Extreme Championship Wrestling, the ECW brand, ECW 2.0, WWECW—whatever you want to call it, WWE’s attempt at running its own version of ECW was a failure. Nothing else punctuates that like ECW December to Dismember. Where did WWE go wrong? Oh, the reasons are numerous! This was just a project that WWE should’ve scrapped and just made another brand. Or it could’ve just been a B-show because the ECW brand was a waste of a TV slot.
WWE Bulked Up The Scale of ECW
The first few episodes of ECW on SyFy weren’t bad. They could actually be pretty exciting at times and showed that WWE could run a condensed version of its product in an hour. The early shows took place in the same venues as SmackDown as they were taped the same day. This kind of took away the vibe of an Extreme Championship Wrestling show.
When the vibe was taken away, you just knew you were watching WWE-brand ECW. You knew that’s what you were watching off the bat. If that didn’t sink in for you, WWE had more to drive that home!
The Roster
A third brand was actually a good idea for WWE since the roster was pretty bloated at the time. There were young superstars who were waiting for their rise up the card and the ones that made it up the card were waiting to carry the show. You also had veteran main eventers who had been in their spot or higher since the late 90s-early 00s.
When there were two rosters, all creative could do was shuffle wrestlers between the two. They were going to be in the same spots even after the move. ECW allowed for some guys to move over and allow the flagship brands to breathe.
The letters ECW no longer had that vibe of being the “Land of Misfits.” The place where guys who couldn’t make it to WWE or WCW headed or guys who had been through WWE and WCW but didn’t make it into the main event.
There was a mix of talent from all card positions here but it looked like the castoffs of each space. Sure, the ECW Originals were there but you also had Big Show who had a home on SmackDown and was just kind of there on ECW. Kane was in the mix as was Matt Hardy and Swagger. Morrison was a good fit for the brand as were Chavo Guerrero Jr and Christian.
You had the newer talent such as CM Punk who fit the brand perfectly and would’ve thrived in OG ECW. Then you had the other developmental guys who weren’t going to be in WWE too long anyway. This roster was in shambles, people. If WWE didn’t have a concrete plan for a guy on RAW or SmackDown, they were likely to end up on the ECW brand.
WWE Didn’t Get ECW and Didn’t Care To Get It
Perhaps it’s because the creative team members who kept an eye outside of WWE were gone or in short supply but no one really grasped what Extreme Championship Wrestling was. Even after One Night Stand, WWE creative couldn’t get a hand on it. Instead, it presented an idea of what creative perceived it as then filtered it through with the talent it had.
It’s actually an interesting approach because it was technically what ECW was roster-wise. What’s also interesting is that the company bit off ECW’s brand to create the Attitude Era, so you’d figured it would know what it was doing.
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