For Your Consideration No More ECW

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Welcome to Week 27.

Yeah I know, there was no week 26, but instead that cracked out ramble I did about Unforgiven. Man, what a horrible show that was. I know they had a skeleton crew and I know the suspensions threw everything into chaos, but come on! Book something halfway coherent!

Speaking of things that are long overdue for me to be pissed about, how about Big Brother? Dick winning was better than Danielle but not better than Eric. My boy got screwed over, but at least he’s taking home $40,000 and a cute gentile. Watched “Chuck”, which was pretty good for an opening episode, but the word is that it doesn’t hold up and becomes kinda repetitive. I hope it succeeds, but not at the expense of the hilarious and superior “How I Met Your Mother”.

Alright, this one’s going to be another short(er) one, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking on content. This week is a topic I’m not really 100% in favor of, but thought it would be worth looking at, so

For Your Consideration No More ECW

The WWE is working with a thin roster with not a lot of over guys, yet they continue to produce ECW with next-to-no-one and it seems to constantly deliver (halfway) entertaining programming. That’s the surprising thing about ECW. Vince has given them guys that couldn’t get over anywhere else and somehow, some way they make it onto television. Even better, they don’t feel forced down our throats.

ECW has three or four guys that would instantly bolster either RAW or Smackdown. I’d say Punk, Thorne, Burke and the recently exiled Marcus Cor Von would be welcome additions to Monday and Friday nights. These guys have “the goods”, but they can only keep infighting for so long until it becomes redundant. They are going to need fresh opponents and they’re going to need them fast.

CM Punk would be the one with the most to gain and the most to lose. A move to RAW would mean that he’s on the flagship show. It would mean prime exposure on the only night that really matters to Vince. It would also mean matches against Randy Orton, Mister Kennedy, Jeff Hardy, Triple H and Shawn Michaels. On the downside for Punk, he’d be smack dab in the middle of politic wars and he already has a list of enemies and a propensity to rub people the wrong way. Punk could either flourish and be the next John Cena or he could stall and be the next Shelton Benjamin. While RAW has the Gold and the Main Event, it also has Heat. Also, Punk is the main event of ECW, whereas on RAW he’d have to work his way up from the bottom. On the other hand, if management finally gets sick of Cena, they’d have another young guy to slide into that top spot.

Elijah Burke is a great talker and a hell of a wrestler. Unfortunately, on Smackdown they have MVP and on RAW they have Kennedy. Burke’s cocky attitude is way too close to Porter, so Friday Nights is out of the question. RAW is broad enough that he would be able to fill any slot they needed. He could be playing the Carlito role right now or he could be a perfect foil for Jeff Hardy. Again, he does run the risk of being too similar to Mister Kennedy or MVP and either have his gimmick shuffled or relegated to Heat.

Kevin Thorne is an obvious Smackdown creature. His gimmick makes him a perfect candidate for a Taker supernatural feud and his size guarantees that Creative will have what to do with him. Thorne/Kane, Thorne/Batista and even Thorne/Hardy seem like legit semi-main events for PPVs. Hell, he made this lame gimmick work in the first place, at least let him be in an environment where he can flaunt it.

Cor Von is gone but he’ll be back and when he comes back, he’s clearly someone they’re not going to squander. He’s “explosive” and he’s shown he can get over. Throw him in there with MVP as the mouth versus the monster and you’ve got a US Title feud.

Joey and Tazz can find a new home. Joey should replace JR soon enough anyway, and adding Tazz as a third on RAW might go a long way in keeping Lawler in line. Giving RAW a 3-man booth could be entertaining if done right. Hell, Nitro had 2 separate announce teams that combined didn’t have the potential talent that the WWE has. I love “The Brain”, but Tony Schiavone is an affront to nature.

Best of all, dropping ECW frees up the production staff to focus on producing video packages for two shows. Trying to make 3 crappy storylines coherent is a lot harder then just 2. The production crew at the WWE works ridiculous hours trying to cut video packages and despite subpar stories, they still crank out compelling recaps. The problem with these is that they are starting to dominate ECW programming, which is leading to a lot of repetition and-in my case-a lot of fast forwarding.

ECW is an entertaining show. It’s short and mainly inoffensive, and this week they churned out a great triple threat and a decent main event. The problem is that Vince continues to use the show as a breeding ground for future “monsters”. He tried it with the Big Show. He tried it with Lashley. He tried it with Snitsky. He’s trying it now with Viscera. ECW wasn’t about the “big men”. It was about talented guys who might not have had the size but had the desire. If ECW did go away, there goes any TV time for Balls Mahoney, Nunzio and Stevie Richards. On the other hand, it would mean less TV time for The Miz and Mike Knox, which does has a nice ring to it.

This has been for your consideration.