NYChase718
Veteran
If you thought that was bad
Wait for what happens next since triple h won the rumble
TSC's Official WWE Network Thread
- Thread starter InstantKlassik
- Start date
-
- Tags
- wwe wwe network
If you thought that was bad
Wait for what happens next since triple h won the rumble
They put up the whole Last Battle of Atlanta show? 
That's pretty wild that this footage thought to be lost forever was just sitting in a box because it's been 18 years and they still haven't gone through all the footage they got from the WCW buyout . And not only was the match itself in there, but the whole show, and not only the whole show, but in pristine enough quality to air it as is without cleaning it up at all. That said, it's not a particularly good show, but there is something to be said for older boring wrestling where the story is just two guys try to win a match and there isn't much in the way of story beats or ups and downs. Sometimes that kind of shyt is good to chill out and zone out on before bed.
Les Thornton vs Joe Lightfoot has some pretty intricate mat work and chain wrestling for the time in the US, though, and even does the indie roll up sequence that actually ends in a pin OUTTA NOWHERE, which was a nice surprise. The match of the show is definitely Bob Roop vs Mr. Wrestling II, which was a mask vs mask match with Roop filling in for an injured Mr. Wrestling 1. And something like Jake Roberts vs Brett Wayne shows that having and telling a story doesn't automatically make for a good match, because that's a 10 minute story stretched out to a 20 minute match that feels like an hour.
There's a lot of wild shyt in the Hidden Gems section that quietly gets uploaded and no one seems to care about, but is really interesting. Wish they'd ease up on OVW/Deep South shyt and do more from the 50s-80s.
That's pretty wild that this footage thought to be lost forever was just sitting in a box because it's been 18 years and they still haven't gone through all the footage they got from the WCW buyout . And not only was the match itself in there, but the whole show, and not only the whole show, but in pristine enough quality to air it as is without cleaning it up at all. That said, it's not a particularly good show, but there is something to be said for older boring wrestling where the story is just two guys try to win a match and there isn't much in the way of story beats or ups and downs. Sometimes that kind of shyt is good to chill out and zone out on before bed.Les Thornton vs Joe Lightfoot has some pretty intricate mat work and chain wrestling for the time in the US, though, and even does the indie roll up sequence that actually ends in a pin OUTTA NOWHERE, which was a nice surprise. The match of the show is definitely Bob Roop vs Mr. Wrestling II, which was a mask vs mask match with Roop filling in for an injured Mr. Wrestling 1. And something like Jake Roberts vs Brett Wayne shows that having and telling a story doesn't automatically make for a good match, because that's a 10 minute story stretched out to a 20 minute match that feels like an hour.
There's a lot of wild shyt in the Hidden Gems section that quietly gets uploaded and no one seems to care about, but is really interesting. Wish they'd ease up on OVW/Deep South shyt and do more from the 50s-80s.
NYChase718
Veteran
This current crop of obsolete spot monkeys wouldnt last a second in those days
This sensitive ass generation
Ben Ovabich
All Star
I thought the Bill Watts era WCW had some of the best wrestling...
November to Remember 1998: 
ECW PPV main events have been universally trash. The co-main has consistently been also trash or at least disappointing. Bordering on 1998 WCW tier tbh. Co-main is Dreamer/Jake Roberts (who, obviously, was not in ring shape by any stretch) vs Credible/Jack Victory , Victory was MIA for 90% of it, it ends with a New Jack brawl, and it was really just all a set up for a Terry Funk vs Dreamer match/feud that never happened. In fact, Terry was on the show multiple times causes a ruckus and eating up time, because every ECW PPV has to have extended angles and promos to eat up time for some reason. I guess they thought more people could see the PPV than TV show so they might as well just do angles on PPV?
