Blood, Barbed Wire and Brand Dilution: The Mighty Fall of WWE’s Third Brand

It possessed the name, the roster and the nostalgia– but WWE ECW lacked the one thing that made the original immortal: a soul

Photo courtesy of YouTube

When WWE decided that it was going to re-launch Extreme Championship Wrestling as a third brand in June 2006, it was backed by massive nostalgia and the roaring success of the One Night Stand pay-per-views.

But by February 2010, the brand quietly dismantled and was replaced by NXT. Today, we are going to investigate the mighty fall of WWE ECW.

Now the failure of WWE ECW was not due to a lack of talent. It was the result of a fundamental identity crisis, corporate sanitization, and a total disconnect from what made the original promotion a cultural phenomenon.

The Lack of ‘Extreme’ Wrestling

The original ECW built its legacy on counter-culture, grit– barbed wire, flaming tables, bad language, blood and a heavy metal atmosphere. WWE’s version however, was bound by network television restrictions on SyFy.

As the company began transitioning into the PG Era, the blood, weapons and unpredictable adult themes were stripped away.

Extreme Rule matches became rare exceptions rather than the standard. To diehard fans, calling this heavily cleansed show “ECW” felt more like a huge insult than a blessing to receive the show back.

Photo courtesy of WWE

The Beef Between Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman

The plan at first was to let Hall of Fame manager Paul Heyman run the brand with the creative freedom that defined the original promotion. But chairman Vince McMahon held ultimate booking authority and oftentimes overwrote Heyman’s counter-programming ideas.

The difference in opinion turned its ugly head at December to Dismember 2006. Heyman voiced that he wanted Phillip Brooks, who was known by the ring name CM Punk, to win the upcoming Extreme Elimination Chamber match. He was planning to make Brooks the new face of WWE ECW.

McMahon had other ideas. He wanted Bobby Lashley to win. This ultimately led to December to Dismember to be a complete flop. As a result, fans booed all night long and ultimately, Heyman decided to walk away and leave the brand altogether, stripping the revival of its creative soul.

Photo courtesy of cultaholic.com

Abandonment of the ‘Hardcore’ Fans

WWE wanted to capture the original ECW’s anti-establishment audience while simultaneously trying to push corporate WWE tropes. This failed immediately in the following ways:

• Early episodes featured Vince McMahon-styled gimmicks like The Zombie and Kevin Thorn (a vampire wrestler), which completely clashed with the gritty reality fans expected.
• ECW legends like Rob Van Dam, Sabu, Sandman and Tommy Dreamer were systematically used to put over WWE-established talent or incoming rookies, killing the counter-culture establishment that the original had.

Sinking Into a Developmental Show

By 2008, WWE stopped trying to pretend the show was a continuation of the 1990s promotion. Instead it became like a developmental show.

While the era produced highly watchable, fundamentally sound wrestling– serving as a critical launchpad for stars like Christian, CM Punk, Sheamus, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston and The Miz– it was ECW in name only.

Arena attendances began to shrink, the set lost its distinct look and it effectively became an hour of television used to fill network contracts before being replaced by the reality-compeition version of NXT.

Photo courtesy of Bleacher Report

Reflection

WWE ECW failed because it tried to modify a counter-culture revolution. The original ECW was an outlaw promotion born out of rebellion and anti-establishment. Once it was corporate-funded, micromanaged, and PG-rated, it ultimately lost the very identity that gave it value in the first place.

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