CM Punk, ECW champion (at last!)

Because straight edge means, I don't get suspended!

CM Punk vs. Vince

As hokey as all this Vince MacMahon paternity angle is, it provided one of my favourite WWE moment of the year this week as Vince accused CM Punk of being his illegitimate son. But of course with Punk bing straight edge, it means he doesn't believe in promiscuous sex (however I am sure Traci Brooks, Daphne etc. will disagree) and he soon shoots down Vince's suggestions. Without a doubt this is the closest we have got to seeing the 'true' CM Punk in WWE and bodes well for the future of the character

CM Punk does the Vans Warped tour

Proof, if ever it was needed, that CM Punk can be a huge crossover star for WWE. Working as a backstage reporter for Fuse TV covering the Vans Warped Tour, Punk gets to hang out with loads of punk bands, as well a interview one of his heros, Brian Baker from Minor Threat/Bad Religion.

Johnny Nitro/John Morrison

I wish I knew why they decided to change Johnny Nitro's name to John Morrison, but I just can't figure it out. WWE has a long history of changing guys name when they come up from Developmental to the main roster (Prototype became John Cena, Leviathon became Batista), however Johnny Nitro seemed to be one of the few exceptions. However now that he is ECW champion, they have decided to change his name from Nitro, to Morrison. NOw, I'm all for reallism in wrestling, however isn't one of the important things in pro-wrestling to be larger than life?! Steve Austin never got anywhere until he was Stone Cold. Dwayne Johnson never got anywhere until he became the Rock, so why change Johnny Nitro (a perfectly acceptable name) to John Morrison?! It sounds like the singer from a bad Doors covers band. Let's just hope his match against CM Punk at this month's Great American Bash isn't a cheap imitation of their last match from Judgment Day.

CM Punk vs. Chris Benoit: A true dream match

Well, it looks like we're getting Benoit vs. Punk at Vengeance. At a time where WWE is sinking back into it's darkest depths of tastelessness and is pushing entertainment and silliness above all else, at least this is one shining beacon of hope. I guess CM Punk isn't being buried after all as he gets ready for the biggest match of his career. Let's just hope his feud with Benoit is better booked than Samoa Joe's feud with Kurt Angle in TNA.

CM Punk in Japan

Some how, without WWE management noticing, CM Punk seems to have gotten himself over with the WWE fans. What's more pictures of him in Japan are plastered all over wwe.com at the moment! Here are some of my favourites!

When being 'Extreme' is just too extreme for ECW!

Back in the 90s everything was extreme. It was one of those buzzwords that marketing geniuses used to make things sound more edgey and exciting. Want to make something sound more cool, call it Extreme, then it sounds like surfers and snowvoarders and other cool, young, youth-type things. If you want to make it even cooler, then why not remove the 'e' and call them Xtreme - not that's really hip!


However for Extreme Championship Wrestling, they were not relying on a cliche to make their name. In the mid-90s, the former Eastern Championship Wrestling was carving out a niche for itself strewn with broken tables (sometimes on fire), barbed wire and blood by the bucket load. The die-hard ECW fans will always tell you ECW was about more than just blood and guts, however it was the Extreme nature of the product that caught most fans attentions. For all the Guerrero vs. Malenko classics and high flying luchadores, it was the Rotten brothers tearing each other apart in a taipei deathmatch or Sabu and Terry Funk in a no ropes barbed wire match that got the majority of the headlines. However amid all this carnage there was one ever present constant. No matter how 'extreme' things got and how much blood was spilled, there was always a result. It may have not started as being an 'anything goes' promotion, but by the end an ECW wrestler couldn't seem to get DQed if they had gone out the back, picked up there rental car and drove it at their opponent at 60 mph. They would still have been expected to get out, hook the leg and let the ref count the 1-2-3.

