Chair Shots & Table Spots

ECW is dead. Guess what? I'm glad it's dead. I'm glad ECW ended when it did. Let's face it...ECW on TNN sucked. The mystique was gone. The feeling wasn't there. ECW died the moment it debuted on cable television.

Fast foward to several years later. WWE presented One Night Stand. The magic was back. ECW lived again for one more night and the fans remembered. They remembered ECW in all its groundbreaking splendor. The hunger was satiated albeit for less than three hours. One year later, One Night Stand 2 arguably topped its predecessor. The fans wanted more. Hell, the fans demanded more. Vince McMahon saw an opportunity and he seized it. ECW as a WWE brand was born.

Is the new ECW brand or WWECW the same as the original? Hell no. Should it have been? Hell no. ECW was specific to a certain time in the industry when its impact was revolutionary and became lengendary. There can be no more extreme revolution. There can be no more second and third rate imposter organizations. *Cough* CZW *cough*. There can be no resurrection of a hardcore corpse by WWE.

Let's face it...no matter how hard the E tried to bring back the original flavor of ECW, they would undoubtedly fail. The fans would never embrace it as the original. Paul Heyman no longer owns ECW. Vince McMahon owns ECW, and Vince McMahon does not like nostalgia. There will never be another ECW. There will never be another nWo. There will never be another Attitude Era. These phenomenons are time specific and should remain as such. These eras are responsible for shaping professional wrestling toward the future. You can't force it. It's time to move forward. The ECW brand needs to and will move forward.Having said that, I will not be comparing the ECW brand to its predecessor. They are two vastly different animals. I will instead analyze and critique ECW as a third WWE brand on its own merit.

Do i think the ECW brand has lived up to the hype thus far? No. Do i think the ECW brand is a solid hour of entertainment the way it was intended to be? No. The ECW brand has a long way to go. The potential for tremendous success, however, is undoubtedly there.

I can't wait to see CM Punk's first WrestleMania moment. I can't wait to see guys like Sandman and Sabu get the global recognition they deserve and worked so hard for. I can't wait to see ECW forced to go to a two hour format because its intriguing storylines and larger than life characters have captured the fans imaginations. ECW can be great, and in my humble opinion will be great.

Each week I will provide my take on the progress of the ECW brand. I will tell you quite frankly what I liked and what I didn't like. I will recognize certain individuals and storlyines as having potential, and I will tell you what needs to change.

For instance, as a result of becoming an ECW performer, I have finally become a Hardcore Holly fan. I have always hated Holly and was completely against bringing him into ECW. i scoffed at the idea of Holly being considered hardcore in the company of men like Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, and the Sandman. Two weeks ago on ECW television, that all changed. Not only did Bob Holly earn my respect as a hardcore competitor by finishing a match with a brutal laceration, he and RVD put on the best match in the ECW brand's short history. They put on the type of match I'm willing to tune in every week in hopes of witnessing. I will go so far as to say that match should serve as the archetype for the new ECW brand. It combined elements of the original ECW with a distinct WWE feel and pacing.

Though I have been accused by many of being too optimistic, ECW can and will be great. It's just a matter of time. Will there be things we hate about the new brand? Of course. There are many things I dislike about RAW and SmackDown on a weekly basis, but the bottom line is each week I'm willing to tune in and find out what I'm going to love about them.

Each week I'm willing to sacrifice four hours of my life to find out what's going to remind me why I love professional wrestling. It is with optimistic eyes I will be viewing yet a fifth hour of WWE programming in order to discover the moments that will make the ECW brand worthy of becoming a part of the rich tradition we all love and love to hate...the new E in ECW.

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