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After a week hiatus and enough turkey, stuffing and the like to last me until the New Year, it’s time to write up another Shooting for Heat. Before I get down to business though, I just wanted to say that I appreciate the well wishes from all of you out there. I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving week.
This week I’ll be taking an in-depth look at the next upcoming WWE PPV. With the Survivor Series right behind us, I’m of course referring to WWECW’s December to Dismember, and more specifically, the “Extreme†Elimination Chamber match, since frankly it’s the only match officially announced for the show.
In a wrestling world filled with gimmick matches and various (and often silly) stipulations, the Elimination Chamber match has been able to stand out from the pack, despite the fact that the concept debuted only as recently as the Survivor Series in 2002. Being a fan of any type of match where various eliminations are required (like the Survivor Series), I’ve found myself growing quickly fond of the concept ever since its inception.
This year’s edition will of course be different, and not just because it will be on an ECW-branded PPV. You see…this won’t be any Elimination Chamber match; no…this time it will be EXTREME!!! I get a kick out of the notion that WWECW tries to hammer home how extreme they are by just adding the word “extreme†when ever they feel like it, regardless of the fact that it is now seemingly rare to come across a simple no-DQ match on ECW TV anymore. But that’s neither here nor there. This time around the match will apparently have weapons involved to go with the brutality of the cage and the glass chambers. With the style of match that this is going to be, combined with the fact that you have some excellent (CM Punk & RVD namely) and competent wrestlers involved, I expect this match to be a lot of fun, to say the least.
I’ll now break down the participants and take a look at their career in ECW in brief, as well as what I think they’re chances are of winning the match and walking away as the ECW Heavyweight Champion.
Sabu: I have to say, I didn’t think WWE would be as high on Sabu as they seemed to be when they first signed him. Obviously, he has a very reckless style which bucks the trend of who WWE tends to prefer. That said, they quickly positioned Sabu after being signed to be one of the top stars on the brand, which made a lot of sense, which frankly we don’t see much of from WWE. Sabu is an ECW “original†who is synonymous with the name ECW, and a hard worker to boot, so I take (or I should say took) no issue with them positioning him as one of their top stars.
However, that was then and this is now. As recently as RAW Sabu was jobbed out to Umaga in a match that did little to further Umaga (because it was a forgettable match with no hype) and only further cemented the fact that WWE, at least as it stands now, isn’t as high on Sabu as they once were. That, coupled with the fact that he has already challenged for and lost in several attempts to win the ECW title from the Big Show says pretty clearly to me that he has no chance to win this match. I certainly don’t think he should either, but I do hope that going forward they make more use out of someone like Sabu who is more often than not entertaining in the ring and someone who is always willing to take a risk and be inventive.
Test: Shockingly to many (myself included), Test has done surprisingly well since his return to work under the WWE umbrella. I was not a fan of the idea of him working in ECW at all when I first heard of their plans to move him to the brand, especially given his last tenure in the company, but I have to say that he’s impressed me and shown a good amount of fire in the ring. I still think he’s far, far away from ever being someone that I would take seriously in a main event program, but you can’t deny the growth shown by Test since returning to televised TV.
As recently as a few weeks ago some online “leaked†the news that Test was penciled in to be the winner of the Elimination Chamber match and to take the title. Those rumors seemed to disappear as quickly as they formed, but just the notion itself screams disaster if you ask me. Improvement or not, Test is not someone on the level to represent any brand, ECW included. Thankfully, I believe those rumors to be just that, and while I feel that WWE would prefer to have a heel champion, which is often better for business in my eyes; Test is just not the right man for the position.
The Big Show: The current ECW champion deserves a lot of praise for handling the role given to him and working as hard at it as he has since taking the title from Van Dam several months back. The very moment he won the title many (again, myself included) stuck their nose up at the concept of him holding the title, since not only did he seemingly not deserve it compared to others on the brand, not only because he’s often been a below-average worker, but because he’s been formerly positioned as upper mid-card fodder for those at a higher level.
