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The return of ECW has happened. The moment everybody was waiting for with bated breath has occurred. Everybody's talking about it. I'm not seeing a lot of good response from the latest incarnation. People are saying that it reeks of McMahon. Honestly, it does, but that's not what's missing from our latest version of ECW. People are saying that the Sci-Fi Channel connection is the fly in the ointment. I don't think that's the problem either. I have a friend who's been in the industry who is trying to get involved with WWE even as this is written and have seen the ideas he has submitted to creative. Ideas that included vampires and science-fiction elements. Ideas that if presented to me on television, would compel me to watch. And this person isn't a no-talent hack who is jock sniffing to get into the industry. This is a graduate of the Wild Samoan wrestling school who has been on the same card as wrestlers like Owen Hart and Mick Foley. The fact of the matter is that a good booker can take the silliest idea and get it over. Paul Heyman was a master at this. If you watched ECW from the beginning, and saw the debut of the Dudleys, you know what I'm talking about. At first glance, Little Snot, Big Dick, and Dudley Dudley were probably the silliest thing I had seen in ECW yet. (And no, Bubba Ray and D-Von were not part of the original incarnation). We all know how that gimmick ended up. It's not completely Vince McMahon's fault that the new ECW stinks so far. It's not bad ideas or science fiction. It's two things. Passion and misunderstanding.

Let's start with passion. One of the main reasons that ECW was so awesome back in the day was the passion of everybody involved with the company. It started right at the top with Paul Heyman, whose passion for the business would shine through in everything he did. It was his passion for the business that inspired everyone in the company to follow suit. Everyone was out to give the fan every ounce of energy they had to make the fans go home happy. This passion was the fuel that made the ECW engine run.

ECW fans were passionate because they weren't just watching the show, they were part of it. Sign Guy and Hat Guy weren't just fans, they were part of the show. Fans would go to the dollar store and bring weapons for the wrestlers to use, and they would actually use them. The audience was allowed to participate. People would bring creative signs and they would be part of the show. (If you think this originated in Stamford, watch old WWF tapes from prior to 1995 and see how many signs were in the crowd before the ECW influence.) The curtain was pulled back a bit, and the fans were allowed inside. THIS is what created the rabidly loyal fan following. If you go to a WWE show, you bought your ticket, and you're allowed to watch and bring a sign (unless your sign disagrees with McMahonagement) and that's about it.

ECW wrestlers also had more reason to be passionate due to the fact that most of the wrestlers had other positions in the company. It was well documented in "The Rise and Fall of ECW" what these roles were. When the wrestlers are doubling as your sales force, your ring crew, your street team, and your artists, they tend to have more passion than somebody who simply shows up when they are supposed to. The wrestlers were more passionate and bled ECW because they literally WERE ECW. Look at it from this perspective. If you built your own house from the ground up, you would be much more likely to care for and maintain it than you would an apartment or a room at the Holiday Inn. Old school ECW wrestlers helped build the house they lived in. The new ECW wrestlers are part of a media conglomerate. They're staying at the Holiday Inn. Old school ECW employees were passionate because they invested a lot of their literal blood, sweat and tears into the business. In the new ECW, the checks come from Stamford. The workers show up where and when they are supposed to. The workers don't seem to have as much passion for the new ECW because it's painfully obvious they don't have a stake in the new ECW.

Vince was right. "At the end of the day, Mr. McMahon is still in charge". Heyman can't be the Pied Piper this time because it doesn't seem like he's playing the tune anymore. Heyman could still elicit this same passion for ECW if he was truly handed the keys to the car. This is still Paul's baby, and it's not too late to let him run the show the way it was meant to be.

The second part of this is misunderstanding. Vince and Co. OBVIOUSLY don't get, and never got ECW. Did you ever see a match in the old ECW start with garbage cans full of weapons sitting around the ring" Not often. Why did we never see a hardcore battle royal where all weapons were legal" As my aforementioned friend stated, "because we never wanted it.". ECW wasn't just about hardcore. ECW wasn't just about crazy spots. Why is it that McMahonagement always thinks that all it takes to recreate ECW is leave some weapons lying around and do crazy spots" If that's all it took, XPW would still be around and would be a major fed. ECW fans LOVE straight wrestling matches, provided that the rest holds are at a minimum and the participants know a headlock from a hole in the ground. Look at the Malenko-Guerrero classics from the summer of '95. There wasn't any blood, flaming chairs, or cheese graters. Just wrestling. As Gordon Solie used to say, "The name on the marquee is wrestling." Fans will still watch wrestling.

When you watched an ECW show in its prime, you got it all. Old school wrestlers, up and comers, technical expertise, intricate storylines, AND garbage wrestling. ECW was like a stew. There were a ton of ingredients mixed together to make a dish better than the sum of its parts. ECW was also about an alternative. In ECW's heyday, we had Hulk Hogan's geriatric band of has-beens on WCW, and garbage-men squaring off against clowns in the WWF. ECW simply targeted people who missed wrestling in all of its forms. ECW can still work in the same way if Vince would pull his head out of his butt and realize that the average ECW fan wants an ALTERNATIVE to his other products. All the proceeds go to his pocket anyway. I don't understand why he can't just swallow his pride and realize that a successful ECW will still line his own pockets. Sports Entertainment fans will still know where to find their show. ECW wasn't and isn't for everybody. ECW fans want a McMahon-free product, or at the very least, McMahon lite.

I would disagree with anyone who believes that now isn't a great time to bring back ECW. Wrestling fans are dying for an alternative. It's very similar to 1994 right now in the wrestling world. The business was in a downturn. We have a group (TNA) that is trying to push names of the past (Nash, Sting, Steiner) over the true future of the business (Samoa Joe, Styles, Daniels). This reeks of WCW. We've got RAW trying to be as ridiculous as possible (just like 1994 in the WWF), and we have a glorified indy on Friday nights in SmackDown!, which basically is treated like a B-Team by the WWE. (Kind of like Thunder for WCW in the late 90's). Fans NEED an alternative. And yes, I am aware of and have enjoyed Ring Of Honor. But it just ain't on TV, and it isn't the bouillabaise that ECW was. The average Joe like me wants convenience. Vince has a unique opportunity to catch lightning in a bottle twice. All he needs to do is hand Paul Heyman the keys to the car, keep it gassed up for him and stay out of the way.

by Burke Fengler ..