Scrap ECW as a brand, and replace it with the ECW league show

[ad21k]

Could changing the format of the ECW title make a difference to how important it is percieved?

Bascially as an idea have a championship that everyone is elgibile to win that is awarded once a year, determined by the amount of matches a wrestler wins on ECW each year. Scrap the idea of ECW as a brand and just have it as an additional show. Each week wrestlers from Raw + Smackdown are picked the face each other and earn a point for a win, all wrestlers wrestle the same amount of matches, and at the end of the year the one with the most points wins the ECW championship/trophy or whatever. Basically like a league format like is used in other sports.

What do you think, crazy idea? stupid idea? good idea? could it work? would it boost ECW's ratings?

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Simply put, bad idea. Not as to say i dont like it, but its a bad idea becuase the demogaphic WWE is striving to reach wouldnt have the first bit of a clue as to how this works. Children, and their parents who veiw the program with them as casual fans, wouldnt be able to grasp the concept, or likely wouldnt even want to.

And for the hardcore fans, it lessens the impact of the weekly program. Its like the regular season of baseball, in that a lot of matches at the beginning of the year are made seemingly useless, and a lot of matches at the END of the year will ALSO seem useless, as a lot of wrestlers will be eliminated from competition before the final weeks.

So no, bad idea. it could be done as an angle possibly, over like two months or something, but certainley not over a year.

 

[klunderbunker]

Yeah bad idea. The AWA tried something like this and it bombed really bad. People don't want a storyline dominating a show for a full year. It's just too long. Norcal nailed it that it could be ok for a shorter time frame though. The whole points system is just too mainstream sports like. Wrestling has the insanity aspect to it that makes it unlike regular sports. There's nothing sweeter than seeing someone keep getting closer and closer to a win and FINALLY getting there. Take Dreamer and Raven in ECW for instance. Raven probably beat him 50 times with Dreamer winning once. In reality, Dreamer's win would have meant nothing, but it was huge.

 

[Lee]

I also think it would be a bad idea, for another reason though. ECW is used basically as a farm show, some stay, some go. Now if you did a league for a year, how fair would that be on people who were injured/released/debuted half way through the year?

I think someone made a league of last years wins etc and CM punk was top with Matt Hardy pretty high up too.

 

[Arrynboot]

I would like to see ecw go 2 hours and all three brands shuffle the rosters to put them on an even keel, ECW needs a name change though coz its far away from being extreme

 

[KillBill]

ECW should stay the way it is til Dreamer leaves. Hes the only ecw thing left, if he does win the title, even though its nothing like it used to be, the name is still ecw. Change it after that,there will be nothing left of the original ecw.

 

[Chrisjeffers]

Scrap the Ecw theme for a WcW theme.
Its pretty much the same format... only alot more like the original!

Consider it.
Shane starts WcW... Annd uses his fathers money to buy everyone that Is famous! Otherwise.... Picking up Tna drop outs! Every now and then buying out contracts from raw and smackdown!( Just like Ted Turner)

 

[Crush1]

This idea is ridiculous. Why should the WWE scrap a brand that's gained good momentum last year with a lot of succes to change it into some sort of stupid league show? ECW is entertaining enough on its own and still get's more ratings with Jack Swagger as a champion than another show that has more hours of tv time and ''better'' wrestlers. You may be forgetting the fact that a couple of years ago wrestling fans were stating that TNA had the best roster that contained young talent. But now the tides have turned and people are talking about ECW having the most young talent. I've probably said this to smarks and marks alike for about a billion times, but I'll state it once more for you. ECW is a succesfull show that currently enjoys a lot of succes and will in the future.

 

[Tastycles]

No, bad idea. The thing is that wrestling on TV is about storylines, and if everyone faced a different opponent every week, there'd be no build whatsoever. On the other hand, if you tried to book it like a PPV wih longer matches then it would remove some of the special feelings generated by pay per view programming.

Lastly, a league wouldn't really work in wrestling, because of the immense effort just to make someone a token champion. In order for someone to become WWE Champion now, creative has to book maybe three fights: one to get a contender, one to introduce the feud and the title match itself. In reality, it could be as little as a promo and a match. Compare that to a league with, say, 20 wrestlers. If each guy fought everyone else once, you'd end up with 190 matches to book, the majority of which would have little to no bearing on the development of wrestler characters.

Finally, you have to realise that it would be impossible for everyone to stay injury free for a year, so the competition would be hampered greatly by that, and is the reason why most singles sports events are of single elimination format, rather than a league.

 

[Pimpin]

I wouldn't really scrap the brand. Just rename it to something else once Dreamer leaves cause when he leaves ECW will offically be dead for good anyways. I'd name it something to possibly as a play off of WCW or TNA if they feel like it. I don't think having a league would work cause I think there would be more injuries which hampers the competition greatly & the process of getting a gimmick over would take longer than it does now.

 

[Benjaminfan27]

I definitely agree with norcal in saying that this could only work in the short-run and with only five or six of the top guys. Guys like Henry, Finlay, Swagger, Christian, etc... Any low card guy wouldn't generate the views. Maybe over five weeks each guy wrestles one who they haven't faced and the top two get a extreme rules match for the title. That way they could call it a true ECW tournament. The way it is now they might as well call it FCW or OVW because it is nothing more than a farm brand.

On a side note, I think they should change the name,ECW, but only after Dreamer leaves.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

In the very least, the Brand name needs to be changed. Vince lured in ECW fans of old into his product with the hopes of seeing the original ECW resurrected. Obviously, it never happened, and they didn't stick around to watch what the show has become.

So, you mine as well call the show something else now, since it is anything but Extreme. Of course, they make it a point not to even call it "Extreme" anymore, since they know what a joke it is implying that. But still, the ECW initials stand for something.

 

[Azamuth]

I have to agree that this wont be the best of ideas. The thing is this, if you host a tourney for a year people might have their feuds interrupted or during that year someone might get fired or injured and that throws the whole thing off. I must agree that if it got a 2 hr spot on lets just say Wednesday then a WcW idea sounds better to me. However, I just think if such a thing existed it should be 1hr Raw, 1 hr Smackdown w/ ECW roster absorbed into both brands. Once Dreamer leaves I do hope they kill ECW and make it a once a year PPV but... thats just my 2 cents.