The art of wrestling is telling a story between two men in the ring. This 'art' requires all sorts of elements, good offence, good selling, good psychology and good story telling. Van Dam has an unorthodox offence but it works but he can't sell meaning the latter two parts suffer. What the man lacks though in those departments he makes up in with his charisma.
I've watched a lot of Van Dam, I'm a fan of the guy but he wasn't really a wrestler rather a spot monkey who's matches relied little on story and more on acrobatics. Infact, I thought Lynn was the better wrestler in their little series and if I was basing ECW on their 'wrestling' prowess I would've said Storm and Taz.
However the truth is, they used a lot of discards, they were a third rate company who did the absolute best they could given their budget and talent. They played certainly played a role in revolutionizing wrestling in 95 but by copying what had been achieved back then in a modern environment wouldn't of been as memorable.
Don't get me wrong here either, I understand creatively the re-launched version of ECW was a let down. I remember when it re-launched my personal vision of the company reflected that as an alternative to the WWE. I wanted it to be it's own show, away from the other brands that didn't have other WWE wrestlers appearing on it (aside from the one's they hired) and instead relied heavily on some old ECW vets (RVD, Sabu, Dreamer, Sandman), former WWE wrestlers (Angle, Show, Test) and some brash up and comers (Punk, Knox, Thorn). Give them an extra hour a week and a 4 PPV a year deal (to start off with) and that would've been my ideal company.
However, it just wasn't good business for the WWE. As the original ECW was a financial disaster, the E knew they had to make their money's worth out of it and it wasn't long before ECW just became the third tier brand as we all know it is as of today. The final coffin for mine, was December to Dismember, after that it really did become just another E show.
However out of all the E shows, I thought ECW was by far the most productive brand in the company. It gave certain wrestlers the avenue to re-fine themselves and their craft, which as you may remember was one of the original ECW's calling cards.