Main event is Triple Threat vs NEW Triple Threat of Taz/Sabu/RVD. Taz's world title push has been stretched out too long and he's running out of steam, and he's physically deteriorating pretty obviously. Sabu was never the same since returning to ECW at the 1995 NTR and gets worse and botchier every month. Shane Douglas is just returning from a series of injuries that kept him out of the ring for most of the year, but he's still busted up and completely rusty and out of shape. Chris Candido had suffered a number of injuries throughout the year and is barely involved in the match. Bam Bam is out of shape, botchy as hell, and seems gassed all the time. The only guy ready to go and healthy in the match is RVD, and it's clear now that he's the future of ECW, not Taz, but Paul E's been running this angle for going on 4 years now so he can't change directions at the last minute. The match itself is just nonstop awful brawling and botches from everyone, ending with Sabu "accidentally" hitting Taz and pinning Shane, so they can run yet another Taz/Sabu match to fill time until the next PPV.
There's a Jerry Lynn/Lance Storm match that you'd think would be pretty good, but their sequences of nonstop reversals that go nowhere is just so damn boring. However, Mikey Whipwreck and Sunny are both refs, and it's constantly fukkery with Sunny fast counting Lance and what I guess was supposed to be a big swerve finish that is blown and completely convoluted and stupid anyway. It's something like...Dawn Marie gets stripped by Sunny, Mikey comes in to hit Dawn with a Whippersnapper. He then went after Sunny, but Jerry Lynn bumped into him, so he hit Jerry with the stunner. Lance makes the cover, Sunny slow counts and Jerry kicks out, Sunny then hits LANCE with a stunner, Mikey comes back and hits Sunny with a stunner after all (and it was rough looking, Sunny was twisted sideways and basically took the move on her rib cage), Mikey then reverses a small package and makes a quick count to screw Jerry.
The whole thing was terrible.
Oh yeah, there's also a Tracey Smothers vs Tommy Rogers match on PPV in 1998.
ECW PPV main events have been universally trash. The co-main has consistently been also trash or at least disappointing. Bordering on 1998 WCW tier tbh. Co-main is Dreamer/Jake Roberts (who, obviously, was not in ring shape by any stretch) vs Credible/Jack Victory , Victory was MIA for 90% of it, it ends with a New Jack brawl, and it was really just all a set up for a Terry Funk vs Dreamer match/feud that never happened. In fact, Terry was on the show multiple times causes a ruckus and eating up time, because every ECW PPV has to have extended angles and promos to eat up time for some reason. I guess they thought more people could see the PPV than TV show so they might as well just do angles on PPV? Main event is Triple Threat vs NEW Triple Threat of Taz/Sabu/RVD. Taz's world title push has been stretched out too long and he's running out of steam, and he's physically deteriorating pretty obviously. Sabu was never the same since returning to ECW at the 1995 NTR and gets worse and botchier every month. Shane Douglas is just returning from a series of injuries that kept him out of the ring for most of the year, but he's still busted up and completely rusty and out of shape. Chris Candido had suffered a number of injuries throughout the year and is barely involved in the match. Bam Bam is out of shape, botchy as hell, and seems gassed all the time. The only guy ready to go and healthy in the match is RVD, and it's clear now that he's the future of ECW, not Taz, but Paul E's been running this angle for going on 4 years now so he can't change directions at the last minute. The match itself is just nonstop awful brawling and botches from everyone, ending with Sabu "accidentally" hitting Taz and pinning Shane, so they can run yet another Taz/Sabu match to fill time until the next PPV.
There's a Jerry Lynn/Lance Storm match that you'd think would be pretty good, but their sequences of nonstop reversals that go nowhere is just so damn boring. However, Mikey Whipwreck and Sunny are both refs, and it's constantly fukkery with Sunny fast counting Lance and what I guess was supposed to be a big swerve finish that is blown and completely convoluted and stupid anyway. It's something like...Dawn Marie gets stripped by Sunny, Mikey comes in to hit Dawn with a Whippersnapper. He then went after Sunny, but Jerry Lynn bumped into him, so he hit Jerry with the stunner. Lance makes the cover, Sunny slow counts and Jerry kicks out, Sunny then hits LANCE with a stunner, Mikey comes back and hits Sunny with a stunner after all (and it was rough looking, Sunny was twisted sideways and basically took the move on her rib cage), Mikey then reverses a small package and makes a quick count to screw Jerry.
