ECW News Thread *Possible Spoilers*

[Sanchez]

A WWE developmental diva, Rebecca DiPietro debuted for the ECW brand over the weekend. She was working bikini contests on the house show loop in Arizona. Rebecca DiPietro was training at the Deep South Wrestling territory.
http://www.prowrestling.com/article/news/2153

 

[Sanchez]

When Too Cold Scorpio makes his return to WWE (probably next month), it will be under the dancing Flash Funk persona - which is quite similar to The Godfather's gimmick if it was rated PG. No word yet if he will have some "Funkettes" in tow. Also, this pretty much confirms that he won't be a part of ECW.
http://www.prowrestling.com/article/news/2210

 

[PARANoIR]

What crap.

 

[Sanchez]

is flash funk similiar to ernest 'the cat' miller

 

[PARANoIR]

The Godfather.

 

[Sanchez]

yes but the cat is a pg godfather in a way

 

[Sanchez]

As reported earlier, the inevitable finally occured on October 12, 2006 when WWE released Francine Fournier, 34, from her contract. Internally, the move had been largely expected since the day she was first hired back in May.

Vince McMahon actually planned on letting her go as early as June after he saw her in person for the first time backstage. He wanted to let her go because he didn't like her look and he didn't believe that she was of "WWE Diva" caliber. However, people convinced McMahon to keep her on the payroll because they needed someone to lose to Kelly Kelly in the bikini contests held at ECW house shows, not to mention to make the 19-year-old blonde model look good in comparison. Perhaps her saving grace for a short while was that Trinity was on the injured list throughout the entire summer and they didn't have anyone else to use. WWE seemed to be building for her to have a permanent spot on the roster by linking her with Balls Mahoney in a feud with Kevin Thorn and Ariel, but her participation in the angle was dropped after two weeks.

After Francine was let go, the story on her backstage was that she had a bad attitude and carried herself like Sunny or Sable did back in the day. Also, she would call the office with weird demands such as wanting to be reimbursed for her tanning sessions. Whatever the case may be, the people in charge didn't like her look, and as noted before, she was doomed from the start.
http://www.prowrestling.com/article/news/2255

 

[Sanchez]

It's been said that Paul Heyman now has a lot of power in the new ECW. Though with the impending return of Stephanie McMahon from maternity leave, the general feeling is that Heyman will probably begin to lose power to her. It is also believed that some of the WWE creative staff that has stepped down recently has done so because they wanted to get out before Stephanie returned.
http://www.prowrestling.com/article/news/2258

 

[griffo346]

Since RVD won a shot at the Big Shows Title you reckon he would cash it in before cyber sunday?

 

[Sanchez]

i think they should do it at cyber sunday not before

 

[Sanchez]

In a bit of breaking news, WWE has made the decision to have no more ECW house shows taking place after the end of November. Also, WWE.com has pulled the listings for all scheduled ECW house shows for December and beyond. Rest assure, the television tapings will still continue. Also, the ECW wrestlers' feuds will be taking place on RAW and SmackDown brand house shows.

No reason was given for this sudden change, but it can probably attributed to the dismal attendance that ECW house shows usually draw. ECW house shows tend to average a paltry amount of people - usually 1,000 or so on average. On the other hand, RAW and SmackDown house shows tend to draw 3,500 or so on average
http://www.prowrestling.com/article/news/2313

 

[Sanchez]

Vince has mentioned cutting back on the "Extreme Rules" matches and not even doing them at house shows anymore. They will continue on with currently announced "Extreme Rules" matches, but will slow down drastically after those are done.
http://www.prowrestling.com/article/news/2317

 

[Sanchez]

The following was issued tonight on WWE.com:

WWE officials have announced that as of Dec. 26, SmackDown Superstars and ECW Extremists will be touring together for live events. Officials say that this is a great opportunity for WWE and ECW fans alike to experience the unparalleled action of both brands combined

Sources say that WWE officials were concerned because the attendance at some of the ECW live events hasn’t been as strong as initially projected.

ECW representative Paul Heyman had the following response to these huge changes that will commence the day after Christmas.

“Well, it’s no secret that ECW does not have the resources that are available to RAW and SmackDown,” explained a frank Heyman. “We’re too early into the relaunch of the brand and you can’t expect ECW to perform at the same level as RAW and SmackDown without the same budget, personnel and man-power.”

He continued, “Therefore, in an effort to maximize the budget and give our ECW fans the most bang for their buck, we’re going to be combining live events with the SmackDown brand to bring the most star power, the most action-packed and the most main events available in one given night.”
http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?t=154015&page=4

 

[Ben]

Well my predictions that ECW will act as the mere third tier brand for WWE is already in effect.

 

[Sanchez]

Four SmackDown stars will be moving to ECW.

Daivari and The Great Khali appeared at last night's SD/ECW tapings. However, this time around, it looks like Daivari will be pushed as a wrestler and The Great Khali will be in his corner. It is unknown if Khali has been cleared to wrestle yet. He had surgery on both of his knees back in August and he is supposed to be out of action for several months.

Another SmackDown pairing will be moving to ECW as well. The duo of Sylvester Terkay and Elijah Burke will be appearing on ECW cards now. Both individuals debuted on SmackDown in July. Terkay remains undefeated.
http://www.prowrestling.com/article/news/2329

 

[PARANoIR]

Both stupid. One of Khali/Turkay will probably end up in the chamber.

 

[Sanchez]

id rather burke i rate him highly off the matches hes done thus far

 

[PARANoIR]

Yeah Burke is awesome, he should take the front role of himself and Turkay.

 

[Sanchez]

i would have liked to seen them become tag team champs on smackdown

 

[PARANoIR]

I would've liked to have seen Burke wrestle BENOIT!

Hell, right now, I'll be happy if I get to see Benoit wrestle a jobber, because its not happening right now.