A lot has been said on the Internet in the past few months about tonight’s ECW One Night Stand PPV. A lot has been said on how WWE is approaching the booking of the event, and if it’s the right thing to do or not. Even on our website, we’ve covered the event with tons of opinions, reports, interviews, and more from our standpoint, over at the ECW One Night Stand PPV section. However, I know that there’s some people out there who are still unsure of whether or not they’re buying the ECW PPV. I know that because I was one of them up until a couple of days. I saw Byte This! on WWE.com and I must say that it was one of the most emotional things I’ve seen in this business of tough men. For me, the words of Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer at the end of the broadcast made the final decision, and I will definitely get the PPV this Sunday. For those of you who didn’t get to see it, here’s why you should get the PPV… This is the last part of Byte This…
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Dreamer – “I don’t think I need to drive it home. If you ever were a fan of ECW, if you ever were a fan of Tommy Dreamer, If you hated Tommy Dreamer, If you had respect for anything any of us had done, you are gonna get that on Sunday. You are gonna get surprises like we used to do at the arena, at our house shows. This is as close to ECW-authentic you are gonna get. And everyone always talks about ‘Oh, when I was in high school, It was always Al Bundy on Married… with children’. That was the greatest part of my life. And I am gonna represent my legacy. And I am gonna represent what I did. And I know I am speaking for every single guy. I have no career come Monday. I have one night to show the world what I used to be. And I am gonna give you guys my all. Thank You.”
Heyman – “That’s a hard act to follow. That’s …(laughs) (to Dreamer) Thanks a lot.”
Dreamer says he didn’t cry on Byte This. He didn’t cry on another ECW show. He made J.R. happy by not crying talking about ECW.
Heyman – “We sat in a studio with Ron Buffone and Charles Braziees (sp?) where Joey Styles would come in to voice-over the show. And we had the spiritual fulfillment to every week put together one or two TV shows. Sometimes it took us 18 or 20 hours on a show. Sometimes a show took us a day and half. Specially those (bleep) November Rain videos. Nine minute Gun N’ Roses music videos. And we loved it. Its not hype when we tell you it was a lifestyle to us. I remember when I came here, and I was in a creative meeting and I had a… and I am the one who drew the sword. So to speak as Big Show would say. I was in disagreement with something that was going on in the summer of 2001. And I really got underneath Vince’s skin. And I pissed him off real bad. And I remember Stephanie pulled me aside and asked “why do you provoke Vince that way? Nobody here provokes Vince that way. Why do you provoke Vince that way?” and I said just because I am a provocative guy, but I believe in what I say creatively and she said “most people here don’t understand how you pulled it off”. “How I pulled what off”, you know.. “Why did people work for 6 months for free in ECW?” Because it was a creative expression. Because we looked at this like an art form. And some people say “then you believe in your own bulls-t” We had a bond with the audience because we wanted to. Because we didn’t want to tell somebody to go out there and talk for 2 minutes and just say these points. We wanted to give you something that was more than our limitations allowed us to. We wanted to break through barriers. We wanted to fulfill our own dreams as performers and go one step, two steps further. When he (Dreamer) broke his heal, here’s a question he can answer “How many shows did you miss?” (Dreamer jokes that he took 7 months off and got paid every week, but then says he missed none). “And how many matches did you miss?” (Dreamer says none). He wrestled with a steel boot on his foot. And never had a match under 20 minutes while his foot was hurt. Including a Main Event one time at “The Madhouse of Extreme” at Queens… And God! I miss that building (Dreamer: At the November to Remember)… At the November to Remember against Rob Van Dam. With a steel boot on his foot. Sabu broke his neck against Chris Benoit and wouldn’t miss a show. This wasn’t just about the pay check. And that makes us all bad businessmen? Okay. Guilty as charged.”
Dreamer adds that Stevie Richards is scheduled for surgery on Monday. Heyman adds the day after the show, because he wouldn’t miss this show. Spike Dudley right now is “messed up” according to Tommy Dreamer. Heyman said that Spike has been advised to take months off and all he wanted them to know was he wasn’t gonna miss the show.
