March 19, 201114 yr Author comment_5467717 Welcome to the first edition of Eastern Championship Wrestling! Hosted by Stevie Wonderful and Jay Sulli. We start off with ECW President Todd Gordon coming out with the TV title saying there will be a tournament starting on this show to crown a champion. Eddie Gilbert comes out gloating to be on the show, but they announce a third guy will be at the booth -- Terry Funk! This is announced by showing a clip of him on Quantum Leap, which is hilarious in how out of place it seems. Terry Funk comes out clean cut wearing a suit, and Gilbert hates this.
March 19, 201114 yr comment_5467721 It is so old school territory. Stevie Wonderful reminded me of a mix between DDP and Jimmy Garvin for some reason.
July 26, 201114 yr comment_5477795 It helps to have a couple of pros like Funk and Gilbert to get a segment over. Also good to have the 2 biggest stars to start the show off.
October 13, 201311 yr comment_5567245 I like how the video footage used to hype Terry Funk is from TV show Quantum Leap. Scott Bakula is hardcore!
October 24, 201311 yr comment_5568648 For reasons that'll hopefully make sense to me in time, I've decided to watch ECW TV from the beginning on. So far it has been better than I expected. I was thinking the reason the Quantum Leap stuff was shown was in lieu of wrestling footage they didn't have, but as it wears on it appears more that they're trying to portray Funk as a big-time actor more so than former NWA Champion and that. Very strange. I'm pretty sure Gilbert was booking ECW at this point, so him as the top heel makes sense, especially given the crew they've got, but he certainly doesn't act the part. He's played up more as Jimmy Snuka's manager than anything early on. Anyway, this segment was a nice little introduction to the main players and the ECW TV Title which, to me at least, seems like a much bigger deal than their heavyweight title at this point.
November 25, 201311 yr comment_5574268 Tod Gordon makes a big show out of the words LIVING LEGEND. Yeah, I don't think Bruno was going to be making too many appearances here, even with ECW in its proto-indy form. Eddie Gilbert logically assumes it to be him, but Gordon instead unveils footage of Quantum Leap. Because when you want to get legends over, the only way to do it is to show them getting their ass kicked by Scott Bakula. Funk affably offers to kick Gilbert's butt after Gilbert rants about old people, and Eddie can only respond with "OH YEAH?" and leaving. The word "hardcore" is dropped on the very first pilot episode. Funk puts things over pretty well.
December 23, 201410 yr comment_5646660 ECW! Jay Sulli and Stevie Wunderful. Tod Gordon out with the ECW title which will go to a tournament winner, and says a living legend will join the announce team, but Eddie Gilbert is out. Clip of Terry Funk on Quantum Leap sets him up as third announcer.
March 2, 201510 yr comment_5656745 Stevie Wunderful was awful and the worse of the 90's heel personas. The back and forth between Funk and GIlbert was fun but yeah this isn't what you think of when you hear ECW.
July 14, 20169 yr comment_5759299 It almost seems like ECW tried to get Bruno to come in, was turned down, and made a bog deal out of calling Terry a living legend to rub it in Bruno's face, or so they thought. If they wanted to showcase Terry's acting talents, couldn't they have chosen a clip where he comes out on top? Showing someone getting decisively beaten by anyone, let alone an actor with no athletic reputation like Scott Bakula, is no way to get them over as a top wrestling talent, especially to the cynical Philly audience. They got away with it in Terry's case because of his past glory, but it can't become any sort of habit. In the few matches I saw Sulli and Stevie in on Will's ECW set, I thought they were pathetic. Was Stevie ever a wrestler? He sure talks like one, but in the footage I saw, no reference was ever made to him potentially getting in the ring. Jay's one of those overly earnest types who treats wrestling like the most serious sport on earth, which not even greats like Solie, Russell, and JR do at all times. That makes listening to him a real chore. Eddie was probably too busy booking the first couple of months to get in the ring, which is why he was content to be a manager and instigator. He and Snuka sound like an extremely interesting pair, to say the least. I'm not sure about crowning your TV champion before your regular champion. It gives the TV shows a focus, but if the matches are too good, the TV title becomes more important than the heavyweight title. Sometimes, as in Abrams' UWF, the heavyweight champion is never crowned at all.
Create an account or sign in to comment