Heat's gone - RAW/ECW Coming Soon
 

From PWInsider:

World Wrestling Entertainment will pull the plug on WWE.com's Heat series and bring ECW on Sci Fi tapings to the Raw brand tapings this June, following a company tour of Australia, according to multiple sources.

The plan is to have the ECW brand performers on the Raw tapings as a way to increase interest and ratings in the Tuesday night Sci Fi series, which would now be taped prior to the live Raw broadcast under the plan.

One would assume ECW talents would also join Raw house shows as well, but that has not confirmed.

The Smackdown tours would become stand-alone tapings and house shows for that brand alone.

Heat, which originally ran on the USA Network, then MTV, has been in production since the late 1990s. It was moved to an Internet platform when WWE returned to the USA Network. Internationally, WWE has already informed TV affiliates that a WWE Classics series utiilizing old footage would be replacing Heat shortly.

Noid will be heartbroken.

So hurt the established Smackdown by cutting its effective roster, in hopes of getting a little more interest in a show nobody watches?

Especially with the move to MyNetworks, this is a pretty retarded move from a roster standpoint.

Ehh, I don't know, this way maybe they'll be forced to use more of Smackdown's roster. Raw won't be affected by ECW's presence, and a few dozen people might actually watch ECW.

Or at the very least, the same people will watch Raw, nobdoy will watch ECW, and next to nobody will watch Smackdown.

I think the worst possible outcome really = lateral move.

I'd forgotten about that. Not watching Smackdown, I tend to think very little of it.

Except the main reason they combined SD and ECW (Or rather, had their rosters cross over) was the overall weakness of both rosters.

What about the In-Crowd? Are they going to start appearing on all three shows now? Will they drop the titles before this switch? Or will they just become regulars on Smackdown?

Well I think by exposing Raw crowds/viewers to ECW talent on a regular basis might help those guys get over since Raw is seen by 3x's as many people as ECW gets and 2x's that of Smackdown.

It probably won't help that much seeing how the only two young guys from ECW that the fans actually care about are Punk and Kofi (I would say Morrison but he's been on Raw before his move to ECW) and they won't have either one go over any of the higher up Raw guys, except maybe Punk.

So I assume Miz and Morrison will drop the titles soon.

There's CM Punk looking at the WWE title now.

It's a weird move. It's something I've seen coming, though. This might mean we will see some of the Heat regulars released, or moved to SmackDown!. Val Venis is a guy that really should be allowed to work and have life breathed into him on the blue brand, but who knows if that will happen.

Yeah but I don't see that it really helped much.

Incidentally, I wonder how they're going to work this with Miz and Morrison being tag champions.

Well, I don't see much benefit on Raw, either. The rub will only work if you take time away from the Raw Roster, and I don't see that being a legit occurence.

ECW and Smackdown looked to have some benefit to the cross connections, however small. Seems better than this.

*Punk walks backstage and sees the WWE title*

Punk: Ahhhh one of these days....only 83 employees need to be suspended for Wellness before I'll get to hold this.

*Punk then sees Triple H's daughter sitting in a booster seat*

Punk: ....well make that 84.

He'll put some roids in her diaper bag. When Steph finds them she'll be stripped of the Cruiserweight, Eruopean, and Women's titles on Raw the following week.

No, she'll end up being booked to go over MVP for the IC title.

From PWInsider:

ECW will be getting a new opening theme. Here is a preview of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhnzwUNyI24&fmt=18

I wish it had his real theme

Nothing can beat "bodies," especially in light of Benoit.

LET THE BIBLES HIT THE FLOOR

Lol

I don't think any bodies hit the floor in that incident... the demon-possessed bowflex that killed Benoit held him up pretty good after all...

Zip the bodies in the bag! Zip the bodies in the bag!

Let the ratings hit the-

...sorry, this isn't a Cena thread, is it... :shifty: