If you are one of those people who simply can't wait for ECW's One Night Stand, then you are most likely channelling the spirit of Andre Poisson. Poisson, for those of you who don't know, was the man who bought the Eiffel Tower in 1925 from famous con-man Victor Lustig. This was the beginning of a wave of conmon selling something to rich idiots without actually having anything of it to sell. The most famous of these conmen, Arthur Ferguson, decided that America was the land of opportunity after spending many happy years conning American tourists into buying Buckingham Palace (a bargain at �2000), Big Ben and Nelson's Column. He moved to America and later became the first man to sell the White House. What has this got to do with wrestling" Well in 2005 Vince McMahon is trying the same line with ECW fans. I'm not sure exactly what will turn up at One Night Stand, but I know it won't be ECW.

First of all, how can you have an ECW pay per viewwithout the biggest star" Raven was ECW. And ECW was Raven. I could almost bet Malcolm Glazier's hell bound soul that I'm going to get creamed for that last statement. But any of you people who disagree with that statement really need to look at the history of ECW. I don't mean that crap that the WWE tried to flog a few months ago that gave hour long in depth analysis to the guys on their current roster that where in ECW for five minutes and never made it past midcard. The real history of the company as you lived through it. ECW was ok. Then Taz and Raven happened. Now ECW is huge. Now Raven leaves, and a lot of guys follow him, but RVD, Dreamer and Justin Credible fill the void, with Taz holding them over. Taz leaves, Raven comes back but leaves soon again and it's bye bye ECW. Sorry to put it so bluntly, but as I said, I lived through the ECW phase and that's what happened. For instance, most wrestling insiders were betting against ECW even having a third pay per view if Raven left. The man is pure entertainment gold, and anything that brandishes the name of ECW and doesn't have at least a third of it dedicated to Raven is nothing more than a cheap knock-off.

Will Taz wrestle" He would almost have to since Raven's not there. Taz hasn't been in a ring seriously for a long time now, and no-one really even knows if he is in any condition to fight. Now he can't just jump back into the ring and expect everything to just fall into place. Don't get me wrong, I love Taz as much as the next fan, but can he still be the main man in ECW after all this time. Having Taz fighting down the card or not fighting at all demeans the value of having an ECW reunion at all.

On top of all this there is no RVD. Apparently Rob Van Dam will be there to commentate on the event, but having RVD commentating on wrestling is a bit like watching Jim Ross wrestling, you now that it just isn't right. If they were going to do this thing at all, and I think it's clear by now I rather they wouldn't, they should have made sure that they had the big names available and healthy first. As I said before this ECW thing hit problems the moment that Raven wouldn't turn up, but the least that they could have done was make sure to get the people who might get ECW fans to forget about the absence of their favourite son turn up. But at least Paul Heyman is running the show, right"

Well, actually no. Heyman is going to be at the show, but it seems that for all intents and purposes the booking for the show will be done by the current creative team. Now the wheels may have come off with Raven, but this is the point at which the car hits the tree. An ECW event at which Paul Heyman has no creative control, run by a McMahon. I really am at a loss to explain this one. What exactly do the McMahon family know about ECW" And considering that the current WWE team manage to make an unholy mess of their own pay per views, why do they get to work on this one" How do you not give Paul Heyman the chance to run the show, with the knowledge that fans will go nuts for some of that Heyman style action" I mean, if he can actually pull it off, he might be able to help out either RAW or SmackDown! once it's all finished. More importantly, what exactly will Heyman be doing on the show"

What about the characters" In ECW, Taz was an intense, no nonsense, suplex machine. But in the WWE, he's the wise-cracking, suit-wearing funny man of SmackDown! Will the McMahon's be willing to throw out character development for the sake of ECW" Will Nova come back, or will it be Simon Dean" Do we get Rhyno the WWE jobber, or Rhyno the ECW wrecking ball" The same could be said for Stevie Richards, Tommy Dreamer and Lance Storm. And if ECW Taz and Nova return, what happens after that" Do they just go back as if nothing had happened" Or giving the failure of the Simon Dean character, will Nova hang around"

And now Eric Bischoff is apparently turning up with RAW wrestlers. Funnily enough I actually can't remember Bischoff being in ECW. So that means that a group of WWE wrestlers who are pretending to be ECW wrestlers are going to be confronted by another group of WWE wrestlers working for the former WCW President who is now a WWE talent on an ECW pay per view which isn't actually an ECW pay per view because ECW is owned by WWE, and the reason for their grudge is a war between ECW and WCW which was over seven years ago and who are now both owned by the WWE, another of their enemies. Not to mention the fact that a large number of the ECW talent also worked for WCW.

As for this being some last hurrah for ECW fans, I really don't think so. Those fans loved ECW precisely because it was a small independent company punching well above its weight. This is no such thing, it's a cynical company trying to bleed even more money from its fans by latching onto the fond memories that people have of a plucky underdog who took the shame out of being an adult wrestling fan. Terry Funk once claimed that the reason that ECW done so well was that the big two had forgotten about wrestling in their endless pursuit of the quick buck. Now ECW is just a tool for one of those companies to milk hard working fans for even more money. And since I've been a United fan for twenty-five years now, I know a thing or two about watching greedy owners take your love of something great and squeeze the average fan for everything they're worth. How many of those fans who were with ECW through the good times and bad can really afford to pay the hugely expensive ticket prices that the WWE are charging" How many of them will sacrifice, scrimp and save just so they can be there anyway" If the WWE want a night of ECW, how about charging fans what ECW charged them for tickets" What about the WWE wrestlers who don't fit in" Angle attended one ECW show, but I bet he'll still end up on the show somehow. What about Triple H, Batista, Cena and all the other big name stars who will want to have some of that ECW magic dust to rub off on them" Will they be happy sitting on the sidelines for the night" I have this horrible feeling that Bischoff's invasion will end up as just an excuse for the WWE to put over its non ECW stars by having them destroy the ECW stars. Triple H for certain will be there, his ego simply will not allow him to sit this one out.

I know people loved ECW, it was great for wrestling and steered it in a new direction, but is there anything that they can do that can really shock us in this day and age" And is it worth getting a watered down ECW just to have an ECW at all" It's like when Chelsea turned up at Old Trafford a few weeks ago to be confronted by the chants of: "you're not Chelsea anymore" by United fans. As I said at the start, I'm not sure what will turn up at the Manhattan Centre on the 12th June, but it won't really be ECW. Its memory should be left untarnished for the fans that built it and the wrestlers who embodied it. And the McMahon's should be locked up for fraud.

by Ketheach O'Daillaigh ..