WWE ECW - A look back

[Troy]

I forgot to mention Goldust, he was exceptional at helping to make a lot of the youngsters look good there, particularly Sheamus. Had a really good run there which made up for a couple of dodgy runs late in his career in WWE and TNA.

I can still never work out why they dropped it when it rated higher than Impact and the ratings of Superstars, NXT and Mainevent haven't come close to what it did. It was pulling in consistently good numbers and was producing a lot of good talent for the two main brands. Maybe they should have changed the name to try to get people to forget about linking it to the original ECW but other than that nothing needed to change. It was a smart move using that link to get it established but once it was established it should have been removed.

I also found it strange because Vince clearly wanted it to work, just in his vision. He wouldn't have booked himself on so many episodes of ECW unless he wanted it to succeed, he knew that him being there would pop the rating a bit but still in the end he just dropped it.

Did anyone else actually get the December to Dismember PPV? I actually bought it and watched it live on PPV and that was one weird PPV. It is also strange to think that I was one of just 45k people outside of the US to buy it. Even before the PPV it was odd because only the Extreme Elimination Chamber and the tag team match between the Hardy Boys and MNM had been announced.

The tag team match to start the PPV was good and the other random undercard matches were alright. What first got me annoyed was when Sabu was removed from the match. I had been looking forward to the crazy spots that he would do inside the Chamber and Hardcore Holly is right near the top of my all time most hated wrestlers list so him being the replacement made it even worse. Holly had no place being in the match and right away it was a negative way to start the mainevent. Punk being eliminated first and Lashley winning were dumb decisions and they would have been better going through with Heyman's idea. It was a good concept for a PPV and I wanted it to succeed but the booking decisions definitely killed the PPV and really hurt the brand.

 

[Keith]

I forgot to mention Goldust, he was exceptional at helping to make a lot of the youngsters look good there, particularly Sheamus. Had a really good run there which made up for a couple of dodgy runs late in his career in WWE and TNA.

I can still never work out why they dropped it when it rated higher than Impact and the ratings of Superstars, NXT and Mainevent haven't come close to what it did. It was pulling in consistently good numbers and was producing a lot of good talent for the two main brands. Maybe they should have changed the name to try to get people to forget about linking it to the original ECW but other than that nothing needed to change. It was a smart move using that link to get it established but once it was established it should have been removed.

I also found it strange because Vince clearly wanted it to work, just in his vision. He wouldn't have booked himself on so many episodes of ECW unless he wanted it to succeed, he knew that him being there would pop the rating a bit but still in the end he just dropped it.

Did anyone else actually get the December to Dismember PPV? I actually bought it and watched it live on PPV and that was one weird PPV. It is also strange to think that I was one of just 45k people outside of the US to buy it. Even before the PPV it was odd because only the Extreme Elimination Chamber and the tag team match between the Hardy Boys and MNM had been announced.

The tag team match to start the PPV was good and the other random undercard matches were alright. What first got me annoyed was when Sabu was removed from the match. I had been looking forward to the crazy spots that he would do inside the Chamber and Hardcore Holly is right near the top of my all time most hated wrestlers list so him being the replacement made it even worse. Holly had no place being in the match and right away it was a negative way to start the mainevent. Punk being eliminated first and Lashley winning were dumb decisions and they would have been better going through with Heyman's idea. It was a good concept for a PPV and I wanted it to succeed but the booking decisions definitely killed the PPV and really hurt the brand.

One of the worst ppvs ever as far I can tell, only the tag opener was worth seeing.

 

[Kahuna]

I think the fans expected more than WWE was willing to offer, initially at least, with WWE ECW. Nostalgia had many fans, even myself for a brief moment, believing WWE would do something different in the way of this brand, to reinstate a "defunct" company is just bizarre and senseless, but the potential for something else was there.

I think it served it as a good alternative for awhile but ultimately it would become the equivalent of a "Velocity" or "Sunday Night Heat" in terms of it just being used to test the grounds for new guys, get them over before heading them up to RAW or Smackdown.

Having said that, I do think they had a lot of memorable feuds and moments, a lot of great matches and the show sure did elevate the careers of many guys who probably never would have got a shot if they were immediately brought up to RAW to serve as a jobber or "hopeful". I dont know where CM Punk or Kofi Kingston would be if they didnt grind it out on ECW for the first few years of their WWE careers.

Looking back I do think there was a lot of things they could have done that they didn't, but I do think untimely events and direction of the company killed off any potential momentum it had to be anything close to what it was. The whole Benoit incident and the movement towards PG had given WWE no more real room for the violence people wanted from ECW, as it was only a year old when the business had to make a huge change in terms of violence and content. I think it was one of those cases where the people involved in the building of WWE ECW have the best ideas of something cutting edge and marketable but as time went on they realized the success of a Rise and Fall of ECW DVD, an ECW One Night Stand PPV, and an undying fanbase wouldnt carry on through their vision of what they wanted ECW to become.

