Thoughts on the new ECW

So Vince Macmahon has finally announced the worst kept secret in wrestling. We are going to have a 3rd WWE brand as the powers that be in Stamford Connecticut have decided to bring back ECW. Now this is a subject that will inevitably bring out strong opinions among the always vocal online wrestling community as ECW was a promotion that many people held dear to their hearts. After all, this was the promotion that helped mould the WWF and WCW boom periods in the late 90s by putting on the kind of innovative TV and matches that the big 2 would see and re-package for a mainstream audience. Whether it was the antics of a pre-Stone Cold Austin, the crazy brawls featuring the Public Enemy and the Dudleyz or the high flying matches from cruiserweights like Rey Mysterio or Eddie Guerrero. ECW was an alternative to the campy antics of WWF stars like the Ultimate Warrior or Papa Shango and provided an product that more mature fans who liked the maverick attitude and intelligent, non-patronising storylines and angles.

So here it is, about to be brought back, only this time under the corporate umbrella of WWE. In the press release announcing it's return Vince MacMahon has claimed WWE have been the guardians on the ECW legacy over the past 4 years, keeping the 'cult-like following of ECW' simmering away thanks to the release of DVDs and the One Night Stand pay per view. Well, what did you expect from the man who every Monday massages his ego on international TV by molesting divas or out-figthing men half his age. You didn't think he would credit the fans would he? But it's them, not Vince who have kept ECW alive - just as they were the ones who helped ECW succeed in the first place.

Vince has always been a contradictory character for ECW. He exists both as it's biggest threat, but also one of it's biggest helpers. In the 90s, it was the constant threat of WWF dollars stealing away top talent that caused the concern. Whereas in 2006, it is the potential impact he could have on the creative direction of the company that worries fans more than anything. After all, this is a man who has a tendancy to publicly humiliate anyone who disagrees with him as well as booking himself in a wrestling match where he was supposed to be facing God. However with Vince taking a personal interet in this pet project and seeing money, we can only hope that he will see fit to allow those people that understand ECW (Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer in other words) rather that attempt to implement his own idealogy on the brand and that is where Vince can help the feldgling brand. Just as he did in 1997 when he guarnteed ECW's first pay per view and brought ECW talent on to Raw to promote it.

Vinces greatest help to ECW is his money, but as is so often when you have a moneyman with ideas, it's whether or not those ideas interfere with the direction the company should go in. It's difficult to say no to the man with the cheque book (and if that man is Vince Macmahon, the most powerful man in wrestling, it will be doubly so). With Vince in charge we will never see controversial angles like the Sandman/Raven feud where Raven crucified Sandman and stole his family, but is that such a bad thing? Controversy in WWE skates a fine line between shocking shockly awful. At least he seems to have appreciate that ECW cannot be filmed at the same time as Smackdown and Raw and cannot have the same production values. The mention of bringing in new names to create a new generation of ECW also bodes well, however I have a feeling we will never truly know what will happen with the new ECW until we see it on TV and see just what parts of the old ECW has been kept and what have been updated for a new generation of fans.