As noted before, WWE has been in talks with the SyFy network about re-branding ECW and coming up with new programming for Tuesday nights in the 10pm time slot.I'm all for this, seeing as how it may FINALLY shut up the people that are constantly saying "ECW isn't extreme enough" because they haven't yet realized that ECW is not supposed to be the original ECW, but is merely "WWE's third brand" which happens to use the ECW name in order to maximize their profit intake. You can't fault the WWE for doing such a move as it gave the brand more notoriety when it first was issued (and admittedly, did have more of an extreme atmosphere to it what with the ECW originals and such). But for years, people have been pissing and moaning about how it's still called ECW, and I've grown tired of it. Plus, renaming the brand to something completely "WWE-centric" may just be a breath of fresh air.
The latest is that the show will most likely be a program to showcase up and coming WWE talents, pretty much what it is right now, just without the "ECW" letters and probably a new look.
The talks between SyFy and WWE have been going on for a while now as SyFy has been unhappy with the ratings.
There are three problems that I can foresee happening, though.
First: the name. They need to make sure they pick a good name that doesn't make the brand seem lackluster. They could easily just name the brand "Extreme", but that's a bit lazy and 90s-cliche, isn't it? There's also the possibility that they could simply bring back the titles of Velocity or Heat, though I don't think either of them sound like a standalone brand on par with Raw or Smackdown. The only in-storage name I can think of that would have any credibility as a brand name is Havoc but I'm not even sold on that. Equally, they need to make sure to rename the ECW championship something that will retain it's current credibility or upgrade it even more. As it stands right now, the ECW title fluctuates between being as important as the IC and US titles to being slightly above or slightly below. With someone like Christian holding it and feuding with William Regal and Shelton Benjamin it has the status of being slightly above. When people like Yoshi Tatsu and Chavo Guerrero are involved, it is lower on the scale. They should also redesign the belt while they're at it and make it smaller so it doesn't look so awkward around everybody (save for Mark Henry, which is was perfect for lol).
Second, the atmosphere. Usually they don't completely strike out when it comes to songs, but I've actually grown incredibly fond of "Don't Question My Heart" starting off my ECW night. For some reason, the pacing and the echos just seem to fit it extremely well. Maybe it's because Raw and Smackdown have much faster songs and it's nice to have a little lull in between...I'm not sure. There's also the issue of colors, logos, and so forth. It never made much sense to me that Raw and Smackdown have red and blue respectively, two of the primary colors, but ECW's logo was predominantly red, their ropes are silver, and their shirts during brand competitions are black. It just seems like yellow is the more likely color, or perhaps even green. I doubt WWE will make some huge mistake and thrust pink and purple on the brand to totally emasculate the audience, but you never know.
Third, the purpose. ECW is working extremely well right now in it's roster dynamic. You've got the old veterans that have no shot at main event status on the two bigger brands but still have something to offer (and can help train the young guys), the young guys that need the training while they debut, and the midcarders that you want to elevate to the next level. This needs to stay the same. If they make the error of having just new talent on the brand, it will become FCW 2.0 and nobody will want to watch that. If they try to overload it to make up for lost ratings, Raw and Smackdown will suffer. They should really just look into moving one big name over during the draft to take the place of Christian (my choice would be Rey Mysterio) and then keep the rest of the wheels turning as they currently are.
We'll all have to wait and see if any of this comes to fruition and what it comes to us as, but this is definitely something to keep our eyes on.
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