PWInsider is reporting that WWE’s primary goal for ECW — with TV in the U.S. expiring at the end of the year — is to get ratings up and renew the contract. Hence the Smackdown/ECW talent sharing angle. “In a worst case scenario, the company will move ECW to their website while keeping their international deals,” says PWInsider, which also says that of course there’s no guarantees that ECW will stick around after December. One rumor going around is that Smackdown head writer Michael Hayes may take over the book for both shows (ECW’s head writer is currently Dave Lagana). According to Bryan Alvarez’ Figure 4 Weekly Newsletter and Fight Network column, Vince ordered his team to make ECW more appealing to Sci Fi on Monday, and the decision was initially made to move Kane to ECW permanently. Alvarez wrote that there were meetings scheduled for the end of the week to discuss possibly merging ECW and Smackdown permanently, and plans have already shifted from Dusty Rhodes (who is writing the Kelly/Balls/Miz storyline) and Jen Bloodsworth taking over the show, to Dusty and Hayes (with Lagana losing power but sticking around to actually do the writing), to who knows what. Also of note: the current RAW deal with NBC/Universal (which owns USA Network and Sci Fi) ends in April 2008, so the ECW ratings, WWE’s plan to “fix” them, and the ECW contract renewal negotiations may turn out to be just the beginning of the story.
In other news:
– WWE has released Kristal Marshall, according to several reports. Her bio is off of WWE.com.
– The Diva Search comes live to RAW, ECW and SD this week, with the winner being announced on the 10/29 RAW.
– TNA did a 1.0 cable rating last night, according to Nielsen Media Research by way of WrestlingObserver.com.
– JJ Dillon had a total left knee replacement on October 17th, according to PWInsider.com.
– Chris Jericho “admits” he’ll be returning to WWE, according to Alex Marvez.
– The Fabulous Moolah recently underwent an eye transplant and is scheduled to have shoulder replacement surgery soon. Also she is selling two wrestling rings she owns. (Credit: PWInsider)
