The ECW Blame Game

[bigHEADinc]

Sitting back, thinking about ECW and what went wrong, I came to the conclusion that several people are at fault here.

Vince McMahon - He never did let the new ECW be the old ECW which was a bit misleading. Also, he continuously seems to push guys down the fans throats (Lashley, Test) who don't seem to ever really click. I'll give him credit, for the first few months, it seemed like they had the right idea, even going so far as up until Summerslam with Sabu vs. Big Show, but then everything seemed to crumble. The ECW Originals started to quickly fade away, the matches were almost always non-ECW rules, and it turned into a C-Level Show, but again, those first few months were good.

Kurt Angle - While he did it indirectly, Angle seemed to stomp on one of the hands keeping ECW from falling into the abyss when he left for TNA. At the time of his departure, Angle was one of the only true stars left in ECW, but with him leaving, we got left with only one credible star, and that was the Big Show.

Rob Van Dam & Sabu - F*** both of these guys. These two were supposed to be the driving force behind the new ECW. Between the WWE vs. ECW event, One Night Stand, and, again, the first few months of TV, these two were primed to be the headliners, given their spot to shined. And what happens? They pick up a goddamned pipe and get high. I can't blame them for getting high, because I do it, but they did it recklessly and got caught. Just look at the after math. RVD got suspended, then demoted to a ridiculous degree. Sabu seemed to still have steam left with the writers, but then started screwing around, demoting him to nothing but a Jobber-to-the-stars status. These two were supposed to be the building block, the main support system for ECW, and once they failed, the rest seemed to crumble along with them. I keep reading reports of RVD being unhappy about his position in the company, well f*** him, he screwed himself over, thereby screwing the fans, and now he's not even trying to make himself look good. As much as we want to blame McMahon & Co. for this, how are you supposed to look at all your wrestlers and say "This is how to act" if you push somebody who did what RVD did. He put the nail in the ECW coffin and gave it a Van Daminator to boot.

Am I saying that ECW would've done better had he not gotten arrested? Hell f***ing yes. As much as I enjoyed Big Show's run as champ (and I hold no blame or ill will towards the big man, because he actually made that title mean something) RVD being at the top would've suited the brand much better.

And now look at us, subjected to Test and Lashley...

I know people say "They should've let ECW be ECW" but they couldn't. ECW was now a business venture, having to answer to boards of stock holders, but it could've been enjoyable, it could've been the alternative to TNA AND the rest of the 'E programming, but it wouldn't be old ECW. I accepted that 3 weeks in and began enjoying it for being what it was, a good wrestling program.

Vince McMahon didn't screw the fans, RVD did, and will continue to do so until he learns to start caring again.

[Cypress]

the problem is the show isnt hardcore or extreme, at the very least they should have one extreme rules match a show, i can almost guarantee another 2 to 300,000 people would tune in if they knew they were gonna get at least one old fashioned ECW match every tuesday.

[DrBackflipsHoffman]

It's not up to RVD to decide his spot on the card, he screwed up big time and if they want to keep punishing us for his mistake by ramming Lashley, Holly and Snitsky at us when nowaxingbody wants them, then thats up to the guys at the top.

If they got rid of 'extreme' rules being a speciality match and made it the regular rules for an ECW show, then there'd be improvment in a lot of people on TV in terms of match quality, Sabu and Sandman mostly. Sandman isn't exactly Dynamite Kid but give him and whoever ten minutes to go nuts and anyone can drag an entertaining match out of him

[qwerty123]

It's kinda sad when a pothead outpops the champ =/

[Richard]

I couldn't agree more bigHEADinc. ECW had the legs cut out from under it pretty early but, it was no where near being solely Vince's fault.

It still has been pretty damn good the last month or so IMO though.

[Person With A Hat]

jinxed said:

I couldn't agree more bigHEADinc. ECW had the legs cut out from under it pretty early but, it was no where near being solely Vince's fault.

he'll still be the one to decide whether they kill it or let it live. In a sense, the demise will be on his hands. Just... you know, not what led to it.

[Chris Decker-The Wild Rover]

i agree RVD and sabu are to blame.

lets think about this.

if RVD and Sabu never were to be high. no paul heel turn. no stupid ECW GM crap. you look at his promo from ONS and he wanted to do this how he did. you can't blame the writers and vince. because RVD got arrested while he was the WWE CHAMPION. in the world of king booker, John Cena and Batista, they had a champ who got arrested for Weed. you know how bad that makes them look. i mean honestly i bet Big show would still be wrestling, cause nice as he was champion, he probably would had done mid-card stuff. remeber with dreamer. so when that happened he eff'ed himself. and he just so happened to do it before the philly show. its almost like it was planned.

thats my buisness.

