Stand back! There's a hurricane returning...

In 2001, Gregory Helms was assimilated into the WWE family as the last WCW Cruiserweight champion. He had a few starting matches, made some waves, and then a fateful thing happened. In a meet-up with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Austin made reference to his Green Lantern tattoo and Helms said he liked it as well as the Green Lantern. After Austin mocked him for it, Helms made a transformation from mild-mannered wrestler to wrestling's newest super hero, Hurricane Helms. He later shortened the name to The Hurricane. It's been 8 years since this debut had occurred. Now, after a few titles victories, some tag team excursions, and even a change of attitude in 2005, the Hurricane has returned, and this time to ECW. You want to know the most interesting part? The Hurricane's return could not have come at a more convenient time for Helms, ECW, the fans, or even the WWE. This is the Hurricane's moment to shine, but it wasn't always the case.

Between the years of 2001 and 2005, the Hurricane has had his moments. He won the cruiserweight title back, but not before he lost it to Jamie Noble. This was due to his feud with Jamie over Nidia's need to be a vengeful and vindictive ex-girlfriend of the Hurricane's. Before that, the Hurricane called upon Molly Holly to be his sidekick as the sprightly Mighty Molly. All he did to do this was take her away from Spike Dudley. Seems things didn't work out with her either, mostly due to the WWE draft, so the Hurricane was flying solo, attempting to maintain his cruiserweight career, with some highs and lows. Then, he set his sights on tag team wrestling, enlisting Kane as his partner and winning the WWE tag titles. Upon losing them, he was embroiled in a few minor feuds and a few major ones, including one where he scored a victory over the Rock, his biggest win yet. His next move included a wrestler named Rosey, formerly a thuggish member of the 3-minute warning, now a wrestler looking to be as super as the Hurricane. In order to become one, the Hurricane made Rosey a "Super Hero In Training" as he wore a hokey super hero training outfit and learned the ropes of super heroism. After a long journey, Rosey finally earned himself a much better superhero outfit and the right to be considered a hero next to the Hurricane. As a team, they didn't do much, until that fateful night at the Backlash PPV in April of 2005 where they finally won their first and only World Tag Team Championship in a "tag team turmoil" match. After all the laughter, the insults, and being reduced to looking like clowns, they achieved great victory and dominated as a tag team, even earning the help of Stacy Keibler, under the alias Super Stacy. This lasted for 4 months until Stacy was sent to SmackDown via a trade and the Superheroes lost the tag titles to Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. After failing to win the belts back and after a brutal assault from Kurt Angle, the Hurricane unmasked himself and walked out on Rosey, posing a dark turn for the hero in green.

That Fall, the Hurricane was gone. We all said hello to Gregory Helms, but not the one we were used to in 2001. Gregory was sick of being a clown, wearing stupid masks, goofy colors, and being a lame superhero for anyone's enjoyment. He couldn't have made that clearer than with sound and powerful victories over Rosey, his 300+ pound sidekick, and even Jerry "the King" Lawler. Since then, he spent his time on the Raw brand establishing his mean streak, his bad boy status, and his quest to become a top star, without a mask or the laughter. As time passed, he ended up on Smackdown as part of the WWE draft, and re-captured the WWE cruiserweight title. Only this time, he would hold it for one solid year and a few months, making him the longest running cruiserweight champion in history and even the longest running champion in Smackdown history. To his credit, he had struck up some choice victories as well as some notable feuds and matches with Rey Mysterio, MVP, Batista, and Matt Hardy. As time passed, he lost his cruiserweight title in a turmoil match to Chavo Guerrero, and was sidelined with a serious spinal cord injury. He took a year to recuperate, as well as some months to clean up his act due to his use of illegal substances. He was then drafted to ECW in 2009, where he became a broadcast journalist, interviewing stars on the brand, until something strange happened.

One Tuesday night, as he interviewed Mark Henry, someone was caught in an accident backstage. Helms suddenly disappeared, only to have a mysterious figure in green and black save the person from the accident. The figure then disappeared, and Helms reappeared next to Mark Henry. As weeks passed, more accidents happened and that mysterious figure appeared to save the day, but the more he appeared, the more his identity was revealed. The Hurricane had returned, and in a more ominous and mysterious way. The green on his outfit was darker, as was his once-green hair. His face was rugged and shaggy, and he moved and acted in complete silence. It didn't take long before people took notice as Mark Henry accused Helms for being the Hurricane, as did Shelton Benjamin, and most recently, Paul Burchill, who took offense to the Hurricane's heroic exploits, among other things on ECW that bothered him like new superstars taking his spotlight or freaks who have maintained more popularity than he. He even went as far to attack Helms for snapping back at Burchill while defending his identity. Later that night, Burchill was defeated by Yoshi Tatsu via disqualification and the Hurricane appeared to make the save courtesy of a cross body splash from the top rope, followed by a flurry of moves. Yoshi thanked the Hurricane and the WWE's resident superhero had returned, and not a moment too soon.

