The TNA ECW Invasion angle

I've been doing some research on which TNA employees were ECW Alumni. Going by people who I've either seen on tv recently or know for sure haven't been recently fired my list of names goes as follows:-

As Active in-ring wrestlers - Brother Ray, Mick Foley, Brother Devon & Rob Van Dam.
I've included Foley here as we all know his "firing" was kayfabe as he'd signed up to do a certain number of appearances on tv & had already well surpassed that number so TNA Creative addressed it with the kayfabe firing.

In a non-wrestling capacity - Taz, Al Snow, Scott D'Amore & Pat Kenney.

Status unknown - Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Rhino & Stevie Richards.
I have no idea if Dreamer has actually signed any kind of contract with TNA hence his "unknown" status. Raven has always been a pay to play employee in recent times, the main reason for that being TNA haven't always trusted his reliabilty to be clean & to turn up. As far as Rhino & Stevie go I can't recall either of them getting fired but they have both been off tv a fair while so they may now be on the same deal as Raven.

TNA have previously employed other ECW alums such as Spike Dudley, Sabu, Balls Mahoney, Jerry Lynn, Justin Credible, Cyrus, James Mitchel, Shane Douglas, CM Punk, New Jack, Sandman & Johnny Swinger, some longer than others & obviously 2 of them didnt wrestle.

Most people are still debating over if Paul Heyman will come in during this angle, talks have taken place with him and that seems as much as the Internet news appears to know. Alledgedly Tommy Dreamer has been given the job of booking the Hard Justice PPV & the claims are it'll be all the former ECW guys and none of the current TNA talent.

The only problem there is they only have 2 weeks of tv to set anything up, and they only really have at most 11 guys who could potentially work there, thats not really enough people to fill a PPV card. The best solution for the whole company is a current TNA versus ECW Alums PPV.

Team 3D were obviously heading for a breakup by their current storyline so why not have Brother Ray, Rhino & Stevie vs Devon & Ink Inc. Theres an obvious rematch between Foley & Abyss (possibly even throwing in Raven for a 3 way dance as a Clockwork Orange House Of Fun match) but the one guy I have no clue how to use is the Inovator of Violence, Tommy Dreamer.

My best match for him would be against Jeff Hardy, a hardcore TLC match. This would still leave a lot of PPV unfilled so put on at least 1 Knockouts match, maybe for #1 contender which also allows you to reveal who the mystery woman is AND resolve the breakup of Sarita & Wilde possibly even making a new tag team of Rayne & Tara who in case you didnt know IS the mystery woman. I think the Legends title has lost its interest and needs to be scrapped, whoever wins it next should retire the belt as its pretty much pointless. It'd be nice to see someone who actually cares about the X Division title winning it, why not put it back on Jay Lethal? I guess we also need the main TNA title to be contested so have RVD meet whoever is #1 contender when the PPV airs. Try & make someone decent or just have him face Kurt Angle.

So the PPV card would potentially run as follows but not necessarily in this match order:-

TNA versus ECW Alums Hard Justice PPV.

3 way dance Clockwork Orange House Of Fun match - Mick Foley vs Abyss vs Raven
Brother Ray, Rhino & Stevie vs Devon & Ink Inc - Special Guest Ref Brother Runt.
X Division title Jay Lethal vs Doug Williams
Hardcore TLC match - Tommy Dreamer vs Jeff Hardy.
Legends title Kevin Nash vs Rob Terry vs Jeff Jarrett (whoever wins retires the belt)
#1 contender Knockouts Gauntlet match (features ALL Knockouts except Angelina Love)
Ric Flair Fortune 5 Minute Challenge - Ric Flair vs Kazarian.
Ric Flair vs AJ Styles.
Ric Flair vs Desmond Wolfe.
(stipulation is opponant MUST pin Flair within 5 minute time limit)
TNA Heavyweight Title RVD vs Kurt Angle - Special Guest ref Bill Alphonso.

So there you go, my thoughts on the current state of play.

ECW 29th Sep 09 reviewed

My 1st ECW since 14th Apr this year, lets see if the show has made any progress forwards or gotten worse. As I haven't watched the show in 5 months I make no apologies for not knowing who people are or what current storylines are. Show opens with William Regal altering a match then Tony Atlas introduces some nobody called Abraham Washington (who he?) in some chat show bulls**t.

