#TBT – Throwback Thursday : The ECW Brand |

This upcoming Sunday, February 16, will mark 4 years since the WWE’s ECW brand left the airwaves. Many fans don’t look back on WWE’s ECW with as much nostalgia as the original, but WWE’s ECW still had a lot of great moments. In 2005 WWE created ECW One Night Stand, a one night only PPV that was set as an ECW reunion show. With the success of the show, WWE decided to hold another ECW PPV in 2006 that would also set up ECW as a third WWE brand.

When ECW on SciFi launched on June 13, 2006 the brand was heavily influenced by Paul Heyman and resembled as much of the original ECW as possible. Rob Van Dam, who was never ECW Champion in the original promotion, became WWE Champion and ECW Champion to build the brand and give it some recognition. However as quick as the promotion started that is how quick WWE began to make adjustments. On July 2, 2006 Rob Van Damn and Sabu were pulled over in Ohio and it was discovered they had possession of marijuana and other drugs. On July 3, Rob Van Dam was forced to drop the WWE Championship on RAW. Then on the July 4^th episode of ECW on SciFi RVD was forced to drop the ECW Championship to Big Show. RVD and Sabu were both suspended for 30 days.

This resulted in the ECW brand taking a turn for the worse very quickly. The Big Show reign as ECW Champion lasted for a 152 days. This also brought on Paul Heyman as a heel for the first time in ECW. The WWE decided to use Big Show as the dominant force in ECW and it quickly made the land of extreme feel just like another WWE program. Die Hard ECW fans didn’t want to see matches like Big Show vs. Batista on ECW. WWE then tried their best at developing Bobby Lashley as the next rising star of WWE by having him on a mission to become ECW Champion.

As great of a moment as it was when Bobby Lashley won the ECW Championship at ECW December to Dismember things turned quickly when it was announced that Paul Heyman had left the WWE that night. After months of arguing with the McMahon family about how ECW was being run, the often criticized December to Dismember PPV was the last straw. The rumors suggest Paul Heyman left the WWE because of creative differences. Other say Paul couldn’t get over Vince controlling ECW. Maybe when the Paul Heyman DVD comes out this year we might get the full story.

Bobby Lashley as champion was going great and even helped the ECW brand feel fresh with new stars. Just as quick as ECW was taking off with Bobby Lashley is when the WWE decided to focus Bobby more on RAW and SmackDown even focusing him in a match against Umaga at WrestleMania 23 in the Battle of the Billionaires Donald Trump vs. Vince McMahon. After the Battle of the Billionaire’s, ECW began to take another odd twist when Vince McMahon became ECW Champion. Vince and Bobby Lashley fought over the ECW Championship for a few months until Bobby was drafted to RAW and began his focus on the WWE Championship. Bobby’s career didn’t last much longer; he was sidelined with an injury in July 2007 and was released in February 2008.

From then on the ECW brand was felt more like the forgotten child. Young stars would get their start on ECW before being moved to RAW or SmackDown, or even no longer used in the company. Superstars that creative had nothing for often found themselves on ECW just because RAW and SmackDown couldn’t use them.

One of the last true things the ECW brand did to tip its hat to the original ECW was when it made Tommy Dreamer the ECW Championship for the second time in his career during 2009. This made Tommy Dreamer the only wrestler to win the ECW Championship in the original and WWE brand.

After 193 episodes ECW was cancelled as WWE decided to try and develop a new program for younger talent called NXT. We all know the success NXT has had, the first season (the most successful) helped create The Nexus. Then in August 2012 NXT was relaunched as the newest WWE development system and is currently running as a very successful brand.

I consider NXT an evolution of what the WWE ECW brand was trying to be. Think of some of the young stars ECW was given for them to make a name in the company before they were put on the main roster: Bobby Lashley, The Bella Twins, CM Punk, Elijah Burke, Evan Bourne, Ezekiel Jackson, Jack Swagger, John Morrison, Kelly Kelly, Kofi Kingston, Layla, Matt Striker, Sheamus, The Miz, and Zack Ryder just to name a few.

While some may not have liked the ECW brand of WWE, I miss it. I’m sure the WWE will never use the ECW brand again, but with the WWE Network launching soon they could use a program like ECW to entertain the fans. Today I often think of the ECW brand when watching WWE NXT. It really does remind me of how WWE was trying to develop stars, much like the original ECW did in the 90’s.

Check out these all time great ECW moments!

RVD Crowned ECW Champion