I woke up this morning excited to hear people crap all over ECW, as usual, but since there was no thread I decided to check WWE.com for results of the
show. I was surprised to see this:
In other action, ECW on Sci Fi became a realm of hunter and prey as “The Alpha Male” Marquis Cor Von left the Animal Kingdom and arrived in the Land
of the Extreme. Dismantling his opponent in his debut match this week, the beastly specimen known as “The Alpha Male” made ECW his jungle and bellowed
a fierce warning to all Extremists.
Marquis Cor Von????? For real??? Why in the world would they change from Monty Brown? That is his real name, right, so it couldn't be
copyright issues. Just doesn't make sense to me. And maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem to make sense to make Monty struggle
through saying that name all the time.
Did anyone see ECW? How was the show? How was Monty, er, Marquis?
I might have to watch ECW or at least part of it now. I'm not a big Monty fan but I would like to see what WWE does with him. I've DVRed ECW for the last 6 weeks or so and just deleted them. I'll at least check this segement out tonight when I get home.
Trying to follow wwe's logic on these situations - Montel Vontavious Porter has dibs on the first name and D'Lo Brown has dib in perpetuity
on the last name.
Actually the former is probably close to the truth, however I expect it was a complete name change to kill any TNA history in the character. I mean
if WWE fans went on the internet and typed in Monty Brown, they'd find a lot of TNA news and sites.
However fans will probably chant Monty Brown at him in the future along with the TNA chants...
I've never liked Monty, something about him is lame to me. And not just that dumb move. But at least they didn't let him use the flying
sternum spear as his finisher. It was pounce/someothermove/fugiwara arm bar to squash the jobber.
It was interesting that there were a few TNA chants to begin with and then pretty much dead silence by the end of the match.
Edit to add: It bummed me out that the main event was a WWE-rules triple threat instead of a three way dance.
[Edited on 1-17-2007 by lz4005]
Here he is...
I like that the pounce isn't his finisher, but I don't like the convoluted rolling arm bar. I want the Alpha Bomb.
My favorite part is how Styles and Tazz sell the Pounce like it came out of nowhere and wasn't at all lame. It's good to see that Monty hasn't really felt the need to up his game at all now that he's in the "big leagues". I think Monty has a lot of potential, but what he did there in that ECW match was pretty much exactly what he did in TNA. Squash jobbers, awkwardly pause during promos, and oversell the shit out of himself.
Having just watched the clip, I'd have to say that this was his best Pounce ever. Coming at exactly 90 degrees helps it seem like it isn't
just a glancing blow like it used to be, and that jobber sold it well. At the very least, they recognized that it's a lousy finisher and gave
him something else, even if the "something else" was equally lousy.
Why do I get the feeling like they're trying to push Monty down the "Rocky Maivia Path to Stardom"? There's just something about how
he's being presented that reminds me of The Rock early on and it's bothering me.
Chalk that up to his jobber being Cassidy Reily. That guys taken a million pounces in his day. At least a dozen from Monty alone.
edited to add: It looked like the crowd liked the Pounce. I do like the fuji-war as a finisher (at least 10x more than the Vice), but the set up
looks stupid. I mean at least when Nunziguido used it back in the glory days of Velocity, he'd hit that tornado arm breaker or some other move
that made sense and transitioned smoothly into the fuji-war.
[Edited on 1-17-2007 by blackdragon]
I think the reason he reminded you of the Rock was the way he cut his side burns. I noticed it too.
The Pounce is a great move. It is a dumb finisher but a great set up. It looks impactful most of the time. The arm bar wasn't the best for the
follow up however.
quote:
Originally posted by Shaggy
Actually the former is probably close to the truth, however I expect it was a complete name change to kill any TNA history in the character.
Maybe they were afraid that if he kept his name people would confuse him with Bad News Brown. 
Although actually, the GhettoBlaster would be a much cooler finishing move than that arm bar thing he's doing now....
I think I'm mostly disappointed with the fact that out of everything they could have done with monty, they let him continue his Alpha Male
shtick, when it was crystal clear in TNA, it was one of the main things that was holding him back. His inability to see himself growing beyond this
character he created is gonna be a major stumbling point for his career. You could see it in TNA. I don't see how WWE, er... ECW, is going to be
much different.
I am curious to see Lashley and Brown in the same ring together to see how much more ginormous Lashley is.
I'm guessing WWE made him change his name because they can keep the rights to it that way. If he uses his real name, there's nothing they
can do to keep the identity if/when he leaves, but if he happens to get big in ECW, he won't be able to take that name with him if he jumps ship
later.
Plus, if they can tie this fake name to the "Alpha Male" moniker, they can probably keep him from ever using that again if he goes back to TNA or
something.
[Edited on 1/17/2007 by Teletheus]
quote:
Originally posted by BigStevieCool
And maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem to make sense to make Monty struggle through saying that name all the time.
As I mentioned in another thread, and I admit I missed a couple episodes, but it did seem to me that the Knox/Punk feud just completely faded out.
Nobody ever really won out, Kelly Kelly never really took anyone's side and last I heard, since I missed the show last night, she came back on
her own? WTF?
Also, what about Sandman vs. Striker? Did that feud have an actual end?
Here's a funny ECW fact - I saw December to Dismember on DVD at Best Buy the other day and they have a whole TWO matches listed on the back! The
Elimination Chamber and Hardyz/MnM. So, basically they're saying, "There are two matches worth watching on this DVD, the rest is total shit." I
predict they sell 500 copies of that DVD in the U.S. in its first month.
They only advertising two matches in the first place. The rest were all thrown together that night.
