Finally! Wrestling that makes sense

Congratulations wrestling fans! You have waited and waited and waited. You have prayed and hoped and begged. And finally, you are able to "O" again when you watch wrestling! Yes, my fellow wrestling heads (and listen up Darkside), it is officially cool to watch wrestling again. Wednesday night's "WWE VS. ECW: Head to Head" show was proof of that. Now, not only did this special show provide us with more entertaining matches than what we're used to seeing in an average episode of "Raw" or "SmackDown!", but every angle and potential storyline presented actually made sense!

Take, for example, the Randy Orton/Kurt Angle feud. Two months ago, Angle "breaks" Orton's ankle. Orton is now back for revenge. Simple! And more importantly, realistic! No voice overs repeating the date of your new movie (by the way, the See No Evil promo had no place in this show. Enough already!), no spilling the coffee on anyone's chest...just revenge, plain and simple. The anger and disdain displayed by each superstar was excellent. I'm now, more than ever, looking forward to their match this Sunday.

How about the Jerry Lawler/Tazz scrap? Two guys who are passionate about their own brands getting on each other's cases. Your everyday battle of one-upsmanship. Makes sense to me. And since both of these guys are color commentators, they utilized their talents to make their feud seem like a shoot! (I'm sure a part of it is!). How great was it to hear Lawler and Jim Ross jaw-jacking back and forth with Tazz and Joey Styles all night? It really helped boost the energy and aggression that WWE wants to convey with their new ECW product.

Best lines of the night came when Tazz and Lawler were going at it and referees were trying to separate them:

Styles: "Don't break 'em up! Don't break 'em up! Let 'em go! Let 'em go!"

JR: "We got a television show to do here!"

Styles: "Who gives a rat's ass?!!"

Nice.

Speaking of nice, how about Mick Foley's in-ring promo? Trust a certified best-selling author and pro wrestling expert to deliver a speech that perfect. Every time Foley is involved in a feud, his promos make crystal clear why he's involved in it. In addition, he gets so riled up (helping the fans to do the same), you can't help but eagerly anticipate the ensuing battle. He's also one of the only guys in the biz who can put over both himself AND his opponents at the same time. Not to mention, his upcoming match.

About Tommy Dreamer: "Tommy Dreamer can do everything I can, and maybe with more passion. He's gonna beat us up all over New York City!!"

About Terry Funk: "The greatest wrestler I ever saw...his slaps hurt worse than most men's punches, his punches dole out concussions...I blew the son of a bitch up in Japan, and he came back and hugged me, I set him on fire in Philadelphia, and he put his arm around me."

About the upcoming match: "You've seen me thrown off cells! You've seen me slammed in tacks! You've seen me go through a burning table at WrestleMania! IT IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE HORRORS I WILL UNLEASH ON DREAMER AND FUNK AT GODDAMN YOU ECW!!"

Amazing.

This Sunday's ECW pay-per-view could not have been better promoted on Wednesday's special. One question though: If Paul Heyman was allowed ONE "draft pick" from both "Raw" and "SmackDown!", how did Nunzio (or Little Guido), Al Snow and Stevie Richards miraculously appear in ECW t-shirts? So much for "making sense".

Either way, both the superstars (or wrestlers depending on which brand you prefer) and commentators finally got it right. In the ring: big time action and high impact moves. Tell me you didn't "O" for Sabu's "Triple Jump Moonsault" or for when he leg dropped a chair flush into John Cena's face forcing the champ to roll out of the ring. (Or even the unscripted "O" when Edge narrowly missed the table in a botched back body drop of the top rope!)

On the mic: all four commentators helped to establish some of the main differences between the WWE and ECW products. WWE is about storytelling and the characters that are involved in these stories. ECW will be about wrestling matches...and hopefully, reasons for these matches (read "storylines") that make sense!

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