Welcome everyone, once again, to the Shock Treatment! The subject of tonight's installment is Extreme Championship Wrestling. That's right, the renegade promotion that helped redefine the structure of pro wrestling before crumbling at the height of its success, only to be revived in an era where nostalgia sells. Tazz once referred to the ECW locker room as the "land of the misfit toys." He cited the fact that members of the original ECW roster were all guys who, for one reason or another, were unable to find work with either WCW or the WWF. ECW provided an opportunity for wrestlers that were deemed too small, too slow, too difficult to work with, or had simply burned bridges elsewhere. The modern day extremists of the new breed may appear remarkably different from there hardcore original counterparts, but in many instances ECW remains the land of the misfit toys to this day.
Where better to begin than with the current Extreme Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion? Professional wrestling's only seven foot tall, five-hundred pound giant, The Big Show. While he's been dominant since becoming a part of the ECW roster, some would argue that Show's entire career hasn't exactly been as successful as the past six months. One must believe that Vince and WWE's creative team had high hopes when signing the former WCW standout superstar in the late 90's. Unfortunately, Show's star has appeared to dwindle over the past several years. After the initial hype wore off, and Show left Mr. McMahon's Corporation he earned two brief and hardly memorable title reigns. After the brand extension began he was drafted back and forth, eventually finding himself on Raw where he and Kane formed an alliance and served as dominant champions for the brand's lackluster tag team division. Kane's erratic behavior prior to the theatrical release of See No Evil would eventually cost them the titles and cause a brief feud afterward. When ECW and WWE went head to head in a battle royal Show took off his Raw t-shirt and revealed the ECW colors beneath, and subsequently won the battle for ECW. Since that night, a more intense Big Show seems to have finally found his niche as the dominant World Heavyweight Champion at the expense of former titleholder Rob Van Dam.
While we're on the subject of giants I might as well take the opportunity to mention two of ECW's newest extremists, The Great Khali and his mouthpiece Daivari. Khali is a monter of a human being and a very intimidating sight in person. However, it is painfully obvious that he possesses little to no in-ring talent whatsoever. Prior to joining WWE, in Japan, he inadvertently caused the death of another man when he performed a botched flapjack and the other man suffered a fatal concussion. This is the same guy that was removed from a pay-per-view because his Smackdown matches were so heavily edited that they didn't want him participating in a high profile match on live television. Wherever you see the monstrous Khali it's a safe assumption that Khosrow Daivari isn't far behind. Daivari debuted as an American citizen, and Muslim sympathizer, who served as Muhammad Hassan's manager. However, following Hassan's release as a result of the media uproar involving a controversial segment aired on Smackdown, Daivari's character seemed to lose meaning and direction. The former manager of Hassan was shuffled from Kurt Angle to Mark Henry, before ending up on Smackdown in the corner of Khali.
Khali and Daivari were only the first stars drafted to ECW after becoming lost in the shuffle amongst the Smackdown roster. Shortly after they made the jump, the team of Elijah Burke and Sylvester Turkay followed the same path they had laid. None of these talents were making an impact on Smackdown any longer, so why not give them a fresh start in ECW? While it may be a simple solution to the issue of ECW's smaller roster, with only one hour of programming a week they have little time to display the talents they already have. New beginnings and second chances seem to be a reoccurring theme in the new ECW. Both Test and Bob Holly are being given an opportunity in the this new brand after less than memorable runs in the late 1990's and early millennium. The two have gone on to make the very best of this opportunity. Test appears to be in the best shape of his career, while Holly has had a series of the most entertaining matches of his career with Rob Van Dam. Kevin Fertig's certainly receiving his second chance. Fertig debuted on Smackdown as the short-lived character Mordecai. He was then sent to OVW where his character was to be overhauled. It was then that during a dark match he completely blew the match off and joked around the entire time. This caused OVW booker Jim Cornette to verbally berate him backstage, which caught the attention of WWE officials who quickly relieved Cornette of his duties since it wasn't the first altercation of that type. Fertig now comes to us now in ECW as a vampire who frequents "bite clubs," and who could forget about his fortune-teller valet Ariel?
Anyone remember when Shannon Moore was competing in TNA's X Division? If not you may have blinked and missed it. Within two short months Moore signed with and returned to World Wrestling Entertainment. Upon his return Moore was dubbed "The Reject" and placed in ECW where he has done little more than be intimidated and defeated by CM Punk. Speaking of Punk, the former Ring of Honor and Ohio Valley Wrestling World Champion made a huge impact upon his arrival in ECW. After weeks of vignettes teasing his debut, the night finally arrived at the Hammerstein Ballroom. On that night Punk's reputation preceded him and the crowd support was enormous. Since then that support has yet to waiver. Punk is currently one of ECW's most popular personalities, but only time will tell if the backstage politics of the big-time will allow him to break through the glass ceiling and reach his potential.
I think that the lack of crowd interaction hurts ECW. One Night Stand was one of the most entertaining events of the year, mostly due to the "extreme" crowd. However, now ECW is taped along with Smackdown. The general audience most likely knows little of Balls Mahoney, Sandman, Sabu, or many other ECW mainstays. This is on display when Sandman makes his classic entrance, spewing beer on the families in the crowd as they cover there children. Tommy Dreamer has almost consistently lost since the rebirth of ECW. Matt Striker's a perfect heel for ECW. He's everything that an ECW crowd despises. The only problem is that they seldom perform in front of ECW crowds anymore. Rene Dupree has only made a handful of in ring efforts since joining ECW. Balls Mahoney serves more as a comedy act backstage than an in-ring competitor lately. Rob Van Dam is one man who can be commended for his performances since the rebirth of ECW. Despite the controversy RVD has remained optimistic about the return of ECW.
Only time will tell how this reinvented version of ECW will be remembered. Was this new breed of extremists doomed from the day they were unleashed? Or, like the original ECW locker room in the mid-90's, will they band together and focus on what's best for the future of there brand rather than personal goals. Can they cast away the cloud of doubt from ECW loyalists who see the promotion as little more than a watered-down version of the hardcore heaven they recall.
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