Turn The ECW Title Into A Pure Title

[Y 2 Jake]

Of sorts anyway. The title is worthless. The sad thing is that the title was more important around Bobby Lashley and McMahon is probably the best champion it's seen. It's pretty sad but those are the fact. So why not just have the title as a wrestling title? Punk is the champion, and not a very credible one at that. But he's an excellent wrestler, despite what a lot of people say. And ECW also has some of WWE's best wrestlers, especially with them sharing Smackdown talent. So waht I think would be a decent idea would be to have it as a title for pretty much all the underused, good talent. People might say that Carlito is underused. Yeah probably. But he sucks. I'm talking about all the lighter wrestlers and all the mid card wrestlers who cant get a look in.

It doesn't matter if these wrestlers never get the belt, or if they progress after their feud with the champ. The sole purpose would be to go out and have a great match. WWE have nothing to lose by putting Punk in a feud with Jamie Noble. If they go out and have a great match then the fans will eventually start to care about them. Nobody gives a shit about Charlie Haas, but if you gave him 15 on a PPV and let him have a match however he wanted then he would impress.

I also don't see the problem with allocating 15 minutes per PPV to these matches. I'm not saying the title is worth of being defended at Mania or Summer Slam. But on the 'B' shows there is always 15 minutes of filler. Why not fill it with something that might be good?

 

[TheOneBigWill]

Of sorts anyway. The title is worthless. The sad thing is that the title was more important around Bobby Lashley and McMahon is probably the best champion it's seen. It's pretty sad but those are the fact.

Unfortunately, thats the truth. Bobby Lashley got the biggest run with the Championship, short of the Big Show. And I don't see Big Show being advertised in anything with W.W.E. anymore.

I wish they'd make the Championship more credible through keeping it on someone & pushing them as a legit Champion. C.M. Punk would rank about 3rd or 4th on the list of being somewhat credible, but who has he defeated to earn that?

So why not just have the title as a wrestling title? Punk is the champion, and not a very credible one at that. But he's an excellent wrestler, despite what a lot of people say. And ECW also has some of WWE's best wrestlers, especially with them sharing Smackdown talent. So waht I think would be a decent idea would be to have it as a title for pretty much all the underused, good talent.

Would you expect them to change the entire name of the Championship? Personally, I think its crap that they use the Extreme Championship Heavyweight Title, when that entire brand doesn't even know what the word "extreme" means.

But due to its (fading) credibility, thats why they continue to use it. So, would you keep the name the same, or change it?

People might say that Carlito is underused. Yeah probably. But he sucks. I'm talking about all the lighter wrestlers and all the mid card wrestlers who cant get a look in.

I think Carlito could advance his career & his skills in E.C.W., the only thing is, a lot of athletes see that brand as the W.W.E.'s version of HeAT, so noone wants to be on it. Whereas, to me.. if I was a midcard wrestler, I'd love getting the chance to switch shows & become a Main Eventer.

It doesn't matter if these wrestlers never get the belt, or if they progress after their feud with the champ. The sole purpose would be to go out and have a great match. WWE have nothing to lose by putting Punk in a feud with Jamie Noble. If they go out and have a great match then the fans will eventually start to care about them. Nobody gives a shit about Charlie Haas, but if you gave him 15 on a PPV and let him have a match however he wanted then he would impress.

I would still NOT give any random midcard athlete a push. I'd want someone who could have a decent gimmick to get the nod. And Charlie Haas to me, is just stale. He might be on par with the likes of Shelton Benjamin, or better in some cases, but his charisma levels are matching that of Steve Blackman.

Personally, I'd love to see Jamie Noble, or especially Kenny Dykstra. Did you see the couple matches Punk & Dykstra had? They were amazing to me, & would be so much better with more time given to them.

I also don't see the problem with allocating 15 minutes per PPV to these matches. I'm not saying the title is worth of being defended at Mania or Summer Slam. But on the 'B' shows there is always 15 minutes of filler. Why not fill it with something that might be good?

