There were 4 contributing factors to the irreperable damage that's been done to the ECW brand. In order they were:
1.) RVD's self destruction. They were going to leave the title on RVD for a while, build a feud with someone and have him drop it the old fashioned way. His drug charge rushed the company way ahead of itself, and threw all the plans out of whack.
2.) Over-built Big Show. Big Show suffered from the Goldberg-syndrome. They built the "Extreme Giant" too well, and to a point where nobody on the roster could take him down. Then they had to bring someone in to do it, and shoehorned Lashley into the World Title to take over for the injured Show. Officially, that's where the ratings dip began. (Seriously...I looked it up the other night.)
3.) Heyman/Vince blow up. McMahon dipped his hands a little too deeply, and forced Paul out, and a LOT of the ECW faithful went with him.
4.) Too many crossover stars. They should've left the new faces and the originals alone. Keep the Sandman and the Majors etc on the show, leave Lashley, Boogeyman, Miz, etc on their shows. They drew a few folks in with the crossing over, sure, but they lost just as many when they dropped originals into other programming.
Side note: Calling it Heat really is a disservice to some of the guys on ECW that actually have talent. Granted, that's not the longest of lists, but lets give 'em credit for doing what they can do with what's before them.
Now, fixing ECW, likewise, really is a simpler thing than the WWE will give itself credit for, and is quite unlikely because Vince seems hellbent on making his problems worse before better.
1.) Get Heyman back. Bring Paul back and you get more originals back in the process. Shell out a few bucks and bring guys like Tanaka & Shinzaki over from Japan to resume their ECW careers, and I guarantee you build the fanbase. But it all comes down to Heyman. Not general manager Heyman, behind the scenes, leather-coat wearing Paul E. That's the guy that should've been running things from the start.
2.) Get the originals back on the right show. Sure, Sandman's gone, but what About Super-Crazy? Yeah, RVD's on sabbatical from wrestling (which likely changes when Heyman comes back), but why not give Rey something to do? Old school ECW guys bring old school ECW fans.
3. Hardcore. Once a week, extreme rules. All title matches - Extreme Rules. Give the show it's own identity, and give the brand its identity back, while still progressing to a blended WWE/ECW product.
4. Breakaway from WWE. Present it as it's own product, with a match or two on the big four PPV's only. Let ECW be ECW, as self-sufficient as you can make it. That's the only way the brand is going to work on the long-haul. Raw's identity is based in entertainment, Smackdown's always had more of an in-ring focus. Let ECW cover the shoots, both in-ring & on the mic, and you'll have a winner. Punk is a good example of an old ECW champion, so they're sort of headed in the right direction, they just seem too frightened to take that last leap.
Do that stuff in that order and you've got a successful product that covers all the aims it needs to.
Of course, it's simple, so WWE will never actually do it.