Rantables #76 – ECW: 2006-2010, TNA: 2002-2010

In the wake of the death of the luger from Georgia, this may seem in poor taste, but things must be discussed, and discussed they will be.

Tomorrow night is the final episode of ECW.  While a lot of fans, mostly old ECW fans, have been critical of the new show, I’ve really been enjoying it over the past year.  The show really was taken to a new level with the redebut of Christian, who proceeded to carry the brand on his back for the past year and change.  I know it’s silly to think that Vince McMahon actually listens to the fans, but I really like to think that he finally listened to us about Christian and gave him a title to hold for an extended period of time.  Yes, it was the recreated ECW Championship, but Christian held it with more pride and poise than anyone else to have held it since ECW was resurrected back in 2006.  You could argue that guys like Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer were prouder to hold it, but I doubt it.  RVD’s title reign was cut short because of drug charges, and Dreamer’s title reign came too late in his career.  But Christian has been the main focus of the brand since he arrived in February of last year.  Unless I’m mistaken, the major champion of your brand should be the main focus.  Raw is dropping the ball with Sheamus on that front, but I gave up all hope on him months ago.

Anyway, ECW has had quite a run the last year or so.  With Christian, as well as bringing up many younger talents, it has been a breeding ground for future champions.  Guys like Yoshi Tatsu, The Hart Dynasty, and the like are all future champions.  Tatsu has a very good chance of becoming one half of the Unified Tag Team Champions with Goldust tomorrow when they face off against ShowMiz, who managed to lose to the World’s Strongest Tag Team on Raw tonight.  I have my own conspiracy theory about that whole situation, but I’ll save it for later since I want to focus on the topic at hand.  ECW has also been the rebirth of some veterans whose careers we all thought were over.  Guys like William Regal and Goldust found new like on Tuesday nights.  Goldust enjoyed a surprising cult following, and is actually working well with Tatsu.  They’ve formed a strangely entertaining tag team that will give ShowMiz a run for their money tomorrow.  And Regal has done everything on ECW except win the ECW Championship, which I’m still honestly a little sad he never ended up winning.  But he did raise the game of Ezekiel Jackson, who had a great match with Christian at the Royal Rumble and, I’m hoping, will have a great Extreme Rules Match tomorrow night.  I’m looking forward to their match.  It should be a great final episode.

A lot of people out there in the Internet Wrestling Community believed that the name ECW should never have been brought back.  Many people thought that the name had been bastardized, ruined by Vince McMahon.  I would agree that, for a while, it was actually a pretty unimpressive show.  But with the shift in focus to younger talent, it really grew into a great little show.  I’m going to miss it, but at the same time, I’m really looking forward to NXT, which debuts next week.

Now, I can’t just leave NXT there.  Speculation must commence!  I wonder what exactly is going to happen with all of the ECW guys.  I’m sure a few of them will move on to Raw or Smackdown.  Christian, in particular, could find a place on either brand and be a major player.  Regal has the chops to be a GM, and I think that Raw will need one soon.  Ezekiel Jackson is obviously going to get a push, probably on Smackdown.  If he can pull off matches of the caliber of his match with Christian at the Rumble, there’s hope for him yet.  Young guys like Tatsu, Caylen Croft, Trent Baretta, and Zack Ryder could either move on or stay at NXT, where they’ll likely thrive.  Maybe some of the guys floundering at the bottom of Raw or Smackdown can move to NXT and get the recognition they deserve.  Guys like Evan Bourne, Primo, and Jimmy Yang could definitely provide a lot of entertainment on a show that will need as much talent as possible getting off the ground.  And, of course, there will probably be a few names moving up from FCW.  Guys like Bryan Danielson, Low Ki, Joe Hennig, and Brett Dibiase.  Danielson can carry a company on his back, and if he’s put on NXT, he should reign supreme.  He can have epic matches with anyone, and I’d love to see him in matches with Ki, Bourne, and maybe even a match or two with CM Punk.  I can honestly say that I’m pretty psyched to see what’s next for NXT.  I had to do it, I’m sorry.

But there is not all good news in the crazy-go-nuts world of professional wrestling.  Earlier today, it was announced that, starting in March, TNA would be moving Impact to Monday nights to directly compete with Monday Night Raw.  I will say one thing to this: TNA, it was nice knowing ya.  I cannot possibly fathom TNA taking viewers away from WWE at this point.  There is so much bull taking place in Orlando that it’s laughable.  Reading the results for their PPV yesterday (I’ve forgotten its name, but it isn’t like I watched it or anything), and reading that the Nasty Boys won a match at all is just sad.  They beat Team 3D, which is even sadder.  Look, we all know that Hulk Hogan honestly doesn’t give a shit about any of the TNA originals.  We all know that all he wants to do is create WCW 2010, and he’s doing just that.  There are so many WWE rejects and geezers on that show that it’s looking exactly like WCW circa 2000.  And we all know that the only guys who are going to get pushed are the guys Hogan wants to push.  Which means that nobody who deserves a push is going to get it.  I was actually quite surprised to find out that Elijah “Don’t call me The Pope” Burke is the new #1 Contender for the TNA World Championship, but the way things are going with AJ Styles and Ric Flair, I don’t see Burke winning any titles anytime soon.  Same goes for Nigel McGuinness, who I think jumped the gun when he signed with TNA a few months back.  I would have paid good money to watch McGuinness and Danielson beat the crap out of each other on WWE television, but that’s just never going to happen now.  Unless Nigel quits TNA, which I suggest he does right away.  Hogan is only going to push former WWE talent or his old buddies from the 80’s.  With this newest announcement, it spells doom for TNA.  Their ratings are going to drop, they’re going to lose money, and they’re going to fold, because they hired on the biggest money vacuum on the planet in one Hulk Hogan.  I feel bad for the talented guys in TNA, guys like Styles, Sabin, Shelley, Lethal, Daniels, and the like, because they’re going to be out of a job soon, and they’re probably not going to want to go back to the indy circuit after having a cushy gig with TNA.