I'd personally rather see a 15 minute wrestling match with Punk v. Dykstra, or Morrison.. than see a pure filler spot with Khali & Hornswoggle. I think they could easily put on a match of the night at the likes of Summerslam, Survivor Series, or even an opening match at Wrestlemania. Honestly, I loved the 8 man Tag Team match at Wrestlemania 23.. just imagine what Punk could do, in a ladder match, or pure one-on-one match with someone with equally great or better talent.

 

[Novakane487]

I think WWE should make the ECW title the equivalent of the X-Division title from TNA. Have only guys that can put on great matches compete for the title. Guys like Punk, Burke, Benjamin, Morrison, Dykstra, Wang, and others similar to these guys. Please don't ever put the title on someone like Big Daddy V or Mark Henry because then the title becomes useless. Lashley was a good choice because he could work and looked like he should be a champ. I think the guy who will make the belt look best is Benjamin because he has the look and ability to put on great matches. Just stick Benjamin with a manager that runs his mouth and there you go.

 

[fearthereaper]

They need to just drop the ECW title from exsistance. There is no ECW tag champions, they are shared with Smackdown, so why have two world champions on the same show? The title itself has become lower than the IC and US title. Or put the title around a potential world title contender and have a title unification match like they did with the WCW and WWE title.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

Personally, I could see them getting rid of the "ECW" name, giving it a more brand associated name like Raw/Smackdown/Heat/Velocity....as ECW isn't its own league like WWE or TNA, so why bother? I like the idea of using "the C-show" as a testing grounds, though, so I wouldn't change that. Send the guys over that need to be moved up from one section to another, as well as some new guys and some old guys that won't amount to anything (like Kane and Chavo are doing). As far as the title goes, don't get rid of the title per-say, just convert it into a TV title. Make it so the C-show uses talent from all shows and anybody is eligible to win the TV title, which is the top of the brand, but is defended on all 3 shows at all times (though you need to make sure you don't just play it for laughs like the Hardcore title was. Thusly, it can't be "falls count anywhere".) In the end, we'd have the very top title (WWE championship), the second best of the top titles (WHC), and then we'd hit the upper midcard (TV title), equalized midcard (IC & US), and then ONE tag team championship as I don't see why we should have 2 or 3 if there's only like 5 tag teams.

 

[TheTruNoLimit]

I think the ECW Title is fine. Granted, when it first started, things were different because they were pushing the brand and certain superstars.

Of course, it started with RVD, and you couldn't say the ECW title was a lesser title, because RVD was both ECW and WWE Champion simultaneously.

Then it went to the Big Show, a guy who had been a two-time WWE Champion before ever winning the ECW strap. People criticized WWE for having Big Show defend it against guys from Raw and Smackdown! and not even his own brand-mates, but it was incredibly smart on WWE's part. Big Show beating Ric Flair, Kane, Undertaker, and Batista was much more important in setting Show up as the most dominant champion in WWE than having him go over anybody in ECW would've. Plus, it built the entire angle with Sabu to finally get a few shots. And, don't forget, Big Show was put into the McMahon's angle with DX, and he was represented in Champion of Champions Triple Threat with Cena and Booker.

When Lashley won it, it started to turn into a more mid-card title, as it was essentially a glorified U.S. Title what with Lashley fueding with Raw's own mid-card title holder, Umaga, at the time. BUT, the long feud with Vince kept the ECW Title as a VERY IMPORTANT part of WWE programming. Vince won the belt, but once upon a time he also won the WWE belt. Lashley gets it back and is then stripped of it.

However, the real decline of the title started with John Morrison. And this isn't because Morrison sucks, he's great on the contrary, but he went from doing absolutely nothing to being a Heavyweight Champion of a brand (OK, so WWE was in a tough spot, we all know it would've went to Benoit). Then the LONG feud with CM Punk, and eventually Punk losing it to Chavo.

BUT, of all the ECW Champions in the WWE; RVD, Big Show, Lashley, John Morrison, CM Punk, and now Chavo; I can honestly say that 4 of the 6 looked credible in there with main eventers from the other brands! CM Punk didn't look out of place at all in there with Edge. I think the Chavo one is the most troubling because in his peak he was a contender for the US Title, and he never even won a mid-card title, and unlike the others, Chavo looks VERY out of place with main eventers from the other brands.

