The Smackdown/ECW Merger

Apparently the dismal ratings for ECW has spurned the WWE to basically combine ECW and Smackdown, which is fine they're on the same night filming wise anyways. This gives a better chance to get more superstars over who may not get traditional tv time anyways. Looking this over, I had a few ideas and I figured I'd share them with you all here today.

RAW
First comes the roster changes again. The following is my list of wrestlers I would keep or add to the Raw Roster. It is the flagship show so it should have the majority of big names, moving to boost Smackdown hasn't helped much and as such I would want to make Raw as good as possible. If more people watch Raw more people will watch Smackdown and ECW, a good product gives good ratings on all shows.

John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, Mr. Kennedy, Jeff Hardy, Lashley, HHH, HBK, Chris Jericho, Carlito, Hardcore Holly, Snitsky, Val Venis, Umaga, Santino Marella, Cade and Murdoch, London and Kendrick, Deuce and Domino, The Highlanders, Beth Phoenix, Candice Michelle, Mickie James, Melina, Jillian Hall, and Victoria.

This show has your big names, which can fight for the title, have great feuds and help build up those wrestlers who are right there on the cusp of being the guy to run with the ball (read Lashley, Carlito, Kennedy). You put your best women wrestlers on the show and let the ones who are just show ponies go be eye candy on Smackdown and ECW. Eventually I would also add Harry Smith and TJ Wilson as the New Hart Foundation along with Naddie Neidhart.

ECW/SMACKDOWN

ECW and Smackdown will then be for the wrestlers who are getting long in the tooth, not talented enough but have the size to main event, are being breed for a big push, cruiserweights, and your basic midcard folks. Think of it as a baseball team that has a mixture of rookies and veterans, where the veterans are there to help teach the young player. I think it gives a lot more people opportunity to be on TV, learn how to get over in the WWE, and helps the product overall.

Batista, MVP, Matt Hardy, CM Punk, John Morrison, Elijah Burke, Kane, Undertaker, Big Daddy V, Great Khali, Rey Mysterio, Ric Flair, Chuck Palumbo, Balls Mahoney, The Miz, Nunzio, Gregory Helms, Jamie Knoble, Finlay, The Major Brothers, Jesse and Festus, Shelton and Charlie, Shannon Moore, Jimmy Wang Yang, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Dykstra, Super Crazy and Kevin Thorne.

There is more wrestlers on this roster, but they have more room so naturally they get more. Now you may look and wonder about the lack of big names, it is deliberate. They have some of the biggest names of all time in Undertaker and Ric Flair, and some folks who have been main eventers in Kane, Batista, Mysterio and Khali. These guys can help teach the younger studs and get them ready for the main event curtain.

I would also add to this list The Second City Saints and Paul Birchall as I think these three folks are indeed ready for tv. You could have a new Nation of Domination with MVP, Elijah Burke, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. They could feud with the Second City Saints. The big advantage this brings us is adding cruiserweight matches to ECW and bringing back the title that just disappeared with Hornswoggle. My first act would be to have a 8 man tournament to crown a new champion. You have the folks in Nunzio, Knoble, Moore, Yang, Rhodes, Mysterio, Crazy and Jesse. Hell, that's how you get one of the guys over, they get the surprise upset over Mysterio and he puts them over big time.

They could do this very well, drop some of the dead weight, but I think we all know that is unlikely to happen. This is the WWE and they haven't been thinking straight since 2003 or so. The last time they thought straight was when Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero were both champions at Wrestlemania, sadly they are no longer with us. Of course these are only my ideas and no one in the E will ever hear these, but one can wonder what would happen if they did.