by eDemento2099 on Oct 15, 2018 14:08:32 GMT -5
But I’m kinda curious hypothetically if ECW was still around how would it affect the Invasion angle with just WCW? The InVasion Angle in the WWF still would have been shit, because the problem obviously lied with the powers that be in the WWF and their refusal to treat their (former) competition as a legitimate threat. I mean, come on, the had DDP job to the Undertaker's WIFE, for Christ's sake. The problem was never with a lack of talent. Not having ECW around would have simply made the InVasion angle even shittier, as RVD's unstoppable rise to stardom would have been an absent highlight of what was otherwise one of the darkest moments in wrestling's kayfabed history. |
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hassanchop
Grimlock
Who are you to doubt Belldandy?
Posts: 14,784 
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Post by hassanchop on Oct 15, 2018 16:25:26 GMT -5
But I’m kinda curious hypothetically if ECW was still around how would it affect the Invasion angle with just WCW? The InVasion Angle in the WWF still would have been shit, because the problem obviously lied with the powers that be in the WWF and their refusal to treat their (former) competition as a legitimate threat. I mean, come on, the had DDP job to the Undertaker's WIFE, for Christ's sake. The problem was never with a lack of talent. Not having ECW around would have simply made the InVasion angle even shittier, as RVD's unstoppable rise to stardom would have been an absent highlight of what was otherwise one of the darkest moments in wrestling's kayfabed history. I also imagine how hurt the roster will be without ECW to add to make up for their lack of top stars, either they will use the talent they did get like Mark Jindrak, Elix Skipper or Kaz Hayashi or if they will just put in WWF stars defecting right away. And I wonder how damaged the Invasion will be if ECW will shoot on the Invasion angle by revealing on live TV that the top WCW stars are sitting at home and how petty WWF is by burying the WCW talent they did get for a pathetic storyline, and how would the WWF take it. Maybe they would go on panic mode and abort the Invasion or maybe throw some jabs at ECW ala Billionaire Ted skits. |
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Post by Vice honcho room temperature on Oct 15, 2018 16:31:44 GMT -5
Honestly if Paul Heyman gave a shit he could have become ROH. He was so burnt out and he was burnt out a bit before they officially folded that a job with the WWE just seemed simple so he went with that.
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Post by eDemento2099 on Oct 15, 2018 19:40:59 GMT -5
The problem was never with a lack of talent... I wonder how damaged the Invasion will be if ECW will shoot on the Invasion angle by revealing on live TV that the top WCW stars are sitting at home and how petty WWF is by burying the WCW talent they did get for a pathetic storyline, and how would the WWF take it. Maybe they would go on panic mode and abort the Invasion or maybe throw some jabs at ECW ala Billionaire Ted skits. Interesting point, but wrestling fans aren't dumb: it was already apparent to all wrestling fans who even knew what WCW was that a lot of WCW superstars were not involved in the WWF's InVasion Angle, including Sting, Ric Flair, Scott Steiner, Hall, Nash, and Goldberg. They didn't need ECW to point out their absence, except maybe to: (1) highlight money as the reason why the aforementioned guys were not actively trying to take over the WWF (indicating that the WWF was cutting corners on what could have and should have been its biggest dream angle ever), and; (2) the WCW superstars were never going to show up any time in the immediate future for the reason expressed in the previous point. |
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Post by bmfjules on Oct 16, 2018 15:31:20 GMT -5
I wonder how damaged the Invasion will be if ECW will shoot on the Invasion angle by revealing on live TV that the top WCW stars are sitting at home and how petty WWF is by burying the WCW talent they did get for a pathetic storyline, and how would the WWF take it. Maybe they would go on panic mode and abort the Invasion or maybe throw some jabs at ECW ala Billionaire Ted skits. Interesting point, but wrestling fans aren't dumb: it was already apparent to all wrestling fans who even knew what WCW was that a lot of WCW superstars were not involved in the WWF's InVasion Angle, including Sting, Ric Flair, Scott Steiner, Hall, Nash, and Goldberg. They didn't need ECW to point out their absence, except maybe to: (1) highlight money as the reason why the aforementioned guys were not actively trying to take over the WWF (indicating that the WWF was cutting corners on what could have and should have been its biggest dream angle ever), and; (2) the WCW superstars were never going to show up any time in the immediate future for the reason expressed in the previous point. I don't know that it really matters to WWE, but ECW could have definitely used the Invasion debacle as further self promotion - especially if they are able to line up a really stacked card with some kind of dream match of their own, where they can basically say they're the only company that actually delivers on said dream matches - of course, actually getting ECW dream matches at that point would require the return of guys either under WWE contract or sitting on Turner money packages, so they are sort of in the same boat, but with less capital to take advantage.
That said - for a reference point, I would say any of the guys who participated in either early 2002 ROH or 2002 MLW shows would obviously be easy gets for ECW, but right there in the heat of 2001, I'm not sure who is automatically available for them to put on a show that would be a blowaway classic - the future indy stars wouldn't be ready just yet, and by mid 2001 Heyman had pissed off a lot of the ECW original icons.
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