The whole thing was terrible. Oh yeah, there's also a Tracey Smothers vs Tommy Rogers match on PPV in 1998.
Lmao Shane is injured AGAIN within a month of returning to action
Shane tries to get Taz to take Sabu out before Guilty as Charged in January, Taz agrees and then ends up being Shane's enforcer and trying to injure everyone, which seems to be attempting to get heel heat on him when he's obviously the one who is going to be the face to dethrone Shane....I don't get this booking at all.
1. They went through this angle earlier in the year, which was obviously a set up from the start and Taz ended up being the storyline reason that Shane was out hurt most of the year. They've also gone through this "Taz is intentionally trying to injure people" phase multiple times since 1995. They also did a similar angle with Bam Bam and Shane that ended with Bam Bam winning the title, dropping it back to Shane at a Pittsburg PPV, and immediately rejoining the Triple Threat like nothing happened.
2. Why would you be trying to get heel heat on Taz a month before finally giving him the title? The intention SEEMS to be Taz playing head games and going so far over the line that it's freaking even Shane out, but instead it just makes Taz out to be a piece of shyt that no one should like or support, which is pretty odd considering they're coming to the end of a 4 year angle and dominating heel champion dropping the title to the heir apparent after a record breaking title reign.
The forced push of Justin Credible
It hasn't even kicked into high gear yet and it's brutal. His promos are dreadfully annoying. Stand still you rat faced fukk.
Shane tries to get Taz to take Sabu out before Guilty as Charged in January, Taz agrees and then ends up being Shane's enforcer and trying to injure everyone, which seems to be attempting to get heel heat on him when he's obviously the one who is going to be the face to dethrone Shane....I don't get this booking at all.
1. They went through this angle earlier in the year, which was obviously a set up from the start and Taz ended up being the storyline reason that Shane was out hurt most of the year. They've also gone through this "Taz is intentionally trying to injure people" phase multiple times since 1995. They also did a similar angle with Bam Bam and Shane that ended with Bam Bam winning the title, dropping it back to Shane at a Pittsburg PPV, and immediately rejoining the Triple Threat like nothing happened.
2. Why would you be trying to get heel heat on Taz a month before finally giving him the title? The intention SEEMS to be Taz playing head games and going so far over the line that it's freaking even Shane out, but instead it just makes Taz out to be a piece of shyt that no one should like or support, which is pretty odd considering they're coming to the end of a 4 year angle and dominating heel champion dropping the title to the heir apparent after a record breaking title reign.
The forced push of Justin Credible
It hasn't even kicked into high gear yet and it's brutal. His promos are dreadfully annoying. Stand still you rat faced fukk.
@stro These ECW recaps are great. I don't remember alot of the details of them from when i watched the shows live, but at the time, i only knew a few details of the storylines. As a teen, i wanted to like ECW b/c it was different and the underdog, but the matches were awful for the most part 
. You're making me want to revisit to see what i missed..... i know, i know, not much
. You're making me want to revisit to see what i missed..... i know, i know, not much
Guilty as Charged 1999
This is probably the best ecw ppv to this point. Tajiri vs Super Crazy tore the house down, RVD vs Lance Storm in a last minute match was significantly better than the Storm/Lynn matches that were full of Sunny and Mikey fukkery. Jerry was out hurt, Tanaka wasn't at the show, so two matches were thrown out.
Justin Credible vs Dreamer in a ladder match was a lot better than expected, although definitely too long.
