ECW Championship a World Title or Not?

[Da Prophet]

Now many people believe that the ECW Championship wasn't a world title.And I think Matt Striker said Matt Hardy has never won a World Title a few weeks back.But if this is so, then is RVD not a multiple time World Champion.He won the WWE title then was awarded the ECW title.So if this fact is correct then Mr Monday Night is just a 1 time champion(like Sheamus).

Does it just stop there?Do we go back to the Original ECW?Must we take away Raven''s,Funk's,Taz.Do we say hey,listen here that isn't a World Title!

So is it a Worlds Championship, and you can't say that at the start in 2006 it was and by the end 2010 that it isn't.It either is or it isn't.

 

[Undertaker the 5th]

It isn't a world title and yes RVD is only a one time champ like many other good wrestlers. I never really cared about that show and even if it meant something in the past, it will never mean shit in the WWE. They tried to give it some hype by having guys like Undertaker challenge for it, but it never got past that.

 

[Stallion123]

I don't know the techancly definition, but the ecw title wasn't really a world title. Heavyweight sure, but it was more like a step up from the IC belt.

I have trouble seeing guys like Chavo as a former world champio.

 

[Ferbian]

I'm not quite sure actually.
Certainly it was looked as a World Championship during the original ECW, because it was the federations World title. So we can't take away that fact, because in the original ECW it was a world title, and it always will be.
But in the WWE version, it could as well have been counted as a normal title, and it could've also been seen as a world championship, we just won't know, because its all a matter of how WWE management saw the title.
According to Wikipedia all thou, it never lost it's name as a world title, because Wikipedia lists it among the actual world championships, and count guys like Christian as a 4 time world champion, and he won the ECW title twice.
So the whole Matt Striker comment could've been yet another screw-up that we're basicly bound to have every week by now.
But it could've also been the actual line that Matt was supposed to deliver, but we won't know.

 

[Tastycles]

It's never been a top tier world championship, in my opinion. There's no argument that guys like Shane Douglas were never in the same league as Steve Austin and Sting, who were winning the only things I'd consider a "real" world title at that point. However, ECW then was the third promotion, and I'd say they had the third most important title in wrestling in north America, guys like Raven were probably more popular than the midcard champions elsewhere, and at least on the same level.

In the WWE era, the title was at the same level. RVD, Big Show and Lashley were all above the midcarders, but none of them were the true stars of the company. The same would have been true for Chris Benoit, and even Morrison and Punk, thanks to previous IC reigns and being the face of the young ECW stars respectively could be seen if not on the same level as the previous champs, at least as midcarders. Christian, Kane, Mark Henry and Matt Hardy could also be seen as straight up midcarders, but Swagger and Chavo were probably beneath that, and Dreamer certainly was.

So, I'd say that the ECW championship was never a World title, but from 1992 to 2007 it was somewhere above a midcard title, but then it fell to that level.

 

[Rhonda Rousey's Sports Bra]

The way I would rank the titles is 1) WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship 2) ECW World Championship 3) US and IC belts. I think when the WWE changed the belt silver they were showing everyone how they wanted it percieved, as the silver medal, sure it's a big deal to win silver but it's still not the same as winning the gold. So I'd say it was a world championship but kind of like the mid card world championship.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Initially, I hat the WWE viewed the ECW Championship as a world title. I believe that the WWE planned to use it in the same vein as the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship on Raw and SmackDown!. For the first several months of its inception, the new ECW was a brand that the WWE definitely put more effort into than they would in the past two years or so.

When the ECW brand came to light, the title was referred to by commentators and on WWE.com as the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, though the name was eventually changed to ECW World Championship and, finally, just the ECW Championship. The prominence of the ECW Championship dwindled along with WWE's overall interest in maintaining ECW as anything approaching what it once was along with the television audience. For me, around the time John Morrison and CM Punk were feuding over the title, I'd probably compare it with the old NWA/WCW World Television Championship in terms of overall prestige. It was a third tier championship that was used to build up some young guys, get them over and/or just generally give a respected and established star something to do.

 

[Big Time]

Actually, was it ever defended outside the US? I know there arent actually any rules for this, but generally, a world title is only considered as such when it is defended in other places outside its native country?

 

[Dagger Dias]

Back in the original ECW, the ECW Championship was a world title. When someone held that title, he was the top guy in the federation. The reason that's not the case for WWE's version of ECW is because it was the title for a third brand and was never going to be as big as Raw or Smackdown. Even during 2006 and 2007 it wasn't a world title. Big Show and Lashley weren't pushed as a top tier champion the way Cena was on Raw or Batista was on Smackdown at the time. They were pushed as exactly what WWE's ECW title was, in between the midcard titles and world titles. A title is only a "world title" when the titleholder is viewed as one of the top guys in the federation. That can be said about both the WWE and World Championships, but it never could during the entire existence of WWE's ECW Championship, so the ECW title was a world title in the original ECW but it wasn't in WWE's ECW.

 

[Richard]

No it's not a World Championship.

The WWE took it down a rung on the ladder when Chavo was in the Royal Rumble as the champion. If it was a world championship, he wouldn't be trying to become a number 1 contender for possibly his own world title.

Also the other day on SmackDown one of the announcers alluded to the fact that Matt Hardy was never a World Champion so I guess the new ECW title before it died was not considered a world championship.

 

[TellMeWhy]

In the original ECW, it was a world title. I believe it was defended around the world. In fact, guys from all over came to the original ECW just to challenge for the belt. What WWE has done to ECW is like WWE buying ROH and turning the ROH title into a midcard title even though the ROH title maybe handled with prestige as we speak right now. That's how it is with ECW. It was a company title, it was important among the company, and was important among the guys who fought to help get the name some recognition but once WWE bought it, they spit all over that and turned it into a joke.

The ECW title to me was important until Vince McMahon won the title. Vince McMahon holding the title was a spit in the face to ECW and helped tarnish the ECW name and made it a fucking joke. Since then I've never looked at it the same.

 

[The Scarred One]

I would like to consider it a world championship for the sake of Matt Hardy and Christian, because those two deserve to have that recognition as world champions. It was a world title technically but it lost some of its prestige after Vince McMahon won it.