01. The ECW brand is about as weak as its ever been. The matches are competent but the main event scene isn’t exactly setting the world on fire.
02. The company has used ECW to prime and develop new talent such as Zack Ryder and Yoshi Tatsu, but neither is really putting on matches that I’d like to see time and time again. They each have their unique movesets but neither seems as vibrant or exciting as Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger.
03. Shelton Benjamin is also a wash. Instead of making him a star, the company has been using him to put over new talent. Instead he should be entered into a feud with Christian pronto because he is the only one with the experience and style to really excite.
04. Right now the main baddie of ECW is William Regal but when its all said and done, William Regal is finished. He can’t draw heat. His matches lack style. And his T-Rex styled scream-selling might be neat but for some reason they don’t click with me. I think Christian and Regal just don’t have the chemistry they should and I think Regal would be better suited to someplace like Smackdown where he could work with Punk and Mysterio.
05. Christian meanwhile is spending his time getting talent ready for the future. And the guy is excelling at it. He is priming both Zack Ryder and Yoshi Tatsu to be the future of the company while still tackling the veteran Regal. Christian/Ryder/Tatsu have all put on quite good showings, but nothing that really excites like Swagger did before them.
06. Tatsu is sloppy as hell. Dangerous even. His match with Regal a numbers of years back was probably the worst match I’ve seen in 2009 from the WWE. I bet Regal got most of the blame for that since it was his job to lead Tatsu, but I fault Yoshi. He reminds me a lot of super babyface John Cena in a really bad way. Eventually I think people will turn on him. It’s just a matter of time.
07. Ryder on the other hand is being held back. His role should be that of the tweener. If the company let him do that, he would be massively over. His goofy Woo Woo Woo was entertaining and enjoyable. Instead they had him change his inflictions to a more serious, heel WOO… WOO… WOO. It really doesn’t work for me and they’re shoehorning the guy into something when he could be so much more.
08. Overall I think the brand is very lackluster and dipping ratings show that. I think the company would do well to bring in guys from ROH like Chris Hero to make up for the lack of depth in the roster.
09. Kaval is another guy the company should look at bringing up. I don’t know how well he would fit in the company but I think he would have a lot to add to ECW.
10. Anyway that’s all for now. I used to really like ECW. I just can’t see myself getting excited for it as much until the next roster trade.
