:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/imported_assets/1131005/Adam_Copeland_2012.jpg)
Shane Douglas is not the only former ECW wrestler who has dreams of running an independent promotion that can capture the spirit of Paul Heyman's Extreme brainchild. Tommy Dreamer is following suit with his own ECW inspired indy called House Of Hardcore that will debut on October 6th, 2012 in the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, which may explain why Dreamer hasn't wrestled for Douglas' Extreme Rising promotion.
The roster lined up is a mix of former WWE (Chris Masters, Shawn Daivari), WCW (The Steiner Brothers) and ECW (The Sandman, Rhino, Jazz) stars with a few young indy wrestlers thrown in like The Young Bucks and Sami Callihan. However, the biggest star set for the event will be the former Edge, Adam Copeland, who will be making his first appearance at a wrestling show since leaving WWE in April. Copeland was conspicuous with his absence from last night's 1000th episode of Raw, but no-one seemed to notice with Stone Cold Steve Austin missing from the show too.
Even though Copeland never worked for the real ECW, he did wrestle at WWE's second ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view in 2006 tagging with Mick Foley and Lita to defeat Terry Funk, Dreamer and Dreamer's wife Beulah McGillicutty, so he fits in well with the hardcore theme of the new promotion. It will be interesting to see whether they play off that history when Edge appears for the group.
Personally, in the long run, I can't see Dreamer's promotion faring that much better than Douglas'. Though Dreamer has taken credit for scripting the critically acclaimed first WWE ECW One Night Stand PPV in 2005 when most believe Paul Heyman was responsible, his short run booking then WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in that same year was an unmitigated disaster with people concluding that he was a worse booker than even Vince Russo. Hopefully he's learnt from that experience.