[Arturo Classico]

How can you blame RVD that is just stupid. I blame WWE Management. That is Dave Lagana, Dusty Rhodes, and Vince McMahon. They turned ECW to an amazing company to piece of flaming crap! They took everything that was great about ECW and crapted on it. Also the sad thing everyone except maybe Hardcore Holly would get over as a face or Heel(especially Burke and Punk) but the way they are presenting it is horrible. I feel if Heyman got full control it would be so much better. Not true ECW but at least it would be far more entertaining as Heyman's run as head writer of Smackdown shown how he could adapt his style and made Smackdown awesome, which people forget. But anyway it's WWE's Managements fault for how crapy ECW is. Also RVD and Sabu didn't write stuff so how are they to blame it's WWE writers job to make a show good and they have failed miserably!

[Chris Decker-The Wild Rover]

kingsofwrestling said:

How can you blame RVD that is just stupid. I blame WWE Management. That is Dave Lagana, Dusty Rhodes, and Vince McMahon. They turned ECW to an amazing company to piece of flaming crap! They took everything that was great about ECW and crapted on it. Also the sad thing everyone except maybe Hardcore Holly would get over as a face or Heel(especially Burke and Punk) but the way they are presenting it is horrible. I feel if Heyman got full control it would be so much better. Not true ECW but at least it would be far more entertaining as Heyman's run as head writer of Smackdown shown how he could adapt his style and made Smackdown awesome, which people forget. But anyway it's WWE's Managements fault for how crapy ECW is. Also RVD and Sabu didn't write stuff so how are they to blame it's WWE writers job to make a show good and they have failed miserably!

RVD made paulie look stupid. plain and simple. how long has paulie pushed for RVD to be champ. he gets it and he got arrested. Paulie was disliked by Vince already and than this happened.

[Cypress]

RVD did his punishment he shouldve got the belt back at D2D, nobody outside of the smark community even knows RVD got caught with weed, im sure WWE stockholders could give 2 shyts about it, but they know PPV buys and ratings.Not building the show around RVD is stupid business.RVD and the return of extreme rules would mean a return of 2.0 ratings.

[Richard]

bookerhatman said:

jinxed said:

I couldn't agree more bigHEADinc. ECW had the legs cut out from under it pretty early but, it was no where near being solely Vince's fault.

he'll still be the one to decide whether they kill it or let it live. In a sense, the demise will be on his hands. Just... you know, not what led to it.

Oh yeah, no doubt on that.

[Chris Decker-The Wild Rover]

i'm sure of that, but WWE is a pecking order. and when that happened it just cemented RVD as a guy who is unreliable

[Arturo Classico]

lifeoftheparty said:

kingsofwrestling said:

How can you blame RVD that is just stupid. I blame WWE Management. That is Dave Lagana, Dusty Rhodes, and Vince McMahon. They turned ECW to an amazing company to piece of flaming crap! They took everything that was great about ECW and crapted on it. Also the sad thing everyone except maybe Hardcore Holly would get over as a face or Heel(especially Burke and Punk) but the way they are presenting it is horrible. I feel if Heyman got full control it would be so much better. Not true ECW but at least it would be far more entertaining as Heyman's run as head writer of Smackdown shown how he could adapt his style and made Smackdown awesome, which people forget. But anyway it's WWE's Managements fault for how crapy ECW is. Also RVD and Sabu didn't write stuff so how are they to blame it's WWE writers job to make a show good and they have failed miserably!

RVD made paulie look stupid. plain and simple. how long has paulie pushed for RVD to be champ. he gets it and he got arrested. Paulie was disliked by Vince already and than this happened.

Okay good point. But I also said that the show is not interesting at all sice Heyman left. Lagana/Rhodes/McMahon has turned into drivel that not even the markiest marks would like! No fans really like Lashley. They perfer RVD or Punk listen to the reactions they get. Also there is nothing being built and no interesting storylines. They hear critcism and they create Nito Girls 2007 no one want to see uncordianted dancing. It wastes time! Build Burke, do something with Punk! Don't make it all about lashley. That makes no sense to build a whold company around one guy. What is this the 1980's? That dosen't work anymore. Look at Raw and SD! Cena and Batista are champs but the whole show is not centered around them and it makes it better. ECW should be the same way especially since Lashley on the mic might be worse than Khali.

[DrBackflipsHoffman]

lifeoftheparty said:

i'm sure of that, but WWE is a pecking order. and when that happened it just cemented RVD as a guy who is unreliable

It's a shame it happened when it did.

It's seemed like they've been a bit uneasy about giving RVD the top slot since he joined despite how over he is, seems to have been well behaved and reliable his whole WWE run, yet he goes and gets arrested at the worst friggin' possible time.

[hollywood]

Sorry, I don't buy this blame game shift to RVD. They had a whole list of guys to give the title to even if they reduce Rod to a mere jobber, and they chose Lashley. I'll buy that Rob shouldn't be champ, but only one man bares the sole blame for this abomination: Vince.

