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Dueling Chair Shots
by Kurt La Mont
Column date 10/24/2000

November to Remember is right around the corner. ECW considers this show its showcase event of the year. Right now the showcase event of the year has, at best, 2 known matches. The first is Chilly Willy & Balls vs. The Baldies in a flaming table match. The second match is Jerry Lynn vs. Steve Corino; perhaps Justin Credible is added to the match as well. Beyond those 2 matches what can we expect from November 2 Remember? Well, we know Super Crazy will be there and Chetti and Nova seems to make sense but other than that it's a big mystery. And there are no new TV tapings scheduled to do any angles leading up to N2R between now and then.

Could you imagine if the WWF went into Wrestlemania like this?

A month and a half ago I wrote a column praising the Hammerstein shows in August for the quality of the shows and the booking of the shows, and those shows leading up to it. There was great excitement generated from these shows from fans and wrestlers alike. At the conclusion of this column commenting on that I wrote the following:

An excerpt from the 9/6/00 column:

"There has been a lot of buzz on the internet that these ECW shows in Manhattan will be the starting point of ECW's return to glory. I hope it is true but I am cautiously optimistic. One year ago people were saying the exact same thing about ECW when they debuted on TNN. You kept hearing that Paul E had all these great angles up his sleeve that he was saving for national TV but then we never really saw anything truly special after the first TNN taping in Queens. Then the next time ECW was supposed to be put back on the map was the after the Cyberslam show shortly after Mike Awesome defected to WCW. But shortly after that things reverted back to the ways they were again. There has been patches of greatness in ECW over the past year but ECW needs to get to the point where the greatness is the norm, rather than the exception, if they really want to make their mark on the wrestling world."

I'm afraid I was right to be cautious.

Now don't get me wrong, I want ECW to be great. I have seen ECW be great in the past. I know ECW can be great now and I know they can be great in the future. It's just very frustrating that ECW isn't at this point right now. When you throw in the fact that there is no national television show that just leads to more frustration. When you know that there are areas that don't get Hardcore TV (like myself who has to rely on tapes being mailed to me) you get more frustrated. When you see shows are cancelled like the Camden and Bethlehem shows this weekend you become more frustrated. And then when the one thing you can look forward to is the showcase event of the year, November 2 Remember, and there are only 2 matches that you know about leading into the show you become even more frustrated.

However, having said all of that, I expect November 2 Remember to be a great show. I've seen too much of ECW to think otherwise. You know that ECW has "the hardest working locker room in the industry" and they all "bust their ass every night." When you consider that and then factor in that the current roster is the strongest undercard that ECW has ever had there's even more reason to believe the show will be strong. You can't really think of an ECW PPV that's been a real dud (and for those of you who think N2R 98 sucked it didn't come across on TV like it did in person. I still think that was a good show).

Now while ECW can put on a good PPV without much (or any) buildup its not what I think is the recommended route in terms of generating interest for a PPV. Let's take a look at the best ECW PPV to date, Heatwave 98. You'll see that each 5 of the 6 matches had really good buildups to them and the 6th match can stand on its own on name power alone:

Lynn vs. Credible - This was the conclusion of the 'summer series'.
Storm vs. Candido - Former tag team partners finally square off one on one
Sabu & RVD vs. Shinzaki and Hayabusa - Sabu & RVD face all comers for the tag belts
Awesome vs. Tanaka - This had a nice buildup up for a few weeks leading to the PPV
Taz vs. BBB - Latter part of a huge feud when they were breaking thru the ring or ramps
Dreamer, Sandman, Spike vs. Dudleys - A huge feud centered around Beulah

The anticipation for this PPV was great and it delivered. And because of it I remember what happened on that PPV more than I remember Anarchy Rulz 00 and that was only a month ago and Anarchy Rulz was a good PPV.

The point is that you can always put on a good show but if you want to have a memorable show you really need to build characters and angles over a long period of time. You have to make people care about what will happen next. Right now it seems to be a bunch of stuff thrown together without much thought. There's nothing that really grabs me that makes me look forward to what will happen next. With the focus being on searching for a new TV deal this is understandable but it doesn't make it excusable

. Hopefully things will pick up again. The ingredients are there for it to happen, the cook just needs to put them together just right to make it work. (Why I used a cooking analogy there I have no idea).

More good stuff next week. You can contact me at [email protected] with any comments or questions.

Past editions of Dueling Chair Shots
10/4
10/16
10/27
11/5
11/10
11/17
11/19
12/03
12/10
12/17
01/03
01/19
01/29
02/04
02/14
02/22
02/29
03/06
03/13
03/20
04/12
04/28
05/08
05/18
05/23
05/30
06/05
06/13
06/21
06/29
07/06
07/11
07/17
07/24
08/01
08/07
08/20
08/30
09/06
09/14
09/20
09/27

10/05

10/12