Do you miss the concept of WWECW 2006-07?

[CM Steel]

The WWE chairman Vince McMahon was bringing back the renegade wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as a third brand in the WWE, so to speak. ECW on the SyFy network started off well. With the Big Show running like a juggernaut with the ECW championship. Bobby Lashley defeating the Big Show for the title in the first ever (and last) EXTREME Elimination Chamber match. And going into the new year with the ECW Originals Vs. the New Breed feud, making newer stars in the process.

-Elijah Burke
-Matt Striker
-Marcus Cor Von (Monty Brown)
-Kevin Thorn (with Ariel)

And of course the WWE birthplace of CM Punk.

The format was pretty well done. But does anybody really appreicate where the WWECW product was going by when that timeline in WWECW happened? Outside of when "ECW" returned. That was the main reason for that brand. So if that same concept was brought back up on RAW or Smackdown? Could it benefit the younger superstars in the WWE?

 

[The Dragon Saga]

I don't miss that brand at all. Asides from when Heyman ran the ship up until the diabolical December to Dismember Pay-Per-View, I didn't care for the brand until Christian showed up and made it entertaining to watch again. The Tommy Dreamer title run was also a pretty interesting angle and I didn't mind the Colin Delaney thing either.

However, I don't miss the brand or this "concept" you mentioned, because the "concept" was a failure if there ever was one. Look at the members of the group - Matt Striker has achieved nothing in WWE as a wrestler and has only ever prospered behind the announce table. Elijah Burke is now in TNA as D'Angleo Dinero and also achieved nothing in WWE. Monty Brown is done. Kevin Thorn is somewhere on the indies and also achieved completely nothing.

When I think about it, asides from CM Punk the ECW brand never really achieved anything - asides from two impressive buyrates which came from the ONS events and some interesting angles leading into that, but it never achieved anything and just constantly fell-and-fell until nobody cared for it anymore. It didn't do much for the younger stars either because when you look at how a guy like Zack Ryder was used on the show and to where he is now, ECW barely even got him noticed. If it wasn't for Christian show would have been dead months earlier than it eventually did.

 

[Paralyzer Z]

No not really. The ECW from June 2006 through November 2006 was awesome! every week we were getting hardcore big show vs (Insert big name here) for the ECW championship and I enjoyed it.

However the thread title states 2006-2007 ! Now here is were we get the crap that lasted form December of 06 to FEB of 09. The New breed vs the originals failed to do anything but gives us bad Raw style matches. As said by Dragon Saga none of the new breed guys accomplished anything. Then one-by-one the originals were gone, and WWECW became FCW in HD.

The only thing that I miss is the concept of a third brand champion defending his title against superstars from both Raw and Smackdown (top stars) in the main event of a third rate show.

 

[Mr. HD]

Do I miss WWECW from 2006-2007?

Paul Heyman running things.

Big Show being a Champion Juggernaut

The debut of CM Punk.

The birth of John Morrison.

The New Breed (Elijah Burke, Marcus Corvon, Matt Striker, Kevin Thorne)

The ECW Originals (Tommy Dreamer, Balls Mahoney, The Sandman, Sabu)

Extreme Expose

The idea of having a third brand to challenge RAW & SmackDown.

My answer....Yes I do.

It was something new, fresh, and when Paul Heyman was in charge, I watched it a lot more than RAW & SmackDown on some occasions. They put so much into one hour it was amazing.

Big Show would dominate week in, week out as ECW Champion beating literally everybody.

Lest we forget, the birth of John Morrison and the feud of Summer 2007 he had with CM Punk. The matches they on ECW Television were better than the matches they had on ppv.

IMO, once that feud was over, WWECW was over. I lost all interest after that. They were teasing a Boogeyman/John Morrison feud for the ECW Title which looked like it was gonna be interesting, but I guess they nixed it.

 

[IHW]

The WWECW rain showed us many new and exciting talents. CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Sheamus, Evan Bourn, Kelly Kelly, Jack Swagger and a few other. All the names i added became champions of some form in WWE.
ECW also gave us Miz and John Morrisons new attitudes.

Overall, i think WWECW served its purpose and wasnt a complete waste of time, and i do kinda miss it because it was 10 times better than NXT..... and it gave me more to wrestling to watch.

And I do think, if the format is brought back right, and done right, it could benifit the younger talent.

 

[theonerandom]

If they brought back a 3rd real show, I'd call it something different and not ECW b/c ECW in WWE was never the real hardcore it was back in the day. Throwing a chair into the match doesn't make it hardcore especially now with the no bleeding policy or w/e b.s. they have going on.

I would call the 3rd show something different even call it Nitro so people would watch stupidly thinking it was a WCW revamp. I would not put a single mid-card/upper-mid card/main event on the show and would ONLY feature lower mid-card talent as well as the developmental guys. Basically Justin Gabriel would be the champion and he'd be built up and run the show until he went to Raw/Smackdown and then the next lower guy stepped up to the plate and picked up the show and so on to SLOWLY build up guys to give people a reason to care about them not just having a stupid reality show that no one cares about.

