Through The Ropes

Well, what do you expect from Eric Bischoff other than sour grapes? The RAW GM says some volunteer RAW superstars will be dropping in on the ECW “One Night Stand” pay-per-view on June 12 to end the company forever.

I understand why Bischoff wants ECW caput. The organization has made him look like a moron for years, and now it’s doing it again. There are two kinds of successes in any creative endeavor-critical or financial. Obvi-ously, the wrestling wars of the late-’90s were won by WWE from a corporate side, as the company ended up putting everybody else out of business. But from a creative side, ECW will always be remembered for providing the “attitude” that ended up making WWE so special.

Bischoff’s WCW? Well, it bored people to tears and bled cash. It made the biggest stars of the business, well, not big stars anymore because the storylines were so lousy. It died a slow, painful death.

Which is why it’s so brilliant that WWE is setting up a Bischoff/Paul Heyman angle going into this PPV. I don’t know if you saw the DVD The Rise and Fall of ECW, but Bischoff and Heyman tore into each other so much that they probably both needed blood transfusions after it was all said and done. Bischoff basically called Heyman a one-trick pony who couldn’t make his company sing without flaming tables and thumbtacks, while Heyman called Bischoff a thief who stole ECW’s talent and then woefully underused it.

Folks, they weren’t working a script to sell extra copies of the DVD. They really hate each other. Lots of people really hate Bischoff, like Ric Flair. That’s why it’s so great that he’s the GM of RAW, because people can tap into such honest emotion when they tell him to go jump in a lake.

WWE saw the rift between Bis-choff and Heyman and realized that they couldn’t do an ECW special with-out Bischoff trying to get in the way. They’re calling the show a one-night reunion, but I predict about 6-8 ECW special PPVs a year if this one goes so well. And it will because people are aching to see the product again. Did you see all those people holding ECW signs in Omaha, Neb. Monday night? Omaha? Obviously, the blood-and-guts extreme wrestling of the Philly streets made it all the way to farm country.

Hopefully, the show will evolve and not just focus on former ECW wrestlers currently on WWE contracts. A return of “Dancin” Stevie Richards is nice, but I want to see real ECW types that would never get a sniff of interest from WWE. Maybe Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten, or if you really want to get my interest, a reunion of my fave ECW tag team of all-time, Dangerous Danny Doring and Roadkill.

Regardless, the show should be a winner because no matter who shows up, they’ll be met at the door by Bischoff calling them wrestling’s ver-sion of white trash. And don’t be surprised if Jerry Lawler comes and provides his less-than-sterling comments, as well.

If the war is starting up again, bring it on. We’ve been waiting im-patiently.

You can contact Josh Stewart at throughtheropes1@cs.com.