For the past 12 years World Wrestling Entertainment has been the sole driving force in televised professional wrestling. Say what you will about TNA’s iMPACT Wrestling or the Ring of Honor wrestling promotion, but we can all agree they pale in comparison to the McMahon juggernaut that is the WWE.
So as we approach the month of March in this year of 2013, we come upon the 12th anniversary of Vince McMahon’s acquisition of both the WCW brand, and followed shortly thereafter by his additional purchase of Paul Heyman’s ECW.
We here at What Culture take a brief look back and we ask: Should both the WCW and ECW brands finally return?
The Current State of Other Televised Wrestling
There’s no question that the WWE has a stranglehold on the televised world of professional wrestling, with weekly viewers averaging just above 4 million in count. By comparison, Dixie Carter’s TNA iMPACT Wrestling comes in at a far second place as it relates to televised weekly wrestling programming, despite boasting some of the industry’s greatest legends on their roster: The Icon Sting, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, and The Dudley Boyz.
Conversely though, TNA’s creative minds have actually really done a far better job than most in recent years of developing new star talent by way of Bobby Roode, James Storm, AJ Styles, and Austin Aries, as well as cultivating the emergence of Jeff Hardy as a main event player as he is your current TNA World Champion. All this being said, however, TNA has failed to garner the public’s affection, and weekly attention, in any way remotely similar to the WWE fanbase, due in large part to their storyline execution. TNA has drawn relatively abysmal ratings numbers for several years now, averaging right around a solid 1.0 per weekly show, with its iMPACT Wrestling program that currently airs on Thursday nights.
Plagued by missed opportunity after missed opportunity, coupled with the immortal Hulk Hogan’s creative hands in all things TNA (which are in large part driven by his desire to be part of the weekly TV product), they have subsequently brought TNA to a standstill in recent months. Their current Aces and 8′s invasion-style storyline is a blundered mess, and and the overall product has become an uninteresting weekly viewing as a result of the frequent misfires. You also have the somewhat newer, separate Ring of Honor brand that airs locally in my area on Sunday nights sometime near midnight, and unfortunately it is pretty much an afterthought; Ring of Honor’s only silver lining is that it has given us today’s current superstars such as Daniel Bryan and CM Punk.
For these reasons, among others, the time is ripe to try something old, by making it new again!
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8 Comments
ECW was hurtin, leave it dead and buried, id rather see WCW make a return; a full fledged, viable competition with seperate people running it but WWE as its parent company, focus on wrestling and slightly more adult storylines, think NWA mixed with nWo days; not attitude adult but more adult. blood, steel cage matches, real wreslting champions with real gimmicks that people can get behind; classic monster heels being toppled by the face with a slow burn feud culminating at starrcade, a place where the championships mean something like they did in the NWA days
No.
No Ecw and Wcw should never be brought back its old and its already been done instead wwe should focus on the state of their current product and try to make it better instead of wasting time on other things
2001 Invasion.
Probably the most disappointing story line of all time.
Also WCW only ever produced one true main event caliber superstar. Goldberg.
The likes of Sting and the Nature boy were main eventers in the NWA.
Hogan Savage Nash etc made names of them selves in WWF.
And the talent pool of Eddie, Jericho, Benoit and Meysterio never went beyond mid card level.
Just like the Attitude Era, ECW and WCW need to stay in the past. WWECW is proof enough that they shouldn’t be focusing on bringing back promotions that are long gone. WWE need to focus on Raw, Smackdown and even NXT. The best form of competition is real competition. I think TNA are a long way off and I doubt they’ll ever truly compete with WWE head-to-head but they have the best chance. WWE need to be forced to provide the best product and true competition (just like WCW in the 90s) is the best way to get the best out of them.
i agree with you dave carsley
i agree with dave carsley, true competion can only come from rivals! if vince own both hel never be foreced to make his programming the most exciting, you ever heard the saying desperate times call for desperate measures, until vince is forced by another company thats not owned by him wrestling will never be the way it was in 96-99, thats like saying im gonna try to live just on the land or tru to put myself in a survival situation but carry me some food ina bag, i know i have that in me, soo if i get hungry enough il eat that food, instead of being forced to live off the land and have to kill or gather food
i agree with carsley if vince owns all the companys hel never be forces to make any big moves or make wrestling more exciting, thats like someone saying im gonna go survive on the wild or just off the land but carrying some food with em in their bag, as long as theyv got that food already, when push come to shove, when they start feeling deaperate theyl eat the food they have already, they wont be forces to live off the wild, they wont feel the need to go out and hunt, gather or eat grass, they have the option of eating the easy food, take the easy way out, true competition only comes from rivals!!