Several weeks ago, when PWInsider.com broke the news that WWE would be reviving Extreme Championship Wrestling, fans around the world went ballistic with their hopes that it could be as special as the company that once shocked and changed the wrestling world from a Bingo Hall in Philadelphia. With Sabu, The Sandman, Francine, and others signed to contracts, fans were hopeful that it could either be the ECW of old (not likely) or some kind of alternative to the flat feeling of Smackdown and Raw where cartoon characters and vignettes, not wrestling, are the flavor of the menu.
It started strong, with Joey Styles' (whatever happened to him?) excellent rant against sports-entertainment. From there, it sputtered downward, to the point the same fans who were running around all excited and anxious for June 11th to get here so they could see ECW One Night Stand are now shaking their heads and wishing they weren't going to the show.
WWE issued a press release several weeks back that they were going to take ECW global, shoot it differently, and provide a different form of entertainment, allowing their fans to have not two, but three unique brands to choose from. So, how come there is nothing unique about this new ECW yet? How come WWE has done nothing to build this brand.
Don't believe me? Let’s look at ECW One Night Stand first!
THE GRUDGE MATCH WITH NO BABYFACES
Mick Foley and Edge attack Tommy Dreamer, who pops up on TV with no explanation at all and no reason for fans to actually care about him, since the last time he was on TV, he was powerbombed through a flaming table a year ago. Foley and Edge then lay out Terry Funk, who at least the fans cared about since they beat him down in his home State. Paul Heyman got Edge to agree to a match at One Night Stand, and since then, Foley has been going back and forth with...Kurt Angle for the last two weeks?
That's a dream match in many ways, but isn't Foley wrestling Dreamer and Funk? You know, Tommy Dreamer, the guy who is the heart and soul of ECW? Well, why is he treated like he's Cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch by WWE? Wouldn't it make sense to explain why Dreamer wants to defend ECW, much less get revenge for getting punked out on television, especially when he's the ONE PERFORMER in the match that will be part of the new ECW brand?
Now, I can see WWE apologists explaining it away as that ECW fans will know these characters. Well, if you are truly building a brand, wouldn't you want, say, all the fans to want to care about Tommy Dreamer and Terry Funk? Wouldn't you want fans to know the history of Mick Foley with those two? No, it's more important to trot out the Hardcore title, a belt meant to mock ECW's Hardcore matches, and confuse the fans by creating an issue between Kurt Angle and Foley, who aren't wrestling on the PPV.
Meanwhile, WWE has a match with no babyfaces, just two guys who got beat up and have yet to explain why they want vengeance. Think about it: You have a tag match to sell for a PPV this weekend, yet none of the babyfaces, including Terry Funk, one of the greatest promo guys ever in wrestling, has had one segment, one interview to explain what they are going to do to Edge and Foley, much less why they want to do it!
THE ECW MATCH WITH NO ECW STARS
Kurt Angle is drafted to ECW, which is great on paper, because he's one of the best in-ring talents this generation will ever see. Angle shows a ton of aggression and it's pushed that he's going to have an open challenge for anyone in a 4, 6, or 8 sided ring. Fans are buzzing if WWE is going to bring in Daniel Puder, or maybe toss Sylvester Turkay in there. Could it be a TNA guy jumping? No, it's Randy Orton, who is awarded for his suspension with an immediate PPV payday.
The only problem is, well, actually, there's a ton of problems here. One, why is Kurt Angle in ECW when he was the one trying to ruin the show a year ago? WWE Creative doesn't want you to pay attention to that. Just ignore it because, uh...Oh yeah, it's that new vision of ECW. I'll get to that in a minute.
Of course, why is Randy Orton on a PPV for a company that he never had a thing to do with, wrestling another guy who has no reason to want to wrestle for ECW in the first place? You can make a case for both Edge and Angle being there, because from an ECW fans' point of view, they carry the type of work ethic and heart that ECW fans want to see. Worse still, Orton got more mic time last night than ANY talent that is supposed to be part of this "new brand."
So now, ECW fans, who paid (at minimum) $100-$250 for tickets on Sunday, get to watch a glorified Smackdown bout. Does anyone in WWE get that the reason fans want ECW back in the first place is because they don't enjoy what they are getting on Raw and Smackdown? If so, why are you booking that match on an ECW PPV?
THE ICON? OF WHAT?
WWE hires Sandman, the Extreme Icon of ECW, whose ring entrance was the highlight of last year's PPV. Yet, as of this writing, we are five days away from the PPV...without one mention of his name, one attempt to market who he will be wrestling, or even a promo to explain who in the world he is. No, he shows up, looking like one of a bunch of thugs and proceeds to cane the brim of John Cena's hat. No match, no explanation, just, “Hey, it’s the Sandman.” This explains to the audience they should care about him, why? You can insert every other former ECW star who was hired and ask the same question. Why should fans care about them? Beats me! At least Sabu got a music video.
HEAD FOR THE HILLS, IT’S VELOCITY!
Of course, then we get to last night’s beating of John Cena. While WWE may see it as Cena threw down first, so ECW laid him out, it came off like a bunch of nobodies just beat the hell out of the WWE champion, because that's what WWE has portrayed the ECW stars as...a bunch of nobodies. In fact, they are worse than just nobodies. They are nobodies who run at the first sight of Big Show, Trevor Murdoch, Matt Striker, and Lance Cade hitting the ring.