All in all I think it served its purpose but all things considered, it was more or less a grounds (as others have stated) to bring up new guys and rejuvenate careers of "big names" who WWE didnt seem to think were marketable or ready for a major title or brand push.

 

[The New F'n Show]

I think there are three ways to look at it. I will present all 3.

1) As an old ECW fan with it going the way it did.

This was my viewpoint at the time. I enjoyed it at first and thought the Big Show title run was actually really while done. They lost me at December to Dismember when non of the midcard matches happened and they put the belt on Lashley. It just didn't feel at all like ECW after that. No it never was going to feel like the original but I was ok with that, I just wanted them to make it similar and edgy.

2) As an Original ECW fan and Heyman getting what he wanted

Basically if Punk would have won the belt at December to Dismember. This is what I wanted at the time and I do feel if this happened and Heyman kept at least some creative control they could have keep some momentum. I think eventually it still would have died out though.

3) As the show it was

This is my view looking back. This show served it's purpose. As mentioned it made some guys and revived others. I enjoyed the last few years for this reason. The only problem was the name. ECW it was not and that rubbed people the wrong way. It it was named say "Superstars" more people would have enjoyed it. Stupid but true.

 

[Quanzilla aka GOD]

That New Breed/ECW Originals hardcore match is one of my favorite matches ever. Plus of course the emergence of Punk, Bourne, Morrison, Kofi, Swagger etc. Saving Mark Henry's career. A lot of good came out of WWECW I believe.

 

[Troy]

It was nice seeing that match make it onto the WM23 card. They only got 8 minutes but still for all those guys to perform in front of 80k people would have been a big moment and it actually made the ECW brand look important that it could get a match on the show.

 

[Quanzilla aka GOD]

It was nice seeing that match make it onto the WM23 card. They only got 8 minutes but still for all those guys to perform in front of 80k people would have been a big moment and it actually made the ECW brand look important that it could get a match on the show.

Sucks the rematch the had the next week was 100x better. That's the match they shoulda had at WM.

With that being said I thought Mike Knox was awesome. Sucks he didn't get much of a chance.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

Sucks the rematch the had the next week was 100x better. That's the match they shoulda had at WM.

With that being said I thought Mike Knox was awesome. Sucks he didn't get much of a chance.

Wow, I am not the only one.

 

[Deezy]

WWECW was doomed to fail at the start, people were expecting it to be like the original ECW and that wasn't what Heyman had in mind when he and Dreamer were trying to get the show off the ground. What I read was they were trying to make the she sort of a shoot/pro-wrestling hybrid type of show, which is why people like angle, RVD and Punk were brought to the brand. Angles character was changed into more of a shoot fighter and RVD was going to be the flagship and Punk was going to be the new breed of ECW.

The only reason it didn't go to this was because RVD and Sabu got popped for pills and weed and got suspended and Angle went Angle and got fired. Punk was lost in the shuffle when they got Bobby Lashley and was the guy Vince thought would be more believeable in the Angle role, which I could see, because lets face it, wyou compare a lashley to CM Punk and you think the little guy in tats doesn't stand a chance.

Big Show was given the belt for the sole reason of name value, who else could take the belt during that time? And I don't remember him being terrible during that time, I remember him having some awesome extreme rules matches during that time, it was the ECW smarks who were shitting on this because they wanted some sort of revival of the original ECW and ruined it for everyone.

It got better when all the old ECW guys were shown the door, because quite frankly they were all exposed as sub-par performers who couldn't have a decent match without chairs and tables.

WWE could've kept this brand alive, by just keeping it the place to bring your young guys and have them develop into call-ups to raw and Smackdown.

 

[Troy]

Sucks the rematch the had the next week was 100x better. That's the match they shoulda had at WM.

With that being said I thought Mike Knox was awesome. Sucks he didn't get much of a chance.

I am another Knox fan, thought that he was used well early on but by the end of his WWE career he didn't help himself by getting so out of shape.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

I am another Knox fan, thought that he was used well early on but by the end of his WWE career he didn't help himself by getting so out of shape.

I always find it a bit odd when people comment about someones shape in wrestling.

People can add girth to help seperate them from other superstars, while remaining fit enough to wrestle a match. I seem to remember Fatu from the late 80's early 90's being a built guy, by the time he became The Sultan in the mid 90's he had added the girth, and in the height of Attitude became Rikishi, who was one of the most over guys in the company, and had a very unique look to him.

 

[Troy]

I always find it a bit odd when people comment about someones shape in wrestling.

People can add girth to help seperate them from other superstars, while remaining fit enough to wrestle a match. I seem to remember Fatu from the late 80's early 90's being a built guy, by the time he became The Sultan in the mid 90's he had added the girth, and in the height of Attitude became Rikishi, who was one of the most over guys in the company, and had a very unique look to him.

Shape doesn't really matter but with Knox he was in great shape and then it just looked like he became lazy when he added weight. It wasn't a case of it being his natural body shape just seemed that he stopped working out as much.