As if wrestling didn't already have too much talking they are adding a chat show segment too?

Paul Burchill vs Shelton Benjamin - Or rather not as Benjamin was jumped by some ginger dude (Sheamus O'Shaunessy, never heard of him - he must be new?) as he came to the ring, Benjamin was stupid enough to start the match already injured & we had some c**p spots then a commercial break with Burchill still on top when we rejoined the match. Oh and someone might want to tell Katy Leah Daffney called and wants her gimmick back. Burchill was on top for the whole of the match until Benjamin hit Paydirt out of nowhere to take the unexpected win. S**t match, quite frankly this didn't help progress any kind of storyline or help get either guy over. P**s poor, 2/10.

8 Man Tag Match, William Regal, Vladimir Kozlov, Ezekiel Jackson & Zack Ryder vs Goldust, Tommy Dreamer, Yoshi Tatsu & Christian - I see Ryder is STILL trying to be Grand Master Sexay? Jackson still looks like f**king Bad News Brown, only Tatsu was new to me here. Pretty c**p apart from the last minute, Tatsu took the win after kicking Regal in the head then hooked the leg to make the pin.

For a wrestling show this was P**S POOR, it was nearly 15 minutes into a 45 minute long show before we even had a match and they only had 2 matches? Quite frankly if WWE is calling this "Entertainment" then they need a new f**king thesaurus.

ECW 14th Apr 09 reviewed

Matt Striker & Josh Matthews on the colour desk showing what happens to washed up wrestlers and those who fail in "Tough Enough".

John Morrison vs Evan Bourne. Ah, good old Evan. WWE actually stole the name for his finisher off me! At best this was an average match, early on Bourne was going to dropkick Morrison who was doing a missile dropkick himself but Bourne clearly changed his mind at the very last second & took a step back instead. Bourne sold a neck injury from a legsweep and Morrisons Torture Rack looked pretty good but it slowed the match down at the wrong time. Bournes headscissors was pretty impressive and whats quite bizarre is that they took a commercial break only 9 minutes into a show that only lasts for 40 minutes, the match was slowed down yet again with another weardown move. It took too long for Bourne to come back and this match was getting boring around the 13 minute mark but Bourne managed to rescue the match with a nice reverse Hurricanrana on Morrison who took the eventual win off The Moonlight Drive. The match was around 5 minutes too long and that was mainly due to Morrison trying weardown moves at totally inappropriate times, Bourne was the better worker here though.

Vladimir Kozlov vs David Floridia. I didn't expect this to be very long or very entertaining as Kozlov has a history of s**t squash matches against no name jobbbers and I wasn't surprised on any front here with Kozlov taking the win off a p**s poor choke slam where Kozlov also had to use the leg of his opponant for leverage.

Triple Threat Match, Elimination Chase To Backlash - Christian vs Tommy Dreamer vs Finlay (with Hornswoggle). This wasn't anything special, Finlay was his usual jobbing self but Dreamer & Christian made the match what it was taking the best bumps. Finlay took the eventual win with the Celtic Cross on Dreamer and he will face off against Christian on a new show later in the week for a chance to meet the ECW Champ in a title match.

ECW 27th Jan 09 reviewed

Yep, I'm reviewing another ECW, I'm not saying it'll be a regular thing. I just happened to find it and decided to watch and review it. What damn day does ECW air anyway? Did I put the wrong date on last weeks show?

Show opens with Teddy Long and I finally remembered who Jack Swagger reminds me of. Chris Nowinski, the Tough Enough dude who left after concussion issues.

Ricky Ortiz vs Boogeyman - There was no bell so this match never started. There was no winner as there was no match so this lasted the grand total of no time at all.

Paul Burchill vs Finlay - Is Finlay the oldest guy actually working in-ring for WWE now? What is he now, 8 or 900 years old? Finlay took the win in about 3 and a half minutes. Both the colour guys oozed over how good this match was so I assume they were watching something else (Katie Lea's cleavage perhaps?) as this was far below average.

