About 15 minutes into a disappointing broadcast full of recaps and WWE walk-ins, things were “livened up” by the appearance of the first match’s competitor: a zombie. Yes, a zombie. Loud groaning ensued, surprisingly not just from fans, but the aforementioned undead, who grabbed the microphone and made what sounded like a lovesick, constipated moose dressing down an audience for not being interested in a half baked gimmick. Sandman rudely interrupted this master thespian (his “acting” was impeccable, except for the few times he forgot what he was doing, and looked offstage for direction) and treated us to 14 seconds of hardcore wrestling. Our Sandman isn’t paid by the hour it seems and if you went for a popcorn break, you probably missed the whole sorry affair. By the way, sources say the zombie was Nova from the old ECW roster casting both dignity and acting ability aside to poke fun at Sci-Fi.

While not entertaining per se, it was a nice jab at the masses of Sci-Fi channel fans who were less than welcoming to ECW.

Midway through the show there was a shot of an old enough to know better “goth” bearing his fangs at the outside of the venue. Assumedly he wasn’t invited in. Rumor has it that ECW writers are being forced to throw in some horror elements to assuage the channel’s regular fan base, which among other things doesn’t sit well with some disappointed fans. Eventually stars like Gangrel (Vampire Warrior) will be hitting the scene and forming a Brood like Faction.

These horror elements are unlikely to win over Sci-Fi purists, and seem to be already getting under the skin of ECW’s fan base. Unless this new Brood delivers the kind of sex and violence old school ECW fans are craving, these gimmicks, and the show, will be dead in the water.