More Bad News for ECW - Show to Stream on WWE.Com
The news for fans (if there are any) for the ECW brand continues to get worse, as now the WWE has announced that ECW will be streamed on their website in full. What the breakdown on this basically means is that the company is concerned that Sci-Fi will not renew the contract to air ECW past this year, when the deal runs out. From a fan's perspective it appears that the ECW brand is heading towards a close. The company tried to do what it could to re-create the buzz that ECW had in the mid 90's, but truly it never came close.
By trying to bring back the original stars of ECW and water them down with regular matches, less violence and silly storylines with people like Kelly Kelly, Matt Striker and others, the brand was and still is on some nights very hard to watch. There have been a few bright spots, like C.M. Punk, the comeback of Steven Richards, what they have done recently with Big Daddy V, and even the Miz, who has gotten a push within the company since his bomb on SmackDown.
The real beginning of the end came last year in my opinion, when the company tried to put on an ECW only PPV - December to Dismember. It was by far the worst PPV the company has put out in years, and it was right after that they decided that Paul Heyman's services were no longer needed. In speaking to Tommy Dreamer after a house show here in Cleveland in December, he said he wouldn't be surprised to see Heyman return, but to date he is nowhere to be found.
What they will do with the ECW Title remains to be seen. I always thought that the brand would be a solid starting point for other wrestlers to move to SmackDown and then eventually RAW, but in looking at the way the company is running right now, it looks as if they are going to put the brand to a slow, crawling death.
By trying to bring back the original stars of ECW and water them down with regular matches, less violence and silly storylines with people like Kelly Kelly, Matt Striker and others, the brand was and still is on some nights very hard to watch. There have been a few bright spots, like C.M. Punk, the comeback of Steven Richards, what they have done recently with Big Daddy V, and even the Miz, who has gotten a push within the company since his bomb on SmackDown.
The real beginning of the end came last year in my opinion, when the company tried to put on an ECW only PPV - December to Dismember. It was by far the worst PPV the company has put out in years, and it was right after that they decided that Paul Heyman's services were no longer needed. In speaking to Tommy Dreamer after a house show here in Cleveland in December, he said he wouldn't be surprised to see Heyman return, but to date he is nowhere to be found.
What they will do with the ECW Title remains to be seen. I always thought that the brand would be a solid starting point for other wrestlers to move to SmackDown and then eventually RAW, but in looking at the way the company is running right now, it looks as if they are going to put the brand to a slow, crawling death.
