Second Batch of Reader Thoughts on the ECW Talent Initiative

The following is from Paul

I would say the new talent that was featured on ECW made the show boring.  Creative needs to showcase them a bit better than having a one hour show with practically one to two full matches.  The Abraham Washington interview took too long and you could see the live crowd was dead for it.  Again, a one hour show and the talk show thing too too long.  This is partly why I hated the Foley/Rock “This is Your Life” Promo…took way too long and I got bored with it.  We know the Bellas, why reintroduce them AGAIN? They teased another fight with them too.  Is that the easiest way to make creative happy?  Have brothers and sisters fight each other?  Kane/Taker, Harts, Hardys, Colons, Bellas.  What’s next, Finlay beating up Hornswoggle? 
 
The thing with the new guys is that they attempt to push them with mostly in-ring antics only.  The WWE doesn’t do promos slowing bringing in the characters.  Give them a build up before debuting them.  Maybe they stopped investing that after the epic failure in Kizarny.  I was surprised to see the FCW guys though.  When I was bored one day at work I looked up the talent in FCW so I knew of a few of them but not truly anything else.  The Japanese guy that “beat” Shelton was funny.  The entrance music, hair all terrible.  Oh well, they had to sell him some how and the short straw went to Shelton.  Too bad that had to happen. 
 
Washington has promise as a commentator.  In ring, we’ll see.  Notice the WHAT chants…yeah, crowd was already bored with him.
 
Sheamus was funny because he was pale.  That was all my wife and I saw in that guy.  He had a Finlay, Higlanders type gimick going with the strength of a beast.  The pale skin over shadowed his “power.”  So ECW loses Finlay but get Shamus. 
 
The dredlock guy…who had his debut with a promo with Zack Ryder?  okay…that fell flat too. 
 
As a teacher, if I were to grade the debuts:
 
That Japan guy: D (dont remember name, no impact, that skunk hair is terrible, the theme he has was terrible)
Abraham Washington: C (he tried and they gave him way too long of a promo – bored quickly with it)
Sheamus: B- (His skin was more of a focus than his in ring skills.  Against other talent, I see JOB squad material.  The props need to go with the guy he faced that put him “over” for the match)
The surfer guy with Ryder: F (epic fail)
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The following is from Steven
 
I watched ECW this week wondering what they were going to do and how the show would work without alot of their top talent. I was delighted that they brought in new talent and it was a very enjoyable fun show. Firstly the Japanese guy cant remember his name, he must be decent to get a clean one move victory of Shelton benjamin and this could develop into a decent rivalry. Abraham Washington, didnt really like his show but we had the Bella twins so that was a huge double bonus. I dont like the idea of a Obama type carachter but we will see what his ring ability is like. Seamus is someone who has bags of talent and could make an impact in the WWE but he needs to wear more clothes or get a tan, the guy brings new meaning to the term milkbottle. His finisher was awesome though. Finally Tyler Reks, good promo looks the part and I look forward to seeing him on Superstars. I reckon ECW actually could be on the up despite losing many talents. But the new talent along with Regal, Goldust and Benjamin could bring a really entertaining show each week.
 
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The following is from Derrick
 
I think that ECW has been completely ruined. This isn’t the ECW that we have all grown to love, with anarchy and violence that we all adored. The original ECW had superstars that we loved to see in action and that were extremely talented. There was RVD, Sabu, Sandman, Justin Credible, The Dudleys, Tommy Dreamer, New Jack, Mike Awesome, and others who were very talented. Today ECW has become a sham of its old self. Today ECW is a new age version of Sunday Night Heat. I also hate they way that they have stripped ECW’s roster completely and stacked Raw and Smackdown. ECW lost the biggest talents in Jack Swagger, Finlay, Mark Henry, and the whole Hart Dynasty. What the hell is that all about? And who replaces them? Shelton Benjamin (the only actual wrestler besides William Regal) William Regal, the bella twins and GOLDUST. Seriously, they mind as well cancel ECW because they have about a 9 man roster and its the same matches over and over again every week. Also I love Tommy Dreamer and think he deserves to be the champion after all his hard years in the original ECW but I think they need a better champion. SD has CM punk, Raw has Orton, and ECW has Dreamer. That doesn’t stack up. Then this new superstar initiative is a joke. I think half of these guys aren’t even good enough to be on TV yet. Did someone say Tough Enough. I also think that 2 minute loss in the Shelton Benjamin match was terribly executed. ECW is going down in flames. Vince McMahon hates a lot of things when it comes to wrestling. Raw not being the number one shower, divas actually wrestling, tag team wrestling, and maybe most of all ECW.
 