Heyman continues “I don’t know what happens after this Sunday for ECW. I don’t know if I will be around. My contract’s up at the end of this year. I have my doubts I’ll be in this company next year. So, if for some reason, there is another ECW reunion show a year from now, I may not be part of it. Maybe I will be. Maybe I do stay here. Maybe Vince McMahon wants me so bad, he renews my contract. Maybe I don’t want my contract renewed here. Maybe I decide to go off and do something else. I have other projects that… other avenues of creative expression I’d like to get involved in. I have written a screenplay, there’s a television series I’d like to develop. There’s a lot of things I’d like to do with my life. Hitting age 40 this year. Hey, this place could use some competition too, can’t it?”
Dreamer says “yeah.”
Heyman – “This is as far as I’m concerned, this Sunday, my last hurrah. Maybe there’s more. This is not Terry Funk in Japan going (in Terry Funk voice) ‘This is my last match.’ Fifteen times over. With all love to Terry Funk. I love you to death, sir. But for all of us, we don’t know what happens after this Sunday. With the brand of ECW. It might show up the next night on RAW. I doubt it, but it might. But we are walking into this like it’s a One Night Only thing. That’s not hype. It’s not promotion. It’s not advertising. (bleeped out). It’s what it is. For all of us, its one last night in ECW. And if something more comes out of it? Okay. We’ll take it as it comes. We want to say Thank you. We want to live up to your expectations. And exceed them. That’s why there are some matches.. BARN BURNING.. matches that we are not gonna tell you about. And there are some appearances that are gonna blow you away that we’re not gonna tell you about. We want this to be ECW. We want this to be authentic. We have fought off wars to make it that day. We have done everything we can to give you that ECW feel, right down to the security guards and the 18 by 18 ring, instead of 20 by 20 ring. Right down to doing it in the Hammerstein Ballroom, instead of, as Vince McMahon would have liked it.. I guarantee you!… in a bigger arena. The Spectrum with pyro, and a big amp budget. We just didn’t want it. We wanted the street campaign. We wanted the Hammerstein. We wanted the 18 by 18 ring. We just wanted ECW. This Sunday, LIVE on PPV from the Hammerstein Ballroom is our chance for one time to bring it back 4 and ½ years later to say thank you for the chants. Thank you.. C-H-A-N-T, not the chance. Thank you for the opportunity, thank you for the love when you chant the letters E-C-W. Thank you for acknowledging the sacrifices that people like Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman and The Dudley Boyz and Balls Mahoney and Rob Van Dam and Rey Misterio and Pyscosis. (To Dreamer) Wasn’t it Pyscosis that split his lip all the way to his nostrils? (Dreamer nods yes) and didn’t want to stop the match and even Konnan wanted him to stop the match and everyone else wanted him to stop.. (to audience) There’s our shot. There’s our one chance to say Thank You. And it’s so heart-felt, I wish there was something I could do to convey the depth of our appreciation to the audience. If you’re a ECW fan, you are gonna get what you want this Sunday. If you aren’t an ECW fan, you are gonna get blown away by a show that WWE cannot replicate, and cannot measure up to. Because the passion from top to bottom doesn’t exist on a show that’s not labelled ‘ECW’ and that is the truth of all truths. This Sunday, we are gonna give you a show like you’ve never seen before. We’re gonna make you laugh. We’re gonna give you some action. We’re gonna give you some old-school moments. And most of all, it’s gonna be our chance to say Thank You to you. And I thank you sir (Dreamer) for all that you’ve done not only in the seven years that we were together, but here tonight on a show that will probably get us fired this Monday.”
They end the show.
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Thanks for your time. I earn no profit from plugging ECW, so I have no financial interest in you buying the PPV, but as a wrestling fan, I’m just giving you my opinion.
Eddie
Levski11@aol.com
