Crossovers: ECW To WWE

[NSL]

I again want to know who you think made the best crossover. This time it's from old-school ECW to the WWE. Many wrestlers have used ECW as a jumping point, and it'll be interesting to see who is listed.


My choice, if only to eliminate the obvious early, is Stone Cold Steve Austin. I know his original gimmick was as The Ringmaster, but even then he was given the Million Dollar Championship. That's no small feat. He eventually used that to create one of the greatest gimmicks of the Attitude Era. He's went from being Pillman's partner in WCW, to being mentioned in the same breath as Hogan, Savage, and The Rock.

 

[rolltide_pisco]

The only one I can think of is the Dudley Boyz. Now I know the Duds were huge in ECW and they didn't cuss out the fans or things like that in WWE, but they still got over faster than Edge and Christian and the Hardy's.

 

[Shocky]

I'm going with the only true person to make their mark in ECW and then move to the WWE, and that's Rob Van Dam. Steve Austin, maybe the biggest name to go threw ECW, but he was there long enough for a cup of water, and most people proably remember Stunning Steve in WCW moreso then the Austin that was in ECW.

Rob Van Dam made a name for himself in the business in ECW, and in 1998, there were plenty of people that believed him to be the legit #3 guy in the business behind Goldberg and Austin, tha'ts pretty impressive. It's not smark love either, because average joe fan on the east coast had heard of Rob Van Dam.

Rob Van Dam is the only legit ECW guy to make his name in ECW, and then have great success in the WWE. Raven had okay success, but was mostly a laughing stock stuck in the hardcore division, and then ultimately lost in the inVasion shuffle.

 

[foundation611]

I totally agree with RVD he's the only legit ECW guy to do anything in WWE of any real impact and he even won the WWE title and held the ECW and WWE titles at the same time. Albeit only for 3 weeks but still. He did go over Cena (with outside interference) still no small task.

 

[schaeffershawn]

mick foley. he was squat in WCW he made his name in teh land of extreme. it was being in ECW that got him his job in the WWF. He went on to have three wwe title reigns, multiple tag title riegns. he helped get taker more over, austin more over, cement Mcmahon as the bad guy, push HHH into the main event, push teh Rock into main event, push Randy Orton into upper midcard.

austin was a close second, and Van Dam was third

 

[z99zazn]

Picking Austin is pretty obvious, but Mick Foley really took a bit of time to make a huge name for himself in the WWF. In WCW he was okay, he even brought a little bit of hardcore action. His matches with Vader were pretty extreme for WCW in the early 90's. In ECW and overseas he was huge. But when he came to WWF as the Mankind character, that was really interesting. He reinvented himself into an interesting character, unlike Raven going from a deep, interesting guy in ECW to a total scrub in the hardcore division in the WWF with the likes of STEVE BLACKMAN and CRASH HOLLY. I mean he was great in ECW and even WCW but in WWF he was total garbage, even if I really liked him. But anyways, Mick was great as the Mankind character, especially after it debuted. The tortured soul he played was awesome and so were his interviews with JR. Then Dude Love was pretty funny, and it was really interesting to see 2 guys openly portrayed by 1 man at the same time. You don't see that very often. Then, he brought back Cactus,and that was awesome. Maybe WWF didn't have real hardcore wrestling, but at least he brought in some innovations like the 2x4 covered in barbed wire lit on fire! Austin, RVD, or Mick are all great choices but Mick really was the man. He was great to watch in the ring and IMO one of the best on promos we've seen in quite some time.

 

[mikeRC]

Well probably the biggest loss for ECW was Tazz. He was huge in ECW and was their top star, arguably the greatest star of the origional ECW. Tazz was a guy that wrestling fans would stop and look at and say "wow he's different! i'm not gonna see that in WWF or WCW". So for the innovative monster and a star attraction of ECW to get lost in the lower card shuffle of WWF it was heartbreaking for ECW fans. And ECW lost one hell of a talent but they somehow managed to shift the weight and RVD became the biggest attraction.

Also did RVD really crossover? he went during the invasion angle after WWF bought out ECW didn't he?