By Mr. Mal Occhio
WRESTLERS RAMBLINGS wrestling blog 

To paraphrase an old adage . . . be careful what you wish for, wrestling fans, Vince McMahon owns the damn league, remember? Sigh . . . this is a column Mr. Mal is already dreading, but I cannot avoid it any longer. The return of Extreme Championship Wrestling – after starting so promisingly at their most-recent One Night Stand pay-per-view – is beginning to derail only weeks into its resurrection.

Now, I also must state up-front that, living in Canada, Mr. Mal has not yet seen any weekly ECW show. It is simply not available in our neck of the woods. But oh, have I read the reports. And rest assured - they ain’t pretty. From day one, finding positive comments about the return of the cult-like league have been few and far between. And the most-depressing of all? It also looks like it is only going to get worse.

First, parent network Sci-Fi began meddling almost immediately. Initially wanting an alien to appear as a wrestler on the show (but not be subject to a Paul Heyman-suggested Sandman cane-down) some backstage haggling eventually had the WWE and Sci-Fi settling on a zombie character, of all things. Same cane-down, different genre. Whatever. I found it funny, actually (having watched it on YouTube). But that’s not the half of it. Word has it that Sci-Fi even wanted an angle whereupon various wrestlers would be “transported� to a parallel dimension (one that apparently still has professional wrestling, oddly enough). Thank God that one never got past the drawing board.

But let’s not go pointing the blame at the Sci-Fi network, shall we? They are only trying to substantiate their investment, as well as crossover as much of their existing audience as possible. You can’t blame a kid for tryin’, you know? From their point of view, their suggestions actually make sense. As to why in the hell they would want a frickin’ wrestling show to begin with? That’s the bigger question.

Almost as big as why Vince McMahon would want to resurrect a brand he had nothing to do with building, indirectly had a hand in undoing, and yet – in his sheer, infinite wisdom – now feels he is best-suited to book? Sigh. Yes, the reports are piling in: Paul Heyman is allegedly already out as the brains behind-the-barbed-wire, with McMahon and his head writer Kevin Dunn now doing the bulk of the booking. But wait, it gets worse – if that’s possible.

Kurt Angle – looked to be the one main ingredient meant to infuse a modern WWE-twist to the resurgent ECW brand – has reportedly taken a leave from the WWE for undisclosed reasons. Speculation abounds that he was unhappy with being sent to ECW (even though he would have worked out well in that environment, in Mr. Mal’s opinion) and that this latest move is a reaction to his unhappiness.

Further, lowercard ECW performers (such as Danny Doring and Justin Credible) are being looked upon as essentially spare parts by current WWE brass, who figure, “Why do we need to pay these guys to fill-out the card when we have a whole roster of guys signed in Ohio Valley Wrestling and Deep South Wrestling already on the payroll?� Did I mention this same logic is also being applied to the current ECW referees, many of whom were happy to just get jobs again with the league’s return? Sigh . . . each and every week, look for more of a WWE-version of ECW than you ever thought possible, with word now being attributed to McMahon as feeling that this is simply another brand for the WWE to develop. I mean, we all know how successful he’s been in establishing Smackdown as another WCW Thunder – eer – brand, right? Right . . .

Ratings have been fair thus far (garnering a 2.2 last week) but word is also out that many of the past ECW fan-base simply having yet returned. But who could blame them? ECW in a 20,000 seat venue just ain’t ECW, dig? And now McMahon is holding this as another sign as to why the league needs his “special� touch. Wha?!?

Be afraid, true ECW fans – Mr. Mal feels the absolute worse may still be yet to come. The one silver lining? Word is that Sabu’s attitude (looked to be a possible problem when initially-signed) has been excellent, with Sabu no doubt realizing this is one last chance to make some decent money for a steady gig. Give him a few more months amid this ever-growing mess, however, and things could get very interesting backstage. Mr. McMahon meet the Atomic Arabian Facebuster, Atomic Arabian Facebuster meet Mr. McMahon!

Dare to dream . . .