To be clear, this is not a call for a return of ECW the promotion. ECW is dead and never coming back, TNA nostalgia shows aside. But there was something about that time in wrestling that needs to return.

Watching ‘The Rise and Fall of ECW’ the other day, some very interesting things about that era became apparent. A lot of it is common knowledge, and I’ve watched the DVD before, but something about putting it today’s context made it stand out a lot more.

Vince McMahon is spliced in with Paul Heyman, Taz, RVD and everyone else along the way with sit-down interviews. In one of those segments, Vince and Paul go back and forth talking about the crossover ECW and WWE did in the mid-90s before ECW’s first PPV.

Vince thought it would be a good idea to try and help ECW thrive and grow, because as he says on the DVD, "I thought it was best for the business". Note, not just ‘best for business’, which has been said an innumerable amount of times on WWE TV over the last year, but best for the business as a whole. Vince thought ECW could be used as an incubator for their unique brand of pro wrestling, and I’m sure even though he didn’t say it in the interview, a breeding ground for future WWE talent.

As we know, that proved very true, as all the best and brightest of the ECW world ended up with WWE at some point in time in their careers.

Today, ROH is probably the closest to ECW in the current pro wrestling landscape. Small venues, small syndicated TV deal, working into PPV, acting as the breeding ground, etc. Could you see Vince bringing ROH talent onto WWE TV to help give their PPVs a bump? At least for me, I could see Heath Slater in the Wrestlemania main event before that would ever happen.

Back then, young(er) Vince McMahon saw opportunity, and not just his own opportunity. The late 90s and early 2000s were the hottest wrestling product we’ve ever seen. Infused into pop culture and everywhere you turned. Three companies doing business and making money. Having WCW around pushed Vince to create his best product, we all know that. But he hated them. He hated Bischoff, he hated Turner, and it drove him to crush them.

In his interviews for the doc, Vince has this kind of nostalgic, positive vibe about Paul Heyman and ECW that he never seemed to show anywhere for WCW, Bischoff, Ted Turner, et al. It seemed like Heyman’s passion and ingenuity was infectious to even good old Vinnie Mac. But it wasn't all good natured fun times. Vince looked at Paul and the product he was putting out and saw money.

During his sit-down interview for the DVD, Mick Foley says, "Without ECW, I don’t know if there would have been an Attitude Era." WCW was a big driver towards the Attitude Era obviously, because Vince needed to push compelling TV, but is there any doubt he took some cues and ideas from the supposed minnow of the time to push his product over the top?

WWE got way more violent, way more sexual, and way more edgy during the Attitude Era. For someone who watched all 3 companies at the time, the influence ECW had over the WWE and WCW products of the day was very obvious. The big companies bought out the big stars of ECW, brought them over and had them do the same "bingo hall matches", just with slick production values. It was where wrestling was going at the time, and everyone rode that ECW wave.

Back to today. Where are the incubators? Where are the avenues?

If you ask someone within WWE, they’d probably say the Performance Center and NXT. The Devitt, Kenta, and Steen signings show WWE is still peeking outside the Performance Center path, but it’s getting more and more rare. Almost everyone in ECW went onto the bigger promotions, but ROH has almost no one going up in last few years. They churned out Bryan, Punk, Rollins and others, but things have really slowed down to a dribble and now maybe their top top top guys get a tryout with WWE.

Everyone is a minnow. WWE is the big fish that tosses out some scraps from time to time. And maybe 3-4 years after catching a contract, a guy will make it onto WWE TV. Maybe.

NXT is all well and good. I love the product, and the kids in the system provide a lot of hope for the future. But that’s the thing, they’re all in the system. They’re all in the box/machine that is WWE. A billion dollar entity that spans all the mediums available to us to bring us the highest production values wrestling has ever seen. The monolith.

If there’s one word you could pick to describe the current product being pushed out by that monolith, what would it be? If a hundred people were polled, Family Feud style, the top answers on the big board would probably be ‘bland’ or ‘stale’.

The old ECW doesn’t need to come back. Neither does hardcore wrestling, the Attitude Era, WCW, or anything else. It was a great time in wrestling, but it’s gone now. However, the mentality of supporting competition to further the business as a whole shouldn’t be, because it’s timeless.

The territories used to trade guys around, freshen up their cards and put more people in the seats. Wrestlers would get gimmicks in one place and bring them back to their original spot. It was good for the business.

Nowadays, WWE seems to think they are the business as a whole. To some regard, they’re right. TNA is not legitimate competition and never will be. ROH is surging, but will they ever go over the top? There’s a lot more to be desired there to be a real mainstream product.

ROH working with NJPW and TNA doing the same with Wrestle-1 shows these kinds of win-win relationships still exist. But none of those companies are even within spitting distance of WWE.

WWE can’t really be touched, but it could sorely use an ECW-like breath of fresh air today. Something different than what they offer that makes them notice, and also sit back and think a bit. Maybe it’ll be the AAA show that’s coming to the US market, but I’d be surprised.

WWE has had more than a decade since WCW and ECW both (almost simultaneously) folded. That decade has seen pro wrestling decline in almost every measurable. The Network subscriber count is just one of the indicators that pro wrestling is not hot right now, and maybe not even warm.

The last time WWE was truly hot was when WCW was pushing them, and ECW was inspiring them.

That was also the last time the business and WWE’s business were highly profitable.

That’s not a coincidence.