The Wrath of Tito - Do NOT bring back ECW! I Repeat, do NOT bring back ECW!
Submitted by Mr. Tito on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 at 6:07 PM EST

Welcome, one and all, to the Wrath of Tito... my apologies for the delays on the column. Busy time with working for yours truly. In addition, I turned the tender age of 26. To think, I was a young 18 when I first started writing columns in October of 1998. Wow...

If you'd like to hear audio opinions from yours truly, I've been asked by an internet radio show called the "Shawn and Chase" show on LVRocks.com to call in as a regular. I called in last Wednesday around 6:30 Eastern/3:30 Pacific and it went well. I had a good debate with the show's host over various wrestling topics, including a great difference of opinion on Randy Orton. All things considered, I should be a regular contributor to the show on Wednesdays @ 6:30 pm Eastern/3:30 Pacific at LVRocks.com.

I am still, however, trying to put together my own audio show of some kind. I am, however, a caveman when it comes to internet radio technology. I can surely create mp3's and edit audio on Adobe Premiere, but I cannot convert audio to some sort of streaming video or find the necessary webspace to not only host an hour or two long show, but to take the crazy amounts of bandwidth that should be expected. If anybody can help, please contact me at wrathoftito@yahoo.com. It should be expected that a large volume of readers will listen to the show, so if a web technology page would like to host in trading with sponsorship, something can be easily worked out.

So what's happening in the wrestling world? I'm digging the whole Edge vs. John Cena vs. HHH feud. The WWE has put nice importance on those 3 guys being the main eventers on RAW right now. The chaos booked in the 3 ways and the match last night against the Spirit Squad was a lot of fun. What's more intriguing is the fact that none of the wrestlers appear to be the clear face or clear heel. Each are actually received differently by fans.

Normally, that's a problem. However, I think that with John Cena, he's actually becoming a DRAW by fans wanting to boo the hell out of him. How about that? I've noticed that HHH has knocked himself down a peg for the feud (reports suggest that the incoming birth is making him very humble, which is good... not for just wrestling fans, but for HHH himself. HHH needs this, for he's taken the business way too seriously since his return in 2002). Edge, meanwhile, has probably enhanced his stance as a heel because he's not trying to get the face pop, unlike HHH and Cena. Then again, fans still aren't sure how to cheer or jeer Edge, outside of yelling at Lita.

Backlash looks pretty good at this point and almost looks worthy of buying...

But as a nice transition, I'll tell you what's NOT worth buying: the Return of Extreme Championship Wrestling. I thought it was only the usual, yearly, "ECW is coming back" rumor. However, there appears to be some serious thought behind the idea. When will the wrestling industry learn? ECW is soooooooo mid to late 1990's. Crash style wrestling and hardcore matches were fun and interesting back then, but stale now.

Bringing back ECW will be a HUGE FAILURE. Why? Just look at NWA-TNA. In some ways, they clone ECW. They've brought in many of the top-name ECW guys to no avail. Raven, Sandman, Sabu, Dudleys, Rhino, Jerry Lynn, etc. are no longer draws, even from an ECW standpoint. Meanwhile, TNA has a lot of appreciation for their lightweight, high flying action. Essentially, TNA has spotfests, just as ECW once did. TNA is a watered down version of ECW and it's not working.

Just look no further than "One Night Stand". The fact remains that the facility struggled to sell out. WWE foolishly overpriced the tickets and was no means a sell-out early. Then, the buyrate came in and it was completely embarrassing, no matter how much the ECW marks reporting news tried to spin it. Hell, they tried to inflate at first to something ridiculous like 800,000 buys. Hello? That's Wrestlemania range. The number would later come in at under 200,000 buys, if memory serves, and nothing above 300,000. Given the hype and the WWE involvement, it's sad.

