Before we get to this story, a disclaimer is in order. So, for the roughly two of you wrestling fans left out there who think this is all an actual real "sport", you may want to stop reading now.
Have the "marks" left the room? Good.
Professional Wrestling is not the "real" competition portrayed on television by the likes of companies like World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The matches you see on Cable TV shows like WWE's Monday Night Raw and Pay Per View telecast's like Wrestlemania are not actual contests between two (and occasionally more) men for championship belts and titles. Rather, they are athletic exhibitions between real athletes, trained in their disciplines, that happen to have pre-determined outcomes designed to fit the storylines of the shows.
That having been said, professional wrestling is also not a "fake sport," as many of it's detractors are so quick to claim. The manueuvers performed are quite real, and the participants often get legitimately injured. It's a show in the truest sense of the word and it always has been. But it is a "show" where real athletes perform real athletic feats that can often prove to be dangerous.
They also work a far more gruelling schedule than your average NFL or NBA star, where they are often expected to perform as many as 300 plus nights a year. And that is at least part of what this story is all about.
This past weekend, two pro-wrestling stars that were expected to be a major part of of WWE's relaunch of the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) brand were busted for marijuana posession after being pulled over following an ECW "house show" in Huntington, WV.
You can read all about it here
The wrestlers in question were Robert Szatkowski (who wrestles as Rob Van Dam) and Terry Brunk (who wrestles as "the homicidal, genocidal Sabu"). The ECW brand, just re-launched this past month with the "One Night Stand" Pay Per View and a weekly cable show on the Sci-Fi Channel, was expected to be built around Van Dam, and to a lesser extent, Sabu.
As evidenced by it's shows this week, those plans have now apparently gone up in smoke.
Van Dam, who won both the WWE and ECW championships last month at "One Night Stand", dropped both titles this week on back to back broadcasts of WWE's Monday Night Raw and the Sci-Fi Channels Tuesday ECW show. Meanwhile, in the real world, he has been given a 30 day suspension by WWE management.
Article comments
1 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I have a dumb question. For how long was former Minnesota governor, Jesse Ventura, involved with this "Extreme Wrestling". Or is my memory going fsster than my money?
2 - Glen Boyd
Ruvy,
Governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura was never involved in the Extreme Championship Wrestling brand. He was a wrestler in the then WWF (World Wrestling Federation), now the WWE for many years dating back to the seventies. I believe he got his start, like fellow old school great Roddy Piper, in the regional Portland, Oregon wrestling promotion.
Big difference between the wrestling of that era and the more violent style of ECW.
Hope that answers the question. And thanks for the comment.
-Glen
3 - Wes Mantooth
RVD and Sabu deserve what they get for getting caught, but this relaunch isn't doomed to fail because of what's happening to RVD. It's doomed to fail because Vince McMahon is an insufferable prick with an unrivaled ego. I'm not going to go into the myriad reasons for this...I'm sure you know them all. But this new ECW is going nowhere fast. RVD and Sabu are helping it get there quicker, but this never had a chance to begin with. A damn shame, too...
4 - Glen Boyd
Wes,
Agreed on all counts. What more can I say? Thanx for the comment.
-Glen
5 - Ric Gillespie
If you wanna do drugs, guys, do it on your own time. Not when I chose both of you in the WWE Fantasy game. Do you realize you guys (especially Sabu) cost me a ton of points?!
6 - Matt Paprocki
"the enhanced physiques Vince McMahon seems to like to push."
Or the one McMahon himself has... ANYway...
ECW's first show was a disaster. Their second show was a disaster. The past few weeks have been mildly better. They have one hour and don't make enough use of it. The Big Show/RVD match was their longest one yet, and while decent, it's nothing like ECW. Aside from Sandman, no one has even bled yet.
It's hard to imagine why they're not giving us a real ECW product. Surely they know what the brand is/was. I can't imagine their reasoning for not pushing it like they should.
However, the ratings have been incredible, so maybe they'll stick with what they have.
7 - Glen Boyd
I don't know Matt...that gash on the back last week that Sabu took the hard way doing that atomic arabian facebuster sure looked like blood to me.
Anyway, I agree the product started out looking pretty bad...and I actually gave them a pass of sorts for the first week's disaster.
But its looked a little better the last two weeks. They were headed the right direction I think. The darkened arena and especially the move to the small arena this week had me somewhat encouraged.
Theres no way this is going to be exactly like old ECW just because I don't think McMahon wants to deal with all those injuries. But this thing with RVD and Sabu sure doesn't help matters in terms of the long-range plan does it?
-Glen
P.S. I thought Big Show looked awful in that match you describe as decent. RVD completely carried that match.
8 - Rayvin813
I have only just gotten back into watching wrestling in the last two weeks, after an absence of about two years. Now, I highly doubt that things have changed that much since then, because the writing is still horrific. THAT is reason number one that ECW is destined to fail. I always loved ECW a heck of a lot more than I ever enjoyed WWE.
The last two weeks of ECW are reminiscent of the reason I quit watching wrestling altogether in the first place...the plot lines seem like recycled WWE failures.
Has anyone else come to the same realization? Or is it just me?
9 - Glen Boyd
Rayvin,
Nope, the writing is pretty much as bad as you remember. Theres also been a decided up-tick in the ammount of times male ass is shown on TV. Exactly what the wrestling audience demands right? But wait, Vince knows his audience better than anybody...right?
Thanx for the comment Rayvin.
-Glen
10 - Bosko
OOOOOHHHHH YEAH!
Let's market the EXTREME brand of professional wrestling on a major cable network... And immediately banish our star wrestler as soon as he does something TRULY EXTREME!!!
The WWE is so screwed, really...
Their handling of this situation is more like the 1980s WWWF, when Superfly Snuka was punished fr his misdeeds, than the so-called "modern WWE"...
Would "Degeneration X" support RVD if they existed in real life?
Damn straight.
But they're just a bad joke now.
Screw the WWE.
11 - Glen Boyd
Plus they're jobbing all the ECW guys (even Sandman tonight). The main events don't even feature ECW guys. At this point, I can't even figure out why they call it ECW.
I gave it a try. But nope. No argument here.
Thanx for the comment.
-Glen