ECW: The Pinnacle of Extreme?

Lets look past the ECW that was built in the '90s.

Let's look past Sandman, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, Tazz, RVD, and the the "Messiah" Paul Heyman. The ECW I'm talking about is the ECW today. When WWE attempted to run ECW like they ran WCW, I could only think of it as a recipe for disaster. I was quickly proven wrong as Paul Heyman's new ECW was able to compete with Raw and Smackdown, even though it went for a mere hour.

Not only did they have ECW originals, but they also showcased talent such as the Big Show, Bobby Lashley, Kurt Angle, Mark Henry, CM Punk, and Kofi Kingston. Even Mike Knox and Elijah Burke looked promising in my eyes. Heyman would rant that his show was superior and cultivated several shocking rivalries that were great to watch.

Each week a Raw or Smackdown superstar would come to ECW to face Heyman's champion and provide a solid matchup for the show. It was good to see Heyman still show his creativity after all these years. The extreme hadn't left either.

Rob Van Dam and Hardcore Holly had some matches for the ages as the two emulated old-school ECW extreme moments, with Holly even falling through a table that opened a gash across his back almost equal to a 12-inch ruler. To top it all off, the extreme elimination chamber was a really great match to see.

So what is the state of ECW currently?

Horrible.

A few years ago they were on their way to getting bumped up to a two-hour show, before WWE let ECW fall into a pit of darkness. Its been so bad that lowly secondary shows like Velocity and Sunday Night Heat have been more watchable.

Paul Heyman was removed as general manager, Lashley left, Angle fled to a rival organization, and RVD quit. Instead of filling the gaps, WWE widened them.

Stars like CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Kane, and Big Show were all drafted to Raw or Smackdown. Elijah Burke disappeared and was eventually released along with Kevin Thorn.

I don't know why ECW wrestlers are even in this year's Royal Rumble. It's quite obvious that no one from ECW is going to win. The talent is so thin that the main event always includes Matt Hardy, Finlay, or Mark Henry. And just recently Jack Swagger was brought up and immediately won the ECW title.

Jack who?! While he has decent wrestling skills, his moniker is terrible and he was just brought up.

ECW's top superstars often aren't even at the shows. They spend more time wrestling on Raw and Smackdown. Superstars like the Miz and Morrison appear on Raw like they are on that roster.

The same can be said for Matt Hardy appearing on Smackdown. And I don't blame them because they all are too good for that show.

What happened to the land of extreme?  Instead of the weekly spoon-full of extreme  we expect as fans, we get a circus.

Now we only see extreme matches at the annual One Night Stand PPV, and they aren't that extreme in comparison anyway. If you look at what ECW used to be in the 90's and compare that to the present, you would be amazed at the difference.

Perhaps this was the plan all along. ECW is now like FCW (Florida Championship Wrestling,) a developmental place for Raw and Smackdown.

TNA is starting to defeat ECW in ratings. I don't see much hope for the organization once dubbed the "Land of Extreme" anymore. Perhaps the executives over at Sci-Fi are thinking the same thing. At this pace, ECW might not not even exist in 2010 if something isn't done to change the product.