ECW, the hardcore wrestling promotion that folded a few years ago, is being revived by the WWE as a sub-brand. It is going to have a weekly one-hour show…on the Sci-Fi channel.
Now, the cynical marketer might say that’s fair enough — wrestling is, in it’s way, fiction, and the reason wrestlers get injured by chair-shots to the head is a result of physics and biology, i.e. science.
But there’s been a rumor going around that Sci Fi Channel wants aliens on the show. And not just illegal aliens like Juventud Guerrera. Vince McMahon even made a public statement that the new ECW had to please three crowds — the hardcore ECW fans, the fans of wrestling in general, and Sci-Fi fans. That last one has some people nervous.
The only sci-fi gimmicks that come to mind from wrestling’s history were abject disasters. Konnan dressed up as an alien called Max Moon. Tekno Team 2000. Oh, and the one time that Robocop (yes, the real, official, Robocop, though it probably wasn’t Peter Weller in the suit) interfered in a Ric Flair/Sting match.
Now the word is that there might be some vampire-themed wrestlers, rather than aliens. That’s less bad; Classy Freddie Blassie was known as “the vampire,” and let us not forget Gangrel whose protegees, Edge and Christian, both won world titles this year.
Other wrestling/sci-fi combos — Goldberg starring in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER 2, and The Rock in DOOM. Ouch.
On paper, the show should be a dream come true for nerds like me. In practice, maybe not so much.
I don’t think i’ve watched the sci-fi channel since they re-canceled mst3k. Maybe they can lower a big octopus prop into the ring every now and then and the wrestlers can pretend to fight it.
Ugh. One of ECW’s main draws to me was that the gimmicks were always minimal, and way less important than the wrestling itself. At least Dreamer and Heyman are booking it, and not Stephanie or Brian Gerwitz.
It’s never going to be the same ECW like back in its glory days when Vinnie Mac’s semen is all over it. And, I don’t mean Shane…
Why don’t they just bring in the Undertaker, Goldust, Kane, etc. into the Sci-Fi Channel instead…
Okay, I can take that back…that was kind of sick, sorry all.
Shame on you, Edwin, for lowering the tone of the discourse around here.
Do’h!
Huh. Sci-fi wrestling…