“ECW and success by any other name…”
On the question of whether the new ECW proves a success, the answer lies more in how one defines success. As of now, the ratings have been good enough to make Sci-Fi happy. Keeping the host network all smiles is the most important thing a company has to do. Unless there is someone in charge who believes that the program will one day be a moneymaker, immediately achieving good ratings is of the utmost importance. Selling DVDs and PPVs is necessary for the long-term health of the brand, but if the ratings are so low the station isn’t happy, no other revenue source will matter. No company is going to make it in America without regular TV. Sci-Fi was leery of adding ECW in the first place, as evidenced by the “trial run” the show was given, and drawing some of the highest ratings in Sci-Fi history was an excellent opening salvo.
But, pulling in good ratings isn’t always enough. WCW died because Jamie Keller didn’t want wrestling on the Turner networks. Yes, WCW was bleeding money at the time, which undoubtedly made the decision easier for Keller, but there were people willing to buy WCW, which would have absolved the previous owners (I believe it was Time-Warner at the time, but the whole “mega-merger” that was taking place makes me unsure) of all future losses. TNT and TBS could have had four hours of TV that, compared to the rest of the cable landscape, was drawing excellent ratings. In the end, Keller didn’t like the “image” it created, so WCW was given the ax. However, even making a lot money doesn’t always guarantee a satisfied network. WWE basically made UPN as a station, giving them 2 hours of high ratings, and to this day, even with its recent struggles, Smackdown! remains one of UPN’s more valuable properties. Despite that, Vince gave into station executives who wanted him to essentially do away with the Muhammad Hassan character when those powerbrokers began to feel uncomfortable with a “terrorist wrestling character.” In Japan, PRIDE made Fuji-TV and itself a lot of money, but when the Yakuza scandal broke, Fuji wanted nothing to do with the Japanese fight promotion. Drawing ratings is a good start, but it is not necessarily the end-all-be-all when it comes to relations with a TV channel.
For now, though, ECW looks to be safe from a TV perspective. The show is unlikely to get kicked off Sci-Fi unless they do something so outrageously controversial (and this would have to be in the range of an on-air sacrifice) or there is a dramatic drop in ratings. Such a drop probably won’t happen given that the WWE “machine” is behind the project. Marathons of “The Twilight Zone” aren’t going to bring in 2.0+ ratings.
Long term the fate of ECW is a question mark. Most important will be whether the brand can – or is allowed to – develop an identity.
Being the fifth hour of episodic WWE programming will do more harm than good when it’s all said and done. During a boom period, wrestling fans can support a ridiculously high amount of TV. Raw, Smackdown!, ECW, Nitro, and Thunder all had really good ratings one time. However, even that is slightly missing the mark. Wrestling fans supported a lot of wrestling, that’s to be sure, but every company had it’s own distinct feel. You could watch WWF, WCW, and the old ECW and see pointed differences. Today it’s all the same show, 5 hours a week (not including PPVs), just with different characters slotted in the identical roles. Five hours of basically the same show? That’s a tough pill to swallow, no matter how rabid the fan base.
This also isn’t a boom period. There seems to be a slight up tick in fan interest, mostly younger fans brought in by Cena, but nothing near the mid-90’s level with Steve Austin, the Rock, Goldberg, and others. If ECW itself doesn’t see a direct significant ratings drop, it will likely happen someplace else. Less people will continue to tune into Smackdown!, Raw will have less viewers, or folks will simply stop buying PPVs at the same rate they traditionally have. The average person will spend a finite number of hours on wrestling in a week and the loss in ratings will come from somewhere.
Domestic PPV business is slowly dying right now. Without the international buys coming in (and to be fair to WWE, a dollar is a dollar no matter where it comes from, and as long as they’re making money, it’s hard to fault them), some of the recent PPV’s probably wouldn’t have broken even. That’s almost WCW scary. If the plans are to one day add ECW PPV’s to the menu, it’ll just further dilute that market. I don’t think you’re going to see less people watching wrestling, you’re just going to see less wrestling fans watching everything. Instead of spreading out 100 viewers over 2 programs, WWE will just spread those viewers out over 3 shows.
What’s perplexing to me is why WWE brought back ECW. The PPV did incredible last year, as did the DVD WWE put out. “One Night Stand” was as memorable a PPV as any in wrestling history. From the crowd that was simply perfect, to in-ring performances from men like Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka that defied expectations, to the fact that the buy numbers were above what the company predicted, for one night, the ECW fans would not let “their” company die. For whatever his shortcomings may be, Paul Heyman created a true cult-like following with ECW; a fan base as loyal as any in wrestling history. Those fans, while never the greatest in number, certainly supported the company, and they did so once again last year. Those ECW fans were begging for a way to “stick it” to the wrestling of today and with “One Night Stand” being that opportunity, they grabbed it.
