Will ECW Make a Move to Focus on the Young?
As ECW enters the end of its first year shortly, much talk has been made about what direction the 3rd brand of the WWE will go in. Clearly the first year had lots of lowlights, but to its credit, there were weeks that ECW was right up there with some of the better wrestling shown on TV. There was even a time mid to late last summer where ECW was lots more watchable than SmackDown.
Those days have passed, and ECW is back to being what it is, and that is a distant third in talent as well as wrestling in the five hours a week we have of WWE television. The company did try another ECW PPV back in December, and I think when its all said and done, there is no question that "December to Dismember" was the worst PPV that WWE has run out in the past few years.
Now that the company is a year old, or close to it, people inside the WWE are looking at what direction to take with the brand. Sabu and Rob Van Dam, two ECW mainstays who both had title programs last summer, are gone. Soon to follow will likely be Sandman, and possibly Balls Mahoney and Tommy Dreamer. Some say, including Dusty Rhodes, that ECW should be a much more younger brand, highlighting guys like Elijah Burke and C.M. Punk.
Those two wrestlers are possibly the foundation of the company, along with former champ Bobby Lashley and Marcus Cor Von. The Majors Brothers, Matt Striker, and Kevin Thorn are four more guys that will get long looks in the second year of the company. If Vince McMahon was smart, he would drop some of the dead weight, and focus on Burke and Punk, and even at some point consider a title run with one and have them feud with the other through out the summer or fall.
No doubt that with the upcoming 6/11 draft lottery that the direction of ECW will be a lot more clear. Move some of the "older" vets over to other brands, and ECW will become a younger, more hip brand geared towards developing the younger guys. Keep it as is, or move over an older guy, and likely we'll see much of what we had for the past year - a struggling brand and usually throws out more bad than good to its fans.
