ktc

Dueling Chair Shots
by Kurt La Mont
column date 06/29/2000

Roughly one year ago TNN decided to air ECW nationally. Securing a national cable deal was arguably ECW’s greatest moments up to that point.

One year later TNN is at it again, this time with an assist from the WWF and TNN.

In case you missed it, the WWF will be moving all of their television shows that they currently run on USA to TNN in September (with the exception of Heat which will show on MTV, although that’s a sister station). Because of a reported exclusivity clause that the WWF has with TNN it is almost a certainty that ECW will no longer be on TNN when the WWF rolls into town.

This is huge for ECW. It is the best thing that could possibly happen to them. Not only does ECW get out of the final two years of an extremely bad contract with TNN, they now get to shop for a new deal with a new network. A year ago TNN had all the leverage in their deal with ECW and used that to their advantage. Now there apparently are a few networks looking to add wrestling to their TV lineups. With several suitors, ECW will be able to use that to their advantage where they can pit one deal against the next and get a much greater deal than they did a year ago.

For all of the complaints that we have heard from ECW and its fans about TNN just remember that it was TNN that put ECW on the national map and it is TNN (albeit indirectly) that will allow ECW to make further strides forward.

Now that ECW will be moving on to another channel there are a few changes that I think would be beneficial to the overall product.

First, and most importantly, I believe that Paul E needs to sell ECW. I’ve covered this in-depth before so I won’t go through it again. See the 6/12 column in the archives below for details of this.

Also, I think that it is time for ECW to step up to a two hour program. Currently, with the TNN show and syndicated show, ECW has two hours of programming. However, much of the syndicated show is what is shown on TNN. The average ECW house show or TV taping involves 2 1/2 hours of action. On a two hour show about 30 minutes would be devoted to commercials so only 1 1/2 of the 2 1/2 would need to be shown. With interviews and vignettes the actual wrestling would not be that hard to fill.

Additionally, with a better TV deal and an influx of capital from my idea to sell ECW, ECW will have the resources to go out and sign a number of wrestlers to be able to fill more time on a show. I’m not even necessarily looking for ‘big name’, expensive wrestlers. I’m looking for young, hungry (and cheap) indy guys. I think adding 6-8 wrestlers could do wonders, especially a couple luchadores (bring in Pyschosis now dammit). Getting Super Crazy back in the country would be good too.

I would also go to a live to tape format (similar to Smackdown and Thunder). This would save a lot of time currently spent producing the show. It would also give the show more of a live feel to it. Right now watching the TNN show everything that Gertner and Joey does seems forced and unnatural. I think a live to tape show improves that. As part of this I would drop Gertner as the color guy and insert Cyrus. I think that I am in the minority of not enjoying Gertner’s color work but I prefer someone who comes across credibly discussing wrestling and not someone there only for humor. In addition to his wrestling acumen Cyrus is also one of the funniest guys around. If Cyrus did weekly color commentary he would be the best color guy within a few months. And if Cyrus is kept out of the commentating booth I think I would rather see Joey commentate by himself.

While ECW most likely would not have the option of choosing what date they air I think that the ideal day would be Tuesday evening. That would allow ECW to not have to compete with the Monday night shows, Thunder or Smackdown (or air on the weekend when less people are watching). In addition this would allow them to keep the same weekend show schedule that they currently run. The tapings would be on one of the weekend shows and since it is live to tape it would almost be just a matter of submitting the tape.

More good stuff next week. Send comments, questions, and feedback to [email protected]