So here we are in 2006 and after a brief hiatus, ECW is back. But as ECW fans we muct keep reminding ourselves, this is not the ECW of old. This isn't 1995 and the age of Funk and the Public Enemy, this is 2006 and the age of Vince MacMahon's vision of ECW. As such we have to accept a few changes; Kurt Angle and Big Show are now ECW wrestlers - OK. So is Test - OK? The old ECW stars are just just jobbers and will never win - right - oh, and there will be vampires and zombies - fair enough, I guess it is on Sci Fi. Oh, and we're going to have DQ finishes - now hang on! There really is only so much we can take!!

With the DQ ending of Batista vs. Big Show that now makes for the at FIFTH DQ finish of an ECW match (and two of those were title matches). Gone are the days of a bloody Sabu crawling through barbed wire to pin Terry Funk. This is ECW where you only use weapons when it's 'Extreme Rules' and for that you have to get Vince's permission before you can go and be extreme. After all, if all the matches were 'Extreme Rules' (as they all surely should be if this is Extreme Championship Wrestling) then WWE [un]Creative wouldn't be able to rely on the familliar crutch of DQ finishes for matches where they can't decide who they want to win - or rather who doesn't want to get pinned. Over the past few years, DQ finishes have become second only to ref bumps in my 'Most Hated things about WWE' list and now it is transferring to ECW - which is not a good thing. Sure, there are times when a DQ finish can add to a storyline, just look at Batista vs. Ken Kennedy for a prime example. However when you get screwy DQs every week then they lose all meaning. By building their story's around a 'Code of Honor', Ring of Honor have got to the point where DQs, ref bumps and count outs actually mean something in the context of their storys. For the most part, this is because they only have one or two of each a year. WWE on the other hand have 2 or 3 a week and as such they just become a tired old cliche. Add to this the inconsistency of refereeing as a result of poor storytelling and you have a minefield of inconsistent rule-making where heels won't get DQed for hitting someone in the face with chair, but a babyface will get punished for wearing the wrong colour tights. For those of us with an IQ which is in double figures, you can see why this might be a problem.

So please Vince, make the refs make sense and let the ECW guys do their thing without having to worry about DQs if they gt a little bit too rowdy and put someone through a table or hit someone with a chair. After all, this is what you brought the brand back for, to capitalize on this legacy of blood, barbed wire and brutality. Alas, at the moment you are making them come across like every other half-arsed brand that ever tried to make themselves cool by pretending they take things ' to the Xtreme' - at the end of the day, the fans just see right through it and you can't ever earn back credibility once it's gone, no matter how much money you chuck at the problem.

ECW + CM Punk = Ratings!

CM Punk makes his ECW in-ring debut in a fantastic stiff encounter with Justin Credible. Lots of high impact kicks and strikes, Punk has clearly been swapping tips with his good buddy Samoa Joe. Getting the win with an uranage into the anaconda vice submission hold, Punk was cheered mightily by the New York faithful and was put over like a star. Let's just hope this continues for him.

The best promo of the new ECW

This week saw, without a doubt, the best promo of the new incarnation of ECW. So who was it by?

Paul Heyman? No.

CM Punk? No.

RVD? Dear god no!

It was actually done by Rhino on this week's edition of TNA Impact. In 3 minutes the last ECW champion made the brand seem more important and relevant than 4 weeks of TV on Sci Fi. Perhaps even more than the whole One Night Stand pay per view, Rhino vocalised just what ECW meant to the world of professional wrestling. In short, it represents everything that WWE is not and that is why WWECW will never succeed. It can't. The rebel promotion can never exist under the corporate umbrella of the company it is rebelling against. It's even more difficult to be rebellious when being controlled obssesively by the man who is single handedly responsible for much of what is wrong with the wrestling business in 2006.

So it is left to TNA, the little promotion that could. After 4 years of struggling to make a name for itself, many felt the arrival of ECW could spell the end for TNA as they were instantly relegated to 4th palce in the wrestling fans brand consciousness. However it seems TNA are looking to put up a fight and good for them. By being the rebel promotion that WWECW can never be, then perhaps they can find the viewers that WWECW has alienated. Certainly the reception they got in Philadelphia would suggest the fans are willing to give TNA a chance and with them putting on a strong wrestling show in the ECW arena, they did a better job of earning those fans loyalty than WWE did when it ran in the Arena.