Since winning the title though the Big Show has worked hard and gone out of his way to try and make the most out of what easily could have been a bad situation for him and the brand. Unfortunately, WWE has the tendency to over work their top-tiered talent, and the Big Show is/was no exception. That, combined with the fact that despite the improved fire and in-ring effort, he’s still grossly out of shape for someone doing what he’s doing. So, it was only a matter of time until he got injured, which currently is the case. You only need to glance at the man to see that, even for him, he’s not very mobile and in a strong amount of pain.
All things considered, it’s fully expected that the Big Show will drop the strap at December to Dismember.
CM Punk: Honestly, I’m easily one of the biggest CM Punk supporters you’ll ever come across, so my personal opinion of the man is often going to be pretty biased. Thankfully, it’s obvious that WWE is very high on him as well and he’s been talked about to be one of the top faces on the brand in the very near future, which is smart from every angle you look at, and is frankly deserved. Rather than go over again my stance on Punk, I’d rather just direct you to my column looking at him in depth if you find yourself interested.
Going into the chamber match CM Punk is riding a wave of momentum. On ECW TV he’s been undefeated and at Survivor Series he was teamed with DX, which to WWE is considered a real rub.
That said; as much as I would love to see it, I don’t think the time is right for CM Punk to win the title, nor do I have any delusions that they perceive it to be his time either. I fully expect him to be protected strongly in the match, but just by design he’s going to have to take a loss, but it won’t be a singles loss, so they can quickly gloss over it.
I think CM Punk will be ECW Heavyweight Champion by some time mid-Spring, but not at December to Dismember.
Bobby Lashley: Bobby Lashley is new to ECW…brand spanking new to be exact. They wanted a face with an impressive physique on the brand and seemingly for no real rhyme or reason, he just showed up, laid out Hardcore Holly and on his first night in, and found himself booked for the main event at the December to Dismember PPV.
Many people are high on Bobby Lashley, and I can see why. However, I’m not one of those people…yet. I don’t have any real issue with the man, but I still think he’s pretty green in some areas and despite the muscular look, I don’t see him as a real threat to anyone he’s involved with. Regardless, you can’t deny that he has continued to improve since debuting back in September of 2005. Looking at it from that perspective, I’m actually pretty impressed by Lashley, but not enough to feel that he should be carrying the only title on the ECW brand, a brand he’s only been apart of for a few weeks at this point.
That said, many consider Lashley to be one of the top picks to win the chamber match at D2D. I obviously think it’s too early and illogical to put the title on him, but I’m not a WWE booker (nor would I ever want that job), so logic aside it seems more than plausible that when it’s over Bobby Lashley could be your new ECW champion. I hope that’s not the case, but with Van Dam’s drug issue from earlier this year which prompted him dropping both straps he was holding, I wouldn’t be surprised if WWE decided to give the ball to the relative newcomer.
Rob Van Dam: My, my…how quickly things can change. As I just alluded to, Rob Van Dam was ECW champion the moment the title was reinstated in the restart promotion. He is the most over wrestler, face or heel, the brand has and he’s more than proved that he can hang with just about anyone you put him in the ring with. Rob Van Dam being champion made sense. Actually, it made sense for years now, but it took WWE that long to realize it, at least enough to the point where they were actually willing to pull the trigger and listen to the fans for once.
Of course, we all know what happened after that. Shortly after winning the WWE title and then being awarded the ECW title, Van Dam found himself in hot water when he and Sabu were pulled over for speeding and for possession (in RVD’s case, marijuana).
WWE, being a publicly traded company and all, not to mention their drug program, had to take action. The action was swift and obvious. They had RVD drop the two titles on back-to-back nights and they he served a 30-day suspension. Since then, he’s been working his way back up as they say and now he’s back in the main-event picture again.
Without question, I think it’s the smartest move to put the title back on Rob Van Dam, both from a business perspective as well as storyline. You can’t keep RVD out of the ECW title picture forever, and recent drug-related incident aside, you just can’t deny the simplicity of the fact that he can work, is over, and is a perfect fit for the brand as champion.
I would have said that the odds of him winning were nearly 100%, but then they added Lashley to the mix and you can’t overlook the fact that they stripped him of the title not too far back for his incident. So while he’s my pick and I still expect him to win at D2D, I’m not as confident about it as I once was. I hope WWE won’t have Lashley leapfrog Van Dam in the pecking order, at least not this quickly, but we’ll have to wait until December 3rd to find out.