I’ll give you guys a protip: NXT will be looking for talented guys just like you.  I think it’s time to get what you deserve: a big fat paycheck from Vince McMahon.  These guys deserve the big bucks, and if Vince doesn’t destroy them in the process, all the better.  Who wouldn’t want to watch a three-way dance between Bryan Danielson, AJ Styles, and Nigel McGuinness?  I would pay money to see that.  So remember, TNA originals: when TNA goes bankrupt, and it will, I’m betting you that NXT will be the place to go.

Before I go for now, there are three issues I must address, and I probably should save them for another column, but they must be discussed now.  First off, how convoluted has this whole Legacy angle gotten?  It’s starting to look like TNA out there.  Will you guys just pick sides already and be done with it?

Second, the whole Bret Hart injury angle is weird.  I’m quite sure that the build to Wrestlemania will go thusly: the woman who crashed into the limo was hired by Vince, and Vince will then challenge Bret to a match at Wrestlemania, even though Hart has a (kayfabe) broken leg.  We’ll then either get Cena/Batista at WM 26, or Hart will make a miraculous recovery and we’ll get a street fight or some such.  I think there were better ways to continue this story, but I suppose I’ll have to wait and see how it develops.  Hopefully it won’t get ugly.

Third, I have to praise WWE for inducting Antonio Inoki into the Hall of Fame this year.  If anyone deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame, it’s Inoki.  I’m far too young to remember anything he did in the ring, but I know that he was a pioneer and a master at his craft, and I’m going to go watch some of his matches on Youtube to get a better appreciation for how great he was.  This year’s Hall of Fame inductees are shaping up very well so far.

Okay, there is one more thing I have to address, and then I’ll go.  I know I shouldn’t speculate on what happened, but the way things look, the consequences were extremely unfortunate.  Last Monday, Mike Siciliano (of Pros from the Palace and the Pro Wrestling Rewind fame) made a short audio blog talking about how, when he listens to a wrestling podcast, he listens to hear about wrestling, and that the guys behind Wrestleview Radio apparently got off on a major political tangent during their show last week.  I didn’t listen to the WV Radio show, so I don’t know the specifics of what happened, but I must say that I agree wholeheartedly with Mike in this regard.  If you produce a show called Wrestleview Radio, you should talk about wrestling, not politics.  Anyway, apparently during the week, there was talk of disciplinary action in regards to Mr. Siciliano because of his audio blog criticizing the WV Radio show for their political tangent, and he brought it up on this past week’s episode of the Rewind.  Now, again, I hate speculation, but it looks like this whole situation spiraled out of control, because yesterday, Mike officially resigned as a columnist for Wrestleview, and today, we found out that the Rewind is no longer a part of the Wrestleview Radio Network.  Now, if this all stems from the audio blog Mike put on his personal Facebook page, then there’s a serious problem with the way Wrestleview handled this situation.  The same sort of thing is happening at many other places of employment.  An employer will have an interview with a prospective employee, all the while doing research on the same person on the internet, checking these social networking sites for any sign that they might be an unfit employee.  And I’m betting you that a fair share of people have not been hired (or current employees getting fired) because of stuff they post on their Facebook or Myspace page.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a travesty and an invasion of our personal lives.  And, as I stated earlier, if this whole situation has stemmed from this audio blog Mike posted on his Facebook page, then there are some serious problems.  Now, I’m not going to go digging, because I respect their privacy.  But I think that if there is even a shred of truth to the situation I just presented to you, I may very well end up no longer visiting Wrestleview.com.  And if this is the case, then I suggest that if you visit the site, that you, too, no longer visit Wrestleview.  I support Mike and Andy fully in their endeavors, and I hope that they find a new outlet for their work, because it’s some of the best out there on the internet.  Good luck, guys!

So that’s it for me.  Be sure to stay tuned for Elimination Chamber picks and maybe, just maybe, that review of WWE The Music Volume 10 I’ve been promising for weeks now.  As for me, I’ll be celebrating my birthday this Wednesday, then ACTUALLY celebrating it on Saturday.  Until next time, stay awesome everyone!