Wrestling Wednesdays: A Few Words on Hardcore Justice

TNA put on “The Last Stand” last Sunday, a pay-per-view designed to be the final ECW-oriented pay-per-view ever. And unlike all the ECW inspired events of a few years back, I personally feel like they succeeded.

Both WWE and Shane Douglas tried their own versions of these events in past years with One Night Stand and Hardcore Homecoming respectively. While both had a step up in location, neither captured the feel of the previous era in the way TNA’s Hardcore Justice did. I attribute the show’s success to two factors the previous shows just could not match: the availability of many of ECW’s biggest names and the booking of former ECW co-booker Tommy Dreamer.

Both of the previous shows seriously suffered from a lack of available talent. Hardcore Homecoming missed out on any talent contracted to WWE (which included tons of stars, but most notably Tommy Dreamer and Rob Van Dam) while One Night Stand missed out on talents signed to TNA, most specifically Raven. An ECW show without Raven misses out on one of the key players that helped really innovate the promotion, while Tommy Dreamer was the heart and soul of the promotion with Rob Van Dam probably being its biggest star ever. The first time in a decade, Hardcore Justice gives us a match between Raven and Tommy Dreamer, a match that is key to any show truly interested in bringing back the old ECW. With almost everyone involved with the original ECW now gone from WWE (only Joey Styles and Joey Mercury are left), the roster pool was far stronger for this show than it was for any previous attempts at recreating the old school feel of ECW. Dreamer clearly knew this, and embraced it wholeheartedly in his booking decisions.

At the same time, booker Tommy Dreamer made every effort to channel old storylines straight through to the pay-per-view over nine years after ECW’s collapse. The opening bout ties in to Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger’s hatred of the FBI for a lost tag shot a decade before. Stevie Richards came in with the goal of proving he could stand on his own away from Raven and did so against PJ “Justin Creible” Polaco. The Sandman made an appearance just to make sure Polaco knew he wasn’t a fan of his gimmick being stolen. Al Snow, Rhino, and Brother Runt were thrown together, but they did it in a traditional ECW elimination three way dance. Team 3D (with classic pitchman Joel Gertner) battled Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney (renamed Kahoneys because of the loss of his name to WWE) in a street fight, followed by an attack by the reteamed Gangstas, all of which celebrated the crazy over-weaponed matches that all three teams were known for. Tommy Dreamer and Raven reignited a classic feud and put on the match of the night in a brutal bloody battle. And even without Jerry Lynn’s presence, Sabu and Rob Van Dam put on an epic encounter in the main event.

The stars were definitely older (and balder, at least in the case of Sabu), and some were definitely worse for wear. Arguably, it seemed only Too Cold Scorpio (who faced C.W. Anderson early on the card) hadn’t lost a step. If anything he seemed faster and more innovative then in his classic days. He really surprised me in his match, reminding me of classic battles with the likes of Chris Jericho and Taz. Just to digress, his performance at Hardcore Justice just made me question his quick hiring and firing from WWE a few years back.

Sure, it wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t classic ECW, and it never could hope to be. Too many classic ECW stars have passed on (way too many some might argue), and a few still alive were noticeably absent, most notably Shane Douglas and Terry Funk. (I know a few people might also include Lance Storm and Mikey Whipwreck in that list, but I do not see them as essential figures the way Douglas and Funk were.) And “The Blue Tilly” and fake “Lupus” were a just plain bad idea. (Thankfully, the fans made sure that TNA knew how bad an idea it reallyw as.) Overall, these proved to be minor problems, as unlike previous attempts, Tommy Dreamer put together a card that was entertaining from top to bottom. It succeeded in one key feature: it made me want more from the likes of the FBI, Richards, Scorpio, Raven, and even PJ Polaco. Now it is a waiting game to see how TNA plays out any continued presence of EV2.0 in upcoming program.

If this truly was “The Last Stand”, then TNA succeeded at giving the world one last great farewell to ECW. And can any ECW fan ask for any more than that?

Next week, we will have an update on my first two wrestling Wednesdays, and look how the events of WWE’s second biggest pay-per-view Summer Slam affect Kane and the Nexus.

Super-Powered Comics: Diamond Destinations January

I am a bit late on this one, simply because I haven’t been in the comic shop for a couple weeks. But let’s hurry up and see what looks good:

p. 52: Buffy the Vampire Slayer #33: This issue features the big reveal that is all over the internet now. Still not sure how I feel about this one, but I would guess this issue will be a huge seller for Dark Horse.

p. 80: First Wave #1: DC’s revival of classic pulp characters under the pen of Brian Azzarello begins in full force this month. This follows directly after the events of Batman/Doc Savage, and will apparently pick up plot points from that story. With art by Rags Morales this book should be a real beaut, but it remains to be seen how much Azzarello can bring to the table for the classic pulp characters.

p. 116: American Vampire #1: Another series promises you Stephen King actually writing a comic and this one seems to actually be delivering it. However, I still strongly suspect that writer Scott Snyder is doing little more than working from King notes for the book’s back-ups. The book does seem to have an intriguing concept, and it does have 40 pages for its $3.99 price tag.

p. 142: Image United: Interlude #1: Well, invariably Image United was going to have some delays and for the second month we get no new issue here. But we do get a book that is potentially even more interesting, as several other Image characters make appearances in this special issue, all drawn by their artists. Invincible leads the pack, but from those shadows, I am guessing we will also be seeing at least Pitt in this book. Any guess on the other folks?

p. M85: Millar & McNiven’s Nemesis #1: I am by no means Mark Millar’s biggest fan, but this combination of the Batman and Joker in to one character leaves me intrigued. We will have to see how they play out on the printed page, but I suspect this could be the buzz book of 2010.

