WWECW - Dont Believe the Hype

[Hardcore Heathen]

Some of you Original ECW Fans may get my Title/Reference

So the Title says it all

Did WWECW Live up to your Expectations?

What were your Expectations?

What Caused WWECWs Demise?

Was there a Point Which could have made WWECW Better?


There was a Point Where i thought that WWECW Had a Bright Future. This point was the 2007 Draft. Most Should know that Benoit was set to win the ECW Title at the PPV After being drafted to the ECW Brand. I thought "Sweet! Things are Looking up!" but Guess what? He commits Sucide which in my Opinion, Caused WWECWs Death (lol).

What about you Guys?

 

[SarahGavins]

I think in the PG era..WWECW didn't have a chance. It would have been great to use "extreme rules" for the whole show in every match.

 

[ANT1GOTH]

So the Title says it all

Did WWECW Live up to your Expectations? Not really, I mean the first year or so it did because of who was on the show but after a couple of years it just bored me.

What were your Expectations? I was expecting a show for mid-carders. I knew their would be no way the old ECW would be able to make a comeback in the PG-era

What Caused WWECWs Demise? Probbaly how they didn't have alot of eye catching superstars on the program.

Was there a Point Which could have made WWECW Better? I also agree with you. If Benoit would have won the ECW belt, the brand would have gotten alot more attention from the other WWE Universe.

 

[The Suplexer Perfecter]

Oh how I'm sick of people complaining about WWE's ECW.

ECW on SyFy had good wrestling, at one point more wrestling time than TNA Impact.

It had new, fresh stars who have done pretty good on Raw and Smackdown since.

It showed (exposed) the ECW originals not being able to work a regular match. Some regular singles matches with Sandman, Sabu, Balls Mahoney were horrible.

We got the debut of CM Punk and his nice feud with the New Breed and good matches with Elijah Burke and others.

You had Johnny Nitro become John Morrison, and eventually team with The Miz where Miz eventually Broke out.

Had the debuts of Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger.

You had Christian's return with his good matches with Swagger, his ladder match with Shelton Benjamin is another great example.

People also should give credit for Big Show as ECW champion since he worked his ASS OFF. He had a ton of extreme rules matches, and practically bled every week. I bet that contributed to him taking time off.

The only criticism I see from people is that it wasn't "hardcore". Well so what? It did have good wrestling, and it hard hardcore matches once in a while from 06 to 08.

 

[Defekt]

Did WWECW Live up to your Expectations?

Not even close.

What were your Expectations?

That it would be similar to the old ECW, a mixture of hardcore and technical wrestling, held in small venues.

What Caused WWECWs Demise?

Rob Van Dam getting busted for weed, and Kurt Angle leaving the WWE probably started the downward spiral.

Was there a Point Which could have made WWECW Better?

Not really. WWE made it too much like the other brands. At the very least, they should have had all new wrestlers on the brand, and used ECW to build those guys, instead of booking it as an inferior version of Smackdown and Raw.

 

[info62]

WWECW was doomed from the start as far as being as "hardcore" as the original. I was never expecting anything more than a resurgence of old faces in an attempt by WWE to gain some of the old ECW audience. I didn't really ever expect anything more than that.

The death of it being the third brand was imo in 2008. And it isn't because of PG. It was the draft of that year. WWE showed how little care they had for the brand by drafting the ECW champion, Kane, off the show. I might be wrong about this but I think Punk was also drafted from ECW that night, and he was MITB at the time. WWECW was killed in this draft. I'm pretty sure the only pick they got on TV was Matt Hardy.

Everything was downhill from there.

 

[GameOver]

First off let me start by saying this has already been argued alot of times if you bothered to search

Secondly if it wasn't for WWE ECW would have died along time b4 the wars were over and fault lies entirely on Paul Heyman's pig headedness and WCW raping them of talent, least WWE shared talent with them.

WWE kept the dead horse alive to please a small portion of the crowd despite not believing in it, so don't turn this into a WWE bashing thread.

nonetheless, it's obvious it didn't. It was just a developmental brand, that did get a few great talents over, but only thing remotely similar to ECW was the name and the occsional hardcore match plus the addition of a couple of the original ECW guys and gals hanging around.

They were never gonna be as hardcore as the original, at that point they were already well on there way to the mostly PG era that we have had til the past year. Saying that, it didn't need to be either, ECW had a small cult following comparitively and recreating how it was run was not going to boost WWE and for all you know the networks didn't want to have anything to do with a brand based on the original ECW, plus the majority of people watching wouldn't have had a clue what ECW even was other then name they ere just watching a WWE live show that was on before RAW or Smackdown tapings whichever it was.

