So just for reference here are the male wrestlers listed as being a part of the active ECW roster right now:

Balls Mahoney, CM Punk, Elijah Burke, Hardcore Holly, Kevin Thorn, Bobby Lashley, Little Guido, Monty Brown, Matt Striker, Mike Knox, Rene Dupree, Rob Van Dam, Sabu, the Sandman, Shannon Moore, Stevie Richards, Test, Tommy Dreamer.

Now these are the problems with the current ECW as I see them:

1. The roster is just too damned small. They need at least another 10 wrestlers to make the show seem like you're not just watching the same couple of guys every week. Plus the guys they do have are really all over the place. A lot of these guys are total style clashes.

2. Lack of star power. When Rob Van Dam, Hardcore Holly and Test are your biggest names there are some serious issues. It's even worse when Test is one of the better overall performers on the show.

3. Bobby Lashley as the champion. I don't read much for wrestling boards these days but I don't see him as champion material. He's very lacking in the personality department and I've yet to see him in a good match either.

4. Lack of long term vision. I think a lot of people saw the current state of ECW coming when the nostalgia wore off. There didn't seem to be a solid game plan on the WWE's part to compensate for that. For being the AAA program there aren't many developmental guys on the show currently. Plus we're almost 8 months in and the show still lacks indentity. It's still like watching an episode of Heat.

So how do they fix it.

1. Raw has a lot of talent not being used. Shift Val Venis, the Spirit Squad, Charlie Haas and Super Crazy over. Once the Spirit Squad gets over there have them drop the gimmick and go more towards the gimmicks they played in OVW.

2. The lack of star power really isn't fixable. That's a company wide issue these days as they haven't done a thing to build up new talent since 2000. Bobby Lashley was a nice attempt but he just doesn't have the it factor to be a top level guy. Same with CM Punk. He'd be a great guy to have win constantly and maybe challenge for the title every now and then. I don't feel he has the wide spread appeal to ever carry the company though.

3. Get tag titles for the love of gawd. Having the ECW Title defended on a weekly basis is tedious and currently 90% of the guys there have nothing to shoot for. Maybe get a Television title so you can see how people take to a champion CM Punk.

4. Figure out a vision for the show. If you aren't going to do the hardcore stuff then just get rid of the ECW castoffs and go out there and bring in the guys that fulfill that vision. Not this makeshift roster that has a little bit of everything.

Really? He was just in a good match with Test this week.

I think the two biggest problems are that 1) no one really cares about the product and 2) too many people have been buried with no one really benefitting from it.

I think the best idea is using it as an advanced developmental show. Since the territories are gone, guys have no real ladder to climb in honing their skills. Have ECW be a place for your top prospects to spread their wings.

1) Make every match "ECW rules." This does not mean make every match a hardcore blood bath, but eliminate the constant disqualifications. I don't expect to see this happen, since the bookers are lazy, but I can dream.

2) End the stupid, cartoonish gimmicks that newcomers bring from the other brands. Matt Striker should not have come over as the same over the top teacher character. It should have been tweaked into an edgier, sleazier teacher, the type of creepy teacher that no one wants to be alone in the same room with.

3) Instead of getting newcomers over by jobbing out ECW originals to them, have them actually feud and let the newcomers get the final say when it is all said and done. I don't want to see Dreamer jobbing to every OVW transplant, I want to see him kick some ass. I know many of the ECW originals are past their prime, but no one in the ECW fan base wants to see them look stupid or weak.

4) The rebellious atmosphere of when this brand started is completely gone. They need to act edgier and more out there to act like they are rebelling against the rest of the WWE. They should be boasting that Test/Lashley is going to steal the show at the Rumble. Once again, I'm fantasizing, as there are too many egos that would get hurt.

I've been tossing ideas around in my head for a few months now on starting an ECW diary, that would basically be what I would do with the brand if I got the book. I'm probably too busy (and still two shows behind in NEW) but I might sit down and piece it together at some point.

Make Punk champ. And Heel. Heel Punk= the answer to anything.

If I had my way I'd turn it into what OVW was before it turned to shit last year. Strong southern styled fed with simple but good storylines and a lot of younger and neglected mid-carders in it.

First off, they need to establish that old ECW feel of "us against the world". ECW opened its doors to guys who weren't big stars or past their prime (Taz, Benoit, Funk, Cactus, Douglas). There was sort of an underlying theme of "nobody else wants us, so we're here to prove 'em wrong".

They have the outcasts and rejects to do this (Striker, Dupree, Test, etc), but they're not doing or --more importantly-- saying anyting different from what you'd see on Raw or Smackdown. They seemed to be building to something like this in the first 3 weeks, with "Sandman vs. Sports Entertainment", but that went away.

Probably the most obvious problem is the lack of spontaneity. With ECW you didn't know who would win, or how each match would go. I mean, nobody thought Stevie Richards and Raven would win the Tag Titles from Public Enemy. I'm not saying "Rene Dupree: Champ. Next show", but at least do something unexpected. Paul Heyman screwing RVD was a good example...but not really surprising to anyone who knew of RVD's off-field antics.

When Dreamer hit a piledriver on Beulah, it seemed spontaneuous. The ECW Mutants never expected to see some hot broad's britches (well, the FIRST time it happened). It wasn't "Hi, my name is Beulah..and I'm here to show you my undies, now hit my music". (*cough cough* Kelly Kelly *cough cough*). Ariel nailed a little bit of this when she came out and did an unexpected lap dance on Joey. Just go out and do it... don't hype up "Ariel's Lap Dance" a week in advance.

..and get rid of fucking Tazz. Or as Tazz would say: "get rid of him. Is that a word? Is that how you say it-- get rid of him?! Hey, I dunno..."

They probably need to keep his babbling ass around to keep the ECW connection and that's fine. Just get him off commentary and have him do a special "Tazz's Turdfest" interview or something.

I am in absolute agreement with everything ES just said.

Ditto.

A lot of people hated what ECW was at first, but I thought it was fine.

You had the core "originals" in RVD, Sandman, Sabu, and Tommy Dreamer, and a nice undercard of guys like the FBI, Al Snow, Roadkill, Danny Doring, Stevie Richards, etc. etc. Then you had "new blood" guys like CM Punk, Kevin Thorn, Mike Knox, and even the return of Test. Finally, you had Angle and Big Show imported to shore up the top spots until new main eventers were created. Matt Striker was moved to ECW, but was used improperly, as was Shannon Moore, who seems to have vanished again.

The "vixens" were there, but you only had Kelly Kelly (lame name), Ariel (hot!), and Trinity, with the latter never being used, so it wasn't like they were all over the place like on Raw and Smackdown.

Structuring of the show was fine. 3-4 matches, 1 being a long main event and 1 being a squash for a new comer, then a few promos to hype matches and some hype videos. Very little 10-minute blab fests.


Throw that all in the melting pot, and the shows were fine. Then they started using Raw and SD guys all the damn time vs THE BIG SHOW. Ric Flair. Undertaker. Kane (WOO!). DX! Batista?! Yeesh...

Now we have anarchy and chaos... two nightclub dancers in New York. :D