So thank you Rhino, for saying what needed to be said. This is perhaps the most important moment in your career, let's hope you are finally allowed to be given the oppurtunity to succeed at the level you deserved ever since ECW closed in 2001. And let's hope that this is finally the storyline that can help make TNA go from glorified indie to genuine competitor for WWE. It was one hell of a way to start it.

ECW Dream matches

There's been a lot of negativity surronuding the ECW brand since it started (a lot of it coming from yours truly) but now that we pretty much know how the brand is going to be handled and what it is going to comprise of, what matches/feuds would you like to see?

For me the obvious one is Sandman vs. CM Punk. Punk could come out and be the first to avoid Sandman's weekly beatings and start a feud based on Punk's straight edge beliefs vs. Sandman's drunken antics. Punk has the potential to be the new Raven for this ECW generation and what better place for him to start than feuding with one of Raven's top rivals.

Next up I'd love to see Big Show vs. Tommy Dreamer done properly. Dreamer was the heart and soul of the old ECW and Big Show personifies the new ECW with it's strong WWE links. Dreamer could defend the honour of the old ECW and as long as he was given some offence and allowed to look like a legit threat against Big Show this could really work. Dreamer doesn't even have to win any of the matches, book it like the Raven vs. Dreamer feud and constantly have Dreamer screwed out of the win.

Sabu vs. Test. Hardly a dream match, but I think Sabu could get a lot out of Test and could give the big man the same kind of credibility that he has with his feud with Cena.

The FBI vs. Kendrick/London. Anything to give th FBI something to do! Plus Smackdown has has very little to do with the ECW crossover thus far and Kendrick and London could have some great matches with these (plus they only have one set of rivals of Smackdown since the Mexicools have been split up).

Jazz vs. Trinity. Both women can go in the ring, so why not let them?

Justin Credible vs. Balls Mahoney. Two guys who've been give the short end of the stick hus far in ECW. So why not put them together and see what happens. The cane swining credible against the chair swinging Mahoney has a lot of potential with both men being much ebtter workers than WWE has allowed them to be thus far.

Was ECW better off dead?

Being an ECW fan has been something of a rollercoaster ride over the past week and a half. I've wanted to sit down and write this column for the past few days, but each time something has happened that changed my mind. I have gone from cautious opitimism, to genuine excitement about a new brand to complete and utter bewilderment at just what the powers that be thinkg ECW should be.

The week began with the WWE vs. ECW special which I finally got to watch this weekend. After having done a decidely average job building up ECW on Raw on Smackdown, this was the moment it really felt like they might do something interesting with this brand. John Cena and Sabu had a really fun match while the product as a whole just felt really different and exciting. The build to last year's One Night Stand pay per view was decidely erratic but in the end the show was very entertaining so I could only assume that the same would happen this year.

It's just a shame that One Night Stand really didn't deliver the kind of exciting alternative product that it did last year, or that it even managed to with the WWE vs. ECW special. For everything that was great; Terry Funk being a crazy bastard one last time, the first half of Rey vs. Sabu or John Cena's interaction with the ECW fans. There was also the nonsensical and down right baffling. Orton vs. Angle was not looking good on paper, however for it be given almost 15 minutes was an insult to the ECW fans that paid a lot of money to see an ECW show, not a Smackdown one. The fact that Rey vs. Sabu ended in a no contest - this is Sabu the man who managed to finish matches with broken jaws and lacerated arms wrapped in barbed wire, yet he was done in by a DDT through a table? I don't think. Plus, JBL, announcing he was the new voice of Smackdown. Really, who in that crowd cared?!

When all was said and done, this show has almost many plusses as minuses and at least it was something different, so hopes were high going into the debut of ECW on Sci Fi. But that was all to change over the 60 minutes that this abomonation of a show was on. In one night, ECW was emasculated and not even on love TV because the new network was too scared by the pay per view and wanted to keep them under control. This was more of an advert for WWE's Vengance pay per view than it was for the new show. The ECW talent were made to look second rate to the WWE 'superstars' and the few moment ECW guys were allowed to shine were in contrived scenarios that just them look like the bingo hall workers WWE has always stereotyped them as being. Sandma and a zombie was never going to be good, but without his siganture entrance and without anything else of note to counter balance this moment of MacMahon inspired stupidity it summed up what was a truly awful hour of TV.