Mark Henry vs Tommy Dreamer - I'm not exactly sure why the Cleveland crowd were chanting ECW (perhaps to show they remembered what show they were watching?). Henry is boring at the best of times (this was one of those times) and Dreamer performed well below par for him in what is probably the swan song of his career. Henry took the eventual win in a match that lasted just over 5 minutes. If Tommy wants a job after ECW I for one would welcome him to TNA.

C** storyline involving Jack Swagger having his title belt stolen and the culprit turns out to be Hornswoggle as it seems this is the only way they can get Hornswoggle on TV these days with cheap ass gimmicks like this one.

In a 1 hour show ECW will probably claim there were 3 matches. There were 2 as one never started or ended and had zero time duration. The 2 matches that happened totalled just under 9 minutes of in-ring action with the rest of the time spent on video packages, backstage s**t and stuff designed to further storylines thats not an actual match. Considering the show spent 41 minutes on air only 9 minutes of that was actually spent on matches. That's pretty pathetic when you look at it. We can but hope that ROH getting proper weekly TV time will finally kill whats left of ECW seeing as it hasn't had the good grace to die with dignity. If Tommy Dreamer has any pull left he'll ask them to kill the show before that happens. There is still time left for one more old style ECW show to end the brand on a high note. Let it go out and be remembered fondly please WWE?

ECW 19th Jan 09 reviewed

Almost 10 mins of crap then a match.

Ricky Ortiz vs Adam Evans.
That'll be 2 no-namers and one of em is gonna job. Ortiz appears to be shilling Carlito's gimmick? Judging from the opening second it was always going to be Evans who jobbed. Yep, Ortiz won, nothing worth writing home about though.

Paul Burchill vs The Boogeyman.
I thought Boogey was a gimmick that wasn't over any more & got dropped? Anyway, due to excessive pyro most of this match was clouded in smoke (which is probably a good thing). It was a pretty sh*t match made even worse by the lack of finish when Katy Leah interfered and the ref called for the bell (Boogeyman winning off a DQ by outside interference then?).

Fatal 4 Way Match - John Morrison vs The Miz vs Mark Henry vs Finlay. I wasn't surprised in the least to see Miz & Morrison are tag champions again, it shows a lack of imagination & faith in pushing new talent. At least ECW showed me TNA aren't the only show who take badly timed breaks by having a break during the main event. Another pretty awful match as proved by Mark Henry actually walking away from the match not long after being kicked out of the ring. Morrison got the win pinning The Miz.

ECW 21st Oct 08 reviewed

Matt Hardy comes out to have a waffle about the PPV.

Jack Swagger (yet again it seems the Owen Hart look is currently en vogue) vs Brett Badery (who it was pretty obvious was going to job big time). Swagger took the super predictable win. Utter S**T.

Shad from Cryme Tyme vs The Miz. Shad wins by DQ. Utter S**T! PS, Harlem Heat called & they want their gimmick back.

I assume Matt Striker is now washed up then if he's on the ECW announce desk? Retired like Tazz?

Triple Threat Match - Finlay (with Hornswoggle) vs Evan Bourne (getting a well deserved push & it sounds like they did steal my idea & their calling his Shooting Star press "Air Bourne", ECW, expect an email from my lawyer you thieving f**kers! It was mentioned in my ECW 8th July 2008 review so it only took them just over 3 months to steal my idea) vs Mark Henry (with Tony Atlas). This was all Henry from the get go using his power and weight to dominate. Bourne used his brain and sent Henry over the top rope leaving Bourne & Finlay to work each other.

Finlay was on top for most of this but sent Finlay headfirst into Henry after a nice headscissors into a Hurricanrana. There was a break taken whilst the action ensued so its not only TNA that take breaks during their main event! If Finlay wasn't already hurt from his posting then he fell badly after Henry slammed both him & Bourne together as Finlay was grabbing his leg (the camera cut away very quickly so it was probably real). Bourne took a well deserved win off Air-Bourne on Mark Henry.

ECW 8th July 2008 reviewed.

This was a pretty awful show if I'm honest.

Opening with Miz & Morrison boring ppl on the mic.

Finlay vs The Miz. Finlays wins. Who cares about that match, I fast forwarded through it.