 

[Fireball93]

I do miss it. I miss the WWECW when the area was ECW style. When the entrance was out that door things instead of a ramp. As soon as they had the ramp and giant screen and got rid of the one extreme rules match per night, it was garbage. Maybe not garbage, but not what it was. When it at least resembled the feel of original ECW, it was awesome. Had they kept it up that way it might still be on. But calling it ECW and not having anything hardcore or underground about it, big mistake.

 

[EastCoastFan]

WWECW was doomed from the get-go. ECW was anti-establishment, and you can't have an anti-establishment company when it's owned by Vince McMahon.

When they announced the re-launch of ECW, fans rejoiced and had expectations that it would be just like the old days. For a while it was, then RVD and Sabu got busted, Paul Heyman left and it all just fell apart after that. In some ways, they would have been better off calling the new brand anything other than ECW. I understand why they did it (brand recognition), but WWECW was like New Coke - it wasn't what people wanted.

 

[crazyeddie42]

I loved WWECW. It was a great place for new guys to show their talents. The only reason it was saddled as a failure was because it was called ECW. Give it a different name and it wouldn't be ragged on so much.

 

[hjq0023]

They f'd it up when they drafted Morrison and the ultimate face of ECW CM Punk...punk was the perfect face for the ECW brand. Punk and Morrison were perfect materials for ECW brand

 

[One to Remember]

I miss the ecw brand because it adhered to the concept of the brand exstention. On raw and smackdown it started off pretty segregated but after awile guys from the other show would start making randon unsanctioned appearences like today.

Wwe cant even justify two top championships anymore because tbe brands are just shows like when they started. The closest thing to what WWE is doing is i guess in mma or boxing were you will sometimes have an interim champ. WWE can no longer justify the unjustifiable and have two world champions. With the ECW there was a seperate lineage and brand business stay on scifi alone.

When ECW brand started out it had maineventers in its main event. The ECW title and champion were on par with their WWE counterpart(s), and the guy with the briefcase actually took ECW seriously. ECW served as a third option for the guy who got lost in the shuffle because of a massive roster. WWE was alowed to be in three places at once if ECW was permitted a serious tour.

I cant help but winder what a long benoit title reign would had brought to the table..

All the guys that excelled as ECW champs no longer list that title as an accolade. Its as if it was retroactively downgraded..

Morrison, CM, Christian, Zeke, Henry, Show, even Dreamer all shined as brand champs there.

 

[byrnside]

Absolutely not. Truth be told I don't even really miss the original ECW from the mid to late '90s and I was a pretty big fan of it. With the exception of a special occasion, hardcore wrestling is just something that no longer interests me. Looking back Paul Heyman was an absolute genius as a booker. He took so many guys that really weren't very talented and ran with them.

As far as the WWECW era is concerned I definitely don't miss that. The few good points a lot of you have brought up had very little to do with the fact that the up and coming stars were on ECW. They could've just as easily been on Superstars or Smackdown and most of them were/are. The fact is that C.M. Punk, Christian and John Morrison became "stars" because of ECW is just wrong. The fact is that these guys have a lot of talent [with the exception of Morrison's mic skills] and they would have more than likely made it big anyway. The Big Show should still be that monster he was in WWECW, it's the best way to book him, the same is true for Mark Henry.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I do not miss WWE's ECW at all. They never needed a third brand and it was doomed to fall into obscurity from day one. They were never that "extreme" other than a few moments the first year it was around such as the Extreme Elimination Chamber. When it turned into a place for new stars to be created it became even more pointless because anything done there could just as easily have been done on Heat or on Velocity if they brought that back. In my opinion they never needed a third brand and they clearly learned from that mistake. Any further "New Talent Initiative" type of events can be done through NXT or on Smackdown since most of the guys from the blue brand are appearing on Raw now.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

If we were talking about ECW other than 2006-2007, then it was good because you got good matches and they let the young guys develop before moving them to Raw or Smackdown. WWECW started off dreadful and really suffered when Kurt Angle went to TNA and that Benoit guy. Superstars can be what ECW was before it went away but I don't know if Vince really cares to be honest.

 

[RudoReels]

They f'd it up when they drafted Morrison and the ultimate face of ECW CM Punk...punk was the perfect face for the ECW brand. Punk and Morrison were perfect materials for ECW brand

Their feud was epic and Punk was OVER.

I made a DVD comp of it

Morrison hasn't done much worth noting since...


I'll say it yet again.. Punk brings out the best in everyone, somehow. Everyone steps up their game. Even Morrison's promos were decent.


Side note, I wish people would stop calling it WWECW. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!