In a breaking story, PWInsider.com’s Dave Scherer is reporting that World Wrestling Entertainment is planning to bring Extreme Championship Wrestling back full-time as its own promotion.
According to the online report, ECW — which WWE brought back last year as a “one-time only” Pay Per View, which is being repeated this year due to the success of the event — has begun talking with former ECW talent about returning. WWE is targeting September for the comeback, although details are still murky at this point. Tommy Dreamer — currently in the talent relations department at WWE — and Paul Heyman — currently booking television for WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling — would likely be booking ECW when the promotion starts back up. One possibility is that ECW will take over OVW, while another is that ECW would get matches on RAW or Smackdown, or maybe elsewhere.
PWInsider.com has confirmed that The Sandman, Francine and Balls Mahoney among others have been reached out to, and that contracts are being sent to them this week. The contracts will be three-year deals with “a series of one year contracts, with rollover clauses.”
Bringing back ECW, and putting Paul Heyman in charge of the booking, could have come into play during Heyman’s contract renewal, as he had been working on a short contract since his longer-term agreement expired earlier this year. Talk on the Internet and in the wrestling industry newsletters included quite a bit of speculation that Heyman had been looking into opportunities outside of WWE, including everything from TV to starting a shoot-fighting group, and that even though he hasn’t gotten along with Stephanie McMahon and others at WWE, the company realized his value in certain roles as well as the preference of keeping him from leaving and potentially working for the competition.
ECW went out of business in early 2001, and was soon purchased by WWE, who brought the brand back first as part of the WCW “invasion” angle in 2001 (with Stephanie as storyline owner), and then last June for the “One Night Stand” PPV. The success of that event, three DVD releases and — to some people — surprising sustenance of the ECW brand has led to quite a bit of speculation about ECW’s future. Rob Van Dam is expected to cash in his “Money in the Bank” WWE title shot at this year’s One Night Stand, being held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC on June 11, on a card that will include Terry Funk, Mick Foley, Dreamer, Sandman and more.
We’ll have more on this as it unfolds.
