WWE is planning on relaunching the ECW brand under the booking of Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer. ECW will be relaunched this fall, possibly around September. It is unclear what form ECW is going to take, if it will be on the same level as the Raw and SmackDown brands, replace OVW as the farm system or something else. WWE has already talked to The Sandman and Francine and will be talking to more ECW alumni about bringing them in.
This is what should have happened immediately after One Night Stand last year. Now the big question is, what will ECW be. I don’t think Vince would replace OVW with ECW because it would be pretty embarrassing to have your farm system being the more popular brand of your company. I really hopes he gives Heyman a budget and lets him go wild. He could easily establish ECW back as the number two wrestling promotion in the United States, surpassing even TNA. Vince has to ask himself a question, what’s better . . . owning the number one wrestling promotion in the United States, or owning the number one and number two wrestling promotions in the United States?
Now Vince has a really great opportunity to start the rebirth of ECW with Rob Van Dam. Going into Backlash, Rob Van Dam has the Money-in-the-Bank Title shot going up against Shelton Benjamin for the Intercontinental Title. I see van Dam walking out of Backlash with the briefcase and the title. What would be a more appropriate time to use it than at this years One Night Stand. Now here is the interesting part, Van Dam goes over and then holds The World and Intercontintial Titles. This could lead to a recreation of sorts for the rebirth of ECW. Van Dam can do what Shane Douglas did to start ECW and throw down the WWE World and Intercontinential Titles and rebirth ECW.
The buzz that would build would surely give ECW a strong starting point. And as long as Heyman is in control, he will attract many of the ECW Alumni. If done right, this idea could be “the” angle of this decade, the “nWo” angle of its time. I am very excited at this prospect and I hope the WWE doesn’t mess it up like they messed up the WCW “brand”. Hopefully Vince has seen that more money can be made by letting these brands live on their own. And multiple brands make it that much harder for TNA to make an impact on the current wrestling scene.
What are your thoughts about ECW coming back?