p. 229: Incredibles #8: I just wanted to point out the most recent issue of the Disney/Pixar/Boom book simply because one of my all time favorite writers and extreme Fantastic Four fan Karl Kesel is writing the most recent issue. Hopefully he will stick around for a long time to come.

p. 238: Green Hornet #1: The other huge release of March is the arrival of Kevin Smith’s take on the Green Hornet. This could either be an amazing book akin to his Daredevil run or more akin to the mediocre Batman: Cacophony. We will have to wait and see, I suppose. He has submitted every script though, so no worries of delays on this book.

p. 263: four different A-Team books: IDW wasted no time getting a hold of this license. I think the preview of the film looks excellent, but I think IDW is overdoing it with 4 titles in one month. This may be a huge gamble for the company.

p. 290: WWE Heroes #1: Wow. Just wow. Wrestling comics have always been an iffy prospect, and this one looks to be just a step above those terrible WWF books Valiant released in the early nineties. And by that I mean it makes even the worst of the Chaos! Comics titles look like a Gaiman masterpiece. It’s sad, because I think there is a potential market for wrestling comics, but this is not the way to do it.

p. 312: Back Issue #39: Every other month, this magazine brings retrospectives on some of the best comics of yesteryear. This month it brings you the funniest with an April Fools themed edition, complete with a Spider-Ham cover. And we all know Spider-Ham is worth the price of admission alone.

p. 316: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: It is Seth Grahame-Smith’s next novel after Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Do you need to know anything else?

p. 354: TNA Impact! figures: They have nothing to do with superheroes (except for maybe Sting), but I have to say I found it amusing to see the ads mention the show was on FoxSportsNet, even though it has been on SpikeTV for about three years now, I believe. Time to update your info, ad guys!

p. 358: Did you ever want to spend $200 for a non-moving Thundercat? Well now you can with the Cheetara statue!

p. 398: You know DVDs are coming out too fast after the movies initial release when Previews lists Daybreakers, Book of Eli, and Legion all on DVD prior to their release dates this month.

There you go, my look at this month’s Previews.

Wrestling (F*** Sports Entertainment)

Back a few years ago I was an avid wrestling fan. I’m talking hardcore. I started watching in 2000, but quickly started to travel back through video tapes of the previous few years of WWE and WCW. The hero vs villain aspect of the shows definitely appealed to the superhero fan in me, and the characters and storylines definitely served to inspire my writing over the next few year, even through today. Mean Streets especially owes a lot to ECW from ’97 to about 2000.

I watched WWE with an almost religious fervor for the next few years, even tuning in for the B-shows like Heat and Velocity. My RAW fandom ended in late 2002, with Heat and Velocity to soon follow. I continued watching Smackdown regularly for a year or so past that, but after that my wrestling entertainment turned more to DVD collections and indy show DVDs.

Why did I stop? A lack of faith in wrestling in general, I suppose. I still followed the storylines through message boards and the like, but I stopped watching. The obsession with Shawn Michaels and Triple H on RAW and the general lack of push by WWE of Smackdown burned me out pretty quickly. Wrestling just didn’t hold interest for me when the storylines failed to end properly. When heel (bad guy) champions won cleanly week after week after week. Especially when one of those heel champions was clearly married to one of the controlling families.

Meanwhile another promotion finally started to come together, with the terrible name of TNA Wrestling. (It stands for Total Nonstop Action, but that is obviously not what most viewers would think without seeing the show.) Their rise can be directly attributed to WWE’s mismanagement of some of their midcard to top talents. The likes of first Rhino and Christian Cage, both of which were hugely over with fans but underused by WWE, and then later the arrival of main event talents either hurt by issues with the WWE’s new drug policy or by inproper usage as well. The arrival of Kurt Angle and later Booker T brought TNA to a whole other level. Meanwhile, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and other Ring of Honor alumni electrified the TNA ring with moves unseen in WWE.

But that still didn’t draw my attention to TNA.

One of my favorite promotions of the last few years has been Shimmer Women Athletes. A talented indy female named Allison Danger teamed up with ROH talent/booker Dave Prazak teamed up to bring together a promotion that featured true women’s wrestling for the first time ever. No bikinis, no evening gowns, no mud, no T & A oriented crap. Just pure wrestling between incredibly talented women. WWE didn’t seem to notice. (They hired a trio of Shimmer talents, only to fire all but one before they debuted on television. Only Beth Phoenix survived the culling.)

It took a few months, but as TNA formed its Knockout division, they quite obviously took Shimmer as their model. With Gail Kim as their lead talent they pulled in Shimmer Athletes Cheerleader Melissa, Talia, Nikki Roxx, Shantelle Taylor, Angel Williams, ODB, Rain, and most importantly the 270+ pound monster known as Awesome Kong. Most gained new identities, but it didn’t matter. These ladies knew how to fight.

Instantly mainstream wrestling regained my interest. And through those Knockouts I began to appreciate the TNA product more and more. It has its flaws in some places, but considering Vince Russo’s hand in the show, it is a thoroughly amazing two hours of television.

Meanwhile a WWE struck again and again by violations of is wellness policy has realized that their focus on over-steroided freaks would continue to lead to negative media attention. Suddenly we had a push for younger, smaller stars. The sudden rise in the last couple months of CM PUnk, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, and The Brian Kendrick drew me back to WWE as well.

Suddenly it feels like 1997 again. Wrestling is becoming something amazing again with a push of talent that actually can bring it week in and week out in the ring. So I’m going to be the first to call it. We are on the advent of a true wrestling renaissance. Get watching or you might just miss it.