ECW! ECW!

Last night's was another example as to why ECW is the best wrestling show on television when it's not being used as a spank rag for the other two shows. Gladly, this only happens around the time before WrestleMania, as they need someplace to showcase the midcard. *makes jerk-offy motion with right hand*

Let's recap the show quickly. First segment. Teddy Long announces he's going to Smackdown to take over the GM spot vacated by Vickie Guerrero. He announces that his assistant Tiffany would be taking over the GM duties. Jack SWAGGAH~! comes out and asserts his influence as ECW Champion, to which Tiffany doesn't buckle and announces that she's going to be implementing an elimination scramble to find out who SWAGGAH~!'s opponent is going to be at Backlash.

After this, aside from the herky-jerky recaps, there's nothing but wrestling. Six-man tag featuring the always exciting Evan Bourne and the Unified Tag Champs the Colon Bros. taking on Mizorrison and Tyson Kidd. After that, the elimination scramble, which is a series of matches where one guy gets eliminated each week. This week started out with Finlay, Christian, Tommy Dreamer and Mark Henry. Henry was eliminated this week, so next week, we'll see a three-way. The action in both matches was top-notch for free TV.

This isn't to say that there isn't good wrestling on RAW or Smackdown, because there is. However, let's contrast the out-of-ring side of things, shall we? The two "main" title defenses were announced on RAW, both by corrupt authority figure Vickie Guerrero. One made sense; she gave her husband Edge a rematch against John Cena, but she made it a Last Man Standing match... wtf? Why would that match warrant that stipulation when the only thing that happened so far between WM and last night was... nothing?

The other one was random. As stated yesterday, well, Vickie went over Vince's head and made the six-man match a title match. One, what authority did she have to go over the head of the owner of the company? Two... why is it her business to stick her nose into that situation? What reason did she have? The announcement was anti-climactic and it just felt thrown out there. No build, no suspense, and if anything, the Last Man Standing stip should have been given to a singles bout between Trips and Orton. It's almost like they don't spend the time those of us who watch live are forced to to see the 10 or so minutes of airtime devoted to recapping the previous week.

But then you take ECW, and what new GM Tiffany did to build towards SWAGGAH~!'s title defense at Backlash. She set up a competition between four guys who in kayfabe are deserving of Championship consideration and is letting them decide it in the ring. It's a simple storyline, men fighting for a shot to get ahead. It's simple and yet... it works. It doesn't feel forced, it gives the fans a chance to watch really good wrestling that has implications for three straight shows, and at the end, the person who earns the shot will feel like they deserve it, instead of having authority figure deus ex machina du jour just give it to them.

I know that many wrestling fans who saw that the WWE was going to put the ECW name on a brand that didn't operate in the same spirit as the original were outraged. I was among them. I was a huge mark for ECW back in the day, and looking back at it, I really do feel it had a very high peak and deserved to be judged with the best in history.

Today's ECW may not be the same as the fed that shared its name in the past, but it has turned into the best wrestling show on television and it's not even close (well, I can't say that because I don't get HDNet and thus can't watch ROH's weekly programming). This is the model that I wish the WWE would use for Smackdown and/or RAW. Sure, ECW doesn't get ratings, but it's shunted away with little fanfare, none of the "big stars" on a network you don't necessarily associate with wrestling. However, the critical raves it gets are definitely a sign that people will watch and like the style if presented on a bigger stage.

So, if you agree with this, please join me in an old school chant...

"ECW! ECW! ECW! ECW!"