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I am not intending to start a rumor on the internet, but with the events of the recent weeks, I think the question asked in the title of this column is a fair one. In the months following the 2008 WWE Draft, ECW seemed to be building itself into a solid wrestling program. Ratings were up, they were regularly having more wrestling in their one hour than Raw and Smackdown were having in their respective two hours a week, Todd Grisham and Matt Striker have become an entertaining broadcast duo, and they had put together a good nucleus of talent. Fast forward to the present day, and it appears the ECW roster is once again hanging by a thread.
With the 2008 Draft, the ECW roster changed dramatically. ECW lost its top stars at the time, C.M. Punk and Kane, and arguably their feud of the year between Kofi Kingston and Shelton Benjamin. In return, they gained Matt Hardy, Finlay, and Mark Henry. Those three draft picks benefitted ECW greatly, and were a big part of its temporary resurgence. Throw in the company's top tag team John Morrison and the Miz, former ECW Champion Chavo Guerrero, and rising star Evan Bourne, and they had a competitive roster. Then the mistakes started happening.
They added a Raw "talent exchange" agreement to go along with its similar agreement on Smackdown. While it gained more exposure for the ECW stars, it wound up hurting the brand, because with these guys appearing regularly on Raw and Smackdown, why should they watch ECW? There were some weeks that Matt Hardy, while he was ECW Champion, would appear on Raw or Smackdown, but not on ECW. I know creative has a lot to see about, but to me, something like that is inexcusable. Then, they did such a great job of building up Mark Henry as a monster heel. However, when he appeared on Raw or Smackdown, Henry went back to doing three to four minute (and sometimes even less than that) jobs to the bigger name stars. Also, with Raw and Smackdown stars appearing on ECW, there were some ECW guys that wound up not being able to get on any of the shows.
ECW tried to rebuild its ranks with the "New Superstar Initiative." In theory, the idea was a good one. It helped them to gain two bonafide stars of the future in Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger. The problem is that they brought in several others with no buildup, and just essentially threw them to the wolves. Braden Walker was a rising star in TNA, but came to ECW and was not allowed to show any of those skills that made him highly regarded. Gavin Spears was a top prospect at OVW and FCW, but when they brought him up, he was saddled with a losing streak gimmick, and we all know how well those work right? Ricky Ortiz and D.J. Gabriel are on the roster, but neither has made that connection with the fans yet. In Gabriel's defense, he seems to have some potential in the ring, but has been saddled with a gimmick that guarantees he won't get over with the fans. Ortiz, on the other hand, probably should go back to FCW for more seasoning, because most of his matches have been really dull. The creative team has not learned that if you give the fans a reason to care about a guy, some of them actually might.
Next, WWE decided that with the tough economic times, they should cut a large portion of their staff. The ECW roster saw its undercard end up getting gutted. Big Daddy V, Armando Estrada, Braden Walker, Gavin Spears, Elijah Burke, Bam Neely, Kevin Thorn, Stevie Richards, Colin Delaney, and Nunzio were all cut over a three month span. WWE also got rid of several stars that could have come over and helped rebuild the brand like D-Lo Brown, Hardcore Holly, Val Venis, Paul London, Super Crazy, and Kenny Dykstra. The current ECW Roster contains only 12 full time wrestlers, two female wrestlers, Tony Atlas, and Hornswoggle.
ECW's biggest blow came at the Royal Rumble when Matt Hardy turned heel, and then jumped to Smackdown to feud with brother Jeff. As I detailed in last week's column, this move really hurt ECW, because they are now without their biggest star. The ECW Title is also around the waist of an inexperienced champion. While Swagger looks to have a bright future ahead of him, most agree that this was just way too soon to have him win the belt. WWE's third brand is also on the verge of losing the company's top tag team now that Miz and Morrison are the World Tag Team Champions on Raw. WWE also made it official earlier this week by moving Chavo Guerrero from ECW to Smackdown. For the last several weeks, Chavo has only been on Smackdown, so the move was just a matter of time. What does ECW get in return for losing Hardy, Guerrero, Miz, and Morrison? Paul Burchill, Katie Lea Burchill, and Jamie Noble were moved from Raw to ECW. While the Burchills and Noble are all talented in-ring performers, they are all barely above jobber status, and that makes one thing clear, ECW got screwed again.
That brings me to the Tommy Dreamer situation. Dreamer comes out and gives a spirited promo about his desire to be ECW Champion by June or he is going to leave. How does WWE follow up on that spirited promo? By having him lose his first two matches right out of the gate. I just don't get how those losses are supposed to get us excited about the chances of Dreamer winning the ECW Title one more time. They had a chance to really build up some good will, and they are already blowing it. Then again, maybe that's the idea. God forbid a star Vince didn't create himself actually be allowed to get over. The funny part is that in spite of losing all the time, Dreamer still gets one of the loudest pops on the program. While WWE tries to claim wins and losses don't matter, it is simply not true. If Dreamer loses every match between now and June 6, and then on that date wins the ECW title, it will devalue the belt, because it will come across as a total fluke. Whether he is leaving or not, to me it would make more business sense to build him up as a legit contender, and let the fans start to think he might have a shot. If he continues to lose all the time, the fans are not going to care by the time Dreamer's deadline approaches, and the angle will lose its effectiveness.
WWE also recently announced that they are adding another show on WGN. That leaves me wondering as to where that will leave the ECW brand. Personally, I have grown fond of the "Tuesday Night Delight," and hope it stays around. I just cannot understand why every time this brand starts to go in a positive direction, the McMahons feel the need to cut it back down to size. Even though, they have owned the rights to ECW for several years now, it is as if they are still mentally fighting that war and cannot let a brand that originated under another company get ahead of Raw or Smackdown. They have a national TV deal on the Sci-Fi Channel, something potential start-up companies greatly covet. To me, rather than having squash matches and endless amounts of Raw recaps, why not go back to putting some actual thought into the brand? Then again, after last week's round of bad TV, that may be asking too much.
Feedback may be sent to Doug at brownsbros3@yahoo.com.