However, Taz vs Shane was legit terrible and long as hell. Shane had a compound fracture of the wrist and a severed nerve, so he has a giant cast and can't use his hand at all. Taz has back fat spilling out of his singlet. They start trying to have a classic championship match with bad chain wrestling and they're both blown up just from that. Then they do terrible slow paced brawling to the top of the arena and back that seems to last forever and despite hard cam tracking them and multiple handhelds right in the action, they kept cutting to the one shot where you couldn't see shyt. Towards the end of the match, Sabu comes back to a bunch of Pyro , puts both through a table, then bounces and the match continues like nothing happened. Shane can't pin Taz and starts throwing up the triple threat sign, but Bam Bam is in WCW and Skip is MIA. So Sunny comes out and she and Francine get into a cat fight for literally no fukking reason. Skip pulls Sunny away and attacks Shane, again for no fukking reason. Taz then puts on the taz mission to win. It was TRASH.
This is probably the best ecw ppv to this point. Tajiri vs Super Crazy tore the house down, RVD vs Lance Storm in a last minute match was significantly better than the Storm/Lynn matches that were full of Sunny and Mikey fukkery. Jerry was out hurt, Tanaka wasn't at the show, so two matches were thrown out.
Justin Credible vs Dreamer in a ladder match was a lot better than expected, although definitely too long.
However, Taz vs Shane was legit terrible and long as hell. Shane had a compound fracture of the wrist and a severed nerve, so he has a giant cast and can't use his hand at all. Taz has back fat spilling out of his singlet. They start trying to have a classic championship match with bad chain wrestling and they're both blown up just from that. Then they do terrible slow paced brawling to the top of the arena and back that seems to last forever and despite hard cam tracking them and multiple handhelds right in the action, they kept cutting to the one shot where you couldn't see shyt. Towards the end of the match, Sabu comes back to a bunch of Pyro , puts both through a table, then bounces and the match continues like nothing happened. Shane can't pin Taz and starts throwing up the triple threat sign, but Bam Bam is in WCW and Skip is MIA. So Sunny comes out and she and Francine get into a cat fight for literally no fukking reason. Skip pulls Sunny away and attacks Shane, again for no fukking reason. Taz then puts on the taz mission to win. It was TRASH.
I have to point out before I continue that Paul Heyman is the least loyal booker I've ever seen. As soon as he gets some new toys to play with, he throws whatever his last toy was straight in the trash. It's amazing how many guys that got pushed super hard for a while end up being full on jobbers a year or two later. The shyt he did to the Public Enemy was 
. After being maybe the biggest draw and act in ECW for the better part of 3 years, they get the big money offer from WCW and take the money. They get a big send off and all that shyt. So after leaving WCW, on their way to what they think is going to be a long WWF run, they agree to do a pit stop in ECW to put over the Dudleys. Except the Dudleys spend WEEKS running PE down on TV every week, talking about how they sold all the fans out, how trash they were, how old Rocco is, how fat and high Johnny is, how they're pathetic washed up fukking losers. Joey Styles buries them every week as well. They then finally show up, get utterly fukking demolished by the Dudleys, obviously can't get any revenge of any kind since they were just doing a favor for Paul E., and then the Dudleys (and Joey) continue to bury the shyt out of them on TV for weeks after. It was an absolutely ruthless, pointed, and personal burial that sure felt like Paul getting revenge as opposed to continuing to build up the Dudleys.
He also gives current WWE a run for its money with never ending rematches. Dean and Eddie had a match that was a hit? Cool, book them in 15 rematches in the next 4 months. They did the same thing with Super Crazy/Tajiri, who had a match at the Jan PPV, then 5 TV matches in a row, plus footage from house show matches shown before the next PPV where they had...another match.
You'll lose count of how many Dreamer/Credible matches there are. Or how many times Raven vs Sandman happened on TV. Then RVD/Jerry Lynn. It might have actually been even worse in the pre-PPV era.
