10 Things You Learn Binge Watching WWE's Ruthless Aggression Era
6. WWE ECW Is Even Weirder To Revisit
Seeing Paul Heyman’s much-loved ECW product get watered down to fit WWE’s style was a trip at the time, but it’s even more jarring today. One Night Stand 2005 and 2006 were standalone success stories, so Vince McMahon decided to take the plunge and bring ECW to weekly TV starting with the 13 June '06 episode.
It was dreadful stuff. Good lord.
Some folks like to say that WWE going PG killed the brand, but it was a dying a death long before appeasing kid-friendly sponsors by toning down the raunch and violence was an ongoing concern corporately. Pretty much nothing on the weekly show between 2006-2008 felt like something Heyman would've booked in the 1990s, put it that way.
Unless you're a masochist, do yourself a favour and sidestep any non-PPV ECW output under WWE's watch. December To Dismember 2006 would fall into that "avoid" category too, actually. This was ECW in name only. Raw and SmackDown were often more extreme!