It was nice while it lasted:
There is a lot discussion internally within the WWE ranks about the upcoming ECW PPV, and what I am hearing is not good. Originally, the plan was for the card to be a "true" ECW show, with WWE management largely keeping their hands and non-former ECW workers off the show. Things changed pretty quickly when it became obvious that WWE totally miscalculated how to price and promote the show and set unrealistic expectations for the event.
Internally they, misguidedly, budgeted the show to do 300,000 buys, which is more than the average brand-only show does. Then the tickets for the show, which were priced extremely high, went on sale and didn't sell out, which the company hadn't expected. Even though some people in the company told them that the $400 price tag for the top seats was just too high, WWE management thought that, largely based on the sales of the ECW DVD, there was a demanding fan base that would be willing to overpay for the tickets. Then, the tickets went on sale and they found out they were wrong.
At that point, they decided to move away from the "ECW Only" aspect of the show and add WWE workers to the mix, thinking that would make the show more of a draw. When that didn't work, they were forced to drop some of the ticket prices and now the show will not be anything close to what it was originally marketed to be. The original plan of making it a pure ECW show was thrown out the window, and it's now scheduled to have many WWE workers, from both brands.
In talking to a number of people in the company, some of who worked in ECW and some who didn't, the expectations for the show have gone down considerably. People who were very excited about the PPV even a few weeks ago are now dreading it. Instead of it being run by "ECW people" like Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman, it's now a baby of WWE Creative. Given the recent direction of Raw and Smackdown, that has led a lot of people think that the only chance the show has of succeeding will be via the matches.
This is such bullshit, this show will do huge numbers, as RVD states, possibly being the second or third biggest of the year, well, that's what I thought anyway, the problem now is going to be getting over the hump of it's promotion now. The fact is, a purely ECW show, promoted as such, and with angles or at least vignettes (like the Dreamer Sandman packages) to get that over would have assured it's success. I know RVD was out cheerleading that the guys will defy the stupid things Vince wants, and do what Paul E. says but I have to doubt that very much for workers who may not be able to get the same sort of paying work they have now when they're no competes expire, I'd like to think that a united front would force Vince's hand, and I'm sure that it could improve the show, and keep anything they don't want to do off the show, but the guys who aren't huge stars would pay dearly for such rebellion. My expectations for this show are now lowered muchly, and the anticipation that had been built up in me, is now nearly nil, thanks a lot Vince.