. After being maybe the biggest draw and act in ECW for the better part of 3 years, they get the big money offer from WCW and take the money. They get a big send off and all that shyt. So after leaving WCW, on their way to what they think is going to be a long WWF run, they agree to do a pit stop in ECW to put over the Dudleys. Except the Dudleys spend WEEKS running PE down on TV every week, talking about how they sold all the fans out, how trash they were, how old Rocco is, how fat and high Johnny is, how they're pathetic washed up fukking losers. Joey Styles buries them every week as well. They then finally show up, get utterly fukking demolished by the Dudleys, obviously can't get any revenge of any kind since they were just doing a favor for Paul E., and then the Dudleys (and Joey) continue to bury the shyt out of them on TV for weeks after. It was an absolutely ruthless, pointed, and personal burial that sure felt like Paul getting revenge as opposed to continuing to build up the Dudleys.He also gives current WWE a run for its money with never ending rematches. Dean and Eddie had a match that was a hit? Cool, book them in 15 rematches in the next 4 months. They did the same thing with Super Crazy/Tajiri, who had a match at the Jan PPV, then 5 TV matches in a row, plus footage from house show matches shown before the next PPV where they had...another match.
You'll lose count of how many Dreamer/Credible matches there are. Or how many times Raven vs Sandman happened on TV. Then RVD/Jerry Lynn. It might have actually been even worse in the pre-PPV era.
Last edited:
Nash had 17 surgeries on that one leg
Bob Loblaw
Superstar
Didn’t draw a dimeNash had 17 surgeries on that one leg
Living Dangerously 1999
The main angle heading into this show is that after losing the ECW Championship and rematch to Taz, rumors of Shane Douglas' retirement swirl. As he's about to pass on the boots to the new franchise of ECW, Justin Credible and Lance Storm come out, confident they are the guy Shane is talking about. Of course, this pisses Shane off, because he was going to name Tommy Dreamer as the new Franchise of ECW. Blah blah blah, Francine gets caned in the mouth, Lance/Justin form a team, Tommy/Shane put their differences aside and an old guard vs new breed feud is set up. Shane gets a hair cut, starts wearing long tights, and is a full face now. The match itself was a decent Southern tag style, but it went on way too long. The crowd and momentum died off about half way though when it seemed like it was heading to the finish but then went another 10 minutes with Shane and Tommy heaving for the entirety. The crowd was fukking brutal to Dawn Marie (who, now that Sunny and Skip are MIA, is pretending to be Beulah), chanting all kinds of horrible shyt, including DIRTY p*ssy chants at her. Like, even by these mutants' standards that's fukking crazy.
The other angle is...yet another Taz vs Sabu deal, this time for the "unified" ECW Championship, as Sabu is currently the FTW Champion. They keep pretending like this is an actual thing, despite 1. The FTW title not being real, 2. Sabu only has it because Taz literally put Sabu on top of him to give him the title because...Sabu wouldn't be able to get his title shot against Shane Douglas with another title.
Anyway, throughout 1998 and now into 1999, Taz has become straight up a catchphrase machine Austin knock off, but without anything for his character to play off like Austin's, so he's already stale 3 months into his reign that had a 4 year build up. Certainly doesn't help that his matches have sucked since 1997. This was no different. It might have been WORSE than the match with Shane, which was utter trash. It was changed to a death match last second, which was just so they could brawl around in the crowd to eat up time, and most of the big spots didn't come off well, it went too long, both guys were gassed, crowd died half way in and never really recovered. Taz won, they shook hands after, so it's done forever. Even though they've also done this shyt before and will have more matches that have been diminishing returns since 1995.
The rest of the show had another Super Crazy/Tajiri match, which is also full of diminishing returns since they ran this match like 10 times in 3 months and it wasn't as good as even their first match. Jerry Lynn/RVD was okay, but they'll have better matches. One thing is crystal clear: RVD is the star of this promotion and still pretending like Taz is the guy is fukking stupid. Even dumber, RVD really has no angles or character development after the WWF invasion angle. Once that ends, he becomes lolpot guy who puts on the best matches and just stays that way. That's it. In general, there's very, very little actual character development in the company at all once they get to PPV. Everyone gets their one note and stays playing it forever.
