Clown Says: TNA's ECW invasion

EDIT: Everything in this post is bullshit. On this week's iMPACT, they revealed that it's not going to be an invasion angle, but instead they're doing a hardcore PPV as booked by Tommy Dreamer & Co.

This was written before that announcement, on the false premise that an invasion angle was going to occur. People reporting made up rumours and conjecture as news, I guess. Anyway, I'll leave it up for the sake of posterity or whatever, but it's about future events that never actually occurred so don't take it too seriously.

It looks like we have some new blood here at Socko's. Hi and welcome to the new guys. Sadly, they all seem to be writing about WWE so I don't have a clue what they're on about, but I'm sure it's all very astute commentary. Or something.

So. ECW invasion. I don't like the idea for two reasons:

1. I'm an ECW fan.
2. I'm a TNA fan.

Let's look at them in order.

ECW was the best wrestling promotion I've ever seen. It was revolutionary, it changed the face of pro wrestling forever, it was a genuine alternative to the corporate-approved 'sports entertainment' nonsense that is so pervasive today. That said, ECW is dead. ECW has been dead for nine years. No amount of corpse-humping is going to bring ECW back.

Most people seem to misunderstand why ECW was so great. They think it was just hardcore matches, blood and barbed wire. That was a part of it, sure, but that's not the reason it was so popular. The real reason is that it was the only wrestling show (and to this day, still is) that didn't patronise it's fans. We all know wrestling is an act. So to keep using the same old tropes - that only exist because back in the day people thought it was real - week in, week out, is ridiculous.

Take ref bumps. When have you ever seen one man bumping into another knock him out for four minutes? Never. It doesn't happen. If someone gets bowled over, they stand back up again. In any kind of sports event, if the referee goes down the match stops. Can you imagine a game of football where the ref is knocked out by an accidental collision, one team scores a goal but it doesn't count because the ref didn't see it? It would absolutely never happen, and it shouldn't ever happen in wrestling again because it's so ridiculous and staged that any legitimacy the match had goes right out the window.

The same goes for the ref getting distracted by an attractive woman at ringside, blinded with beer, etc.

ECW did away with all that, by making everything legal. People want to see chair shots, people going through tables, run-ins etc, and ECW gave it to them, but it didn't patronise them with the 'oh the ref's down' nonsense that ruins so many otherwise enjoyable matches. If you want to use a chair, just fucking use it.

It's not the chair shots that were great, it's the fact they didn't insult us in order to work them into the match.

Another great thing about ECW was that the wrestlers were allowed to develop an in-ring personality. Not a goofy gimmick that they could show off in promos, but a personality that comes across with the moves they choose to use. Not, 'Oh, I'm a pimp', 'Oh I'm a gangster', 'Oh, I'm whatever whatever', or fake crap like that. In ECW they were all just wrestlers, their personality came across during matches, not via their gimmicks. Of course there were gimmicks, the FBI, Roadkill, etc. but you didn't need a gimmick to have a character. Look at Sabu - never said a fucking word, yet is one of the most recognisable and unique wrestlers of all time, as far as his wrestling style goes.

TNA is not going to stop patronising the fans. Just look at the stupid double-pin-restart-match ending to the MCMG v Beer Money match at the last PPV. TNA loves to take the piss out of it's fanbase.

TNA is not going to stop using gimmicks and catchphrases. Ever. Pope is pimping. I'm an asshole. That's why I'm the blueprint. Styling and profiling. Whoooooooo!

TNA is not going to throw the rulebook out the window.

ECW is dead.

I also don't think the angle will be good for TNA.

The X-Division is seemingly dead - who is left now? Doug, Red, Kendrick...I think that might be it. Homicide is 'injured' at the hands of Matt Morgan. MCMG and Gen Me are tag teams (even though they fill in as X-Division to make up the numbers), AJ, Joe, Kaz, Pope and Jay Lethal are all heavyweights now, Daniels is gone, Petey Williams has been gone for a long time, god knows what the deal with Eric Young is...hell, even Shark Boy has been gone for ages.

The X-Division is the jewel in TNA's crown, or at least it used to be. Hungry, talented young wrestlers giving every match everything they have because they desperately want to make a career in wrestling and this is their one big chance to get noticed. It is the reason I became a TNA fan.

There are too many distractions now for the X-Division to be a big deal. The heavyweights roster is unbelievably bloated, and the Knockouts which is now just the Beautiful People past & present, Taylor, and Sarita, but still gets more airtime than the X-Division on a weekly basis. Plus now the bookers (Hogan and Bischoff) want face time, as well as Dixie, Flair...and now the ECW invasion angle is going to push what was once TNA's main selling point even further down the ladder.

Also, TNA have proven that bringing in big names does not equal more fans. They brought in Hogan, Bischoff, RVD, Jeff Hardy and Mr Anderson - ratings plummeted and they're only now starting to return to the level they were at before. Except now, TNA is spending a fuckton more money, and are having to let people go to afford all these names. Who were detrimental not only to the product, but also to the ratings.

Why the fuck TNA think that bringing in MORE famous names is a good idea is beyond me. All ECW fans know that ECW is dead, and only ECW fans would care about an ECW invasion angle...so the only people who would possibly be interested in this, are not interested in this.

Not to mention that WWE did THE EXACT SAME FUCKING ANGLE NINE FUCKING YEARS AGO.

Some people have theorised that this is all intended to lure Heyman to TNA...I hope this is true, Heyman is a visionary and everything he touches turns to gold. But Heyman + Hogan, Bischoff, and Russo is not the same as just Heyman. If they do manage to get him, they need to instigate a 'scorched earth' policy on the current booking team, otherwise all they're doing is adding yet another big expense on their payroll with no guarantee of any return.

Maybe I'm wrong and worrying over nothing, and the invasion will be great. I hope so, I really do. Time will tell.

I hope, at the very least, we get an RVD heel turn.