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The following is from Benjamin
 
I for one think it a good thing to bring the new talent to ECW. If the WWE were smart they would seize this oppurtunity for what it’s worth. They could use this to make stars and find new talent. Put the ECW title on a mid level guy that deserves it and use ECW as breeding ground to get young stars face time and gain traction with the crowd. It’s about time WWE starting making new stars or it will be a rerun of WCW.
 
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The following is from DJ Rallo
 
Well last Tuesday night seemed better than expected except for the fact that Tiffany found this to be a good trade for her. As the show went on, it looked more like FCW on SciFi instead of ECW. We saw some good new stars and some that I was not very fond of.

Yoshi Tatsu: Aside from having the worst entrance music of all time, Tatsu only showed one move last night in a squash to Shelton Benjamin. First of all, they totally screwed Benjmain because he deserves to be in the ECW main event, but I have seen a little from Tatsu in New Japan Pro Wrestling before he came to the WWE. He was merely a mid card star, but he was a talented high flying wrestler, so I hope he can be used properly and have a good run in the WWE unlike other stars who deserved more (Wang Yang, Shannon Moore, and SuperCrazy). I do like how WWE found a solid international talent, so I think he will be a decent part of the ECW roster and have a good feud with Shelton Benjamin.

Tyler Reks: From what I’ve seen of Reks in FCW, he was a pretty good talent to me. We saw nothing great from him after a two second promo ;ast night with Zach Ryder who is really the only exclusive star to Superstars on Thursdays because that is the only show he fights on. I think Reks’ surfer gimmick will be much like Kofi’s happy jamiacan gimmick meaning that it will get old and he will need to be very very good in the ring for us to love this kid. I hope he has a good match on Thursday, but he will never be more than a mid carder.

Sheamus: Here is a talent that I really enjoy. This guy looked really strong in his debut and may be the only star that debuted last night that will be a great in the WWE. He got a decent reaction and had a solid squash in his debut. I think we will have a lot of ginger and gaelic jokes about him, but he will be big in the WWE if they utilize him to his full potential.

Abraham Washington: Since he played the president gimmick in FCW, I understood his name, but what kind of name is that for a talk show host character? I really did not like his segment last night, but he did garner a great reaction from the fans (I mean heat) and he also played his role well. There are so many reasons this segment was abysmal. A.W. had bad material, it was a long segment, and The Bellas aren’t exactly the greatest at acting either. He did show potential and I did like his mic skills. That just may be me, but I want to see if Washington can play his role in the WWE considering that I’m guessing he’ll wrestle as well. He will either be a big success or an epic fail, but either way I want to see more of him before I can jump to conclusions.

 
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The following is from Thomas
 
In my opinion Yoshitasu could have potential. I have not seen any of his stuff in FCW but by the way he looks he could have a decent midcard career in WWE. As for Abraham Washington he better be able to wrestle otherwise he is screwed. I also think Shamus has potential to be a future ECW champ but he needs a tan badly. Also I think Tyler Reks has great potential to be a future ECW champ because as I understand he is the current FCW Heavyweight Champ. He must not be that bad otherwise he wouldn’t be the current champ in FCW. We will see this thursday what he can do against Zach Ryder. I see now why ECW was pilage this Monday due to the 15 superstar trade. I think ECW has possibly got three hits on their hand as I am not yet sold on Washington.
 

 

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