Braden Walker vs Armando Estrada. "Braden Walker" would be Chris Harris, formerly Wildcat Chris Harris of TNA. When did he jump ship or get fired then? I assume he'll be as badly used as Monty Brown (Marcus Van Cor to you WWE people) then? I was laughing at Tazz's "New Superstar Initiative" comments about Chris Harris. He's been around a fair while Tazz. He was the Fake Sting at WCW's Halloween Havoc in 2000. He worked for TNA from 2002, Wiki says he left TNA in Jan 11th 08 and WWE signed him on Jan 29th 08. It was nice that they didn't make him job to Estrada in his 1st tv match at least. I expect to see him being jobbed to the big names pretty soon though.

Evan Bourne v Nunzio. Evan Bourne (aka Matt Sydal, formerly of TNA and ROH).

Come on WWE & Tazz! The guy won & finished with a fucking AWESOME shooting star press and you missed the chance to call the move "Air-Bourne"? You uncreative fuckwitted cunts!

Mark Henry vs Tommy Dreamer. Sad excuse for a main event. Less than 6 minutes long. They had to call out a hall of famer to interefere. I assume the ref stopped this, classing it as a DQ on Henry for outside interference despite Tony Atlas announcing Mark Henry as winner.

I saw no pin or submission made by Henry so I'm going with my call of Tommy Dreamer winning off a dq from outside interference.

Very poor show, the former TNA and ROH alums made it a lot better than the WWE talent.

ECW 13th May 2008 reviewed

CM Punk vs The Miz. Was there no air conditioning in the arena? The smoke from the shows opening pyro took forever to clear, it was like watching a match through fog! The Miz took the win.

6 Diva Tag Match - Kelly Kelly, Michelle & Cherry vs Layla, Victoria & Natalaya - Well, the smoke STILL hadn't cleared by the start of this match either. Cherry took the win off Victoria with a roll-up. Scrappy match at best, shame there wasn't MORE smoke actually.

Colin "sorry I stole Mikey Whipwrecks gimmick" Delaney vs Mike Knox - Knox took the dire predictable win. This guy will earn no respect until he's actually fought someone worth beating. Until then, just like Vladimir Kozlov, he's a c**t.

Colin Delaney vs Armando Estrada - Estrada took a pointless & equally meaningless win.

John Morrison vs Kane - Awful match & WAY too long, neither guy had the ability to carry this match for its duration. Morrison got the win after hitting Kane with the tag belt as Miz distracted the ref.

ECW 6th May 08 reviewed (100th ecw show)

I assume this is "100 shows since WWE bought them out?". Mike Adamle comes out & bores us on the mic. Am I the only 1 who thought he looked so uncomfortable standing there talking he was going to s**t in his pants?

Extreme Rules Match (I assume they mean hardcore rules but are no longer comfortable using the term "hardcore"?), Tommy Dreamer vs Mike Knox. It made a change to see an almost classic ECW style match with Knox taking the eventual win but Dreamer dishing out most of the punishment. The fall onto the shopping cart looked pretty nasty too!

Kellys Expose, nothing that wasn't done 1000 times sexier by Kimona Wanalaya many years ago on proper ECW & the catfight had nothing on the stuff Francine & Beulah McGillicutty used to do either.

Kofi Kingston vs Matt Striker, Kingston took the predictable win only to be jumped by Shelton Benjamin after the match.

Colin Delaney's ECW Contract Match, Colin Delaney vs Armando Estrada. Delaney got the rather predictable win & ECW contract off a very scrappy looking roll-up that Estrada really didn't look like he trusted him to perform correctly.

Tag Match, Chavo Guerrerro & Bam Neely (in his 1st actual match) vs CM Punk & Kane. Neely took some ok bumps & sold convincingly & what little offence moves he did looked ok too but I would have liked to have seen MUCH from him on his in-ring debut, CM Punk took the pin off Chavo for the eventual win in a match that could have been a lot better for both Kane & Neely.

ECW 22nd Apr 08 reviewed

Mixed Tag Match, Kelly Kelly & Tommy Dreamer vs Layla & Mike Knox. Talk about beauty & The beast? This is both! Pretty short & uneventful, Kelly taking the win for her team and Knox doing a number on Dreamer post match.

