It was announced today that Extreme Championship Wrestling will be returning to TV screens after a five year absence.
ECW set a standard in wrestling for violence in the 1990's that paved the way for the WWF to reinvent itself during their war with WCW and beat them to submission.
Ironically when WCW folded in 2001 it was at the same time that ECW went bankrupt meaning the WWE had total control of the wrestling world.
The WWE bought the library and copyrights to the ECW brand and it was their decision to relaunch ECW following the success of the nostalgia pay per view One Night Stand last year.
I don't think this return will work for numerous reasons. One of the things that made ECW a cult hit amongst fans was that they were 'anti establishment and proud of it' how could they promote themselves in this way when everyone knows that the WWE owns the company?
Another thing that made ECW special was the buildings they ran. The smaller venues with the crazy fans were a lot different to the crowds seen at WWF and WCW events back in the 20th Cnetury. The WWE announced that the ECW shows will be filmed on Tuesday nights before or after they film Smackdown so they will be performing in front of a WWE crowd. A crowd which may have missed the ECW phenomenon back in it's heyday
The WWE will drop the ball on this venture. It has been given a twelve week run on the Sci-Fi Channel and I cannot see it being extended.
I would love to be wrong on this one, though!
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