WWE Vs. TNA: It's Time For a New ECW Revolution

ECW. Extreme Championship Wrestling. The brainchild of Paul Heyman, ECW went farther, did more business, and was more influential than anyone had ever expected it to be.

For nearly nine years, the original ECW turned the wrestling world upside down, causing major waves between WWE and WCW. Where’s Paul Heyman when you need him?

For the record, I have to say this. I don’t care for hardcore. Never have. Promotions I have been involved with in the past have featured it, and I disagreed with it.

Other promotions led off the event with it, and I objected over that as well. Seems there is no pleasing some people.

The problem with hardcore wrestling as a whole, in my view, is that once a promotion commits to it, like ECW, then they are locked in. There is no turning back.

A guy going through one flaming table is a big deal. A very big deal. But, after it happens a few times, it begins to lose its impact.

So, one flaming table becomes two…then three…pretty soon, there are five flaming tables, and the guy is taking the bump off of a ladder to go through them.

In the world of hardcore wrestling, there is no such thing as too much. The more gore, the better.

Once upon a time, a guy did not get color in a match until the main event, and it was only done then to accentuate the feud, to emphasize just how serious the heat between the two wrestlers was.

But, when workers juice from the curtain jerk, all the way to the main event, then what’s the point? Where is the drama in that?

When the crowd begins to scream for more blood, more tables, more chairs, more weapons, then that’s it. Game over.

The promotion has officially painted itself into a corner. And the promoter has no one to blame but himself. After all, at some point, you have to leave the crowd wanting more.

Otherwise, why in the world would they care about paying to come back the next week? They have seen it all in one night. What’s left?

Another issue is that on the independent scene, hardcore wrestling is used, and overused, because the promotion has nothing else to offer.

Most of the time, the locker room is full of young guys, perhaps mixed with some older guys past their prime, and hardly any of them even have gear.

Athletic shoes and dirty jeans are the order of the day, and if that wasn’t bad enough, there is also the fact that the majority of the workers are not in shape.

Fat, slow-moving wrestlers who blow up within two minutes of the opening bell, combined with workers who are very skinny with arms smaller than the kendo stick they’re going to use to beat the life out of each other. As far as the ability to work is concerned, there is very little of it.

Again, when a promotion has nothing to offer its fans, it will take the easy way out to fill the seats. Cue the shopping cart filled with rusty junk.

The fact is, this sorry excuse for “professional wrestling” is nothing more than backyard wrestling, an assorted group of idiots who are just fans who want to live out their dreams of headlining Wrestlemania.

Good luck with that.

So, now that I have made enemies out of every hardcore wrestling fan reading this particular column, assuming they can read, what exactly is the point of this?

Simple. The business of professional wrestling today needs ECW.

I’m not talking about all the crazy stunts, blood and guts, horror movie crap. No, I’m talking about the ECW of Rob Van Dam, Tazz, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, all guys who, if need be, could go the hardcore route, but really didn’t need to.

ECW, despite all of its over the top hardcore, was very good for the business. ECW took the war that had erupted between WWE and WCW, and added another twist to it. ECW was bold, daring, unapologetic, and above all else, fearless.

For fans like me, who didn’t care about some of the crap they were shoveling into the ring, then no big deal. ECW’s attitude was, hey, if you don’t like it, screw you, we’re not changing.

Every time Eric Bischoff, or anyone else for that matter, went out and blasted ECW for being bush league, the company did what its fans expected. They gave the middle finger in response, and kept on going.

ECW was the promotion for fans who had grown tired of the overhyped, overpaid pro wrestling stars of WWE and WCW.

ECW offered another alternative, one that had the guts to tell the world, you don’t have to put up with their crap. Watch our program for the next hour and have some fun.

That’s what we need now. A new attitude. A new alternative. Why?

Because, some 11 years after the demise of the original ECW, we have WWE and TNA, both full of over hyped, overpaid stars. It is time for something different.

Where art thou, Paul Heyman?

Again, don’t misunderstand me here. I’m not asking for the re-re-retread of ECW. I’m not begging for the return of highly violent, highly unnecessary hardcore garbage. I just want something different. I want something more.

Every week in this business, it’s the same thing.

John Cena is Captain America and is a goody two shoes. The Miz doesn’t deserve his push, John Morrison does. Jeff Hardy is screwed up, and so is Matt. The women’s division sucks. On and on and on.

Sometimes, I wonder whether either of these two companies care anything about improving their product for the fans. Sometimes I wonder if they care about the fans…their paying customers, at all.

But, ECW did. As much as I had a problem with a lot of their presentation, at the end of the day, I cannot deny that fact that Heyman and company were there because they truly loved what they did.

I miss that. As a fan, I need that. But, what’s the answer? Ring of Honor, perhaps? Maybe. A brand new promotion, built from the ground up? Could be.

Or, is the answer simpler than all of that? Is the answer the very one that we all seem to complain about all the time?

Is it time for WWE creative to stop talking and start surfing the fan sites, to see what we really want? Is it time for TNA to stop trying to mimic WWE, who are already screwed up, and just get back to the wrestling? Will any of this ever actually happen?

At the end of the day, perhaps the answer lies with us. After all, without fans, there isn’t a promotion on the planet that can survive. We are the lifeblood of the business, we are the ones who keep it going.

Maybe it’s time we all turned the channel, stop going to live events, stop buying merchandise, and the pay per views. Maybe we should just find something else to watch, to obsess over, and to write about.

Not going to do that, are you? Yeah, me either.

Oh well. Back to hoping for something else. Someone tell Paul Heyman to keep that cellphone of his turned on. You never know when that thing is going to ring. For God’s sake, ring already.