[Hellsing920]

To be honest, it's everyone's fault. Sure, we can dump everything on Vince, RVD, Paul E., Sabu, Angle, Lashley, Holly, and any one else we can think of to blame. But, we the fans are more to blame for why ECW is starting to die. Let me explain.

We all saw the first One Night Stand. We all loved it. We all wanted THAT ECW to come back. Sadly, most of us knew that was nothing more than a pipe dream. But, it's great to wish.

Then, ECW's comeback was announced. We were all jazzed to see this. Even with the somewhat lackluster One Night Stand II, we were all anxious to see ECW back on TV.

But, when it was announced that ECW would be on Sci-fi, some fans immediately dumped on it without seeing any of it. Then, when we saw the Zombie come out, it was downhill from there. People complained about everything from the lighting to who was wrestling to the promos to God knows what else.

In fact, a lot of fans never gave this new ECW a chance. They heard the Big Show was moved over there... ECW Sucks. CM Punk's not in the main event from the word go... ECW Sucks. Monty Brown isn't wrestling as Monty Brown... ECW Sucks. RVD lost the ECW Title... ECW Sucks.

Frankly, I like ECW. It's more entertaining than RAW and SmackDown!, but not as good as Impact or WSX. It's the happy medium. I have come to terms with the fact that the new ECW will never be as good as the old ECW. I would be happy if WWE would change the name of the show to reflect this, but since that isn't gonna happen, I've learned to deal with it.

Sure, it's poorly booked. The whole damn WWE is poorly booked. But, to be honest, I'd rather see Lashley hold a World Title than Batista or Cena, and I hate all three of them.

[Deleted]

You can't blame any of the wrestlers, they're not allowed to be ECW.

WSX has no ECW wrestlers and is still more ECW than ECW.

WOW I said ECW a lot.

[bigHEADinc]

Don't get me wrong, I think the writers as a whole made ECW look stupid, but I look at the weed incident as the catalyst to this.

Here's an analogy. Let's say the WWE as a whole is the USA and ECW is Iraq. So the US says "Hey, Hussein (played by RVD), you should take over Iraq, and then we can be best buds!"

Hussein says "Hey sure, mind if I bring some friends with me?"

The U.S. replies "Whatev, just stay in line."

And so they're friends for awhile. The U.S. gives them supplies and training (AKA TV Time, House Shows, and PPVs) and, while it's a rocky friendship, both sides seem to get along.

Then Hussein (RVD) invades (smokes) Kuwait (weed), and the U.S. is like "Hey! WTF Iraq!? We gave you all of this and now you're being a dick?!"

So the U.S. tells Hussein that it's over, deal's off, because Hussein f***ed it up. Years later, Hussein (RVD) is killed by his own people (The ECW Originals).

Yeah, crazy analogy, but I'm actually surprised how much of it worked.

Remember this, Vince McMahon didn't use a lot of WCW guys for a reason, in his head they were from a company that was a failure. That, in turn, made all of them failures. This is why the Invasion failed, because Vince couldn't imagine the fans taking WCW seriously when they lost to the WWF already. It's the same way with ECW, but he gave ECW a fighting chance. They threw in Paul Heyman, they brought back whoever they could, and they even put the WWE Title (Who's lineage goes back to the WWF Title) on RVD, saying this is his time. When RVD f***ed up, to Vince, it was the ECW Originals as a whole who f***ed up.

[bigHEADinc]

hollywood said:

Sorry, I don't buy this blame game shift to RVD. They had a whole list of guys to give the title to even if they reduce Rod to a mere jobber, and they chose Lashley. I'll buy that Rob shouldn't be champ, but only one man bares the sole blame for this abomination: Vince.

Honestly, since Big Show has left, nobody deserves that title. RVD & Sabu have been lazy and sloppy as of late. Test was/is a nobody. Lashley hasn't proven he is qualified to be in the ring, let alone with the title. Sandman hasn't been built up as a main eventer. CM Punk is way to early in his WWE career to even be considered.

So really, who does that leave? Nobody.

[hollywood]

bigheadinc said:

hollywood said:

Sorry, I don't buy this blame game shift to RVD. They had a whole list of guys to give the title to even if they reduce Rod to a mere jobber, and they chose Lashley. I'll buy that Rob shouldn't be champ, but only one man bares the sole blame for this abomination: Vince.

Honestly, since Big Show has left, nobody deserves that title. RVD & Sabu have been lazy and sloppy as of late. Test was/is a nobody. Lashley hasn't proven he is qualified to be in the ring, let alone with the title. Sandman hasn't been built up as a main eventer. CM Punk is way to early in his WWE career to even be considered.

So really, who does that leave? Nobody.

Let's see... There's Tommy Dreamer? He was actually an ECW champ for a while. And before anyone says something like he has no momentum or buildup or credibility with the fans, first explain to me how Test or Lashley (or even SNITSKY!?) do?

EDIT: Hell, Rob's suspension was long since served. If they were really so desperate, they could've always given it back to him.