Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Due to WWE’s recent move of dropping all ECW-only house shows, the next few months probably won’t be much fun for lower tier ECW wrestlers such as Tony Mamaluke, C.W. Anderson and Danny Doring.
Considering that only upper tier ECW wrestlers are going to be appearing at the combined house shows with SmackDown or RAW stars (pretty much the people who regularly appear on television), the underneath guys aren’t going to get much in the way of bookings due to space limitations on house show cards. The ECW wrestlers with higher guarantees are going to be booked often, so this won’t matter much to them, but the low-end guys are really going to have it tough for the next few months because they’re hardly going to get booked.
Most of the talent that signed on for ECW back in the spring agreed to some really low downside contracts. Most of the “ECW Originals” agreed to $500 a week deals (or about $26,000 a year), which is actually less than what a lot of the developmental talent get, not to mention considerably less than what lower tier RAW and SmackDown talent get. The downsides are so low for ECW talent that their biggest acquisition, Sabu, agreed to a $1,500 a week contract ($78,000 a year). Although, considering that he’s solidly booked and often appears at pay-per-view events, he’ll earn far more due to bonuses.
Internally, the plan is to combine ECW and SmackDown house shows (and some RAW) until at least April 2007.
