The end of ECW as we know it? ....

[crymetyme]

With this ECW all-divas show next week, I started to think about whether this will be a full-time deal. We all know that ECW jumped the shark when WWE teased a hardcore comeback and presented us with the current semi-developemental watered-down ECW. But ECW and the WWE are about to jump another shark.

The original idea for SmackDown was an all women's show. May this come to fruition with ECW and the advent of WWE Superstars? I have not missed a single WWE broadcast since June 2007, not even FCW, but I can guarantee that I will stop watching ECW if and when this does happen. If it does happen, it will probably be announced at Wrestlemania that the winner of the battle royal will become undisputed women's champion, and at the draft, they will probably mention that ECW will become diva exclusive.

ECW is the lowest rated national brand in sports entertainment, but how far down can it go, apparantly much further down.

However, with the WM25 unification of the tag titles, the lack of need for having two women's titles, and the retiring of the ECW belt (maybe WWE Superstars' TV title?), there will finally be less championships in the WWE.

With 12 current ECW superstars, it won't be hard to find them new homes with 2 competing primarily on raw, 2 primarily on smackdown, ricky ortiz back to developemental, tommy dreamer retiring and the rest appearing primarily on WWE superstars. Raw and Smackdown will also improve due to a real match/segment taking place over the one divas match each show typically has. Moving the divas to ECW would be the worst thing for Sy Fy and the legacy of ECW, but the best thing for Raw and Smackdown.

Maybe It won't be as bad a thing as I see it being? Do you think that ECW would ever become a divas only show? Will it happen at the draft? Am I reading too much into the divas-only ECW? Thoughts Please.

 

[Just-Dun Biased]

ECW is the lowest rated national brand in sports entertainment, but how far down can it go, apparantly much further down.

I believe iMPACT! still is. It's a one time thing, and I love watching hot chicks wrestle, so shoot me, but it should be a good show. Its just building up the 'Mania Divas' battle royal.

 

[noriah47]

I don't know... but it could actually be the start of bringing back another famous set of initials.

Extreme Championship Wrestling died years ago. ECW was resurrected, but it was never the same. Now, here comes the next initial return- Women's Championship Wrestling... WCW!!!

The merchandising alone is an excellent reason. Logos are already set, so there's no reason to waste money on new graphic design. TNA's highest rated segments are often the Knockouts. So of course the WWE should take advantage of this!

All hail the return of WCW!

 

[bioshock]

Wouldn't be that bad IMO, if WWE invested more in women who care wrestle good, and let women get more tv time, plus maybe add a womens tag title, it really wouldn't be that bad and could add a whole new fan base IMO.

Current ECW is dead anyway, with Superstars coming who cares if ECW did go all diva. And maybe WWE and its PG crap wants to get the divas off Raw and SD? lol who knows.

 

[Sparky]

ECW, divas only? NOW THIS COULD WORK. face it, it fucks the Divas off of raw and smackdown, so the people that don't want to watch them won't have too, But it keeps them on tv for the diva fans among us.

Who knows if this happens, it might mean they will start treating the Divas seriously and we willl see some decent talent rather then a match where if you closed your eyes you could imagine it was soft porn.

 

[C.M.]

I like the idea of all the divas moving to ECW because it gives those 5-15 minutes on Raw & Smackdown that the Divas use to get could give more time to the midcard & help those wrestler in the midcard get over.
I think they're doing this ECW all-divas show next week to see how they do in ratings, if they get good ratings or better than what they're getting now, WWE might decide to go ahead & make ECW an all divas show after Wrestlemania XXV.

 

[Shadowmancer]

Oh god do you realize what you are suggesting?
A divas show would not work at all, they don't draw as well as they used to. It would be a waste of time, however if you take the Divas off of RAW and SmackDown! you are getting a huge gap in the programming and you will lose viewers, Johnny Ace tried it in WCW, they got rid of the women off of thunder and that tanked the next week.

Everyone that calls ECW a disappointment and not what it once was needs to pull their head out of their Arse because it never was going to be the same as what occurred during the 90's through to 2001. Its was always going to change to be Entertainment Championship Wrestling.