At the same time as they're clearly toning down the violence, they're still bragging about being the most hardcore promotion in the world when even if you ignore Japanese deathmatch promotions (which I mean they bring up and bring in FMW talent so...), you're not seeing anything more hardcore in ECW than you'd see on Raw or Nitro at this time. ECW's version of hardcore these days is New Jack wheeling out a crate of silly weapons and popping people in the head while dancing around for a bit, exactly what Joey Styles ranted about WCW doing with their hardcore division with "stolen" talent like Bam Bam/Sandman/Raven. And tbh the Bam Bam/Sandman/Raven hardcore matches in WCW were better than what any of them were doing quality wise in ECW. The hardcore matches the WWF were doing at the time were wilder than what ECW was doing at this time.
Storyline wise they're doing pretty basic angles, and really the only thing that is setting ECW apart anymore is their use of language and camera style. And on the language front, lol at the selective editing on this show. Bubba Ray says motherfukker, motherfukking, and fakkit on the mic, no bleeps. He says fukk you to the ref off mic and it's bleeped. This is in the midst of yet another 20 minute promo/angle on PPV. Taz says fukk 50 times, randomly gets bleeped saying it to a fan on the floor. Calling Sabu a cocksucker is not bleeped. Nothing Gertner ever says gets censored. Middle fingers everywhere, then randomly Lance Storm flips the bird and it's pixelated. I don't know if it is WWE editing or what but it's entirely inconsistent on any level and is lol.
They're also still talking up about being this homegrown, underground hip thing...while also constantly talking about record breaking crowds and global saturation. You can't keep the cool indie cred while also hyping up that you're now on PPV all over the world and having a record gate every month. WWE tried that same thing with NXT and it similarly got absurd when they're selling out Barclays and Staples while also being promoted as the underground brand.
At this point, April of 1999, general match quality is up as they're pushing good matches with talent like RVD/Lynn/Tajiri/Super Crazy/Little Guido/Antifaz del Norte types and saving the blood and guts shyt mostly to New Jack "matches" and table/chair spots in the main events and Tommy Dreamer matches now all have ladder spots. Storyline wise, it's as basic as can be. There's no character arcs or development like you saw in 1994-1997. The majority of the roster just stays in the spot they've been in for years, doing the same thing every week/month with no progression. Nothing like the transformations that turned Tommy Dreamer from a pretty boy in suspenders to the innovator of violence, nothing like The Sandman going from surfer dude babyface to chain smoking, beer drinking brawler piece of shyt, and so on and so forth. Of the guys left from the pre-PPV era, they haven't grown or changed at all. Of the new batch of talent, they all have one thing about them and that's it. The guy who does X. Calling them gimmicks is a stretch. The guys that do have actual gimmicks are purely comedy anyway.
The main angle heading into this show is that after losing the ECW Championship and rematch to Taz, rumors of Shane Douglas' retirement swirl. As he's about to pass on the boots to the new franchise of ECW, Justin Credible and Lance Storm come out, confident they are the guy Shane is talking about. Of course, this pisses Shane off, because he was going to name Tommy Dreamer as the new Franchise of ECW. Blah blah blah, Francine gets caned in the mouth, Lance/Justin form a team, Tommy/Shane put their differences aside and an old guard vs new breed feud is set up. Shane gets a hair cut, starts wearing long tights, and is a full face now. The match itself was a decent Southern tag style, but it went on way too long. The crowd and momentum died off about half way though when it seemed like it was heading to the finish but then went another 10 minutes with Shane and Tommy heaving for the entirety. The crowd was fukking brutal to Dawn Marie (who, now that Sunny and Skip are MIA, is pretending to be Beulah), chanting all kinds of horrible shyt, including DIRTY p*ssy chants at her. Like, even by these mutants' standards that's fukking crazy.
The other angle is...yet another Taz vs Sabu deal, this time for the "unified" ECW Championship, as Sabu is currently the FTW Champion. They keep pretending like this is an actual thing, despite 1. The FTW title not being real, 2. Sabu only has it because Taz literally put Sabu on top of him to give him the title because...Sabu wouldn't be able to get his title shot against Shane Douglas with another title.
