ECW One Night Stand (Sunday, June 11)

	RVD and Paul Heyman led a raucous celebration. © 2006 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved

• I arrived at the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center Studios a couple of hours before the pay-per-view show was to begin and was shocked to see that the entire block was circled by ECW fans waiting to get into the ballroom. Most were decked out in black-and-red ECW garb and chanting, "E-C-Dub, E-C-Dub" and "Let-us-in, Let-us-in" among other less flattering chants unsuitable for a family audience.

• Before the show I chatted with Paul Heyman, the creative force behind ECW and the man who changed the face of the business back in the late '90s with his extreme brand of professional wrestling. While he was thrilled that the promotion he had put his life's blood into was coming back, he was also wondering if it would be the same now that it was being run by the WWE, the kind of big corporate entity he always tried to separate the "counterculture, anti-establishment" ECW from. "I had huge, huge dilemmas," he said. "I kind of liken this to Miramax being owned by Disney. Pulp Fiction was far from a Disney movie. Mickey Mouse did not fit into Pulp Fiction; however, Disney made a very healthy profit on an alternative movie studio. That's what this is. The idea is to be like an alternative, independent movie studio, yet the financial benefits and infrastructure will come from the huge conglomerate WWE."

• It was fascinating to see the WWE staged one of its biggest pay-per-view events of the year in a ballroom usually reserved for operas that seats about 3,000, even though it could have easily sold out nearby Madison Square Garden. If you're an old-school ECW fan, that's great news and a sign that it will try to stay true to the intimacy of the old brand, where fans were as much a part of the action as the wrestlers. That was certainly the case on Sunday, as the crowd filled every nook and cranny of the two-tiered ballroom, including six miniature balconies. The appearance was also very ECW, with a tiny brick-and-fence entrance and a short staircase down to the walkway. No mega concert-like setups that are the norm in the WWE needed here.

• The crowd was about as hot as I've ever seen in my life, with chants that might even make European soccer fans blush. It probably didn't help that there was a full bar at the ballroom open throughout the night where waitresses were taking orders for Long Island iced teas, Jack-and-Cokes and any other drink you could name.

• I can't remember a WWE champion who has drawn more genuine "heat" or hatred from fans than John Cena. No matter how many times he tried, when he threw his shirt and hat into the crowd they were constantly thrown back at him, with chants of "Throw it back!" Once huge sign hanging from the second tier read, "If Cena wins, we riot!" Well, thankfully, Cena didn't win -- he was pinned after Edge interfered and speared Cena with a motorcycle helmet while the referee was knocked out, and Heyman counted the pin in a result that will be the beginning of some controversy and new story lines for the new ECW, which debuts its weekly show this Tuesday on the Sci-Fi Channel.

• It was nice to see Van Dam win his first world title and get his first big "push" since coming to the WWE. More than a month ago I was chatting with wrestler Rob Van Dam about what he was up to and what twists and turns his character would be taking, and he perked up a bit as he said three letters and three words: "ECW One Night Stand. You're going to have to check it out." RVD is genuinely one of the good guys in wrestling and is still a kid at heart --- he owns a comic book store (http://5starcomics.com/) in California and could talk comics and video games with kids for hours.

• After RVD won the belt, most of ECW's past and current wrestlers came into the ring and toasted Heyman and the new champion over some beers. They hoisted RVD on their shoulders to the delight of the fans who continued to chant, "E-C-Dub, E-C-Dub, E-C-Dub!" As Heyman said before the show, "This is for every wrestler who wanted to be hard-core rather than a superstar. The dream of extreme has risen again."

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