Where are your sources saying that the ECW title is getting retired? I haven't read any of those reports because they don't exist, either that or they were made up like the rumours that Christian and his wife were separating.

 

[BradTheGreat]

i was thinking that ECW could just have its name changed and be the new 'Superstars' programme seeing as there is no use of it being Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Once Dreamer retires, why would the show even be called ECW? It has no original ECW wrestlers and it certainly isnt extreme...

And changing it to the 'Superstars' programme would give people like Helms and shit an oppurtunity to be used without throwing them into a completely new programme which no one will watch.

 

[enigmaticdude]

ECW died along with the originals way back a few years ago. WWE just decided to make a one hour show on Sci-Fi replacing Velocity and Sunday Night Heat and name it ECW. If ECW really was alive, ECW would have come back on their own and not through Vince's pocket. The All Divas special Is basically just a one night thing and it doesn't mean that the WWE will be turning "ECW" into a women's show. Hopefully that is not the case, but it would be cool to see an all Diva show, as most of the divas are hot but only a few of them have talent in the ring.
To the people that thought that ECW was alive, you guys were way off. It couldn't be more dragged through the mud. Vince's ECW is not The REAL ECW. It is nothing more than what I have stated earlier. And "extreme rules" is such a joke. Every match was EXTREME in the Old ECW. WWE's take on it just isn't the same.

 

[MrLee]

I really dont see this being a permanent thing.

WWE only employes a handful of TALENTED female wrestlers, the rest are freakin garbage and more or less pure eyecandy.

I know that Gail Kim is coming in soon, but for her to carry a weekly TV show, I can't imagine that being a succes.

The WWE diva's have never proven to be a ratings draw and have never really been presented as a serious division. They tried with Bull Nakano and Alundra, but that didnt work. The average WWE fan view them as a quick fix of flesh n boobs on RAW and SD, not as something to watch for an entire hour.

I'm quite sure, that the show will draw a decent rating, but in the long run, it would fail.

My opinion anyway.....

 

[aceman43]

I could see them trying to make it go. The problem for me would be this: The 5 or 10 minutes freed up by not having divas on the flagship shows would be replaced by something worse. Like "12 Rounds" previews, recaps of the latest Triple H/Orton antics or the latest Vickie love triangle.

 

[Mjolnir]

Amen aceman43. I was thinking the same exact thing... As much as I cringe when Micki James' music hits during RAW, trying to put all of the Divas on ECW would just free up more time that WWE would waste... It is a shame that the mid-card is used so poorly, especially when it used to be my favorite (I mean back in the day with Tito Santana, Greg Valentine, Ricky Steamboat, etc), but I don't think that moving the Divas will solve that. I mean, $%^&... the best Diva that they have right now period (Natalya) is being used as a valet, ON ECW!!! Is our Tuesday night wrestling option really going to be turned into Hornswoggle chasing the Divas around?

 

[Smooth Sexual Chocolate]

I could see them trying to make it go. The problem for me would be this: The 5 or 10 minutes freed up by not having divas on the flagship shows would be replaced by something worse. Like "12 Rounds" previews, recaps of the latest Triple H/Orton antics or the latest Vickie love triangle.

I don't think anyone here needs another Who is Miles Jackson and Danny Fisher Ad.

I have to pay an Extra fifteen a month so I can enjoy my Tuesday night wrestling, I can sit through one all divas episode, I'll just pretend that the king is on commentary and he cant stop saying PUPPIES!!!

I doubt that they will keep it all divas, but if they do, it will save me an extra fifteen bucks a month.

 

[Scott Free]

Well, if Vince wants to turn WWECW into an all divas show, he should just rename it to GLOW, I think he can buy the name for cheap these days, and you can bet it will be as successful as it's name sake too....well, of course this version will be rated G so, it might not reach the high pinnacle of success the original GLOW did, but since Vince's Divas are as talented as the original GLOW gals, I don't see any reason they should not try and emulate success.


<Sarcasm Mode Off>

 

[Tuck]

Im tired of watching women's wrestling . . . its much like women's basketball . . NOT ENTERTAINING.

