In this “Wrestling Salvage Yard,” we’re looking at the ECW brand which ran from 2006 until 2010. It was established following the success of ECW One Night Stand in 2005 which may have been jumping the gun a bit. Then again, WWE had a good enough relationship with Universal to ask for a one-hour show.
The 4-Year Itch
We went into the ECW brand a bit before but this was basically the brand to send undercard talent that WWE knew they needed to do something with when they knew they had nothing for them on the main roster. Oh yeah, there were some ECW Originals there and they did send a few developmental graduates to the brand as well.
The biggest standout from developmental on WWECW was CM Punk, a guy I could’ve seen in ECW and rising up to the main event picture before the promotion closed. Yes, a little RVD action for Ol’ Punk.
It wasn’t just the pot scrapings of the main roster on the brand. RVD was the featured star early on but eventually, Kurt Angle joined the brand for some reason, Big Show was there, and according to Stephanie McMahon and Chris Jericho, Benoit was supposed to win the ECW title.
Wrestling Salvage Yard: The ECW Brand
So, the brand had some drawing names. To me, it was the superstars who either didn’t draw or hadn’t been given the chance to show that they could draw who really caught my attention on the brand. After all, I’d watched these big stars do well on both of the main roster brands, try something new.
Storyline-wise, there was little that really stood out as good. Actually, WWECW was a brand where you remember that two superstars had matches and they were probably in a program. This wasn’t a project that produced the most vivid memories off the dome.
However, it was a project that was around and it was around longer than it should’ve been. It was the 205 Live and Superstars of this period. Like 205 Live, when it ended, it was replaced by something NXT-related.
Salvaging the ECW Brand
The salvage job here is a little extensive but in simplest terms, I would’ve made WWECW something of a “Land of Misfit Superstars”. Rebrand it as the Attitude Brand, have upper management declare that it’s the “disciplinary brand”, and just have them announce who will be going there and what their offenses were.
See, in wrestling—and especially WWE—we see a lot of stuff that could be described as…hm…criminal. You can probably think of three criminal acts we’ve seen on WWE TV where it’s like “F*** bringing the police to deal with this one rowdy wrestler, this guy was ambushed and bloodied in the locker room area!”
So, you have Stephanie list all these superstars, what they did that was so egregious, acknowledge that WWE let that kind of stuff carry on for too long and that they were cleaning themselves up, and ship them off to the Attitude brand.
What about the faces? That sounds like a brand full of heels, right? While there are faces who take the heelish route while getting payback, we’ve always had crooked GMs who abuse their authority. Maybe a few faces get wrongly accused on the main roster or framed.
Hell, maybe the GM just abuses their power to the point of just throwing a babyface onto the Attitude brand. Now, that face has a retribution story to come back after time served.
Remember Paul Heyman’s security force in ECW? Make them the guys who have to haul new Attitude superstars to the brand and probably have a third guy as the leader. I’m thinking Sid just to chokeslam unruly newcomers. This group wouldn’t do much but be the Attitude GM’s goons
Run the brand out of one venue that can be rented and the stage set up with a theme that lets superstars know this ain’t RAW or SmackDown. This ain’t even Velocity.
The idea of having superstars return to the main roster after “parole hearings” at WWE HQ with the Attitude GM and their goon Sid would make for interesting segments and main roster GMs that Vince aren’t impressed with might just end up with this severe heel or a vindictive babyface.
Use the ticker on RAW or SmackDown to announce that Christian has a hearing to return to the main roster or Christian is returning to SD after a year on the Attitude brand.
Now they have a problem child but that superstar had time to hone or freshen up their gimmick without bringing down the flagship shows.
It sounds like a developmental brand which it kind of is. Once NXT pops up, the Attitude brand might be made obsolete…unless the Attitude brand also serves as that first stop after the NXT brand—if it’s on television.
While thinking of this rebranding I ran into a wall as far as broadcasting. I don’t believe the Attitude brand should be cable because of the content and WWE being publicly traded—eh, it’s a brand risk. However, it’s meant to replace WWECW and the time slot is there.
I’d say give it to the NXT competition show and scatter the contestants to the brands once a season is over.
Also, older fans clamor for a return to the Attitude Era so why not do the product with up-and-comers and veteran talent? Then you could just put it on the Network which shouldn’t do harm to the cleaner main roster’s sponsor deals. The main problem is that the brand ended in 2010 and the Network didn’t launch until 2012.
It’s a lengthy rebranding but let us know how you would keep the ECW brand afloat or how you would rebrand it.
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