Ecws biggest booking mistake

[hulksmash87]

What was it in your opinion? To me it’s two that go together, first having taz beat Mike awesome and then after that dreamer winning the title only to lose it to Justin credible a minute later. They should have had dreamer beat awesome, and at least lose it to credible in a match not the way they did it.

[Hypnosis]

RVD not winning the World Title during his original ECW run.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Jul 26, 2020 11:12:56 GMT -5 Hypnosis said:

RVD not winning the World Title during his original ECW run.

I dunno.  His elevation of the TV title did a lot for the company, and I think Heyman always knew RVD was destined for bigger things.

If there'd been financial resources to lock him down for a long time it would make sense, but this is ECW.

[moonpies88]

putting the belt on Justin Credible

I dont hate the guy but a bad choice

Rhino or Lance Storm would have been better

[rnrk supports BLM]

Letting a fat teenager wrestle a hardcore match against New Jack?

[Jaws the Shark]

This is actually hard to answer. Stuff like Credible as world champion was obviously less than ideal, but happened at a time when he probably seemed like the best choice, and there was a coherent thought process behind it.

I think it's probably something silly, like Lou E. Dangerously, or the Network angle with the payoff being Cyrus vs. Joel Gertner on PPV, which was the kind of thing that WWE or WCW would (correctly) get absolutely rinsed for doing.

[Bub (BLM)]

Jul 26, 2020 11:39:23 GMT -5 rnrk supports BLM said:

Letting a fat teenager wrestle a hardcore match against New Jack?

DING DING DING

[chazraps]

Jul 26, 2020 11:15:02 GMT -5 moonpies88 said:

putting the belt on Justin Credible

I dont hate the guy but a bad choice

Rhino or Lance Storm would have been better

Rhino was still super new and Storm was already in WCW by that point.

[Mozenrath]

Outside of stuff mentioned, they stuck with Shane Douglas too long when he was injured as world champion. Sure, it gave Taz an ax to grind, but it was still squandering the title.

[Deleted]

I have only watched like 6 months of it but Mikey Whipwreck....

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

It's tough to go with the world title booking in 2000 because they ran into a variety of issues with Storm/Awesome leaving and RVD getting injured all around the same time. So I don't mind Justin getting in. I do think they should have pivoted it quickly back to RVD when he returned a few months later. Ideally you like to build up to a strong chase but at that point business wise, I am not sure they could afford to go that long. Not to say that they'd have remained in business if Rob got it, but it could have helped.

[Deleted]

None made a difference because they were already screwed financially but 99 had some real headscratchers

Panicking because Douglas had quit and bringing back Sid (who'd already walked out once before) to make Credible and Storm look like jobbers on PPV

Holding off on big moments like Lynn beating Van Dam for the TV Title or Van Dam winning the world title for TNN and then delaying it again once TNN started

Putting the world title on a guy who couldn't do promos and giving him a manager who couldn't do them either

Having the big Rob Van Dam vs Taz match mean nothing because Taz in the weeks before was losing to everyone

Bringing back Raven and having him do the tired "partners that hate each other" thing with Dreamer for months

Pissing off TNN early in the relationship by showing old PPV matches while having fresh matches air on the syndicated show

Airing that really tacky and exploitative Tammy Sytch interview on TNN

[Deleted]

Jul 26, 2020 14:59:12 GMT -5 @adnonlkc said:

Jul 26, 2020 14:41:31 GMT -5 @oldbaby said:

I have only watched like 6 months of it but Mikey Whipwreck....

Please explain. What was the mistake, in your opinion?

I can't say that it was a mistake.  I can only say from my own perspective that starting to watch ECW during a time when they have a lesser version of 1-2-3 Kid beating their top guys (and Steve Austin) was pretty hard to take seriously or really care about.

[cabbageboy]

The RVD injury was a dual whammy. He never got the world title and he also never finally, at long last, put over Jerry Lynn for the TV title. Of course by that point Lynn had lost about 10,389 times so getting 1 win wouldn't exactly be all that newsworthy. That was the irony of the late era ECW: Lynn was a glorified jobber for RVD all those times, but it was he and not RVD that actually won the world title.

That said, not putting the belt on RVD is more of a non move than a booking move. As far as actual moves go, putting it on Awesome. It led to some solid matches with Tanaka but those could have easily been non title. But panicking and putting the title on Awesome screwed up the RVD/Taz match that was brewing for all of 1999 and it ended up being a heatless affair at N2R.

[johnnyk9]

Feuds going to long like FBI and Tajiri/Mikey Whipwreck

[hulksmash87]

Why wouldn’t they have done rvd vs taz in October 99 as taz’s last match for the belt

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Putting the title on someone they didn't intend to pay.

[BlackoutCreature]

I know I'm usually in the minority when I say this, but man, Mike Awesome should've never touched that title. Hadn't been with the company in months when he won it, was no where near the main event picture when he was previously with the company, and, other then some vague notion of him losing it to RVD down the line, they had absolutely nothing lined up for him to do while he's champ. It's basically the equivalent of someone like Luke Harper/Brodie Lee managing to get out of his AEW contract and showing up at SummerSlam and winning the WWE Title from McIntyre. Then, because all the actual main eventers are busy with other stuff, he spends the next few months defending against guys who usually only work 205 Live.

The massive downturn in quality of ECW's output in 2000 and 2001 can all be traced back to this panic move by Paul Heyman.

[toodarkmark]

My opinion is when they showed up on Raw. They were an alternative, but then just became another tool of the WWE. I think with Paul E taking money from Vince, and all the associations between the E and Paul, and the momentary popularity of the shows, helped Vince understand that copying the ECW formula, helping to create the attitude era, eventually led to ECW dying. It took a year or two, but by 99 all the lost talent and ideas, had rendered ECW kind of old news. Even the TV show was just a way for Vince to test the waters of a move to Viacom.

[Chairman of the Board]

Jul 26, 2020 12:57:50 GMT -5 Jaws the Shark said:

This is actually hard to answer. Stuff like Credible as world champion was obviously less than ideal, but happened at a time when he probably seemed like the best choice, and there was a coherent thought process behind it.

I think it's probably something silly, like Lou E. Dangerously, or the Network angle with the payoff being Cyrus vs. Joel Gertner on PPV, which was the kind of thing that WWE or WCW would (correctly) get absolutely rinsed for doing.

THIS!

As an ECW lover for most of the mid-90s this was easily the worst major storyline they had. 

The Mass Transit incident did hurt the product. At the time you had to trade tapes to even see it. Any negative impact it had was felt more behind the scenes. 

Mike Awesome leaving stunk but his title reign was great as a fan, along with losing the title to Taz. 

RVD not winning the World title didn’t adversely effect ECW. 

So far out of all the suggestions, to me, The Network storyline is the easy choice