ECW Report - Part Two
Posted by TWV Guest Columnists
on 01/17/2007
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Guest Column By Derrick Cannon
Hello and welcome to another edition of Cannon's Corner. The original ECW created several superstars, most notably Raven, The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, and got several others to the next level.
Stevie Richards was unheard of before ECW. His skits as a member of the Blue World Order changed everything. Stevie Richards was only viewed as a lackey to Raven before hand. Stevie served Raven willingly for two years with possibly no end in site to how low he would go. Enter one of the most offensive skits in the history of wrestling.
Wrestling diva Beulah McGillucutty revealed that she was pregnant. Raven, feeling she was cheating on him, attacked Stevie Richards. This led to a series of events where Stevie would break away from Raven. Stevie would then go on to team with the Blue Meanie & Nova and together they would form what would become the Blue World Order. In this faction, Stevie would become Big Stevie Cool (a parody of "Big Sexy" Kevin Nash), the Blue Meanie would become Da Blue Guy (a parody of " Da Bad Guy" Scott Hall), and Nova would become Hollywood Nova (a parody of "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan). Several other memorably characters would join, however, these three were always there.
On April 13th, 1997, Stevie Richards got his big break. Stevie was involved in a triple threat match between two other ECW veterans The Sandman and Terry Funk, the winner getting a shot at the ECW World heavyweight title. Stevie may have lost, but just to be involved in a match this important was a huge step up and in the process Stevie proved that he was more then just a comedy wrestler. May 10th at Chapter Two, Stevie finally got his heavyweight title shot. Stevie would have a near career threatening injury in this match, but just the fact that he was involved to the last minute proved that he could compete on a major level no matter the predicament.
Tommy Dreamer was another wrestler who got his first shot at success in the ECW. Dreamer started in ECW in 1993 and stayed there until the death of the original ECW in 2001. Dreamer wasn't very highly regarded when he first started out. The Philadelphia crowd was unmerciful to the young upstart and things only looked as if they were about to get worse. Enter The Sandman! On August 13th of 1994, Tommy Dreamer wrestled the Sandman in a Singapore Cane match. The Singapore Cane match was a brutal match in which the loser got caned.
Dreamer may have lost the match, but the stipulation made his career. After getting caned once, Dreamer asked for another, then another, then another; it got too the point that the crowd chanted please stay down. Then, when the canings were over, the crowd roared in applause for Tommy Dreamer. They showered him with chants of "He's hardcore! He's hardcore! He's hardcore!" It had taken so long for the crowd to accept Dreamer but after this match, never again would he lose the crowd's respect. Dreamer's next memorable feud was against his old rival from summer camp, the self pitying grunge wrestler known as Raven. Tommy Dreamer's first match against Raven was at the April 8th, 1995 event called Three Way Dance. Dreamer didn't win. Raven would go on to beat Dreamer over and over again every time they faced for the next three years. It wasn't until Raven's final match before his stint in WCW that Dreamer finally won. Dreamer breathed a sigh of relief having vanquished his arch nemesis or so he thought. On August 26th, 1999, Raven returned helping Dreamer win the ECW Tag Titles from the WWE bound Dudley Boys. Why would Raven who years earlier made Dreamer's life a living nightmare return to help his nemesis win a championship as a partner? For that very reason, Raven couldn't resist teaming with Dreamer. Dreamer would eventually get over his feud with Raven, but a new war was starting. ECW was struggling to stay alive.
In 2000, Tommy Dreamer was made head booker for a company that years earlier made his career. Unfortunately by then, the timing was too late. Before ECW died for good, one last new star was created, Rhino. Starting in June, Rhino went on to make quite a name for himself. He was an enforcer for the authoritative group known as the Network (a spoof on the director's of TNN the channel that in many ways destroyed ECW).
His big break came during a tournament to crown a new ECW Television Champion for the recently injured Rob Van Dam. Rhino won against Spike Dudley and even more notably against The Sandman (that was the match you knew he was for real), but lost in the finals against Super Crazy. Despite not winning the tournament, Rhino became a major threat for not just the TV Title, but every title belt in ECW. Rhino took the next step and won the ECW TV Title at April 22, 2000 beating Yoshihiro Tajiri in the process. Rhino would hold the title for several months before dropping it to Kid Kash at Mid Town Massacre. On January 7th, 2001, Rhino became the last ever TV champion, but after proclaiming that the title meant nothing and that he wanted a shot at the world champion, Rhino got his wish. Rhino defeated The Sandman at the very same event. By February, the original ECW was dead.
On June 13th, 2006 ECW was back, with a new TV deal on the Sci-Fi Network, but things never were the same. There was only one new star created and ECW had a totally different image and not a positive outlook. CM Punk was that star. CM debuted on the June 24th, 2006 show and started to feud with Shannon Moore. The two fought over whose image was for real. CM Punk called Shannon Moore a poser and that led up to an eventual match. CM Punk beat Shannon Moore two straight weeks in a row, having beaten and proven Shannon Moore was nothing more then a person who lives his life by the emo life style. The straight edge Punk went on too feud with Mike Knox over ECW vixen Kelly Kelly's affection. Mike Knox proved to be able to be better competition, but Punk still came out of that feud undefeated. Punk's first big match was December 3rd at the ECW December To Dismember PPV, unfortunately this may have been Punk's last chance at a huge push. CM Punk was the very first man eliminated and lost his undefeated streak in singles matches a little over a month later.
The new ECW seems to be going without direction so far. The storylines are almost non-existent and no new stars are being created or pushed. The old ECW was about young upstarts overcoming the impossible, big breaks, and a great opportunity to use their full potential. In the old ECW, smaller wrestler could defeat giants, new matches could be created, and anything was possible at any time.
Closing off, I'd like to say that a new wrestling promotion will be opened January 30th on MTV. The promotion is called Wrestling Society X and could be the first third alternative in many years. Whether it is or not, I'll leave that to everyone to decide. If it succeeds, we may be heading to another boom period and wrestling feds may try to put on better shows to prove which federation is the best thing going today.
Once more, ECW is gone, but it never will be forgotten.
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