Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Reading Between The Ropes. Before I review the latest move in the draft, there are plenty of other talking points following Sunday's One Night Stand PPV.
It was great that they got Joey Styles on board, and held the PPV in a small arena like the Hammerstein Ballroom. Without a small indie arena and the voice of ECW calling the PPV, no matter what they did in the ring it just wouldn't feel like ECW.
They recreated the feel of ECW expertly, minus the odd discussion about Smackdown! and Raw superstars, of course, and with the slight disappointment of Joey Styles having to refer to wrestlers' current storylines in the WWE while calling matches (i.e. Eddie Guerrero). While on the subject of Styles, I thought he was excellent. I've never been a big Joey Styles fan, but last night he didn't miss a beat, and his sarcastic remarks and periodic ranting was a breath of fresh air. I would definitely like to hear him more shows, and I'm taking back some of my criticisms of his style (no pun intended) in the past.
The show was decent and, as I said, it recreated the ECW feel very well. I've never been a hardcore wrestling fan, so I only like some aspects of ECW (the aspects that don't involve flaming tables and instead involved lucha wrestlers or some great technical expertise). Having said that, both lucha matches disappointed me last night. Neither were that entertaining. Also, Benoit and Eddie on the technical side of things didn't really seem to give it their all. It felt like they were keeping a lot in reserve. Maybe it was the camera constantly panning up to the Raw and SD! wrestlers, but I never felt settled watching their match. It felt like a good TV match.
On a more positive note I loved Jericho and Storm. What an excellent, if slightly too short, opening match. Also, you had to love Tanaka and Awesome. It's strange, because what I loved best about ECW was when they forgot about the hardcore side of things and gave us the lucha libre action, or the technical stuff. However, above the lucha matches and Eddie-Benoit, I found myself most in to Tanaka and Awesome. Their matches in the past have been sights to behold, and this was no different. Definitely a brilliant match to get caught up in. Excellent match and the atmosphere of the fans just made it all the more special.
While on the subject of those fans, what a great testament to ECW they were. They really did make themselves a part of the show, like ECW fans always were. The "Chris Can-di-do" chants brought a smile to my face. I also laughed at how they booed the 619, a move Rey has made famous since his move to Titan. Indeed, the fans contributed to the show last night, and then some.
The shoot interviews were most entertaining. I predicted before the show that RVD may be out of a job after the PPV. I think he didn't say anything too job-threatening, but you never know. At time of writing, though, Van Dam still has a job (though things change quickly in wrestling). I LOVE ECW RVD. I wasn't a huge ECW fan, but I did used to tune in and it was usually because of RVD, and RVD alone. He was exceptional and his matches with Jerry Lynn in ECW were some of the best of the 90s. I miss the non-watered-down RVD. When he first came to WWE he was explosive, then he got watered down. He had that momentum with him since his ECW run, but the WWE really have changed the Van Dam I knew and loved to watch wrestle back in the day. I remember some of his TV Title defences ending with some of the most impressive sets of moves ever, one after the other. Bring back the old RVD, WWE!
As for Heyman. Well, Heyman is never one to not let his feelings be known. I was delighted to see him get the gurus reception, but was there ever any doubt he wouldn't get that type of reaction? His shoot was also very entertaining, and I hear it has landed him in trouble. It isn't the first time he's been in the dock, but let's hope WWE see sense and let the man work his genius.
I got the feeling that Bischoff and his men might have actually needed real security lats night. It's quite surreal how much kayfabe seems to have been crossed during this entire deal... perhaps too much. I get the feeling that men like Angle and JBL are voicing their genuine feelings about ECW, rather than playing up to their heel roles. While the fans aren't giving them heel heat back, they're giving them genuine "We don't f*****g like you" heat. Definitely a surreal feel to many of the comments in the build-up to this PPV. If you take a step back and look at it all, there have been a lot of lines of kayfabe crossed, and that's not even including the two blatent shoots last night.
Anyway, I've discussed the ECW PPV a little longer than I expected, but there were many issues to address. Now it's on to last night's latest draft pick, and it turned out to be the one that many expected to be Raw's first pick on last week's show, Kurt Angle.
I am starting to worry that WWE is giving Smackdown! a little too much to do in this draft in order to redress the balance. Sure, I speculated that Cena's stay on Raw may nto be a long one, but you have to look at things as they stand right now, and what is currently set in stone, and what is set in stone is that Smackdown! have, thus far, lost their champion and, arguably, their best all-round talent.
This hardly looks good for Smackdown!. Expect them to draft another big name this week, otherwise things are seriously going to be looking grim for the boys over on SD!. I think Michaels would be a good choice for trade during the drafts/trades that take place after Vengeance. I actually thought to myself that Michaels should go to SD!, then thought that he'd need to stay on Raw now Angle's there so they can have that talked about rematch. Well, they can now get that out of their system at Vengeance and move ol' HBK to Smackdown! once that's all done and dusted.
Speaking of Vengeance, the card is shapign up pretty nicely right now. Not too sure I agree on throwing Jericho to the Cena-Christian mix, particularly because Cena and Christian have had quite a nice little mini-feud simmering in the background for a while. Jericho didn't need adding for my money.
Back to the draft switch. I was worried that Angle might be turned face last night. His interaction with Ric Flair during their "woo-off" was the best thing we saw last night. Unfortunately, that's quite depressing. Indeed, further ammunition to the claim that they may be tempted to turn Angle face on Raw. However, that soon changed after Michaels's introduction. I was glad because an Angle/HHH feud that is definitely a likelihood in the not so distant future just wouldn't be right with the usual face/heel scenario. I'm a big fan of face vs. face feuds, but heel vs. heel feuds I've never been high on. However, if there's one feud that's always worked exceptionally well in a heel/heel format, it's HHH vs. Kurt. They just seem to click together in a feud when they're both heels. The banter last night, and the references to the excellent love triangle angle between Angle (TOO MANY ANGLES OVERLOAD!), Hunter and Steph back in 2000 was a great throwback.
So, surely a feud with Hunter, or the odd backstage banter is definitely in order. Throw in a face for some triple threat fun, if the WWE feel the need to. However, either way you look at it, Hunter and Angle on the same show as heels is definitely a nice prospect for the future.
So, Smackdown! needs to counter this hefty Raw pick, and one we all saw coming. Cena back to Smackdown! and Michaels over on SD! could all happen. However, speculation aside, neither will happen before Vengeance now that theat the card is shaping up. The WWE won't do that. So, what on earth is SD!'s next move?
They will definitely need someone charismatic, having lost two guys already that can definitely get out there and entertain a crowd on a mic. Right now, however, I have no clue who the next pick for Smackdown! will be. I have ideas about the future (Cena, Michaels, Christian, etc.) but right now, I'm not sure who will be making the switch.
Someone not in a feud right now.
...
Benjamin?
Until next time,
Mitchell L. Gadd
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