Well, its been a couple of weeks and by now weve all had time to digest just what the brand of ECW is bringing to the table. And as promised Im hear to give you my thoughts. First, let me say that Im very glad that I waited until after the second show rather than my first because then my opinions would not have been accurate as the two shows were completely different. Hell, for all I know every future show may be different from the last making these comments inaccurate. But Im going to give it a shot.

Id like to briefly touch on One Night Stand. I was extremely impressed with the results of that. It was quite different from last years event which I had hoped it would be. Top to bottom the quality of the matches were excellent. In fact, I thought that if I hadnt been in attendance at the first event, that I wouldve liked this one better. The Sabu/Rey match was phenomenal. It was 100 times better than I ever couldve hoped for. I was also happy with the Angle/Orton match as Kurt showed that he can adapt to a new style. In fact, if it came to it in the future, I wouldnt mind seeing Randy there either. The match that I think didnt quite live up to expectations was the RVD/Cena match. But that really doesnt bother me because they were concentrating on playing on the emotions of the crowd which is very important. I was very much looking forward to seeing if they would keep the momentum going into ECWs debut on Sci-fi.

And I think we can all agree that it didnt. That showed seemed to be a letdown to all who watched it. There were all kinds of rumors that Sci-fi insisted on taping it instead of airing it live and that the script was completely rewritten at the last minute. I dont know if any of those are true or not but I do know that the show was sloppy and the crowd was dead. However in my mind it was successful in two areas. It was different from the current WWE product and different from the old ECW.

In my mind, this past week made a complete 180 from the debut show. It was live but Im not sure whether that actually had anything to do with the difference or not. The "insiders" were once again at work claiming that Heyman was given full control on the script and that Sci-fi had lightened up. The main reason I like the show more than last weeks is that it started pushing their own storylines apart from the Raw vs. ECW feud thats leading into Vengeance. They planted the seeds for a Big Show/Dreamer feud and introduced a new face who will probably work with Kelly. There is certainly a great deal of potential coming off of this show.

Now, what does this all mean for the brand as a whole? Honestly Im not quite sure due to the inconsistency. I feel that this is the biggest problem that they will have to overcome. If the fans dont have any idea of what to expect on a weekly basis they will probably stop watching. Apparently Sci-fi has stated that they dont really care about the ratings as long as they dont reach dangerous lows. So far the ratings have been better that most expected with the debut scoring a 2.8 and this weeks effort getting a 2.3. However, if they dont give the fans a clear direction they might wind up approaching the danger zone. I dont quite know what that is in Sc-fis mind I think that if Impact ever beats them theyre in trouble. If they can overcome this obstacle theyll be ok. I dont know when the cross-promotional stuff with Raw is going to end but Im hoping it will be after Vengeance. Dont get me wrong, I dont have a problem with it at all and I think its been very well done. But I want to see what will happen when ECW is given the chance to stand on its own. Maybe then well get some kind of consistency.

As I said before, the current product is different from the classic ECW product but not as different as some would like to have you believe. They have been under attack for introducing gimmicks such as vampires, tarot card readers, and zombies. This is causing them to be called a WWE-ized version of ECW. This couldnt be further from the truth. ECW has always had gimmicks. They were just very different and usually darker than anything WWE or WCW were doing at the time. They were the first to explore the occult. Vampires are nothing new to ECW because Gangrel got his start as Vampire Warrior there. I even understand that Gangrel has been signed to the new ECW so eventually hell probably start some kind of storyline with Kevin Fertig (whos playing the current vampire). As far as Shelly Martinez, the card reader, goes she reminds quite a bit of Sinister Minister before he became a manager. He would appear at the beginning of every TV show and PPV and talk about the current events of ECW while quoting verses from the bible and making satanic reference. Shes doing the same thing with tarot cards. I interested to see where this goes. I think the main reason why these kinds of gimmicks are being seen as WWE-ish is because after ECW started exploring those grounds, WWE followed suit with The Ministry. But nevertheless, I think people will be impressed when these characters start to evolve. As far as the Zombie and Macho Libre go, they are parodies. Its quite the Sandamans current roll is to destroy sports entertainment gimmicks. That started at One Night Stand with Eugene and has continued on TV. Personally, I think this is a damn good way to use Sandman until they come up with a long-term feud for him. To my knowledge these are not recurring characters and Im hoping we can expect a new on every week, at least for now. Come on, how can you not like a combination between Jack Black and Randy Savage?

The current product has also been attacked for Justin Credible getting squashed by Kurt Angle on the debut show. Why not? Its an established ECW star putting over a new ECW star. Theres nothing wrong with that. Not everybody can get pushed right away. Rumor has it that several ECW people are discouraged that theyre not going to get used the way theyd like to. If thats true I say have patience, its a work in progress. Im sure theyll all get a chance to shine in due time. I was impressed with the effort Tony Mamaluke gave against Sabu this week. Hopefully things will continue to move in that direction. Keep in mind that we still have yet to see some of the original ECW talent such as Francine and CW Anderson. Plus, Test, CM Punk and several others are set to work there.

My final thought on the matter is that it is currently on the path to success. I wish I could say it was there already the inconsistency has slowed it down a little bit. Im interested to see what the fallout will be from Vengeance. But, for the time being I think we all need to have extreme patience and eventually it will pay off.