Best ECW Championship run (2006-2010)

[nbieclkl91]

I was watching some WWE era ECW the other night and I got to thinking. Who had the best run during the 2006-2010 period?

This of course is just my opinion and more like my favourite but to me, I'd say Christian's second run as champion was the best. He carried the ECW brand and faced virtually everyone on the ECW roster. His feud with Shelton Benjamin and the ladder match they had at TLC 2009 was one of my favourite ladder matches to date.

Here's the link for that match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvc3VhQZa-8

What I want to know from you guys is, who do you think had the best run?

RVD
Big Show
Bobby Lashley
Mr. McMahon
Bobby Lashley X2
John Morrison
CM Punk
Chavo Guerrero
Kane
Mark Henry
Matt Hardy
Jack Swagger
Christian
Tommy Dreamer
Christian X2

I won't count Ezekiel Jackson since he won it on the last episode and never carried it past that...

 

[King Patrick Star]

I agree that the best Title reign for the WWECW Championship was Christian’s 2nd reign. 205 days is a long time to be Champion. However, I think his first reign, then losing the Title to Tommy Dreamer, and then finally regaining it, is what made Christian’s second reign so great. To me, Christian was the “Face” of WWECW.

 

[Kris Benwa]

I agree with that pick. Christian was the face of the WWECW brand and it was cool to see. He actually talked about this on Talk is Jericho yesterday and said some people saw it as a slight but he saw it as a chance to get re acclimated and show the higher ups that he can be a guy that can carry a show and that's exactly what he did IMO? I liked Big Show's run also though even though this was before his time off and he was huge he was putting on great extreme rules matches and I loved that span of time where he'd have an extreme rules title match on ever ECW broadcast and he went against Batista, Taker, Kane and some other guys and that was awesome and when it still felt like a world title. Christian number one and Big Show a close number two

 

[The Samoan Heritage]

The best title reign in my opinion was the Big Show's. Even though he was heel, he constantly defended the title. He had some good matches against Ric Flair, Kane, and Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels all as ECW champion. The title also was look at as an equel to the other world titles, when Cena and Booker T was champion( i still remember that horrible ending to the Champion of Champions match). Once Heyman stop being with the Big Show and Big show joined the Mcmahons his title reign went down. He starting being a joke, during the time he was feuding with the Mcmahons against DX.

Also I do agree I liked Christian run as champ too because he defended the championship against almost everyone, but doing that time there weren't any real competition for him (imo).

 

[pthbass89]

I personally enjoyed CM Punk and John Morrison's rivalry over the title. They were two great up and coming superstars and managed to put on some great matches as well as some good promos from what I can recall. I think Morrison was given the belt instead of a recently drafted Chris Benoit as he never made the PPV as we all know.

I'm looking forward to re-watching some of WWE's ECW on the Network when we finally get it over here.

 

[rbv13]

It was nice to see so many stars given a shot to shine within WWECW. I largely enjoyed the show for the time given to the "lesser" talents.

A bit of a side question here, do any of you know what Heyman's vision was for the new ECW? I've heard him countless times talk about his vision being cut shot when he was fired.

Oh yeah, my answer is CM Punk. Not a fan of the guy but it was his E launching pad to being a star.

 

[Dragon Chief]

Easily Bobby Lashley, I mean the title actually was relevant until John Morrison won it and was built as the third main title WWE had. I remember it was around WrestleMania 23 and Undertaker had to pick who he wanted to face and the three world champs stood in the ring together, it was a picture perfect moment all guys seemed like the tops guy of the company at the time. After Lashley was stripped out of the title he went straight into the main-event to face John Cena for the WWE title and John Morrison randomly won the ECW title, all the prestige the title had just went down the drain, it just became another mid-card title used to elevate talent. I would say after Lashley the title no longer meant much and he probably had the best reign.

 

[CM Steel]

I also agree that Christian's second run with the WWECW title was the best run with the silver belt that I've seen anybody on that brand hold. Christian carried that brand on his back ever since he returned to the WWE. An "A" wrestler on a "C" wrestling brand. And Christian held his own.

My second answer would be the guy on my avatar, Bobby Lashley. He never lost that championship. It was stripped from him during that years WWE draft when Bobby got drafted from the ECW brand to RAW. He was great on the ECW brand as well.