It took a year, but WWE figured out there might be something there and it appeared they were going to capitalize on it. Movement began a few months ago and once again, ECW would live! Wrestlers were signed to contracts, a TV deal was put in place, and even Paul Heyman was brought in on the creative end. A lot of ECW fans got their hopes up that the beast they’d revived last year would get a chance to finally live.
The past few weeks of ECW television have proved that Vince McMahon seemingly brought the old ECW to life with the sole goal of killing it once and for all.
I get that, “this was never going to be the old ECW and people shouldn’t be surprised when it’s different.” That’s cool with me. But that begs the question: why did they call it ECW in the first place? Why trade off a name that you have no intention of honoring? Heck, it’s gone beyond WWE just ignoring what ECW once was and has now become WWE trying to destroy anything that seemed to be a small part of the old Philly promotion. Muscle-bound steroid users are pushed and anyone not named Sabu, RVD, or the Sandman that was in the original ECW is a jobber.
In many respects, ECW is similar to The Ramones: more influential than successful. If a record company put out a press release one-day saying, “The Ramones are coming back, get ready,” they’d look pretty stupid if they then brought out a boy band named “The Ramones.” The Ramones fans would be disappointed, not sticking around, and anyone who liked the new boy band would’ve regardless of what they were called. They could have a pop group AND a rock group.
By using the name “ECW” in the way it has, all WWE has ended up doing is killing the brand for future marketing. The ECW fans that loved the original promotion are likely to be turned off by what they’re seeing on Sci-Fi. They drank the Heyman kool-aid, sure, but they didn’t do so to the degree that they’d watch ANYTHING called ECW. WWE couldn’t put on a ballet, call it “ECW” and expect the old fans to watch it. Newer fans that’re watching the show, and weren’t familiar with the original ECW, would be watching anyway. WWE could’ve called it, “WCJ,” put out the exact same product, and probably had the exact same viewership. In creating “WCJ” (or whatever you want to label it) WWE could have preserved ECW. They still have the new brand, and along with it all the marketing possibilities etc…, but they’d also have kept ECW alive for once yearly PPV’s and DVD releases. It’s truly the best of both worlds. Having and eating that same piece of cake.
Why didn’t they?
Vince McMahon. Vince has his vision of what wrestling is and I don’t fault him for that. He literally became a billionaire doing nothing more than being himself. By contrast, everyone who has ever gone up against him, every single person, has ultimately gone away. From Vince’s perspective, what he does works and he knows best.
So, the question still remains, will ECW be a success? Short-term, absolutely. The show’s ratings, the PPV buys, the DVD sales, and so on are all making WWE money. House show business isn’t great, but Smackdown! doesn’t do that well either. Long-term? It’s questionable. Right now, ECW is making it on the back of two beasts: nostalgia and Vince’s attention span.
The nostalgia is going to die far faster than normal yearnings for the past because WWE has seemingly gone out of their way to kill what was once known as ECW. Rather than slowly morph into a new product, WWE apparently figured the quickest way to make the change was to do it like a band-aid coming off the skin: as fast as possible.
With nostalgia gone, ECW then survives based on how much attention Vinny Mac gives it. Right now, he’s reportedly very hands on with the project. Vince wants this to work and that means it probably will. The full resources of the company will be behind the new brand, and the WWE juggernaut is an impressive selling mechanism if nothing else. But, Vince will get over ECW eventually and move on to something else. Smackdown! was once the new important WWE venture and it did incredibly well at first. For a while, it appeared the then-Thursday show was becoming the WWE’s flagship program. A move to Friday combined with Vince simply getting bored with the show (more that latter than the former) has now seen it relegated to a clear number two status, both internally and externally. In fact, with ECW now so important to Vince, Smackdown! is actually number three on the totem pole.
One year from now, ECW will still be around. The die-hard fans who made it the cult-sensation in the 90’s will have given up, but it’s still WWE programming on free TV and since Vince never admits defeat until the final soldier dies, I don’t think he’ll let ECW go down either. I’m sure it will make money, which is the great irony because the ECW everyone knew and loved never did that, and that will have to be enough for the McMahon family – it probably will be. A success in some ways; a failure in others.
The legacy of ECW will be damaged. WWE has a twisted reason for completely burying all wrestling history, or at a minimum ensuring no other company is ever seen in a positive light by the public, and ECW will be the same. Those fans that lived with ECW won’t forget it: you simply could never regularly attend or view an ECW show and not remember the experience. But for the masses, where the accepted history inevitably is housed, ECW will be nothing more than an hour of TV on Tuesday nights with wacky characters and a bunch of WWE jobbers. It will become the brunch on wrestling TV menu: something to tide the hunger between Raw and the next PPV.
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