Breaking The Walls Down - Well That Came Out Of Nowhere Submitted by Chris Dailey on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 at 3:28 PM EST
Breaking The Walls Down
Hello all and welcome back to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. What an introduction, unofficially, to summer. It’s warm out and I’m loving it! The project I’m working on is coming along well and we are very busy with it. So, as usual, time is limited, so we’ll forego Bits and Pieces this week.
Well That Came Out Of Nowhere
The sound of his music hit the arena and my eyes opened up from their restful state. “How is this going to work with his neck being the way it is”, I thought. As Kurt Angle made his way to the ring, he was introduced as the ECW lottery pick from Smackdown. I instantly thought of the wrestling clinics he’d put on with various contenders for the ECW Title, as he undoubtedly will become champion at some point. I thought of how funny it was that what was storyline cannon a year ago (with Angle being anti-ECW) to Angle now being one of ECW’s biggest stars. In my mind Paul Heyman has done what ECW needed, revitalization.
I’ll admit, I dumped on ECW pretty hard the past few weeks. I feared that The WWE was going to lead us down the same, dark path that WCW went down several years ago. However, I failed to take into consideration how much Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer had to do with the product. ECW went out of business five years ago. It was no surprise, really, with all the talk of wrestlers not getting paid and money being so tight. What it needed, if it were to ever come back, was a revitalization, and Heyman and Dreamer have given it just that.
The addition of Kurt Angle to the roster instantly solidifies this (well, what exactly do we call it, company, promotion – for lack of a better term, I’ll use promotion) promotion that will appease fans world-wide and the hardcore ECW fans. If you’re a hardcore ECW fan, and I am, you have to be happy with the addition of Kurt Angle to the roster. He brings everything you could possibly want to the company and his wrestling ability, his hardcore wrestling ability, and his charisma make him a no-brainer for ECW. It’s no wonder that ECW went after him almost ten years ago.
ECW fans should be smiling with pride right now. Their company is coming back and the financial benefactor is very serious about the promotion’s success. If any of you doubt his seriousness, this about this: Vince McMahon took one of his top draws in recent years from the Smackdown brand and put him in ECW. For those fans that are hardcore ECW fanatics but doubt the move, what were some of the things that you liked about ECW? Was it the wrestlers skills? Charisma? Intensity? The ability to respect what he/she does in the ring, regardless if the wrestler was face or heel? The ability to make you and everyone else burst out into chant, whether it be for his/her entrance, move, series of moves, and/or post-match? Well, all of those aspects, and more, describe Kurt Angle. Everyone knows the “Three I’s”. Angle will undoubtedly bring those, and more, to a newly risen ECW.
But, Kurt Angle is not all that ECW needs. ECW needs to reinvent itself, somewhat, to stay with the current times. Vince McMahon wants to take this company global and he’ll have Kurt Angle to lead the way, but others will also have to back him up. This is where I steadfastly believe that Heyman and Dreamer must get Bill Alphonzo back into the picture and pair him up again with RVD and Sabu. That tandem will never get stale. I’m hoping that if RVD loses to Cena at One Night Stand that there isn’t an angle where they “kick” RVD out of ECW. That would be one of the dumbest ideas of recent memory. Let RVD shine, but let him stay in ECW if they are going to be serious about the company. To me, since its backed fully by McMahon, ECW has now been thrust back onto the scene, but is, essentially, a WWE product. The WWE must let big name stars like RVD and Angle stay in the promotion to ply their trade and rebuild the once proud company.
There are many ways to revitalize the company. The WWE harbors a plethora of talent not only in the RAW and Smackdown brands, but in OVW and another developmental promotion that has been rumored to be closing. Heyman also has the opportunity to look to ROH and NWA-TNA to sign talent already isn’t under a long-term contract. I’m also sure that under-exposed talent in various independent promotions, such as CZW, will jump at the opportunity that ECW could pose for them. The point is, though, Paul Heyman will have his opportunity to pull talent from any area out there. Heyman has the uncanny ability to spot talent and mold them into a star. That right there will be one of his greatest assets in getting talent to sign with the company. Any concerns that wrestlers may have about not getting paid will not be a factor this time around since the company is fully-funded by The WWE. It’s a win-win situation for every independent wrestler out there.
However, while the talent may be at a win-win point, we, as fans, have to be somewhat concerned with what channel ECW will be on. The Sci-Fi channel is one of my favorite channels on TV right now. The station has three of my most favorite programs on it (Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestart Galactica – not to mention Ghost Hunters, as well), but I question how a wrestling promotion fits into the station’s television lineup. Sure, anyone who watches The Sci-Fi channel on a regular basis, knows that nothing is on Tuesday nights on that station. Sure, the timeslot is open, but I feel as if the genre is going to be a tough one to sell to audiences. Sci-Fi fans can be as nitpicky about their product as ECW fans can be about their product. I was reading fans responses to the announcement of ECW coming to The Sci-Fi channel on the Sci-Fi message boards, and the initial feelings were split. Sci-Fi execs reasoned that 50% of their viewer ship is also professional wrestling fans, as well. It is their belief that they will tune in to watch ECW and the other 50% may be convinced to watch the product. Now, I can tell you want that means in terms of ratings. If 50% of Sci-Fi viewers on a typical Friday night when new episodes are shown for both Stargate shows and Battlestar Galactica tune in to watch ECW on a Tuesday night, the average rating will be somewhere between a .8 and a 1.0. Now, that’s not including any wrestling fans switching over and watching. Also, one has to remember that those numbers come from The Sci-Fi channel’s most watched night (Friday - averaging around a 1.8 – 2.0 rating). If those are the highest numbers of the week (and it is, as I understand it), The WWE must not be expecting record-setting numbers. Initially the ratings may be high due to the start of the promotion, but how many more fans will actually stay and watch the product? Hopefully plenty.
The bottom line here is the ability to start over. ECW currently exists on name and memory/stories alone. That’s how stories become legends and legends become myths. What The WWE is currently doing now, is something that is very hard to do; resurrecting a legend. ECW is that, a legend. For The WWE to do what it is doing takes guts and should earn the respect even by the most hardcore base of ECW fans. Do I still have doubts about the promotion? Sure, of course I do. I’d be lying if I said otherwise; however, I do have much greater hope now than I did four weeks ago. The closer we get to actually seeing the product reborn again at One Night Stand and then the television tapings, the more I feel anxious. I so badly want this promotion to succeed once again and Heyman and Dreamer show us their ultimate vision for the company now that they have the financial infrastructure to do so. Now is the time sit back and enjoy. And, when One Night Stand and the television shows come along, grab a beer (if you’re of legal drinking age), a Singapore Cane, and enjoy the show. I know I will.