The weekend of One Night Stand, two of ECW's strongest characters in the final months, Matt 'SPike Dudley' Hyson and Rhino, voiced their disgust at WWE brining bakc ECW and Hyson went so far as to tear up his WWE contract. What seemed like a moment of impetuousness that may have cost Hyson a lucrative pay deal has now become one of the most ballsy, pragmatic decision anyone has made in wrestling so far in 2006. We can only hope that in the coming weeks and month, ECW is give the chance to create a genuine alternative program. However after that first week of ECW's resurrection, you can't help but with that it had stayed dead and buried in that Philly bingo hall wear it was concieved.

Thoughts on the new ECW

So Vince Macmahon has finally announced the worst kept secret in wrestling. We are going to have a 3rd WWE brand as the powers that be in Stamford Connecticut have decided to bring back ECW. Now this is a subject that will inevitably bring out strong opinions among the always vocal online wrestling community as ECW was a promotion that many people held dear to their hearts. After all, this was the promotion that helped mould the WWF and WCW boom periods in the late 90s by putting on the kind of innovative TV and matches that the big 2 would see and re-package for a mainstream audience. Whether it was the antics of a pre-Stone Cold Austin, the crazy brawls featuring the Public Enemy and the Dudleyz or the high flying matches from cruiserweights like Rey Mysterio or Eddie Guerrero. ECW was an alternative to the campy antics of WWF stars like the Ultimate Warrior or Papa Shango and provided an product that more mature fans who liked the maverick attitude and intelligent, non-patronising storylines and angles.

So here it is, about to be brought back, only this time under the corporate umbrella of WWE. In the press release announcing it's return Vince MacMahon has claimed WWE have been the guardians on the ECW legacy over the past 4 years, keeping the 'cult-like following of ECW' simmering away thanks to the release of DVDs and the One Night Stand pay per view. Well, what did you expect from the man who every Monday massages his ego on international TV by molesting divas or out-figthing men half his age. You didn't think he would credit the fans would he? But it's them, not Vince who have kept ECW alive - just as they were the ones who helped ECW succeed in the first place.

Vince has always been a contradictory character for ECW. He exists both as it's biggest threat, but also one of it's biggest helpers. In the 90s, it was the constant threat of WWF dollars stealing away top talent that caused the concern. Whereas in 2006, it is the potential impact he could have on the creative direction of the company that worries fans more than anything. After all, this is a man who has a tendancy to publicly humiliate anyone who disagrees with him as well as booking himself in a wrestling match where he was supposed to be facing God. However with Vince taking a personal interet in this pet project and seeing money, we can only hope that he will see fit to allow those people that understand ECW (Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer in other words) rather that attempt to implement his own idealogy on the brand and that is where Vince can help the feldgling brand. Just as he did in 1997 when he guarnteed ECW's first pay per view and brought ECW talent on to Raw to promote it.

Vinces greatest help to ECW is his money, but as is so often when you have a moneyman with ideas, it's whether or not those ideas interfere with the direction the company should go in. It's difficult to say no to the man with the cheque book (and if that man is Vince Macmahon, the most powerful man in wrestling, it will be doubly so). With Vince in charge we will never see controversial angles like the Sandman/Raven feud where Raven crucified Sandman and stole his family, but is that such a bad thing? Controversy in WWE skates a fine line between shocking shockly awful. At least he seems to have appreciate that ECW cannot be filmed at the same time as Smackdown and Raw and cannot have the same production values. The mention of bringing in new names to create a new generation of ECW also bodes well, however I have a feeling we will never truly know what will happen with the new ECW until we see it on TV and see just what parts of the old ECW has been kept and what have been updated for a new generation of fans.