I think it's great that Dixie Carter and TNA are giving ECW the send off it deserved. In fact, it's long overdue. These guys are the innovators of many of today's special matches.

When WWE first had ECW, they had all the ECW guys doing their incredible hardcore matches.

Then, they started taping ECW with Smackdown. Smackdown, probably because of it's earlier start time and more accessible channel, was always a little more softcore and had more kids visiable in the audience. (I have been to both Raw and Smackdown tapings, and did notice the difference in the number of kids in the crowd)

Kids were getting sprayed with beer the Sandman would spray over the audience. Kids would see men get attacked in ways the moms against Linda McMahon running for Senate could never imagine. Something had to change.

Unfortunately, ECW was sacrificed. It became a new "Heat." And then, when ECW was getting replaced with NXT, Tommy Dreamer couldn't bear to stay long enough to see the official end.

WWE should have done what TNA is doing now back in February. One Last Stand... They could have even pulled together a short One Last Stand tour to a few locations, like the Hammerstein Ballroom. It's actually a shame WWE didn't honor ECW properly.

However, TNA's nostalgic honoring is not going to work to draw more long-term viewers to TNA. In fact, it sounds a lot like WCW bringing over all these WWE wrestlers, who yeah, were big names, but also were at the end of their prime run. And, we all know what happened to WCW...

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