ECW: What would be the fate today?

[Lady Redfield]

Lets pretend it was never bankrupt and Vince didn't buy it. Do you think ECW would have made it to this day and age? If so, would it be just a watered down version of it's former self to please this generation of sensitive souls who cry at the sight of blood?

Highly doubt it would be around today, it would just be too hard to shield today's crowds and and a more 'nicer' version would probably just die, anyway, trying to compete with WWE and AEW (if it somehow lasted long enough to be around the same time as AEW).

If it ain't old school ECW, I'd pass.

 

[Chris]

God I just can't imagine any world where ECW lives past '05 at best

 

[CakeWalker]

Combat Zone Wrestling carried on where ECW left off. I think in many ways, what CZW has done is what ECW could have done. Short but realistic?

 

[Chris]

Combat Zone Wrestling carried on where ECW left off. I think in many ways, what CZW has done is what ECW could have done. Short but realistic?

Fair but I think ECW had higher ambitions and would have never settled for CZW's standard that they've maintained.

 

[CakeWalker]

The product, wrestlers and matches followed the same trajectory. Just without the same budget.

 

[Hoss]

Woulda just became ROH over time I bet.

 

[Apoho Creed]

Yeah I don't think ECW could of survived in 2020 if not Heyman and ECW not evolving as a Company. They talk about the ultraviolet style to the Company and trying to get that over to a new Weekly Fanbase not just the Fanbase that had been behind them from the start. If Heyman didn't say himself we need to do new things to bring in sponsors and new fans to want to see this Show it might of still died just later than expected.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Heyman says he was already looking towards the future and was going to sign pretty much all the guys that ROH ended up signing.

It would've been a nice influx of talent coming in. Amazing Red, Brian Kendrick, Bryan Danielson, Christopher Daniels, CM Punk, Low Ki and all the other ROH guys mixed in with the guys ECW were bringing in such as Christian York, EZ Money, Joey Matthews, Julio Dinero, Michael Shane etc

And then of course you still had a fair few ECW guys who would've stuck around. Corino, Sandman, Dreamer, Super Crazy, Kid Kash, FBI, Mahoney etc.

Not to mention if they'd held on for that year or two they eventually could've got Shane Douglas back, Raven would've likely come back, Sabu possibly, Bigelow was available after WCW, Candido and perhaps even Mike Awesome if they sorted everything out somehow.

I don't think they survive 20 years but someone said 05 and I think that's around where they could've gone. Eventually all of the guys they brought in would've been picked up by WWE and I could see some of the established guys heading there also.

 

[Deezy]

Sapolsky and Jarretts checks actually cleared....Heyman was up this eyeballs in debt and still would've had to declare bankruptcy no matter what.

 

[CakeWalker]

Sapolsky and Jarretts checks actually cleared....Heyman was up this eyeballs in debt and still would've had to declare bankruptcy no matter what.

but we are ignoring the money problems.

 

[Deezy]

but we are ignoring the money problems.

Heyman still would've had a bad reputation for payoffs.

He also would've still done his hotshot booking without the financial backing of Vince McMahon and guess what? He did have all this stuff when he was in Louisville.

 

[RLStern]

WWE would be in better shape, Heyman is one of the contributing factors of the WWE’s decline, despite praise from the IWC, regular fans never liked his work, and he he helped Smackdown lose even more viewers after Rock left in 2002.