Loose Cannon
07-16-2004, 08:49 PM
**NOTE: MY Rewind's can now be seen on the front page of TPWW. So, if you forgot your passowrd and really can't wait to view my Rewind, you can just view it on the front page now. :)
Moment: ECW REUNITES
Year: 2001
Yes, this moment provide some markout fests for many wrestling fans around the world, including myself. Now, I admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of the ECW promotion back in the mid-late 90’s, but when I watched it, I did enjoy it. ECW was a promotion based out of Philadelphia and it came to be a cult favorite with many wrestling fans around the world. Chants of “ECW, ECW, ECW,” can still sometimes be heard today on episodes of Monday Night Raw. Fans loved the hardcore matches and the over the top storylines that were featured on ECW. Most of all, however, fans loved watching the wrestlers of ECW perform for them because they knew they were getting 101% every time a wrestler stepped through the curtain.
Let’s fast forward to 2001. ECW had gone bankrupt and now was owned by Vince McMahon. Vince had also purchased WCW around this time too. Vince now owned the rights to the other two major companies that were competing with him. So what does Vince decide to do in storyline sense, yep you guessed it, Invasion.
The Invasion started out not that great as WCW and their new “owner,” Shane McMahon, were set up to play the babyfaces against Vince and his evil WWF empire. Shane and his new WCW buddies appeared at Wrestlemania 17 and sat in the skybox section watching the matches as they unfolded. You saw them cheering Shane during his match with Vince and that’s about how involved they got with Wrestlemania. Soon, WCW superstars started appearing on Raw and doing run-ins, attacking various WWF superstars. Lance Storm was the first ever WCW superstar to appear on Raw when he superkicked Perry Saturn in the face. He missed by the way, but Saturn went down anyway. The problem with this was the fact that the WCW superstars appearing on WWE TV were just a bunch of midcarders, who did nothing but attack other midcarders. The audience wasn’t buying WCW as a threat if all they were going to do was attack WWF wrestlers, who were probably jobbing on Heat from time to time. The Booker T/Buff Bagwell match on Raw didn’t help matters for WCW eathier. So, the WWF came up with a new plan, and boy was it a good one, well, at least for a little while.
Everything unfolded on an episode of Raw on July 9th, 2001. Shane McMahon and his WCW cohort, Diamond Dallas Paige had gotten into a fight in the parking lot. Shane McMahon had challenged DDP to a street fight match and it looked as if WCW was done for. The match was the first match of the night and both men looked furious at each other. The bell rang and they were ready to go, but all of a sudden, Undertaker’s music hit and out he came. Now, Taker had been feuding with Diamond Dallas Paige at the time because Paige was the “Stalker” that had been stalking Undertaker’s wife Sara. Undertaker gets into the ring and tells Shane that he wants DDP to himself. Shane steps aside for a moment and as soon as Taker turns around, Shane nails Taker in the back with a kendo stick and the setup unfolds. The two do a number on Taker and leave him lying in the ring. WCW were now full-fledged heels in the eyes of the fans, but the night wasn’t over by far.
Later on in the night, Booker T took on Kurt Angle in a WCW Title match. Booker T would get the win after interference with Shane McMahon. The crowd was now really pissed at Shane as not only had he helped take down a big WWF favorite, Undertaker, earlier in the show, but now he had cost another big fan favorite a chance to win the WCW Title. I was even started to get real pissed at Shane as you just wanted to see him get his ass whooped. The next match however, would turn my anger into an all out markout fest.
The match seemed like nothing special at first glance. Just two random WWF guys taking on two random WCW guys. The match pitted Kane and Chris Jericho against Lance Storm and Mike Awesome. Like I said, the match was just an ordinary match, but then it happened. All of a sudden, Tommy Dreamer and Rob Van Dam appear from the crowd and jumped into the ring. Both men start attacking Jericho and Kane and the crowd loves it. J.R. starts to lose it at the announce table, but Paul Heyman enjoys it. Lance Storm and Mike Awesome join in on the attack and pummel Jericho and Kane. Then, out from the back, WWF wrestlers come flying down the ramp and into the ring. Well, at first glance, they were just WWE wrestlers to all of us. But, if you were a fan of ECW, you probably did the exact same thing I did when the WWF wrestlers got into the ring. As they stood in the ring standing off RVD and Tommy Dreamer, I started going over each guy to see who was there. Okay, Raven, Taz, the Dudley Boys……..OMG, wait a second….no way….. there’s Rhyno, Justin Credible….It can’t be….. Holy crap, these guys are all from ECW.
As soon as those thoughts ran threw my mind, the, soon to be former, WWF wrestlers turned around and started attacking Jericho and Kane. By this point, the crowd had completely lost it, I’ve lost it back home, JR is having a heart attack at the announce table and Heyman is still loving everything that is going on in the ring. Dreamer hits the “Spicolli Driver” on Jericho and RVD hits the “Van Daminator” on Kane. JR then asks Heyman what the hell is going on and Heyman says, “You want answers, well I say you finally deserve JR, a dam answer.” Heyman then gets in the ring and delivers an awesome promo saying that all the wrestlers in the ring have all joined ECW and how ECW was now part of the Invasion. Heyman then ends his promo by stating, “This Invasion just got taken to the extreme.”