This could all change at Wrestlemania with Kane!

 

[enigmaticdude]

Actually, I would have to agree with you on that. The ECW championship has lost a lot of its prestige. It had more of that when ECW wasn't part of the WWE and its own brand. Right now I am seeing the ECW championship as the WWE Hardcore Championship because Thats basically what it is. To win it, you are in an "extreme rules" match. That is essentially a regular hardcore match. The WWE has to first put ECW on a better network, like USA for it to have some more viewers, then the WWE should extend the show by an hour because right now, its just like watching Sunday Night Heat or Velocity. Then The WWE should let ECW be on its own but still fund behind the scenes as part of the WWE. And finally, ECW should have more wrestlers on the roster therefore making any title hunt more important because there will be more contenders for the title. If the WWE could pull all of this off, then the ECW championship may finally gain more prestige. But of course, lets all come to the realization that the WWE will never do that. Please do make the ECW championship more prestigious because ECW needs this.

 

[Total Impact]

The ECW title never had prestige. I mean there won't be any ECW hall of famers anytime soon. The ECW title is what it is on the same level as the US & IC titles if not below them as the WWE since Booby Lashley was traded to Raw in the past storylines and the "Benoit Thing" stopped carrying about making the title a legit world title into a title to make younger or forgotten stars over. If the WWE wanted to make the ECW title matter, they wouldn't have put Chavo, the ECW Champion in the Royal Rumble match. They would have made a stupid battle royal instead of building a story for a match at Mania for Chavo to have a championship match. The only way for ECW title to matter is for the MITB winner to cash in the contract for that title as it makes the title worth something.

 

[Seal]

I'd love it if it was still called the ECW World Heavyweight championship, but that would cause too much confusion.

In my opinion it's a world championship, but obviously the least important the WWE has. It has a bit more prestige than the IC/US titles (particularly the IC title if you consider the road it's been going on lately)

 

[donutman]

....as ECW isn't its own league like WWE or TNA, so why bother?

Actually, ECW does a better job with a 1hr wrestling show than TNA ever did. ECW is where the future of WWE are. You got Punk (getting a major push), Burke, Kofi, Morrison, Shelton and even Colin! I like ECW because it is more of a wrestling orientated show as opposed to Raw and Smackdown. The only thing I would change is make all ECW Championship matches have extreme rules. It is called EXTREME Championship Wrestling so it wouldn't hurt to make some in there.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

Actually, ECW does a better job with a 1hr wrestling show than TNA ever did. ECW is where the future of WWE are. You got Punk (getting a major push), Burke, Kofi, Morrison, Shelton and even Colin! I like ECW because it is more of a wrestling orientated show as opposed to Raw and Smackdown. The only thing I would change is make all ECW Championship matches have extreme rules. It is called EXTREME Championship Wrestling so it wouldn't hurt to make some in there.

What I was talking about was merely the name of it, not the show itself. I actually rather like ECW outside of half of its roster (the part that doesn't matter as much, like Nunzio, Balls Mahoney, Richards, etc). What I meant by saying that they aren't their own league is that it isn't like having a new show, its just another brand. Like, it isn't WWE, ECW, and TNA...its WWE (made up of Raw, Smackdown, and ECW) and TNA. So why bother calling it something on par with "World Wrestling Entertainment" by calling it "Extreme Championship Wrestling" if there's no separation from the other rosters (which I wouldn't want by the way). I think they should just rename it to a proper brand name, even if they just shortened it to "Extreme". That way we'd have the Raw brand, the Smackdown brand, and the Extreme brand. Having it called ECW just flashes thoughts in my head that Smackdown should be called WCW. Thusly, if they changed it from ECW to a brand name, I think they should rename the top title to something along the lines of "the Extreme Heavyweight Champion".

 

[Luten]

They shouldn't make the ECW Title a pure title..that would make no sense given its name and the show it is on...in order for the title to have the meaning of the name it has however, it needs to be contested in extreme rules matches only..kinda like an upgrade to the old Hardcore Title.