WWE: The Déjà Vu of the ECW Storyline with Tommy Dreamer, Rhyno

By Dean Siemon | Dec 9, 2015

Once again, the WWE is bringing back former wrestlers from ECW; hoping that it will bring a boost to the television ratings. However, it’s a case of “been there, done that.”

Sometimes, you see something on television that reminds you of the good ol’ days of classic hardcore wrestling – well before the current PG era that sort of ruins what is considered “extreme rules.”

But sometimes, the events that have happened in the past worries you that the déjà vu that you are sensing might lead to something bad. Consider that for the past couple of weeks, we have see the Wyatt Family feud with the Dudley Boys and that has led to them recruiting some help with the likes of Tommy Dreamer and Rhyno – former world champions from the now defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling.

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The déjà vu that I’m sensing reminds me of when there the success of the ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view spawned a sequel in 2006 and the subsequent third brand of television. Now over time, that became less a revival of the extreme brand and more so a development brand for younger stars that was just not very good in the end.

How bad? They had Ezekiel Jackson hold the ECW Champion by defeating Christian in 2010 to become the final ECW Champion. Yeah, that’s how bad.

While I highly doubt that having a team of ECW wrestlers face the Wyatts is not going to be the spark to creating any new brand – especially since we now have an actual enhancement brand in NXT – there really isn’t anything to gain from having the ECW return to WWE.

The company has been closed since 2001 after having such cult following of its own during the hot period of wrestling popularity in the 1990s. Since then, we’ve had the invasion storyline and ECW teaming up with WCW in an effort to “put WWF (at the time) out of business.” With that and the 2006-2010 run of what some call “WWECW,” what is the point of doing another ECW storyline?

Sure, the ratings are at an all-time low and the hope is that maybe the creative team can spark some interest by bringing back older superstars who haven’t been on television for a few years and, wait, do you get the sense of déjà vu?

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Of course, this has been the one constant trick that WWE tries to do whenever they hope to get a jump in the ratings. Unfortunately, the ratings didn’t jump. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Maybe there would have been better luck if they had brought back Rob Van Dam; who was actually the face of ECW.

Still, it seems like a forced storyline in an effort to try and make the Wyatt Family seem like a dominant force; even though they haven’t been very dominant in the past year and you can thank that same creative staff for that.

There really isn’t going to be anyway this storyline helps the Wyatt Family anyway because you can argue that they are beating superstars past their prime. Okay, maybe they couldn’t do that at the last pay-per-view, but the creative team hopes you have the memory span of a fruit fly.