I stated earlier that this was the Hurricane's time to shine, and I wasn't kidding. He fits the mold of what the WWE can use along many specific lines. When it comes to the content of WWE television, it is mostly rated TV-PG for television that requires a parent to guide their kids while watching. The Hurricane is possibly one of the least threatening wrestlers in the WWE content-wise. He can appeal to kids as a comic book superhero come to life. His heroic exploits can win over the youngest and brightest of fans. However, he can do more than just that. There are a slew of fans who are old enough to remember who the Hurricane is and what type of talent he brings to the table. That's more than enough to get them to watch, support, and rally behind him to succeed on ECW.

The last fact I mentioned is very helpful to ECW in the way I just mentioned. The Hurricane can make ECW a watchable commodity again by bringing together fans of all generations with this skill, charisma, and content-friendly actions. Not only that, but as a star of these talents, he gives ECW a much-needed talent boost in the major title picture. Currently, ECW is just limited to Christian as the champion, roughly one or two major title contenders, a slew of new faces, and a slew of faces that looks to re-establish themselves (I'll blog about this, if nothing comes up, on 8/30). With the Hurricane in the mix, you can add that much needed good guy to be the hero of ECW that Christian has proved to be, but is much better being the in-betweener that is not quite good, but not quite bad. Lastly, he adds depth to the ECW roster. He can be that reliable star that you can go to in order to help groom stars as well as provide entertaining matchups. This could be very helpful to ECW as a brand on the whole.

This can also help Helms in more ways than one. By becoming the Hurricane, he now fits the bill the WWE is looking for in a star. Without the Hurricane, there was a very strong chance that he would have been fired. The resurgence of the Hurricane may very well have saved his career. Heck, it might even be the move to save ECW's plummeting ratings. As for the WWE, here's how well this works out for them: the Hurricane can cash in on the success of Rey Mysterio, C.M. Punk, and Jeff Hardy as yet another wrestler who isn't very huge, but is very big with the fans. He can move merchandise, entertain crowds, and hold together a match to his wrestling credit. By electrifying younger fans who want to know him and older fans who do know him, this can be a feat that the WWE can use to make him a top star and keep their revenue stream pretty steady. Sure, he's not a new star, but for a wrestler who has never been a top star, this would be relatively new to him.

I would like to think that the WWE will make this move for the betterment of ECW, the delight of the fans, for the success of their company and for the future of Helms, especially now that they are under close watch by USA networks. Bonnie Hammer, president of USA, and possible president of NBC, wants the WWE to make some new stars as HHH, Cena, and Orton are the only ones who have made a big move on Raw. She's even going so far as to have Ric Flair placed on Smackdown. She is unhappy that there are no new stars to go around on Raw and Vince couldn't be angrier about it. What he doesn't realize is that he is the reason there are no new stars in the WWE. He's fired, repackaged, buried, and even refused to sign new stars for his established favorites that have either been worn thin, never truly got over, or are perhaps unable to help new stars become new stars. Yet, he stands around and stews in anger about the lack of new stars. He clipped the creative teams when they come up with new ideas, reprimanded anyone who steps up to the plate, and rewards all of his main cash cows like they were his little pets. Everyone else? They get the shaft, the shutdown, and the shove off to greener wrestling pastures. The Hurricane doesn't need to be a statistic. He needs to be utilized for his talents and put over on ECW as a top player. If successful, he'll be sent to a show where he will flourish, hopefully, and become the new top player, if not, a new top player.

The Hurricane may have very well saved his career with the return to the superhero days of old. He's not just saving himself and his career, but he's also saving others. He's saving the fans from evil bad guys, a shallow ECW roster, and lackluster matches. He's saving ECW from bottoming out as a show, or at least trying to. He's also trying to save the WWE from some gaping holes in the roster. He fits the bill for what the WWE can use as a star, he has the talent to be a top draw in ECW, and he can appeal to young fans and old fans. He's a great find and a perfect candidate. The only super villain that the Hurricane has to train and prepare for is a hindered and feeble creative team and a chairman willing to fire good talent to save money. But, if the world is perfect, the stars are aligned in place, and the opportunity knocks, the Hurricane might very well blow his way past the competition and change the landscape of ECW forever. There may very well be no stopping him, and the only thing you could do is, well, stand back...