In defense of Christian in ECW

Those of you who watched ECW this Tuesday were in for a real treat, as Captain Charisma himself made his long-awaited return to Titan Land. It was a legitimate jaw-dropping moment (and I do mean that literally -- my mouth was wide open as he made his way down the aisle). I thought it was handled wonderfully. I was genuinely surprised, and he was immediately thrust into the World title picture.

Of course, the next day virtually every IWC "figurehead" was questioning why WWE would do something as ridiculous as putting Christian on the C-brand. While all we would have loved to see Christian make God tap out in the middle of the ring for both the WWE and World Heavyweight Champions in the main event of WrestleMania to become the ruler of the company, I honestly don't think putting him on ECW was a bad idea. If you recall, back in November, I actually recommended having Christian as a member of the ECW roster.

In the past six months or so, my view of ECW has changed dramatically. Yes, it used to be the "C-Brand" -- and by quite a distance -- but I don't think it's entirely fair to compare it to Raw and Smackdown, because the show follows a different model. It's a great place for new talents to debut and make a name for themselves (like CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, Ricky Ortiz, and Jack Swagger) before moving to Raw and Smackdown as a legitimate competitor.

It's also an ideal place for midcarders to reinvent themselves after floundering on the main brands, like John Morrison, The Miz, Shelton Benjamin, Chavo Guerrero, and Mark Henry. Finally, it's became a welcome home for upper midcarders to shine, with hopes of returning to Raw or Smackdown on a higher level than when they left. This has happened with Matt Hardy and Finlay. And when they do leave the program, that will ABSOLUTELY be true with Morrison, Miz, and Mark Henry.

So why not have Christian debut on ECW, where he can be the absolute center and star of the show (something that would not be the case on Raw or Smackdown)? It looks like they're setting him up for an ECW title win at WrestleMania (nothing to scoff at), so how about keeping him on the roster as their champion for a few months before moving him over to Smackdown as an established star?

And that's another thing people need to consider: Not everybody watched TNA. To many fans, Christian may just be that moderately used midcarder that was around three years ago. This is a wonderful opportunity to earn him credibility in the eyes of those fans.

And that feud or alliance with Edge will be waiting for him for as long as he's working for the company, so this isn't a "now or never" situation.