Lastly Vince didn't create it so he wanted nothing to do with it, and there's nothing wrong with that mind set. Not necessarily good for business but also no point flogging a horse that was already dead, if he wanted to keep a brand alive it should've been to keep the WCW going as a seperate entity, that would've been far better for business.

 

[EastCoastFan]

The problem WWECW always had was that it was called ECW - but it was nothing like the ECW fans remembered. If they had called the new brand almost ANYTHING other than ECW, it would have had a better chance of working.

Once they called in ECW, the fans had certain expectations of what it would be - and it became very clear very early on that this was ECW in name only. This was "WWE presents ECW" and that was its downfall. ECW was an anti-establishment company - and you can't have an anti-establishment wrestling show run by Vince McMahon.

For it to work, Vince would have had to step back and let Paul Heyman work his magic - which was never going to happen, as Vince is a Type-A hands-on control freak. Add to this the fact that Stephanie McMahon never liked Paul Heyman (and may have worked against him) and you can see why WWECW never had a chance.

The fans wanted the ECW they knew and loved and Vince tried to give them something else. No matter how good or bad it was, it wasn't what they considered ECW and was never going to succeed.

 

[GameOver]

Was there a Point Which could have made WWECW Better? I also agree with you. If Benoit would have won the ECW belt, the brand would have gotten alot more attention from the other WWE Universe.

Kurt Angle wasn't a big enough selling point? if that didn't put it over the top nothing would've

and Benoit was going to be champion which would no doubt kept it going longer but well we all know how that turned out.

it wouldn't have changed the fact that they were only keeping the brand alive to please a small segment of the crowd and gearing it towards using it as a doorstep for new stars to get air time b4 being called upto smackdown and raw and as i said in that respect it worked.

Sheamus, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, John Morrison, Miz, CM Punk, Ezekiel Jackson and the return of Christian all got there foot in the door of WWE TV through WWECW

 

[Iversen]

WWECW wasn't a success if you were expecting it to be like the old ECW. It was however a success at giving some of the younger/veteran talent TV time and allowing them a chance to shine. As GameOver listed there was a lot of people who started in ECW that are now major players. So in that respect yea it was a total success.

 

[Klown_Karnage]

I think that there were two major problems with WWECW. The first one was the PG era. WWECW was supposed to be extreme and the PG era very much limited the extreme element. Yes it had decent wrestling, but if a fan wanted decent wrestling, he/she could go to Raw or Smackdown for it. WWECW didn't have a selling point after the PG era took it away from this show.

The second problem was the time slot. WWECW was one hour to Raw and Smackdown's two hours each. This clearly cast it as less important than the other shows. The reduced time slot also greatly reduced the possibility of interesting stories between the wrestlers there. Yes WWECW did have some decent wrestling matches, but what did that matter unless the WWE was doing something interesting with the characters involved? I think the only reason that WWECW was able to hang on as long as it did was the fact that various wrestlers from WWECW were guesting regularly on Raw and Smackdown.

So, your questions in brief:


Did WWECW Live up to your Expectations? No. When the extreme element was largely removed, there was little point in watching it.

What were your Expectations? Extreme is in the name. I'd expected them to at least keep that element.

What Caused WWECWs Demise? I've mentioned previously what I think lead to WWECW's demise. With these two elements at work, it was only a matter of time.

Was there a Point Which could have made WWECW Better? Pretty much at the beginning. They could have given it equal time and treatment with Raw and Smackdown. If they were going to lose most of the extreme/hardcore wrestling, then they could have at least specialized in the freaks and mutants of the WWE. At least this would have been a venue for those who didn't fit into the media-approved model-type wrestlers that the WWE seems to be focusing on nowadays. If nothing else, it could have been the sideshow of the WWE three-ring circus.

