If you could bring one back which one would you pick? Extreme Championship Wrestling or World Championship Wrestling? While Vince McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment doesn’t have the licenses to ECW or WCW and no interest has been shown in promoting wrestling, it’s a What If, worst-case scenario.
The Alpha Entertainment-Scenario
Vince McMahon is in his early 70s and has turned most of his attention to Alpha Entertainment and is focusing on the XFL. As a matter of fact, reports are that Vince doesn’t really show up at RAW as often as he did and hasn’t been providing input on the show as he was. He hasn’t been phased out but for the moment he’s reduced his own role with WWE’s creative.
Here’s the hypothetical. Vince is nudged out from creative involvement. This results in tension within the McMahon family. He decides that if he is being forced out, he’ll destroy what he created. You know, “I brought you into this world and I can take you out!”
So, Vince sells more of his WWE stock and Alpha Entertainment is able to get the rights to a promotion in WWE’s portfolio. This includes the name, letters, and events—which company does Vince take? Hell, which side would Shane take?
Personally, I believe Shane probably feels good in doing what he’s doing business-wise away from WWE. After all, he’s a minority shareholder in the company despite being a prominent McMahon.
Reviving ECW with Shane At the Helm
There are more cons to reviving Extreme Championship Wrestling. If you look at YouTube comments on wrestling—you brave soul, you—sometimes you’ll come across ECW discussion about how Shane should bring back ECW. I’m sure commenters take in how exhaustive it would be to even get the rights away from WWE before magically poofing Shane as owner of ECW.
It’s like what makes everyone think that Shane-o-Mac would be the best pick to run ECW? I can understand being cautious of Vince running it. He brought it back and it failed as a TV product and ECW December to Dismember 2006 was…bad. Not awful or trash but no one should’ve paid more than $20 for that. And it should’ve had “In Your House” tacked on.
My thing with Shane running ECW is that there are only two McMahons who have put a significant amount of skin into running a major wrestling company. That’s from the business and booking ends. Shane has a ton of business experience.
If that’s where his decision-making involvement ends, great. As far as booking goes, I wouldn’t run Shane to creatively manage a company I’ve put millions into.
ECW Cons
One of the main cons to an ECW revival is that the company was a product of the 90s. It’s steeped in the 1990s’ “This is extreme!” and edginess. Towards the end of ECW’s run, the company took a step towards proto-Ring of Honor territory. It was maturing as a promotion and going with the times.
While you still had hardcore promotions around and popping up between 1999 and 2001, on the indies—where the talent for ECW would’ve originated—things were moving more towards high flyers and “American strong style.” Basically, what made up the first four or five years of ROH and floated CZW, IWA Mid-South, and other indies making their names early in the decade.
Sticking with the product, the other con is that ECW was never meant to be a national, mainstream product. That was probably the goal and with resources, ECW would’ve made it but would it have been able to sustain it without catering to sponsors?
Well, that would depend on the sponsors and if ECW had that much value to them. Is ECW helping them move the needle in sales? Bringing back ECW would be a matter of managing it financially and making it grow. Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer are probably the only two people who should be handling the creative direction.
If they were paired with Shane McMahon handling the business end, this thing could work. There’s a window for success or at least it made it ten years. If Vince was at the helm, it’s a wrap for ECW. It’s not a promotion that should keep coming back because fans have a skewed but fond memory of it.
The Pros of Bringing Back ECW
Honestly, ECW has just about as many pros as cons. For one thing, the trio of Shane, Paul, and Dreamer—or even just Shane and Dreamer—would run ECW out of the venues it should run out of. As a brand, ECW should’ve never been taped before the flagship brand shows. You’re not risking burning out the crowd for SmackDown but those fans showed up for SmackDown.
Keeping costs low would be important for ECW 3.0 even with a nice bankroll. It’s not wise to throw a ton of cash on something that folded once and failed once.
The other pro is that WWE would be more likely to part with all the ECW stuff than the WCW stuff. WCW actually gave WWE a fight, its stars were truly national stars, and WWE could mine WCW for a few more years.
ECW doesn’t get the checkmarks in any of those categories besides WWE being able to mine it. That said, that mine should be close to depletion. ECW’s event names were alright and WWE had already ripped the good ideas from the company.
If Alpha Entertainment was to snag anything it would probably be ECW because it would be the easiest to get outside of probably AWA and UWF. However, it would be pretty risky since it would need to be true to the original.
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