With a "new ECW", it's likely that you cannot sell the brand without the old stars of the promotion. That's right, bring back the Sandman, Sabu, Axl Rotten, etc... ECW shutdown in early 2001. Folks, it's been FIVE LONG YEARS since that promotion closed down. In addition, much of those wrestlers had their peaks 1996-1998, which is an even longer gap. Much of the older name wrestlers are suffering through permanent injuries. Just look at Sabu! This time, 2 years ago, benefit shows were held just to pay for his medical bills!

For ECW to be successful, it HAS to be ECW. It cannot be the WWE-controlled ECW. Word is that Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman will be in charge of the product. Let's keep in mind a few facts from the WWE perspective:

Paul Heyman is badly disliked by the McMahons. This is HUGE, because the McMahons always have a conflict of ideas with Heyman, even insomuch as how he ran Ohio Valley Wrestling, the freakin' developmental site. The McMahons, the money side of the equation, will want to have their hands in this project and that will create tension. When Heyman refused to push the wrestlers that Vince wanted pushed in early 2003, he was shown the door by that year's Wrestlemania (remember Albert?).

Old ECW stars aren't what they used to be. They are all older, injury ridden, and aren't as hungry as they were during the late 1990's. The enthusiasm for One Night Stand was nice, but to do that nightly?

Decreased demand for ECW. This is clear from the huge bust of ECW One Night Stand. But ECW was in decline during its last few years. The television deal on TNN greatly failed to drive up interest, despite being in a primetime slot. Let's not forget that the ECW return during the Invasion barely drew any interest (more towards the debut of Rob Van Dam than the return of the ECW brand). There aren't as many wrestling fans now as you had back then, given that the WWE is the monopoly and TNA is eating table scraps.

ECW guys will be under WWE contracts, therefore, they will not be allowed to take dangerous risks in the ring. Many comments are made about the "WWE style". Fact remains that the WWE encourages extra punching and lame transition moves to protect their investments. The last thing they want are dangerous spotfests that gives their wrestlers long periods of time on the disabled list. The WWE doesn't want additional medical bills from sheer stupidity of taking crazy bumps for the ECW cause.

Problems on television. I'm not exactly sure of the specifics of the television deal or what has been made official, but I really don't see much of a demand to have ECW on your network. USA Network is pretty strict on the timeslots the WWE can have and would not let the WWE venture somewhere else, outside of UPN. WWE could go the syndication route which could let ECW have their late night timeslots that made them famous. However, let's keep in mind that this is the same television industry who has frowned on pro wrestling thanks to the problems with PTC and the studies showing that pro wrestling has low income viewers.

Therefore, the WWE should stop in its tracks before getting into a total disaster that's known as ECW. They are better off making millions by selling off DVD's of the old video library than to try and re-invent that once successful independent promotion (though it went bankrupt, so how successful really was it?). The poor buyrate should have told the WWE that a present-day ECW would fail, but it's obviously not working. This is the same company who tried to start up a pro football league (XFL), a bodybuilders federation, and a record label. All failed miserably.

And as a challenge to NWA-TNA, I'd let the former ECW guys go to the ECW project. That's right, release them all. Raven, Dudleys, etc. Let them go to this ECW brand and let the WWE throw lots of money at them to return. The more this brand sucks money away from the WWE machine, the better off NWA-TNA will be in the long run. It will be a great opportunity for TNA to pounce and improve their product enough to challenge a financially weakned WWE.

In closing, let ECW remain dead. Yes, it's not bad to relive the memories with an occasional reunion show. It's even better to buy DVD compilations to remember the stuff that was fun to watch. But we're 5 years after the fact that this promotion died under the way it currently operated. In addition, the WWE won't let ECW be ECW.

~Apple Dumplings~

-I got WWE Day of Reckoning 2 for the Game Cube. Looks like a nicely polished Day of Reckoning #1, which I considered to be the best wrestling game of all time. Why? The N64 games have become obsolete, the X-Box games suck, and the controller is rough to handle for a wrestling game on the Playstation. The 'Cube controller is perfect for wrestling games.