Think about it - Sabu and Terry Funk are running away from the guys who can't get a win on Velocity? Yes, that will certainly make the average fan want to turn into Sci Fi every Tuesday. If WWE ever actually tells the fans that ECW will be on Sci Fi, that is.
Perhaps WWE will remember to do that, when they finally get over this grand new vision they have for the new Extreme Championship Wrestling. Now, let’s discuss that farce.
THE FALSITY OF A NEW ECW VISION
There is a new vision of ECW - it's called Raw with Vampires.
WWE keeps throwing around all the cool buzz words that they want to get over with their corporate stockholders when it comes to launching their version of Extreme Championship Wrestling. sports-entertainment, new vision, etc. etc.
There's only one problem with this new vision of ECW. None of the fans who WWE wants to, you know, actually watch and support ECW, want a new vision. They just want their ECW, the way they liked it. What a concept, eh?
I don't mean the way ECW used to be, either. It's not that fans want a never-ending nostalgia run of ECW. They don't even want the same old talents, beyond a few hardcore legends. All the fans want is the old ECW work ethic packaged in a way they can watch, attend, and support. They want biting drama and emotion. They want one hour a week and when ECW is in town, three hours a night, where they can go and love wrestling the way they used to - by seeing guys go all out and enjoy themselves and play off the energy of the fans. To those fans, ECW was a home team. To the wrestlers of that company, it was home, which is why they all still romanticize about it, even those who were owed large sums of money when ECW died.
All true wrestling fans want is a chance to watch the new roster do their thing. WWE would rather throw out the "new vision" phraseology as a way to mask the truth, which is that this won't be ECW as anyone knew it before or as anyone who saw it previously truly wants it. Let's call a spade a spade and not beat around the bush - this new ECW is going to be a glorified extension of Raw and Smackdown, playing off the old ECW name. That's it. WWE has done nothing to show anyone otherwise, nor will they do so, because that’s the best they can come up with under their current creative regime. While Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer might be involved in the process, it’s obvious that they don’t hold the cards or the power, because neither of them would allow ECW to be treated this way.
HOW TO LAUNCH A NEW WRESTLING COMPANY: THE MCMAHON WAY
Now, before anyone throws up the words I'm just bitter that it's not the old ECW, the truth is that this shouldn't be the old ECW. I wrote a long, long column about that weeks ago. That ECW is dead. From a business perspective, it failed. From an artistic perspective, it was never anything but a complete success. All WWE has to do is follow that motif, package it the way WWE does with their other projects, and let it run. So why is WWE launching ECW from a half-assed perspective?
First, let's ignore the obvious - Vince McMahon going on his website and demeaning and downplaying ECW’s history and fan base, the same fans that resurrected the company by shocking the world with the sales of the Rise and Fall of ECW documentary.
No, let’s get right into the marketing of this new ECW itself.
What was the big storyline to bring back ECW? Oh wait, there wasn't one. "Hey Mick, you know ECW's coming back, right?" said Paul Heyman. Yep, that was it. That was the big dramatic moment. It rates really high on the scale of drama in WWE’s world, right under the time the Godfather and his Hos popped up to keep Viscera from getting engaged to Lillian Garcia.
How about that WWE vs. ECW special that will air this Wednesday. Well, it sure was good to see a bloody John Cena challenge Sabu to a singles match after Sabu put Cena through a table during the first segment on Raw, right? Oh wait, that didn't happen. Not even on WWE.com’s Unlimited! No, the big dramatic announcement there was a posting on WWE.com, as opposed to announcing it on the flagship series, Raw. That will sure help fans find out about that match, and certainly was far less important than the lone mention of a 20 Man Battle Royal where ECW stars can be faceless performers against a sea of faceless WWE stars. It’s only the WWE champion, after all.
Of course that special could go a long way towards launching ECW’s new TV series. Hey, how about that ECW TV series on Sci Fi, anyway, right? Yes, it sure was cool to see all those promos announcing it, eh? Yep, you got the picture. No promos. No mention. I just hope the next thing on the list isn’t, “No ratings.”
The line that WWE will pass out internally is that creatively (it always goes back to creative), they aren’t far enough along in their storylines to promote these things. I call Bullsh**. The problem is that, much like every other brand WWE will be running, ECW will be held under the scrutiny of Vince McMahon and his creative team and this will be his vision of what he thinks ECW should be. It will have the same haphazard builds and illogical plotline holes that Raw and Smackdown do, because it’s all coming from the same source.
ECW is going to be everything that the original ECW revolted against, unless things change now. It’s not too late for WWE to realize they’re going about this the wrong way. All it will take is one person, Vince McMahon, to admit that just because his way has made him a ton of money, doesn’t mean another way can’t make him that money as well. It's going to fall on McMahon as to whether he lets the golden goose lay him the eggs, or whether he has it rubbed out, gangland execution style. He's already going down the path to the latter.
Yes, It’s possible things will be different a month from now and everyone is celebrating the new ECW, raining praise upon it.
However, it’s also very possible that ECW could very well become the XFL of 2006 – with Vampires!