 

[Slowdude]

Did WWECW Live up to your Expectations?
Didn't have any expectations of ECWWE, I didn't bother watching it until Lashley went there at the end of 2006.
What were your Expectations?
By time I started watching it, none. I heard it was garbage and for the most part it was.
What Caused WWECWs Demise?
It turned into a training ground for new talent and to keep current talent that had nothing to do on the main brands something to do. NXT originally did the same thing which is why i assume they changed to NXT.
Was there a Point Which could have made WWECW Better?
Who says there wasn't a point where ECWWE wasn't better? When Miz&Morrsion became the tag champs and with Punk & dare i say it Mark Henry & Matt Hardy as ECW Champions + the rest of the card consisting of dare i say it finlay/midget, dreamer, swagger, bourne, punk for a bit, kane for a bit and who ever else was there. Lets just say late 2007 - the draft in 2009 ECWWE was much more enjoyable then Raw/Smackdown. Then the 2009 draft kind of took away pretty much everyone on the brand and left us with Christian/Regal/Zeke/Kozlov/Yoshi Tatsu/Ryder/Shelton/Sheamus etc it was still better then Raw at the time.

Once you ignore the three letters ECW and just think of it as another WWE event is was actually quite good. Props to Todd Grisham and Matt Striker as well, they were great commentators at the time.

 

[Zigglerfan227]

The WWE ECW was awesome in my opinion. I looked forward to ECW every Tuesday night. I knew that I would get good matches, new superstars, and superstars that got overlooked. I did not grow up watching the classic ECW, however I have watched a lot of original ECW matches and I am a fan of the company. I think that it was great and was more entertaining than most of the stuff going on in the WWF at that time. I would not even dare to compare WWE's "ECW" to the classic ECW. The WWE was just using the name ECW and by 2007 or 2008 we knew that the WWE's ECW was nothing like the original thing. However, like I said I enjoyed the WWE's ECW and was very entertained by it. I don't understand why it was cancelled. Some of my favorite matches took place on WWE's ECW.

 

[ralphie9181]

I'm pretty sure if you asked any wrestling fan, not just old ECW fans, that show didn't live up to anyone's expectations. But then again, that would require you to have expectations going in. My expectation was that it was going to be terrible, and I was not proven wrong.

 

[J.J.]

Someone above tried to argue about the hour time slot of ECW on SyFy. If you remember back when original ECW aired back on TNN(good ole boy network) it was only for an hour. I was never for bringing it back. However as stated above of helped elevate wrestlers in a mainevent category. CM Punk, John Morrison(almost there), Christian, Miz and The Pope even though he is in TNA. This verision contributed to that character development. While rejuvenating longstays such as Kane, Big Show and Mark Henry as they were just fillers at the time. Until capturing ECW title Kane hadn't held heavyweight gold since KOTR '98 and even that was taken away that next night. I enjoyed seeing the newer talents vs. guys like Sabu, Tommy Dreamer and the other hacks from Paul Heyman era ECW. Id argue the Tod Gordan era waa better, considering some of the talent there then became WWE mainstays. Not sure why people were expecting more during 06-10 ECW.

 

[Vinco Menz]

I actually agree that the death of Chris Benoit was a big turning point in WWECW. With his death, there were really no credible, established stars in WWECW, which caused it to begin focusing on developing talent, turning it into almost a second FCW. Now I personally didnt mind this because I liked watching the unestsablished stars that couldnt find a place on the other shows put on amazing technical matches, but that is something that is hard to sell to the casual viewer that perfers more of the entertainment aspect of pro wrestling.

The main reason, though, that WWECW faild, though, was simply because it was named ECW. The name ECW if filled with so much history and means so much to the die hard fans that really any product put out with the name that wasnt exactly like the original would be viewed negatively. Even if the product was actually a good show of sports entertainment, it would still be bashed because it was not the ECW that people has known and loved. On top of that, ECW was not created by Vince, therefore Vince really did not care if the name was tarnished, and towards the end of the show's run probally actively tried to ruin the name. Because it was not a Vince Brainchild, he let it basically run into the ground by putting absolutely no stock into it. I honestly believe that if the show would have changed its name to something else, it would have been bashed far less by the old hardcore fans, and would have been treated better by Vince.

 

[Mr. HD]

Before I say anything, RIP Benoit.

When WWECW first started, I believe Heyman had the Russo treatment. He was in charge of storylines as long as it got the ok from Vince. I really liked it. I tuned into that more than RAW and SmackDown every week because of the amount of stuff they did inside of an hour. They opened with a great promo setting up the Main Event, and they had some solid matches, and Big Show really did a great job ECW Champion IMO. Let's not forget that great storyline between The ECW Originals and The New Breed. While we're on that, WWECW had great talent. Kevin Thorne, CM Punk, Elijah Burke, Mike Knox, Marcus Cor Von and so on.

