Woah! Mario Smith liked your post.
Pichu confirmed for Project Mario Smith.
Seriously, though, Mario Smith, what are you going to call this mod, and do you think it will ever get as popular as Project M?
I already had a name for it, for over a year, maybe two, actually, it's called Smash Reborn. It was originally called Super Smash Bros. Elimination, but that mod received no attention, was unbalanced, had random tweaks, and wasn't really that important, so, i salvaged whatever valuable stuff was left from the mod, scrapped it, and made a new one. Smash Reborn can be comprehended in two different ways, actually, the first being that it is a "reborn" version of SSBE, the second is that this mod is designed to take Super Smash Bros. to a level never seen before, and thus, reborn could mean "all new" (which is close enough to it's actual definition).
And for your second question... I honestly can't say. Project M is designed to cater to the Melee audience while keeping a few Brawl components in a very compressed state, not enough to make it any less Melee, but enough to make Brawl players find refuge in it, and since Melee is by far the most appreciated and popular game (if i'm correct), when you combine it with Brawl's sales (which means more downloads), and the time that they put into it, most people would automatically be attracted to it.
With my mod, however, it isn't designed for Melee to take center stage, it isn't designed for any of the games to take center stage, to be honest. Also, my way of balancing the game may not appeal to the Melee audiences (as i see things differently then most of them do, not all of them are bad), so that may not be the most favorable for them, however, my unique concepts might be able to capture people's attention (as one person who played it gave it positive feedback).
In the end, i'd have to say that i don't know. It may either wind up being less popular than PM by a noticeable margin, or possibly push it over to the corner of it's throne, but i'm not sure about an in-between.
Edit: Here's the link for the mod thus far
http://www.mediafire.com/download/2odzsc7arwq2h6x/Smash Reborn Demo Version 2.rar
Edit: If you have the Wiimmfi connection available, then the Smash Server should work, as the wifi codes are similar. If wifi doesn't work, then you'll have to format your Brawl from the Wii Menu, and use codes to reunlock your stuff if the codes present in my mod don't do it for you.