I miss ECW.
No, I don’t miss the seminal Philadelphia-based promotion that revolutionized what it meant to be an indie promotion and influenced the most profitable period in wrestling history. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that ECW, but it ran its course, something that I’m reminded of every time someone tries to dig up its corpse and parade it around like it’s still vibrant. I love the spirit of the promotion, but the people who like to grave rob the company think that having Sabu jab a screwdriver into Justin Credible’s head is how we should be paying tribute in 2012.
What I miss is WWE’s third brand, the one called ECW in name only, the one that the fanboys sneered at like it was anathema that someone dared take the name they held sacred and paraded something that wasn’t low rent under that banner. Heh, as if anything in wrestling is really worth holding sacred. I miss the show WWE put on every Tuesday night, the one that gave the world Sheamus and Zack Ryder, where old guys like Tommy Dreamer and William Regal got to do their thing unfettered by restraint. That show ruled.
It was as close to an old-school wrestling show as we got from WWE on regular television. It was a simple formula. They put on wrestling matches, had guys feud over simple issues and based it all around the old staples of wrestling heat building, things like promos and interview segments. Given that that alone doesn’t make a good wrestling show, the reason why it worked was because the cast of characters was usually able to deliver the goods.
The roster included at times but wasn’t limited to CM Punk, The Miz, Ryder, Regal, Dreamer, Christian, Jack Swagger, Sheamus, Yoshi Tatsu, Chavo Guerrero and Mark Henry. It had Tony Atlas laughing like fiend over the befuddled indignation of Abraham Washington. It featured Matt Striker before he became insufferable and Todd Grisham before he started making inappropriate analogies on SportsCenter. It featured a great match at least once a month, including a series between Christian and Swagger that might have been the best thing WWE had in the ring in 2009.
Even when RAW and Smackdown both stagnated, ECW felt like it was something different, something fresh. Right now, that’s what’s missing from WWE programming on regular TV. I’ve heard great things about NXT, but it’s hard to sit down in front of a computer and watch TV on the small screen, no matter how good it is. Watching readily available programming on an actual TV screen is taken for granted so much. Right now, it might not seem like that much, since both RAW and Smackdown have more good weeks than bad. However, there’s always room for a breath of fresh air, for a spotlight for guys who deserve the spotlight but who can’t always have it on the bigger shows.
That’s why ECW was important, nay, essential. That’s why it was such a crime that people overlooked it and ignored it because of the name. WWE did do it a major disservice by keeping the name, because unlike any other fanbase, the rabid ECW fanboys often are the most possessive of their memories and upon what the label can be placed. It was the breath of fresh air, and it was packaged like it was a retread. Talk about false advertising.
So yeah, I will shamelessly admit that I shed a single tear every time I think of the new ECW. I may be in the minority, but I’d be way, way, WAY more excited for a return to SyFy of the WWE’s “bastard” version of the brand than even one more Hardcore Homecoming.
TH writes The Wrestling Blog and broadcasts The Wrestling Podcast. You can find him on Twitter, or at various other spots around the Internet. He also loves Chikara, and quite frankly, thinks you should too.
Edited by Jason Mann.
