November 6, 2006 Observer Newsletter: WWE & ECW, NOAH

With the decision made this past week that there will be no more ECW house shows after the end of November, WWE sources say panic has begun to set in over the brand’s shelf life.

WWE has a contract with Sci-Fi through the end of 2007 for a Tuesday night television show. There have been talks for several weeks about trying to get word out that ECW is really WWE, but exactly how that will be established isn’t clear. Internally, the declining ratings have been blamed on the ECW initials, thinking that because people aren’t aware it is really WWE, they aren’t watching. Clearly that makes no sense because it did great numbers for a few months and it’s only been of late where the decline has been marked.

The house shows have been averaging roughly $25,000 per event on about 1,000 paid attendance, making them big money losers. While some shows have done better, there is no indication after seven months that house show business is improving.

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