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| WWE's revival of Extreme Championship Wrestling has secured a weekly timeslot on the Sci-Fi Channel, according to a report by the Wrestling Observer website. According to the report, ECW would debut in mid or late June, unless there are late changes. PWInsider.com has independently confirmed with an NBC Universal source that negotiations are ongoing for an ECW time slot but the source believed that a final decision on whether ECW would air on Sci-Fi or the USA Network (both of which are owned by NBC Universal) had not been made. The Observer report indicates an official press release would be coming within the next week. At one point, Sci-Fi had a 2 hour special scheduled for 5/30. That special is no longer listed internally with their programming department. |
| QUOTE (Real F'n Show @ May 18 2006, 06:22 AM) |
| Um...why Sci-Fi? |
| QUOTE (eStragand @ May 18 2006, 09:50 AM) |
| USA and Sci-Fi used to be in bed together in the 90's. They shared alot of the same programs and movies. Not sure if they're still connected, but that's why Sci-Fi doesn't sound too surprising to me. And hey..having pro wrestling really lets Sci-Fi play up the FICTION portion of their title. |
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The ECW project is the major behind the scenes news in the company, to the point that all booking ideas for Raw or Smackdown past early June are all tentative A lot of changes have taken place in regard to roster and scheduling, almost all of them considered positive. ECW will still be taped before Smackdown for the time being. One of the main reasons Shane McMahon pushed for this is because he was after an internet-exclusive brand, but Vince saw the potential for ECW and felt it wouldn’t reach it just on the internet. Three networks are being talked to, with the favorites being USA and the Sci-Fi Channel. The third one is Bravo. Sci-Fi made a 52-week commitment to ECW, with the upside being a more favorable timeslot and being one of the primary programs on the network, which it would not be on USA. The benefits of USA would be a stronger network and better resources, but the ‘Wrestling Network’ label is something USA doesn’t want. It’s believed that when ECW starts full-time it’ll be on television, but that’s not a certainty. The first ECW taping is planned for the 6/20 Smackdown tapings, but the wrestlers involved were also told to have 13/6, the day after ONS II, clear, just in case. Kevin Dunn will in charge of production, so it’ll be close to WWE-level values. They’ll be changes to the look of the arena, though, with different lighting, likely the look of dimly lit boxing, and a different set for the tapings, with a quick change done for Smackdown. USA was the hoped for end result, but when that looked unlikely, Vince hinted that it still wouldn’t be internet-only. As well as previously mentioned ECW alumni coming in, there will be some mid-level names from Raw and Smackdown coming in, including a few somewhat high level heels. Kennedy will probably not be part of it now, as he is wanted for Smackdown, and in fact should be back on Smackdown very soon. The feeling is the Raw/Smackdown wrestlers will be needed once the novelty wears off, to draw in the 2,500 arenas while programmed against Van Dam or in tags with Van Dam teaming up with Sabu, Dreamer or Sandman. Developmental guys will be built up to take those spots down the road. No decisions made yet, but they’ll have to be made very soon, as time is running out and no concrete plans can be made for Raw or Smackdown until this is all sorted out. The feeling is the better the TV clearance the bigger level of star that will be put here. Masato Tanaka and Ikuto Hidaka have both been offered full-time deals. The plan is for ECW to work road shows Saturday through Monday, with the taping on Tuesday. This might be hard, because the ECW style took it’s toll when more than two shows were done a week, with wrestlers noting that when they did do three shows a week the quality dropped because they were so banged up. New agents will be brought in to run the cities, which will be ones Raw and Smackdown no longer run in. Exceptions will happen, as the plan is for a lot of foreign touring for ECW, and will run more shows a month than Smackdown and possibly Raw too, as they tend not to run house shows the week of a PPV, and there are no plans for ECW PPV’s yet. There was talk of an unofficial system similar to baseball, where OVW is Class A, ECW is AA, Smackdown is AAA and Raw is MLB. Commercials in the Dayton market for the 7/6 special played up ECW a lot more, calling it an unprecedented night in wrestling history, with ECW vs. WWE, and names pushed were Cena, Angle, RVD, Sandman, JBL, Show, Dreamer, HHH, Funk and Sabu. The big announcement of the angle has to be on the 5/22 or 5/29 Raw, most likely the former, as the latter is cutting things too close. The only finalized matches for ONS II are RVD vs. John Cena and Mick Foley and Edge vs. Tommy Dreamer and Terry Funk. Chris Benoit vs. Dean Malenko is not official, but is very likely. The PPV itself is behind in terms of organization due to all the work done on setting up the ECW brand. Beulah has not signed and almost certainly won’t be, as she has said she is committed to being a mom. |
| QUOTE ("ecw.com") |
| STAMFORD, Conn., May 25, 2006 - World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., today announced the official launch of ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling®) as a brand extension to its RAW® and SmackDown® franchises. After acquiring the ECW assets in 2003, WWE spent the past few years re-introducing ECW to the global WWE audience and increasing the interest in its unique brand of sports entertainment. To date, WWE has successfully released three ECW DVD’s, all of which have become best sellers, and produced a very profitable ECW pay-per-view event in June 2005, with another ECW pay-per-view scheduled for this June 11, 2006. With consumer interest at an all-time high, WWE is introducing ECW as a complementary brand to RAW and SmackDown. “After keeping the ECW concept alive and creating an enormous cult-like following for all things ECW from DVD’s to PPV’s to books, we feel that now the time is right to officially launch ECW as its own stand-alone franchise,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman. “RAW, SmackDown and ECW now represent a portfolio of WWE brands for fans of all ages and interests to enjoy.” Similar to WWE’s RAW and SmackDown brands, WWE will produce, market and promote a full line of ECW products from television programs to pay-per-views to live events to licensed consumer goods. In a related announcement, The SCI FI Channel today announced it would start airing one-hour episodes of a new ECW live television program, debuting June 13 at 10 p.m. ET. |