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RAW REPLAYS, MARIA'S FUTURE IN WWE, WHAT TO WATCH IF YOU ARE SICK OF WWE, THE PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT ECW AND MORE

My question has to do with ECW. ECW stands for Extreme Championship Wrestling it is not extreme at all. When ECW first came back on it was interesting. The New Breed was very interesting and it seemed as if they would be the future of the WWE but now hardly any of them are left. It seems as if ECW has became more of a developmental program. ECWs ratings were alright but was it a smart move to let ECW to drop a level and why is it that every time someone gets popular they are immediately moved to RAW or Smackdown (a.k.a Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, ect)?

WWE calls the department that does their storytelling "Creative" so it just goes to show that the names aren't always meant to be taken literally inside the company.  Yes, ECW was a lot more fun when it returned but Vince McMahon's plan was always to attract the old ECW audience with the product that they liked, then feed them his version of wrestling.  Obviously, as the ratings have slid downward, it's pretty obvious that his plan was flawed.  Now, ECW's only purposes are to get a check from Sci Fi and to give young talent a place to cut their teeth before moving up to the bigger rosters.  

I grew up watching ECW in the mid-nineties. Being from Texas, I was unable to see the product unless I bought a VHS tape. The image quality and production values were by no means the greatest but it didn't matter. The product was so well executed and exciting that I wanted to show everyone why I was a wrestling fan. I don't like the WWE product anymore and wonder if there will ever be another promotion in the U.S. that will cater to "old school" wrestling fans. Is there anyway some billionaire will start a promotion, give Paul Heyman the Book, and bring back the Great days of true professional wrestling?

I don't see any billionaires jumping into the wrestling business so I don't see that scenario happening.  With that said, there are some alternatives out there right now. Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate USA both give excellent alternative products. Give them a shot because if you liked the old ECW, you will probably like what you see.  Also, TNA has a lot of lot of good matches on their shows as well.  If you bought last night's PPV, you got to see two awesome main events.  If you didn't buy the show, the replay is a must see event.

As I write this question, I see that Maria is participating in another charity event. Her devotion to charity work is one of the few positive things I can say about her these days. Do you think her frequent activity in charity events like these are one of the main reasons WWE keeps her around? Because if she wasn't this active in giving back, and I was with WWE management, I would have recommended her "future-endeavoring" by now.

Her star has certainly fallen since she posed for Playboy.  With that said, she is still a functional diva and is useful to the company.  Her charity work certainly doesn't hurt the matter, but given some of the other people on there roster she certainly deserves a spot. 

I missed the last Raw, well most of it. I have tried on the WWE site, and on HULU. And while they have Smackdown, ECW, and Superstars complete shows on all the sites, they just don't have Raw. And the reason is probably obvious. But are there any sites you know of so I could watch what I missed?

I don't know of any sites that re-air it (I am more old school and like watching TV on a TV) but remember you can always watch the Saturday airing on the Universal HD channel.  I believe the replay still airs on Mun2 on Wednesday nights.

Everyone keeps asking, "Why did they move Sheamus to Raw?" After that squash we saw on the last ECW, do you think it could've been to make room for Hoyt/Archer as the token young powerhouse? Seeing him put over as so aggressive makes me have high hopes that they're gonna try their best to keep him from getting Braden Walker'd.

As I mentioned above, ECW is a feeder system for the bigger brands and the main reason that they moved Sheamus is for that reason.  They had actually been planning on moving him for a while.  I agree though, they need to push the young guys a lot better than they have been if they want any of them to every get over.

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