Thanks for the K bro!
Part 2:
let me start with your questions...
Weight classes...
WWE and WCW have had a history of a "lighter" class of wrestling. WWF's Light Heavyweight Championship was around for a coupl of runs and was eventually combines with the Cruiseweight title that is on SD and originated on WCW. I think the weight limit is 225lbs, but don't hold me to that. This weight class is probably one of the most to watch if you like fast and high flying action. The only downside to watching these matches is that after a while it seems that every match will have the same set of moves, especially when there are more than 2 wrestlers involed in the match. For example, everytime you see a 6 man match, you can bank on a flying plancha out of the ring on to a wrestler on the floor, then one by one, each of the other wrestlers will then take turns flying out on to the wrestlers that are on the floor, just as they get up. (Oddly enuff, every time they get up they group together.)
John Cena...
He is the WWE Champion. To fit his character he has added a little "Bling Bling" to the titles that he wins. He made a US Championship Spinner belt on SD when he held it. And dont let John's size fool you, his move is the F-U (a shot at Brock Lesnar's F-5). It is a firemen's carry that results in the opponent being flipped feet over head off of Cena's shoulders. What's so important about that...He has performed this move on the 500lb Big Show.
John also worked hard to get where he is at. His gimmick is a lot of fun and his rhymes are pretty funny. He has great mic skills and excellent ring skills. He also has a good body that has the attention of straight women and gay men. I know this because my wife and my best friend both say he his hot.
John has also paid his dues and worked his way up through the system. He was an up and comer with the likes of Brock Lesner, Randy Orton, and Dave Batista going waiting for their chance to move up from OVW.
Oh, sorry...OVW is Ohio Valley Wrestling. This is the "minor leagues" for WWE. There used to be two (Heartland Wrestling), but they had to cut ties for financial reasons. But in general, any of the "local" associations (of which there are many) are potential breeding grounds for potential superstars. The current local that is hot shit is NWA-TNA. (For history sake, NWA has a long history itself, as far as its associations and life cycles.) TNA was added (by the Jarretts) to try to draw attention. TNA stands for Total Non-stop Action, but lets face it...any male hormones will take it differently. and the Jarretts wanted the exposure. TNA has also been the competition for WWE, which is a good thing. They are not a major competition, but they are an alternate product that has its gimmicks, but it has breed life into new talent and has given second life to some stars that have parted ways with WWE and WCW. (Double J) Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash (Diesel), Scott Hall (Razor Ramon), Sting, Sean Waltman (X-Pac, 6-Pac, Syxx, 1-2-3 Kid, Lighting Kid), Shane Douglas, Jeff Hardy, and countless others to name a few. This is good, because it gives these guys big exposure while they are out of the big show (WWE).
ECW:
ECW was a local association (a branch of NWA at one time) know as Eastern Championship Wrestling. Paul Heyman, (aka Paul E. Dangerously of NWA/WCW fame) was the brains behind this operation. He changed the name to Extreme Championship Wrestling and made it hardcore. The attitude that they took was that if you want to see them fight with a frying pan and an iron, then bring them to the arena and throw them in the ring. ECW had a variety of wrestlers, some were technical submission wrestlers, some were high-flyers, and some were just hard-core madmen. This was an excellent opportunity for these guys. Paul had a deal with WWE for a while and they had some cross promotion, but they didn't see exactly eye to eye. WCW and WWF raided their talent and eventually, there was nothing left. Some of stars of ECW definitely had a following that made them instant superstars in WCW and WWE, for example, Mick Foley, the Dudleys, Rhyno, Tajiri, and Rob Van Dam. Some other big names that did a tour in ECW include Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Steve Austin, and Dean Malenko. ECW's tv time was not very well advertised in my neck of the woods, but, I did catch some of their shows from time to time. And they spent a lot of time promoting their videos and PPVs. They cut their promos in a basement. It was very rough and very raw. These guys gave it their all.
The best thing of all three shows running was that there was wrestling on virtually EVERY day of the week. Monday was RAW and Nirto. Nitro was 3 hours towards the end there and they replayed the show that night, so you could watch the first hour of Nitro, then all of Raw and then the end of Nitro on the replay. (Tuesday was an off day.) Wednesday was WCW Thunder (orignially it was Thursday Thunder) and Thursday was Smackdown!. The ECW ran their show on Friday nights. Saturdays and Sundays saw a couple of "recap shows" from each brand. These shows would have replays from the weeknight programs and some low and mid card matches that were recorded before the weekly shows. Then Sundays were PPVs. If you were a fan of all three and didn't have a black box, you could go broke! I don't recall if ECW had monthly PPVs, but WCW and WWF did. (Thanks to Eric Bischoff.) So there would be one or two Sundays a month that didn't have a PPV. The 90s was a great time to be a wrestling fan.
The one problem with their style of wrestling is that when they made it to the show (either WWE or WCW) they had to relearn how to work, because they had a tendency of hurting the guys that they wrestled. This is the biggest thing that held down RVD and it is probably theonly reason why is was never "awarded" the WWE or World Championship. The extreme was a good gimmick. Ironically, both WCW and WWF had "Hardcore" championships which are now defunct.
As WCW went belly up, ECW was already under. Vinnie Mac got pieces of both organizations. What this did, was helped everyone "connect the dots" with all of the history between the programs. This was really cool, because for the first, the announcers could talk about a wrestlers accomplishments in the opposing organization AND they could use all of their aliases.
Now will ECW make a come back...
It is a possibility. Again, I haven't stayed up with the insiders, but I can definitely see more of ECW in the future. The only question is "how much."
Another thing that is nice to see, is now that the rivarly is gone with WWE, ECW, and WCW, we get a full appreciation for what these wrestlers have done, and when a wrestlers passes away, they get the respect and acknowledgement that they are due.
Another thing that I think will have an impact on ECW, will be the ammount of talent that WWE has and wants to keep, and if they are filling the arenas that they are in now. Can they afford to stretch their talent pool any further. You have to remember that all of these wrestlers are going to be paid out to the same pocket, unlike when the three organizations were all on there own.
I'm going to take another break here. I still have more for ya. But I do want to know what your pro-wrestling exposures have been. When did you start watching (recently) and did you watch it before? If so, when, for how long, and what brand?
The reason for me asking is so that I can try to share some of the better storylines without wasting time in regards to what you have already seen.
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