Why ECW Needs the Draft

The ECW last night provided a great main event with CM Punk battling the ECW champion Kane. The two gave it their all, with Punk withstanding a lot of vicious attacks from Kane. It's unfortunate though, because once Big Show became injured at One Night Stand, it left very little ability for the WWE to hype his match against Kane. It also meant they had to find someone else to attack Kane after his victory over Punk. Last night saw John Morrison and CM Punk come down to attack Kane post-match, and we've seen them do this several times before. This may set up yet another tag contest between Miz & Morrison vs. Kane & Punk. It also continues Punk's puzzling losses. He's in the doghouse from what many say, but when he's holding onto a Money in the Bank briefcase, you want him to be a victorious wrestler, and not just have fan popularity. Otherwise, the MITB match at Wrestlemania starts to lose its credibility, as does Punk as a champion. But more importantly, it seems that week after week on the ECW show, there's very few wrestlers available for matches.

For example, Shelton Benjamin has seemingly been on a roll and in a good feud with Kofi Kingston lately. However, last night Shelton was given Matt Sydall, an amateur wrestler who's rarely been on ECW, if ever. Teddy Long should have continued the "bring over guys from Smackdown concept" and had a name like Funaki on hand, as he's at least known as somewhat of a competitor. The WWE tag champs should also be defending their titles, rather than being forced into the ECW title picture somehow. But there's not many other wrestlers available for a tag division on ECW. So it's either amateur wrestlers in the matches, or a rotation of familiar faces. Miz hitting a Reality Check on Kane was most likely supposed to be Big Show delivering a massive chokeslam, but Show's at home recovering.

Teddy Long's addition as General Manager may be a sign of good things to come for the show. The other good news is there's a WWE draft on Raw in just a few weeks, and that could really help ECW out. While many fans are wishing that commentator Mike Adamle is somehow traded to TNA, there's also hope for the ECW roster to get a boost. Many remember that the biggest name to head over to ECW last year has now been erased from WWE's history books. They also received the Boogeyman, who's been MIA from WWE for a while now. This year, ECW could stand to gain a couple more top notch talents, and probably a few divas. It seems guys like Santino Marella, Chuck Palumbo, Kenny Dykstra, Cody Rhodes and "Hardcore" Holly are just a few names that could be brought over to make things fresher for the ECW. Otherwise, we will continue to be force fed rotating matches involving Mike Knox, Elijah Burke and Armando Estrada while the brand does a downward spiral.