Punk/Knox ended with Punk pinning Knox in a match to qualify for the Elimination Chamber. That happened before the Survivor Series match and the feud
appeared to be over by then. A week after that match Kelly came out to watch Punk in his match with Thorne. Ariel and Kelly got in a fight and Knox
watched from the aisle way. That apparently was the start of a short lived Ariel vs Kelly feud that led to Kelly/Knox vs Ariel/Thorne at D2D. Knox
turned on Kelly there, cemented it the next week and took her out. He appeared once since then to cut a heel promo about being the victim and
hasn't been seen since. Kelly just returned "single." So no. No real ending to that feud.
Sandman and Striker had a "Singapore Cane on a Pole" match kind of randomly on ECW. I think it opened the show. Sandman won and the feud was
apparently over. People had expected the feud to get strung along until D2D but that was 2 months before the PPV. That's pretty much the same
way they ended Knox/Test vs Dreamer/Sandman so I wasn't terribly surprised. A match out of nowhere, to open a show, that apparently ended
things. I THINK Taboo Tuesday happened soon after and Sandman was cast as ECW's opponent for Umaga's match. But he didn't win and it
never happened. It struck me as more of ECW's complete confusion. They keep having to end feuds abrubtly because they don't appear to be
prepared when something comes up.
Seriously, there's no use in arguing whether or not the Alpha Male deal is holding him back. He could've easily been World Champ in TNA with the shtick regardless of how lame his finisher was. And the sheer fact that he's on ECW right now means he's not getting over PERIOD (at least not until they repackage him under a similar name and send him to Raw or Smackdown under the impression no one ever saw him on ECW).
I thought they grabbed ol' Monty to play up the NFL roots... now they can't do that, right?
quote:
Originally posted by Teletheus
I'm guessing WWE made him change his name because they can keep the rights to it that way. If he uses his real name, there's nothing they can do to keep the identity if/when he leaves, but if he happens to get big in ECW, he won't be able to take that name with him if he jumps ship later.
Plus, if they can tie this fake name to the "Alpha Male" moniker, they can probably keep him from ever using that again if he goes back to TNA or something.
Insider is reporting that Monty Brown was given a different name so VKM can own the trademark. I guess that bodes well for Marquis Corvon because it
means Vince thinks that he'll get pushed enough to worry about a name trademark.
Supposedly the Pounce is going to be renames as well. I can't believe TNA didn't have a trademark on "Alpha Male".
Hardcore Holly is injured again, nerve damage in his arm and he could be out for awhile. So Punk's job last week was even more pointless.
However if Punk did try to politic his way to changing the Elimination Chamber booking I can see why the bookers wanted him humbled. At least they
didn't sic the Iron Sheik on him.
Speaking of the Iron Sheik, was he originally dubbed the Iran Sheik and the name sort of morphed?
Are we ever going to see Rodney Mack debut in ECW or is he heading for a release? This isn't completely out of left-field as Marquis Corvon
sounds very New Orleans to me and Mack is from the Big Easy.
Another thing reguarding the name change, it might help Brown differentiate the character he is playing from his real self. I always got a
Warrior-esque vibe off of him. I don't think trying t build off his football exploits was a good idea in the first place because that was 10
years ago and it will just highlight his age.
Besides Ron Simmons was debuted as Faarooq Asad initially. However I don't recall if he was fromerly Ron Simmons and Farooq was his Nation of
Islam name.
[Edited on 1-17-2007 by Shaggy]
The football thing is meaningless. They can still play it up on WWE.com. JR could still make reference to it if he likes. Anyone who cares will
find out the guy's name anyway with a simple trip to Wikipedia or OWW. But yeah, what's the point in preserving it for his character?
He's not going to have a football gimmick. He's the arrogant, smooth talking, crazy eyed powerhouse. Same guy he was in TNA that got so
much attention.
I had COMPLETELY forgotten about Rodney Mack. He's kind of screwed now, isn't he? How do you include him on a roster with Bobby Lashley
AND Monty Brown? Its not about there being 3 black guys. Its not like I think Elijah Burke is at danger with the arrivals of Lashley or Brown. But
all three are the same basic physique with the same basic style and same basic look. And Mack is easily the least compelling of the 3 even he
wasn't on the short end of the booking sheet. Monty has mic skills and charisma coming out of his ass. Both Lashley and Monty have shown that
they can have genuinely good matches with the right opponents and can be carried to the level of most of their opponents. Mack seems like he's
left out in the cold.
Unless you wanted to toss him in some tag team. But you can't possibly sell Rodney Mack while you're trying to sell Monty and Lashley in
the same hour.
I'm glad to hear that the show seemed to come off on TV as well as it did live. I was sitting ringside opposite of the apron Kelly hopped up on
to flash Striker, and sadly, she was wearing pasties.
Monty's pounce looked really good live. Most of the crowd had no idea who he was, but those of us who recognized him were excited to see him.
quote:
Originally posted by angstboyI am curious to see Lashley and Brown in the same ring together to see how much more ginormous Lashley is.
quote:
Originally posted by Shaggy
Besides Ron Simmons was debuted as Faarooq Asad initially. However I don't recall if he was fromerly Ron Simmons and Farooq was his Nation of Islam name.
I liked the idea behind the pounce/fujiwara combo, if not the way it was executed. I think they're trying for something like the Benoit head-butt/crossface combo, where the first move is meant to weaken the joint and make the tap-out more certain. I don't know the two moves really fit together, though, since I imagine that the fujiwara is really putting pressure on the elbow and not on the shoulder, which seems to be what the pounce is targeting.
Well Luck, we have aour answer reguarding Rodney Mack - released today along with Jazz.