Let me get on one tangent about the X-Box, however. I cannot stand the right analog stick. I hate how every game makes you use it to move left or right. I also got MVP Baseball NCAA 2006 for the X-Box, and the new hitting system has you using that stick to hit a pitch. I understand the concept, but it's a pain. Thankfully, that game has the classic hitting mode or I'd lose my freakin' mind!

-Finished up the Shawn Michaels book.... Damn that's a GREAT read. I'd say it's the SECOND best wrestling book, only behind Mick Foley's first book. Michaels is completely honest about everything (doesn't mean his opinions are right, but they are his) with the exception of steroid usage (which he tested positive to in 1992 but denied). I was quite frankly amazed at how much backstage pull Michaels had, even before the "clique" formed. He backed that up by suggesting that the likes of Savage, Hogan, ect. all played that game before, so why shouldn't he?

He seemed to address every rumor going on about him, which I thought was cool. HBK suggested that he purposely started acting more obnoxious once the dirtsheets were getting wind of his reported backstage behavior. In addition, he held nothing back on Bret Hart, by suggesting that Bret was a loner, hard to work with due to Bret always wanting to work his own style and nothing diverting from that, and how Bret was always ratting HBK out to the dirtsheets. I do believe, still, that HBK's knee injury from 1997 was fake. He said that Dr. Andrews saw no ACL ligament, but how on earth did he not have the surgery or how did he come back so quickly after "losing his smile". To this day, how does he nip up with so few knee injuries?

I liked how HBK's book ended... HBK grew up in leaps and bounds, and I gotta hand a lot of credit over to his very patient wife. Michaels was heavily into his painkillers around their marriage and first child, but she stuck with him through the potential breaking point. As the great Peter Cetera would say, she's One Good Woman and HBK is fortunate to have such an angel in his life.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED book, [ A+ ]. You'd be crazy not to pick this book up and devour it in a few days.

-I also received Eddie Guerrero's book for my Birthday and hope to dig into it throughout this spring...

-In some very INTERESTING news, Brock Lesnar settled his suit against the WWE. WWE.com released a statement about the WWE being pleased about the protection/respect given to the WWE for their involvement in creating the Brock Lesnar character. My guess is that the WWE and Brock have agreed to a compromise which would let Lesnar work for the WWE again. Meanwhile, they'll let him dabble in mixed martial arts, which is what he reportedly wants to dive into next. That's my guess and I could see this deal benefitting both sides. Lesnar could have a steady income as a WWE wrestler again while having the flexibility to fight mixed martial arts. Meanwhile, the WWE benefits by having a legit fighter on their promotion.

The bigger issue, IF Lesnar comes back to the WWE, would be his ego. He was becoming hard to work with there towards the end, insomuch that he was greatly against putting Eddie Guerrero over at No Way Out 2004. Reports suggested that Angle and Lesnar had problems getting along as well, and you'd figure that two guys who did great business together and were both former amateur wrestlers could get along? If Lesnar makes his WWE return, he'll probably have to pay some dues.

If Lesnar is not coming back to the WWE, it's likely that the WWE will get a % of Lesnar's earnings when getting involved with other fighting or even wrestling promotions. I believe that's a good policy, seeing how the WWE made Lesnar a household name in the first place (because lord knows amateur wrestling is talked about daily here in the United States).

-Another case to pile on about my ECW rant above... Sabu just signed a reported 3 year contract with the WWE. Seriously, folks, this guy is broken down. Good for him if he gets this deal, but from a business owner perspective, why buy a guy who is clearly not as productive as he once was? Like I said, good for him on getting some financial stability, but bad on the WWE for buying damaged goods. Sabu was slick in this process by flirting enough with TNA to get a deal. Well done, Sabu.

That's all I have today... enjoy your weekend... or enjoy the NFL draft, because lord knows the hype behind the event WON'T STOP!

Mr. Tito's BLOG: Here Tito's thoughts on non-wrestling topics or leave column feedback!

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@ Just chill till the next episode...

Mr. Tito/LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com � 1998 - 2006

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