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World Wrestling Entertainment's version of the cult classic wrestling promotion ECW continues to suffer in the ratings. This week, Vince McMahon's resurrection of the Extreme Championship Wrestling television program, which airs every Tuesday night on Sci Fi Channel at 10pm Eastern/Pacific, "celebrated" its 100th episode. Unfortunately, the show drew the lowest audience in the new ECW's history, a 1.08 household rating.
That rating is in the same region TNA Wrestling usually draws on SpikeTV, and the same the original ECW drew in 1999-2000 on TNN (now SpikeTV). WWE's version of ECW is, for all intents and purposes, a Tuesday night developmental show that has replaced the "B" and "C" programs for WWE like "Heat" and "Velocity." *** Several months ago, when the new ECW was hitting a then-record low 1.34, a former WWE executive commented "ECW was the stuff of urban legend. It had a rabid fan base, created more memorable moments in the 1990s on their budget than WCW did with hundreds of millions of dollars, discovered more talent and created more memorable characters than anyone in history except WWE, and when it came back after 4 1/2 years, we charged 400 dollars per seat ringside for The Hammerstein Ballroom and sold it out. Not to mention a pretty impressive pay per view buyrate Amazing how WWE puts their machine behind it and can't duplicate what was done with passion, creativity, a great fan base, and dedicated workers." The ECW brand was born "Eastern Championship Wrestling" in 1992 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Promoter and jewelry store owner Tod Gordon started running small shows in bars and nightclubs. When he got a television clearance on the now-defunct Sports Channel Philadelphia, he followed the independent promoters' pattern of using former big names from WWE (then WWF) and the NWA like Don Muraco, Superfly Jimmy Snuka, Tito Santana, Abdullah The Butcher, Ivan Koloff and Stan Hansen, with some local talent to round out the cards. Gordon imported noted wrestling writer and producer Eddie Gilbert, who built the show around himself and the veterans, placing himself in a main event feud with Terry Funk. *** But a falling out between Gordon and Gilbert lead to the former Paul E. Dangerously, Paul Heyman taking over creative duties in September 1993. Heyman had a much different vision for professional wrestling, and used Funk to make a new generation of homegrown stars. Gordon famously gave Heyman tremendous freedom in experimenting with brand new ways to present professional wrestling, and Heyman started making stars out of the local talent, having them win in big matches against the experienced "bigger name" veterans. Heyman had lofty goals, too, and started expanding the promotion outside of Philadelphia. A falling out between Heyman and Gordon saw Heyman buy the original owner out, and by mid-1995, Heyman (who had already renamed the promotion "Extreme Championship Wrestling") set out on his course of competing with WWE and WCW. *** But without the multi-million dollar resources of WWE's McMahon or the Ted Turner -owned WCW (helmed by Eric Bischoff), there was no way to compete, and in 2000 it was obvious both WCW and ECW were going to be swallowed up by the surging WWE. While WCW was considered by many a dead brand, fans still clamored for the return of ECW, and when WWE released "The Rise and Fall of ECW" DVD in 2004, it became the fastest selling DVD in pro wrestling history. The DVD surpassed 100,000 and 200,000 units in record time, and was neck-and-neck for a while with Wrestlemania XXI for the title of "Biggest Selling WWE DVD of all time." *** The success of the DVD convinced McMahon to schedule a reunion of sorts, which turned out to be the June 12, 2005 "ECW One Night Stand" pay per view. Between the 400 dollar ringside seats and the shockingly successful pay per view, WWE knew it had a viable commodity in the brand. 8 months later, plans were implemented to re-launch the brand, with Heyman being named the Head Writer of the brand he brought to worldwide cult status. But the revised ECW was not to be the alternative product to WWE the fans had hoped for. McMahon wanted ECW to fit in nicely with the other WWE brands. McMahon and Heyman clashed often, and after a disastrous Decemeber To Dismember pay per view on December 3, 2006, the fallout between McMahon and Heyman reached a point where Heyman --whose "Extreme" approach changed wrestling-- went home. Heyman declined Stephanie McMahon-Levesque's reported offer to run the developmental system, and sometime in 2007. *** WWE and Heyman very quietly parted ways. Former Heyman assistant David Lagana, now sharing the writing duties with Dusty Rhodes, couldn't stop the audience from rotting away. A little more than a year after Heyman's departure, Lagana was fired by World Wrestling Entertainment. The brand is now in the hands of writer Christopher DeJoseph, best known as The Fat Oily Guy (Dick Johnson) on WWE broadcasts. Just a few weeks ago, ECW play-by-play announcer Joey Styles was re-assigned to WWE.com and was replaced on air by former American Gladiators host Mike Adamle, which has been labeled nothing short of a disaster.
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