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“Raw is ECW?”

It's hard to turn on a WWF program these days without having ECW flashbacks.  When you look at the roster it’s easy to see why.  Here’s a list of 10 wrestlers who have had an impact in ECW that are currently in the forefront in the WWF.

Steve Austin
Mick Foley
Chris Benoit
Chris Jericho
Taz(z)
Dudley Boyz
Saturn
Dean Malenko
Eddie Guerrero

The WWF’s content changed a few years ago during away from family entertainment and more towards their current ‘WWF Attitude’ era.  A big reason for this was the success ECW was having 5 years ago.  The WWF adopted a lot of this style both indirectly and directly.

For instance, take a look at the WWF past and present -
How many brawls in the crowd do you see now in the WWF? How many did you see before ECW?

How many tables and chairs are used now? How many were used before?

How often does someone blade now? How often was it done before?

How many cat fights do you see now? How many did you see before?

How often does someone swear now? How often did you hear that before?
 

It’s pretty easy to see that the WWF has taken a lot of both of ECW’s style and wrestlers and this has been a major part of the great success of the WWF today.

Where would the WWF be if they only had one component of ECW?

If they only adopted ECW’s wrestling style and not the wrestlers where would they be?  Considering that only Mick Foley and Steve Austin have been in the WWF for more than a year (and both tenures were relatively short in ECW) its pretty easy to conclude that they would be in good shape.  The WWF has created a lot of ‘superstars’ on their own so there’s no reason to believe that they would be unsuccessful without any ECW wrestlers.

Conversely, if the WWF still was still using the family entertainment style of wrestling with a large number of ECW wrestlers I think that the success that they have today would be much smaller.

So why has there been such an influx of former ECWers into the WWF?  The obvious one is money, but if the key is the content and not the wrestlers why would Vince (or Turner for that matter) shell out the big bucks when he could create his own star when he knows the formula to success?  The answer to that is that ECW works as a pseudo training ground for the WWF.  Hiring someone from ECW is similar to hiring someone directly out of college as opposed to hiring them out of high school and having to train them.  Another good comparison is that ECW is a minor league who develops talent for the major league team, in this case the WWF’s.

So should we expect to see a revolving door in ECW where wrestlers come in, have success, and then leave to greener pastures?  Yes, but likely not to the degree that we have seen in the past.  Part of the reason why is the national exposure ECW gets now with a TV deal among other things.  With the expsosure comes money which is always a significant factor.  Another thing is being able to be a big fish in a small pond. Raven’s biggest beef in WCW was his inability to rise to main event status and that’s the reason I believe that he will remain with ECW when his contract expires in August.  It’s also the biggest reason RVD has stayed around for so long.  So while the revolving door will never stop turning in ECW it’s probably slowed down and the oppurtunity for wrestlers to come back through the revolving door is greater than ever.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns you can reach me at [email protected].