Afterwards: One of my favorite moments of all-time right there. The whole thing was done perfectly and they really should of left ECW as the third stable. Later on in the show, however, ECW merged with WCW, showing that Shane and Heyman were in cahoots all along. Stephanie McMahon soon became the “owner” of ECW and the Invasion was turned into a war between the McMahon’s, instead of what the fans really wanted. The reunion of ECW was definitely a moment to be remembered and will most definitely not be forgotten by fans who witnessed that moment on Raw. Well, that’s all for now, until next time, RKO and Out. :)
Moment: ECW REUNITES
Year: 2001
Yes, this moment provide some markout fests for many wrestling fans around the world, including myself. Now, I admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of the ECW promotion back in the mid-late 90’s, but when I watched it, I did enjoy it. ECW was a promotion based out of Philadelphia and it came to be a cult favorite with many wrestling fans around the world. Chants of “ECW, ECW, ECW,” can still sometimes be heard today on episodes of Monday Night Raw. Fans loved the hardcore matches and the over the top storylines that were featured on ECW. Most of all, however, fans loved watching the wrestlers of ECW perform for them because they knew they were getting 101% every time a wrestler stepped through the curtain.
Let’s fast forward to 2001. ECW had gone bankrupt and now was owned by Vince McMahon. Vince had also purchased WCW around this time too. Vince now owned the rights to the other two major companies that were competing with him. So what does Vince decide to do in storyline sense, yep you guessed it, Invasion.
The Invasion started out not that great as WCW and their new “owner,” Shane McMahon, were set up to play the babyfaces against Vince and his evil WWF empire. Shane and his new WCW buddies appeared at Wrestlemania 17 and sat in the skybox section watching the matches as they unfolded. You saw them cheering Shane during his match with Vince and that’s about how involved they got with Wrestlemania. Soon, WCW superstars started appearing on Raw and doing run-ins, attacking various WWF superstars. Lance Storm was the first ever WCW superstar to appear on Raw when he superkicked Perry Saturn in the face. He missed by the way, but Saturn went down anyway. The problem with this was the fact that the WCW superstars appearing on WWE TV were just a bunch of midcarders, who did nothing but attack other midcarders. The audience wasn’t buying WCW as a threat if all they were going to do was attack WWF wrestlers, who were probably jobbing on Heat from time to time. The Booker T/Buff Bagwell match on Raw didn’t help matters for WCW eathier. So, the WWF came up with a new plan, and boy was it a good one, well, at least for a little while.
Everything unfolded on an episode of Raw on July 9th, 2001. Shane McMahon and his WCW cohort, Diamond Dallas Paige had gotten into a fight in the parking lot. Shane McMahon had challenged DDP to a street fight match and it looked as if WCW was done for. The match was the first match of the night and both men looked furious at each other. The bell rang and they were ready to go, but all of a sudden, Undertaker’s music hit and out he came. Now, Taker had been feuding with Diamond Dallas Paige at the time because Paige was the “Stalker” that had been stalking Undertaker’s wife Sara. Undertaker gets into the ring and tells Shane that he wants DDP to himself. Shane steps aside for a moment and as soon as Taker turns around, Shane nails Taker in the back with a kendo stick and the setup unfolds. The two do a number on Taker and leave him lying in the ring. WCW were now full-fledged heels in the eyes of the fans, but the night wasn’t over by far.
Later on in the night, Booker T took on Kurt Angle in a WCW Title match. Booker T would get the win after interference with Shane McMahon. The crowd was now really pissed at Shane as not only had he helped take down a big WWF favorite, Undertaker, earlier in the show, but now he had cost another big fan favorite a chance to win the WCW Title. I was even started to get real pissed at Shane as you just wanted to see him get his ass whooped. The next match however, would turn my anger into an all out markout fest.
The match seemed like nothing special at first glance. Just two random WWF guys taking on two random WCW guys. The match pitted Kane and Chris Jericho against Lance Storm and Mike Awesome. Like I said, the match was just an ordinary match, but then it happened. All of a sudden, Tommy Dreamer and Rob Van Dam appear from the crowd and jumped into the ring. Both men start attacking Jericho and Kane and the crowd loves it. J.R. starts to lose it at the announce table, but Paul Heyman enjoys it. Lance Storm and Mike Awesome join in on the attack and pummel Jericho and Kane. Then, out from the back, WWF wrestlers come flying down the ramp and into the ring. Well, at first glance, they were just WWE wrestlers to all of us. But, if you were a fan of ECW, you probably did the exact same thing I did when the WWF wrestlers got into the ring. As they stood in the ring standing off RVD and Tommy Dreamer, I started going over each guy to see who was there. Okay, Raven, Taz, the Dudley Boys……..OMG, wait a second….no way….. there’s Rhyno, Justin Credible….It can’t be….. Holy crap, these guys are all from ECW.
As soon as those thoughts ran threw my mind, the, soon to be former, WWF wrestlers turned around and started attacking Jericho and Kane. By this point, the crowd had completely lost it, I’ve lost it back home, JR is having a heart attack at the announce table and Heyman is still loving everything that is going on in the ring. Dreamer hits the “Spicolli Driver” on Jericho and RVD hits the “Van Daminator” on Kane. JR then asks Heyman what the hell is going on and Heyman says, “You want answers, well I say you finally deserve JR, a dam answer.” Heyman then gets in the ring and delivers an awesome promo saying that all the wrestlers in the ring have all joined ECW and how ECW was now part of the Invasion. Heyman then ends his promo by stating, “This Invasion just got taken to the extreme.”
Afterwards: One of my favorite moments of all-time right there. The whole thing was done perfectly and they really should of left ECW as the third stable. Later on in the show, however, ECW merged with WCW, showing that Shane and Heyman were in cahoots all along. Stephanie McMahon soon became the “owner” of ECW and the Invasion was turned into a war between the McMahon’s, instead of what the fans really wanted. The reunion of ECW was definitely a moment to be remembered and will most definitely not be forgotten by fans who witnessed that moment on Raw. Well, that’s all for now, until next time, RKO and Out. :)