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MORNING THOUGHTS: TOD GORDON'S RETIREMENT, WARRIOR'S RETURN, FANS EXPECTING TOO MUCH & MORE

Some random thoughts on a Monday Morning:

TOD IS GOD

With nary a ripple in the pond that is professional wrestling, ECW founder Tod Gordon quietly retired from professional wrestling at the Pro Wrestling Unplugged event in Philadelphia on Saturday night.  I wasn't in attendance and honestly, it was disrespectful on my part not to have been there, because had it not been for Tod Gordon, none of you would have ever read a word I've written. 

Had Tod Gordon not been promoting ECW, I never would have gone to my first show in May 1994, met our own Dave Scherer, arrogantly connived my way into writing for The Wrestling Lariat, ended up here on PWInsider.com and a whole list of events, great and small, good and bad, that happened in between.  I kid you not when I say I often wonder what my life would be like if Gordon hadn't started ECW.  I'm not alone.  Anyone who ever heard of, went to, worked for, or loved ECW, in some fashion, Tod Gordon changed your life, hopefully for the better.

A lot has been said about Tod Gordon.  Some have dismissed him as a money mark, but the reality is that without his money and his passion for professional wrestling, ECW never would have existed.  The money mark comment always perturbed me, because anyone reading this, anyone who ever trained in, performed or cared enough about wrestling to leave their house for a show, was a mark.  The only difference between Gordon and so many others was that he was blessed enough to have the cajones to take his own money to provide something for those he felt loved wrestling as much as he did and did it without burning through money in a spectacular, irresponsible manner. 

Whether you liked Gordon or not, you have to admit he enriched the wrestling world as a whole.  While today WWE and TNA push interactive wrestling concepts, Gordon was the trailblazer of that idea, regularly interacting with fans on the old American Online Grandstand Sports area, gladhanding fans, thanking them personally and listening to their complaints.  Gordon was hands on and fan-friendly in a way no wrestling promotion prior to ECW had ever been, and that's something that has somehow been lost to the annals of time, even though the Internet knew it at the time.

Without ECW, who knows how the careers and lives of so many people in this industry, from Paul Heyman on down, might have been changed.  I don't doubt Heyman might have tried to promote on his own - the concepts of what would become Extreme Championship Wrestling had already been percolating in his mind for the failed Jim Crockett-Heyman World Wrestling Network project - but without Tod, Heyman may never have had the fighting chance to grab an audience the way he did in Philadelphia and without that audience, who knows how long Heyman would have lasted alone, building from scratch.

In many ways, ECW lost its conscience when Gordon left the company.  He was the face of the company long after he sold it to Paul Heyman and was handling many hats, on camera and off, until the day he exited.  From late 1997 on, without Gordon, the feel of the company changed and was never the same, similar to how the company later changed with the departures of names like Tazz and The Dudley Boyz, who had important backstage responsibilities as well.

When the ECW reunions took place in 2005, it was absolutely pathetic WWE didn't invite Gordon to appear, especially when names that didn't mean a third as much to the ECW legacy were there.  Everyone has a different excuse as to why he wasn't there, but the reality is, not one person bothered to ask him to come.  Can you imagine someone honoring the AWA without inviting Verne Gagne?  Or WWE without mentioning the McMahons?  Of course not.  While Paul Heyman thanked Gordon in the ring at One Night Stand, Gordon deserved and deserves far more.  He'll never be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, but if any modern independent promoter deserves to be there - it should be Tod Gordon.

Even after ECW died, Gordon still dabbled in the business booking for 3PW and then investing and running Pro Wrestling Unplugged.  Why?  He loved the business, he missed the boys and he wanted to have fun locally in his hometown.  Whether he made seven figures or not from this business, you have to admire his passion and the fact that in the end, he wanted to have fun.  Paul Heyman might have wanted to take over the world, but Tod Gordon just wanted a fun monthly company in Philadelphia and at the end, that's what he had in PWU.