Now, the untimely death of Benoit was extremely disheartening, but it did allow Johnny Nitro to break through onto the scene and help carry ECW for a while as John Morrison. When Paul Heyman left after December to Dismember, I thought WWECW was gonna go down in flames, but John Morrison made me tune in week in and week out. His promos got better and better, his character was so fresh and innovative. It seemed like a character only John Hennigan could pull off. He put on awesome matches with CM Punk not to mention their feud in 2007 that took over the Summer and it still remains underrated. After Punk and Morrison's feud ended, WWECW fell off pretty much. I stopped watching when Armando Estrada became GM. The show became so mehh afterwards.

Just as WWECW became my new favorite show........it was gone just like that

 

[KNPKH2ster]

In my opinion, WWE's version of ECW wasn't that bad as it had some good matches, and some of the talent became break out stars. Just the problem was that it was named "ECW". ECW can never be duplicated like the original because it wasn't just about extreme violence, it was a counter culture movement that occured in the Monday Night Wars. Had the brand that was around from 2006-2010 go under a different name, it would've worked. Now there are only 2 brands, which means that the roster is crowded on each brand.
Crowded roster= bad idea. I thought that the ECW brand created balance with the WWE roster overall and having the guys who aren't exactly Raw or SmackDown material can have a storyline so they won't get lost in the shuffle.

 

[Tequila Dave]

I expected ECW to be WWE’s C show, and it was just that. It provided some decent storylines, gave us the first look at some young stars, and was generally entertaining for the most part. I’d say it fulfilled my realistic expectations. Not only that, but in my eyes, WWECW was considerably more consistent than ECW Hardcore TV. I never for one second believed WWE would adopt ECW’s extreme wrestling approach along with its name; I mean, why would they?

WWECW died because of a lack of interest, amongst both the fans and creative. Raw and Smackdown were justifiably the creative team’s priority, and there was a point where ECW just wasn’t worth the time and effort; and the audience felt that.

Could ECW have done better? Sure, I guess. If I recall correctly, Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit were on its roster. But it would have never been similar to the promotion it was named after, thankfully. It did its job, and made some money; the original ECW never.

I'm guessing this post is gonna go over real well.

 

[Dagger Dias]

My expectations for WWE's version of ECW when it was first announced was that it would suck and be completely unnecessary. It lived up to these expectations indeed. I remembered thinking that they did not need a 3rd brand. The fact that it no longer exists is proof that I was not alone in that opinion. What caused WWECW's demise was the massive issue of a weak roster. Having less than a third of the roster and a show lasting only an hour made it the obvious "C" show from day one. Fans knew it was less important than Raw or Smackdown, thus its demise started even before December to Dismember. The point when they could have made WWECW better was the very beginning. There should have been a much larger draft for it. A 3rd of the entire roster should have gone over there, taking talent from both Raw and Smackdown. It would need its own main event scene, midcard, divas, and tag teams. All it had was its own main event scene, which soon became barely a step above midcard in comparison. Smackdown has all of the same division tiers as Raw. WWECW would never have been successful without doing the same, no matter how true it might have tried to stay to the vision of the real ECW.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

If the show has any other name than ECW, it would get nowhere near as much criticism as it does. ECW was an entertaining weekly show that was good fun and once it got out of the nostalgia period that was 2006-2007, it was interesting to see what the show could do without those older talents. WWECW gave us Punk vs. Morrison in a tremendous feud, the team of John Morrison & the Miz, the yearlong dominance of Christian and the debuts of Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne and CM Punk, not to even mention that it gave older talents a chance to shine. There were some bad things of course, but the show doesn't deserve as much harassment as a lot of people give it.

 

[Shadow of Darkness]

Hell yah! Very old topic...
but let me answer.

WWE hired ECW so that they can push young stars and keep the old wrestlers in the bigger picture.

well, they started the things well, but their end was pathetic. Both of the points-

1. Death of Chris Benoit.

2. Introduction of PG Era.
are actually right, but there is one more point.

¤ arrogance of Vince McMohan ¤
when wwe turned PG Paul Heyman said Vince to make ECW the only non-PG brand, so that it can keep the adult audiences in interest. Heyman knew that PG Era is going to be a shit for those fans, who witnessed The Attitude and Ruthless Eras. But Vince didnt noticed it. Heyman then said vince to atleast make all the matches of ECW by Extreme Rules. Vince didnt even listened that. As a result ECW was Fallen. Vince named the show as ECW so that he can make the audiences more enthusiastic. But alas,
vince didnt realised that nothing can be done with just the name, when you have changed the whole show from within...!