MikeKillam
Pre-Show Stalwart
I was reading the 7 questions from the myspace of Tazz yesterday, and somebody asked him why he was moved from ECW to Smackdown before his contract expired. This was his response:
"See, the plan for the re-birth of ECW and for the ECW brand was for it to be on par with Raw & SD....but it just didn't have a chance because half the people in creative wanted the brand to represent what the brand use to be and the other half of the Powers That Be wanted it to be Raw or SD "LIGHT"...so it became the red headed step child in my opinion (no offense to any actual red headed step children)."
I find it very interesting that the original plan, or at least from an ECW original's perspective, was to make the show as good as Raw or Smackdown. My questions are:
1.) Do you believe WWE ever intended to make ECW a contender?
2.) What do you think would make ECW a contender today?
In answer to my own question, I definitely think that they had a plan to make ECW into much more than it is today. I look at all the talent they used on the show in its first year (Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Benoit, etc.) and I think it's a real good possibility they were trying to make it awesome. The downfall, in my opinion, was once again Vincent Kennedy McMahon. RVD was the first champion, and the show was a HUGE ratings success. The Big Show won the title, and the show was still a huge success. It wasn't exactly that Big Show was champion, it was that everybody hated him, and the tuned in to see him lose the title. The fact that Batista, Undertaker, and Rick Flair all showed up on ECW to challenge for it probably brought in some ratings as well. Bobby Lashley got the belt and was actually pretty decent. I remember liking him a bit. He actually had a good four month reign too!
The downfall was VKM. Mr. McMahon shows up on ECW after Wrestlemania (because Trump chose Lashley to beat Umaga), and decided to become the NEW ECW champion. Great...not only do we have to see him every week, but he's bastardizing the ECW way...this was about the time that rules started changing, extreme matches went out the window, and fans stopped caring. McMahon held a world title for almost THREE months. How does that even happen? When Lashley won it back, the roof exploded...but then it was vacated a week later...
After that, most of the major talent was gone from ECW. There were a few guys here and there, but most of the stars were developmental. The thing that made it great was that EVERY champion had at least 2 or 3 months for their reign. That has been true ever since they brought back the title. Which I personally love. Enough of this World Heavyweight Hot Potato on Smackdown!
John Morrison, Chavo Guerrero, CM Punk, Kane, etc. These were the next champions...in their own right they are all very gifted superstars, but at the time they were not who people wanted to see. Would you tune in to watch Chavo defend the title against CM Punk, or would you rather watch Smackdown! where Undertaker defends his title against Edge...? I'm not saying that guys like Cena, Triple H, HBK are always the solution. You can get pretty sick of them...but they do bring ratings. And ratings make VKM happy. And when he's happy, things stay exactly the same.
In order to make ECW a contender again, I really think some big names should stay on the brand. They were going good for awhile, with some rising ratings with Finlay, Christian, Tommy Dreamer, Mark Henry, and Swagger all going at it... but now 3 of them are gone!?! Shelton Benjamin is great, but he's not going to make me watch ECW.
If they ever really wanted to make it a good brand again, I think they need to send Big Show back over. He's not doing anything anyway...MVP would have made a great contender, and him going over Big Show would have pushed him to where he needs to be.
But it's a developmental show. And that's ok with me I guess. We have some really good wresling on occasion, but if this week was an indication of things to come, I'm pretty much done. Christian and Shelton are the only 2 guys left that I care about. They don't even have the Hart Dynasty any more to have Edge and Jericho come over... that would have brought some ratings...
"See, the plan for the re-birth of ECW and for the ECW brand was for it to be on par with Raw & SD....but it just didn't have a chance because half the people in creative wanted the brand to represent what the brand use to be and the other half of the Powers That Be wanted it to be Raw or SD "LIGHT"...so it became the red headed step child in my opinion (no offense to any actual red headed step children)."
I find it very interesting that the original plan, or at least from an ECW original's perspective, was to make the show as good as Raw or Smackdown. My questions are:
1.) Do you believe WWE ever intended to make ECW a contender?
2.) What do you think would make ECW a contender today?
In answer to my own question, I definitely think that they had a plan to make ECW into much more than it is today. I look at all the talent they used on the show in its first year (Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Benoit, etc.) and I think it's a real good possibility they were trying to make it awesome. The downfall, in my opinion, was once again Vincent Kennedy McMahon. RVD was the first champion, and the show was a HUGE ratings success. The Big Show won the title, and the show was still a huge success. It wasn't exactly that Big Show was champion, it was that everybody hated him, and the tuned in to see him lose the title. The fact that Batista, Undertaker, and Rick Flair all showed up on ECW to challenge for it probably brought in some ratings as well. Bobby Lashley got the belt and was actually pretty decent. I remember liking him a bit. He actually had a good four month reign too!
The downfall was VKM. Mr. McMahon shows up on ECW after Wrestlemania (because Trump chose Lashley to beat Umaga), and decided to become the NEW ECW champion. Great...not only do we have to see him every week, but he's bastardizing the ECW way...this was about the time that rules started changing, extreme matches went out the window, and fans stopped caring. McMahon held a world title for almost THREE months. How does that even happen? When Lashley won it back, the roof exploded...but then it was vacated a week later...
After that, most of the major talent was gone from ECW. There were a few guys here and there, but most of the stars were developmental. The thing that made it great was that EVERY champion had at least 2 or 3 months for their reign. That has been true ever since they brought back the title. Which I personally love. Enough of this World Heavyweight Hot Potato on Smackdown!
John Morrison, Chavo Guerrero, CM Punk, Kane, etc. These were the next champions...in their own right they are all very gifted superstars, but at the time they were not who people wanted to see. Would you tune in to watch Chavo defend the title against CM Punk, or would you rather watch Smackdown! where Undertaker defends his title against Edge...? I'm not saying that guys like Cena, Triple H, HBK are always the solution. You can get pretty sick of them...but they do bring ratings. And ratings make VKM happy. And when he's happy, things stay exactly the same.
In order to make ECW a contender again, I really think some big names should stay on the brand. They were going good for awhile, with some rising ratings with Finlay, Christian, Tommy Dreamer, Mark Henry, and Swagger all going at it... but now 3 of them are gone!?! Shelton Benjamin is great, but he's not going to make me watch ECW.
If they ever really wanted to make it a good brand again, I think they need to send Big Show back over. He's not doing anything anyway...MVP would have made a great contender, and him going over Big Show would have pushed him to where he needs to be.
But it's a developmental show. And that's ok with me I guess. We have some really good wresling on occasion, but if this week was an indication of things to come, I'm pretty much done. Christian and Shelton are the only 2 guys left that I care about. They don't even have the Hart Dynasty any more to have Edge and Jericho come over... that would have brought some ratings...