Anyway, throughout 1998 and now into 1999, Taz has become straight up a catchphrase machine Austin knock off, but without anything for his character to play off like Austin's, so he's already stale 3 months into his reign that had a 4 year build up. Certainly doesn't help that his matches have sucked since 1997. This was no different. It might have been WORSE than the match with Shane, which was utter trash. It was changed to a death match last second, which was just so they could brawl around in the crowd to eat up time, and most of the big spots didn't come off well, it went too long, both guys were gassed, crowd died half way in and never really recovered. Taz won, they shook hands after, so it's done forever. Even though they've also done this shyt before and will have more matches that have been diminishing returns since 1995.The rest of the show had another Super Crazy/Tajiri match, which is also full of diminishing returns since they ran this match like 10 times in 3 months and it wasn't as good as even their first match. Jerry Lynn/RVD was okay, but they'll have better matches. One thing is crystal clear: RVD is the star of this promotion and still pretending like Taz is the guy is fukking stupid. Even dumber, RVD really has no angles or character development after the WWF invasion angle. Once that ends, he becomes lolpot guy who puts on the best matches and just stays that way. That's it. In general, there's very, very little actual character development in the company at all once they get to PPV. Everyone gets their one note and stays playing it forever.
At the same time as they're clearly toning down the violence, they're still bragging about being the most hardcore promotion in the world when even if you ignore Japanese deathmatch promotions (which I mean they bring up and bring in FMW talent so...), you're not seeing anything more hardcore in ECW than you'd see on Raw or Nitro at this time. ECW's version of hardcore these days is New Jack wheeling out a crate of silly weapons and popping people in the head while dancing around for a bit, exactly what Joey Styles ranted about WCW doing with their hardcore division with "stolen" talent like Bam Bam/Sandman/Raven. And tbh the Bam Bam/Sandman/Raven hardcore matches in WCW were better than what any of them were doing quality wise in ECW. The hardcore matches the WWF were doing at the time were wilder than what ECW was doing at this time.
Storyline wise they're doing pretty basic angles, and really the only thing that is setting ECW apart anymore is their use of language and camera style. And on the language front, lol at the selective editing on this show. Bubba Ray says motherfukker, motherfukking, and fakkit on the mic, no bleeps. He says fukk you to the ref off mic and it's bleeped. This is in the midst of yet another 20 minute promo/angle on PPV. Taz says fukk 50 times, randomly gets bleeped saying it to a fan on the floor. Calling Sabu a cocksucker is not bleeped. Nothing Gertner ever says gets censored. Middle fingers everywhere, then randomly Lance Storm flips the bird and it's pixelated. I don't know if it is WWE editing or what but it's entirely inconsistent on any level and is lol.
They're also still talking up about being this homegrown, underground hip thing...while also constantly talking about record breaking crowds and global saturation. You can't keep the cool indie cred while also hyping up that you're now on PPV all over the world and having a record gate every month. WWE tried that same thing with NXT and it similarly got absurd when they're selling out Barclays and Staples while also being promoted as the underground brand.
At this point, April of 1999, general match quality is up as they're pushing good matches with talent like RVD/Lynn/Tajiri/Super Crazy/Little Guido/Antifaz del Norte types and saving the blood and guts shyt mostly to New Jack "matches" and table/chair spots in the main events and Tommy Dreamer matches now all have ladder spots. Storyline wise, it's as basic as can be. There's no character arcs or development like you saw in 1994-1997. The majority of the roster just stays in the spot they've been in for years, doing the same thing every week/month with no progression. Nothing like the transformations that turned Tommy Dreamer from a pretty boy in suspenders to the innovator of violence, nothing like The Sandman going from surfer dude babyface to chain smoking, beer drinking brawler piece of shyt, and so on and so forth. Of the guys left from the pre-PPV era, they haven't grown or changed at all. Of the new batch of talent, they all have one thing about them and that's it. The guy who does X. Calling them gimmicks is a stretch. The guys that do have actual gimmicks are purely comedy anyway.