 

[nbieclkl91]

I loved the feeling of ECW when Christian was champ. He brought the best out in everyone he faced. Even his feud with Zack Ryder was awesome. I wish they would do something like this down in NXT. Maybe have one of the veterans go down, win the championship and have matches with the NXT guys to really elevate them and prep them for the main roster.

 

[LBGetBack]

Either Big Show or Lashley. That's when the title/brand was actually still taken seriously.

Even though Christian was a great wrestler and put on great matches, the title might as well have been the IC or US title at that point as the whole show became one just for the mid-carders or below after little over a year.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Excellent topic.

RVD, Big Show, and Bobby Lashley all held this belt when it still seemed like a big deal to win it. Even during this time it never came off as a true World Championship, that's for a whole other topic though. The moment that Vince booked himself to win the belt, it dropped in prestige and importance significantly. Lashley won it back, but it never recovered from the awful decision of Vince winning it. Then you had Morrison and Punk who (at the time, in Punk's case) felt like true midcarders and not top guys when they held the title. Chavo may have been a step up had he not lost to Kane in record time at Wrestlemania 24, what a joke. Kane, Henry, Hardy, and Swagger were all below RVD, Show, and Lashley to me. The belt was still an upper midcard belt at best. Tommy Dreamer winning the belt was really cool and a sign of respect for all he did in the "real" ECW, but he's not one of the top champions the belt had. Zeke didn't get to do anything with the belt, they literally deactivated it after he won it.

Which bring me to my choice for the best ECW Champion during WWE's version of the brand.... Christian! He had the best ECW Championship run. When Christian was the top guy of WWE's ECW, he truly felt like was THE top guy of the brand. He took on anyone on the roster, delivering great matches with them that also made them look good in the process, and his promos were as good as ever. It was the most entertaining that the 3rd brand ever got for me. Christian is hands down the best WWE ECW Champion, regardless of how much damage the prestige of the belt had seen. None of the other title holders even come close to matching his work as ECW Champion.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Big Show. The title was treated the best when he was champ, ECW wasn't strictly being promoted as the "B-show" or the home of the unwanted 2nd teamers, as another poster noted Big Show had several title defenses against WWE A listers like Flair, HBK, & Taker, which gave the title relevance it lacked with other champions.

 

[Anti-IWC-Marks]

Personally I could never view a Big Show, Lashley, or Christian ECW title reign as great, as they are clearly WWE guys plugged in...

Of course, I'm coming from a perspective of growing up as an ECW "mark", yes I can admit it, from 1996-2000.

IMO There were 2 great moments to come from the whole WWECW escapade, and they were both on "One Night Stand" PPV's.

However, the best would be John Cena coming into what was nearly a true ECW crowd and taking an ECW crowd hazing, and losing to an iconic ECW wrestler in Rob Van Dam. For that, I would personally consider RVD to be the best WWECW champion.

From what I saw of Big Show and Bobby Lashley with the title, they were largely crapped on by the crowd, or even worse, ignored. I didn't hang around to watch Christian be WWECW Champ, so I can't comment with authority.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Lashley and Big Show were the first two that jumped to mind for me.

Big Show was the second man to hold the title, and defended it against a lot of big name talent, at a time when WWE had just relaunched the ECW brand and was actually putting effort into the programming, treating it as an important show. Even though he was massively out of shape at the time, Show did a good job.

Lashley becoming ECW Champion was also a success, as he was a major up-and-coming talent, and the Title got a lot of focus while he was feuding with Vince McMahon, which was probably the last time WWE really made the ECW brand seem important. I firmly believe Lashley was being primed for a run as WWE or World Champion and the ECW was given to him to see how he fared as the figurehead of a brand.

I also think Christian did a very good job as ECW champion, he was basically the face of the brand in its later years. I'd always wanted to see Christian be given a chance to be a World Champion, he definitely deserved it and didn't let anyone down. RVD would certainly have been on the list, had he had a longer reign as Champion. He was still a big deal in 2006 and would have been the face of ECW (along with Kurt Angle), and its a shame he had to lose the belt after the drug bust, but he has noone to blame but himself.

The problem the ECW title faced was that as time passed the WWE gave less and less focus on the brand, and the Championship became a mid-carder's title, as the World Champion was someone who would never even have had a sniff of the World Title on either Raw or Smackdown. Giving Chavo f'n Guerrero a World Title reign on ANY brand was an absolute joke and destroyed the credibility of the belt.