I'm not sexist . . . it's just a fact of life. Every RAW it's Glamorella vs. some baby face woman. It's tiring . . . Its the same crap every week. The whole Jillian Hall gig. . .terrible. . . she's disgusting and needs to be put to sleep. . . seriously. But I digress . .

Im not a fan of any Diva action. Of course I love woman on woman action, but there isn't anything to it. Turning ECW into Diva Central . . great idea! I don't watch ECW anyways . . and that means I won't have to watch it on Raw anymore.

What happened to the days where woman was a MANAGER. They need to rewind and bring that that concept. This diva shit . . . is terrible.

 

[brandogg]

Who cares, ECW has sucked ever since it was revealed that Stephanie "bought" it. It was almost legitimatized when they had Kurt Angle, RVD, and the Big Show...and Paul Heyman. Now all 4 are gone, and Tommy Dreamer will soon be gone too. They do have a couple good talents, such as Swagger and Christian, but neither one of them could be considered "extreme".

 

[orlorr85]

I think it may help the women division to get better if they have there own show. The roster of girls now are doing things that the past divas wish they could have accompliched when they started. The WWE is seeing that TNA women's division is so much better that they needed to step it up. Plus, on Heat and Velocity the main event on the shows where the divas.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Jim Ross wrote on his blog a while back,"The old ECW is is dead as we know it". He couldn't be any further from the truth. ECW has just become another WWE brand. It's being used as a devleopmenatl brand to push the new guys in WWE (CM Punk, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, Ricky Ortiz). The only person from the old ECW is Tommy Dreamer. And he's hardly ever used. The days of barb wired ropes, sick falls, and bloody matches are long gone. When Paul Heyman left, that was the final nail in the coffin for the old ECW. I mean they tried to keep ECW like it was with the real One Night Stand PPV, but that was evntually changed too. Plus the buy rates of December To Dismember didn't help either

 

[SavageTaker]

i Would prefer and all womens show.and as said before they can have the show renamed to WCW if they wanted.

But look at this in the main event they can have the following divas compete for the womens champion:

Gail Kim
Beth phoenix
Melina
Mickie james
Michelle McCool
Maryse

then the other divas could be put lower into the card and have them compete for the Diva's champion and make a stepping stone for future diva main eventers on ECW.

The main event could be centered mostly around Gail kim as the face and beth phoenix as the heel.

The lower card can be centered around Kelly kelly or candice michelle as the babyfaces against natalya or jillian as the heels.

Also they could make tiffany the GM or if/when vickie gets stale they can make her the GM.

 

[Theo Mays]

I tune in every now and then if they changed ECW to an all diva brand. It would be a new idea and I'd imagine it would work for a bit. And hell they can even keep the ECW name. Erotic Championship Wrestling

I wouldn't be surprised if the show this week was a success that they switch full time to a diva programming on Tuesday nights. Like I said it would be different and maybe just maybe WWE would be smart and work on the midcard with the time that opens up from the divas leaving Raw and SD.

 

[My$terio_Fan]

I'm soooo excited for the Diva addition of ECW! Hopefully they will be able to get a good 2-3 matches in the hour, and maybe a promo or two would be nice. While I am estatic about the show(I'm a huge diva fan), I can understand why some people won't watch.

A lot of people find the diva's hard to watch(wrestling wise)and find their matches to be boring. So a whole show of diva's might make some viewer's not even watch. But you never know this show could actually surprise us, and we want know til we get ratings for it after it airs. If it could even maintain the same rating(or only lose alittle)that would be a huge win for the Diva's, since on the regular ECW you have guys like Christian, Swagger, Dreamer, Bourne all who probably help ECW draw.

I think it's nice and neat that the WWE are actually going to dedicate an whole hour for the divas(even if it's only for one show). The Knockouts apparently draw on TNA(or at least the Beautiful People do according to reports)so who know's this could do alright.

 

[avi01]

ECW is just here for the sake of the name....don`t really have nothing to do with Heyman`s creation. It is bad and hope it goes down. Smack down is already a B brand and it seems the case will worsen with the draft. So what`s the use of that C brand....of course make room for a bunch of youngsters....it is still crap. The thing to do (other than end it) is to make another show.