John Morrison vs Jimmy Wang Yang. Yang must really want his WWE job badly to carry on this AWFUL gimmick that doesn't remotely suit him. The only good part of this match was the moonsault that lead to the win for Jimmy Wang Yang.

Kofi Kingston vs Shelton Benjamin. A fairly decent even match, Kingstons dropkick into Shelton as he was jumping off the top turnbuckle was pretty damn cool, Kofi took the win.

Mark Henry vs Nunzio, with no introductions at all it was a good job both these guys were recognisable. I figured this was a squash match for Henry with Nunzio jobbing which is pretty sad as he used to be a decent worker a few years ago. Henry got the predictable win. What a load of S**TE!

Some c**p with Edge & Kane which took up about 15 minutes of airtime that could have been used on an actual match.

ECW 15th April 2008 reviewed

8 Man tag Match - CM Punk, Jimmy Wang Yang, Shannon Moore & Kofi Kingston vs Elijah Burke, Deuce, Domino & Shelton Benjamin. This sounded like it'd be a very good match with some decent talent involved. Punk's team were the better workers for most of this. Yang sold well & Kingston got an excellent pin. He's bound for greater things for sure.

Diva Dance off - Layla, Maryse, Eve Torres, Lene Yada & Kelly Kelly. Doing this basically says we don't trust these people to actually wrestle so we've got them doing this s**t instead. (Is Lena Yada supposed to be Gail Kim's replacement? She looks very similar & wears the same style costume Gail used to). Kelly Kelly took the obvious win that no-one cared about, such a waste of tv time.

Tommy Dreamer vs Mike Knox. Well at least it was going to be until the GM made it Mike Knox vs Colin Delaney. Colin can certainly take bumps & sell like crazy. I assume their running him as the modern day Mikey Whipwreck? Knox won in a very short match.

Tag Match, The Miz & John Morrison vs The Undertaker & Kane. This was a pretty even match, one of Miz & Morrison's better matches that I've seen. They both worked well enough but Miz looked a bit unsure doing some stuff with Kane which Kane no-sold anyway, showing a low level of in-ring trust. 'Taker & Morrison looked comfortable enough working each other, Undertaker took the win off the tombstone piledriver for his team. No shock there really.

This was another ECW show where they demonstrated they just don't have enough staff to work the matches & fill the air time they have. The Diva Dance off was evidence enough of that point. If they wanted to impress me with Mike Knox, they should have had him take on both Dreamer AND Delaney AND still have won. He'd have gotten way more over, winning in that way. ECW needs its own people and no-one from Smackdown or Raw coming in week after aweek. If they haven't got the staff then it's time to stop the shows & cease the brand until they have.

ECW 8th April 2008 reviewed

The Miz vs Cm Punk. Don't ECW HAVE any f**king workers any more? Their all either working Smackdown or Raw & can't get enough people on their roster to have to get Miz in to work Punk? Incredibly dull match which was far too long. Punk got the win.
Contract signing. BORING!
Elijah Burke vs Nunzio. Burke got a pretty easy win in quite a s**t match.

Domino vs Kofi Kingston. Kington looked better & certainly had the better of this match & took the win.

Colin Delaney vs Tommy Dreamer. If Delaney wins he gets an ECW contract, if Dreamer loses he's fired. Dreamer took a predictable win off a nice spike ddt.

This was another extremely weak ECW. They just don't seem to have the manpower any more and they aern't allowed to be the ECW they used to be. It really would be kinder if they cancelled this show now.

ECW 1st April 2008 reviewed. NOT a joke!

Gosh, well this is a 1st.
I've never reviewed an ECW show (as far as I recall anyway) so this'll be the 1st.

Kane comes out and bores us on the mic, CM Punk likewise.

Stevie Richards vs Mike Knox - Knox took the win. S**te match!

Colin Delaney vs The Big Show - Show took the win. UTTER F**KING S**TE!

Tag Match, Chavo Guerrerro & Shelton Benjamin vs CM Punk & Kane. Shelton & Punk made this match a lot better than it looked. Punk took the win.

If this is the modern ECW, it was better when Heyman was p**sing their funds into the wind.
CLOSE DOWN ECW NOW!