Now, Gordon walks away from the business because as much as he loves the business, he loves his family even more - and rightfully realizes that the funds he's put into the business of late can go towards the care of a very ill family member.   I don't know whether he's gone forever or just until his family situation resolves itself, but this past weekend Tod Gordon left the wrestling business far richer than he'll likely ever be remembered for. 

That's why Tod is God.  PERIOD.

MIKE ADAMLE

Mike Adamle has to get better tomorrow on ECW, doesn't he? He certainly couldn't get any worse, could he?

For all the talk internally within WWE about how bad Joey Styles was (He wasn't until the company neutered him) and how much money Adamle makes (said to be a six figure deal, one higher than a lot of more tenured announcers, which would be EVERYONE else in the company), my only questions are these four inquries:

*How long before WWE admits Adamle flat out sucks?

*How does Kevin Dunn spin this so he isn't responsible for such a bad decision?

*How long before Joey Styles returns?

*If Styles doesn't return, how long is it before WWE remembers they have a great underrated announcer in Josh Matthews stuffed away in mothballs somewhere in Stamford, CT?

Mike Adamle, round two...coming at you, tomorrow night wrestling fans! ECW! ECW!

WARRIOR VS. ORLANDO...JORDAN?

The NWE in Europe must be dropping some serious coin to get Warrior back in the ring.  Warrior, who has separated himself from professional wrestling to the point that he doesn't want to appear with other wrestling personalities at signings (or stay at the same hotel as them when booked for events), is going to step back into the ring this June in Spain...against Orlando Jordan.

ORLANDO JORDAN?

Not Goldberg.  Not Sting.  Not Hulk Hogan.  Not Kurt Angle. 

Orlando Jordan.

While it's hard not to make a punchline about Warrior (he of "queering doesn't make the world work" comments fame) wrestling the openly bi-sexual Orlando Jordan (check the Highspots.com Orlando Jordan shoot interview if you need proof of that statement), the story behind Warrior's return is what I really am most curious about.

Is Warrior returning for a quick payday?  Is he doing this to get in-ring footage for the documentary he is producing about his life?  Will he actually get into the ring and wrestle or will things break down, like his attempts to work with TC Martin's National Wrestling Council in Las Vegas in the early 1990s?  While Warrior did a quick run-in wearing slacks and a dress shirt at the NWE event, what will he look like when he charges to the ring to face down Orlando Jordan in a few months?

And finally, would anyone ever expect that the most marquee match of Orlando Jordan's life wouldn't come as a member of the WWE roster, but by being the first person to wrestle Warrior in over a decade?

They say professional wrestling has gotten predictable. Hmph!

THE ROH 'ANNOUNCEMENT'

Sometimes, "smart" wrestling fans are so smart, they delude themselves into thinking they are smarter than they actually are.  That's the only explanation I can give for some fans getting upset and angered over ROH's statement that a "big announcement" was coming yesterday eventually being revealed as nothing more than a 33% off merchandise sale.

Some fans thought that the date (4/20) meant Rob Van Dam was coming into the company.  Rumors of everything from Samoa Joe to a TV deal to Homicide on down was tossed around, some of it by outlets that should have known better.

The entire situation ended up coming off like a bad High School cliche.  The pretty girl tells the nerdy kid that she wants to talk to him about something later on.  His anticipation and excitement makes the imagination work overtime and suddenly, the young boy is expecting to find out she's madly in love with him.  In reality, she just wants help with her homework.  The boy is dejected, but it's his own fault for having unfair expectations to begin with.

ROH fans are no different.  They are spoiled by a company that provides good to great in-ring wrestling on a regular basis, so they often feel equal parts jaded and entitled.  Forgetting that when the company announced their PPV clearances, they did it out of left field with no hype, ROH fans automatically assumed there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...a rainbow they imagined in their own minds.  They have no one to blame but themselves.

Just as wrestling companies should learn from their mistakes, so should wrestling fans. This is one of those times.

Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.

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