Greatest ECW Champion since it's return

[Pimpin]

I've looked through the first 5 pages of the ECW section of this forum & couldn't find a topic that's similar to this but if any of y'all find another topic on this then do whatever is best in your minds.

The ECW Title returned on the very first episode of ECW on Sci-Fi & ever since the title's return we have seen champions like RVD, Big Show, Bobby Lashley(twice), Mr. McMahon, John Morrison, CM Punk, Chavo Guerrero, Kane, Mark Henry, Matt Hardy & current ECW Champion Jack Swagger.

My question to y'all is who has been the greatest ECW Champion since the title returned?

 

[ExtremeSwagga93]

I gotta be honest, the ECW title hasn't really had a truely great champion since it was brought back, it didn't really help anyone's career all that much, and each holder either got fired, or went straight back the mid-card after their reign. however I'll examine each champ a little bit.

Rob Van Dam
Well if you're gonna base it on name power, RVD was one of the top guys to hold title, and with this he became the only guy to hold the WWE and ECW title at the same time. However with that said, his reign was really anti-climatic, mostly due to the fact that he and Sabu were caught with drugs. I believe he only had one actual title defense before loosing it to Big Show less than a month later.

Big Show
Like him or not, I consider Big Show probably the best guy to hold the ECW title since it was brought back, it seemed to have meant something when he held it. he had a great feud with Sabu for it, then multiple wrestlers from other brands came to ECW to fight in Extreme Rules matches for the belt. When guys like Ric Flair, Kane (who later won it), Batista, and The Undertaker came to fight Big Show for it, it felt like it was an actual world title. Plus with Paul Heyman as his manager, Big Show's reign was probably the best.

Bobby Lashley
I'm still undecided with this one honestly, I mean Lashley held the title twice, the only guy to do so since the title was brought back, but his reigns lacked truly memorable moments. I guess you could say by this time ECW was become more WWE'ized so to speak, Heyman was leaving Big Show was gone, and the ECW originals were becoming less important. Anyway, so Lashley wins in the Elimination chamber match, defends it against Big Show, and then what? Feuds with Test for a little, then has a few good matches with Hardcore Holly, gets invovled in the Battle of the Billionaires, then looses it to Vince.


Vince McMahon
Not much to say here. I always took this as Vince's way of saying, 'yeah ECW is mine and I'll do what I want with it.' After a few Handicap matches with Lashley, and a face off or two with some ECW originals, Vince looses it back to Lashley at One Night Stand 07.

Bobby Lashley #2
Once again not much to say here because Lashley is drafted to RAW and the title is vacated a few weeks after he won it.

Johnny Nitro/John Morrison
This reign was never actually supposed to happen, but after the Benoit tragedy, Vince decided to put it on Nitro, afterward he became John Morrison and had a halfway decent run. I do consider this the reign though that began the transition from World title to Mid-card title for the ECW title. After a few run ins with Dreamer to push Morrison, and a run in or two with Boogeyman him and CM Punk had a great feud for the title with some great PPVs matches a the GAB and Summerslam, before loosing it to Punk on ECW.

CM Punk
To the best of my understanding CM Punk won the belt from Morrison because Morrison was suspended, but whether or not that is true, Punk was gonna win it eventually. i'd probably say the most memorable part of this reign was his feud with Elijah Burke, two young guys who (at the time) had bright futures ahead of them, fighting for their spot, it was probably Punk's best feud up to this day IMO. Anyway, once that was done, he feuded with Big Daddy V, Mark Henry, The Miz, John Morrison, and finally Chavo, before loosing to Chavo. His reign over all was good, he had some good matches both for the title and non-title against the likes of MVP, kenny Dykstra, and Jamie Noble. But it ended in a very bad way, and that kinda overshadowed his whole reign.

Chavo Guerrero
This was a really, really, bad move. Chavo comes back from a suspension/hiatus, has three matches with Punk that end in a no-contest, and then beats Punk for the title when Edge interferes. I guess Chavo became champ to strictly further the LA Familia storyline that was going on. OVerall a short reign that saw only one memorable moment, when he lost it to Kane in an 8 second match.

Kane
I'm a Kane fan so I was happy to see him win the title, but I still don't see why he actually did win the title. He was involved some feuds with Henry, Big Daddy V, and Shelton Benjamin on ECW, but was never actually an ECW wrestler when he won the title, all in all it seemed rather random to me. But anyway, his title reign to saw few memorable moments, I mean he wasn't even apart of One Night Stand when he was ECW champ. After a title defense or two against Chavo, and teaming up with Punk in a failed attempt to win the WWE tag team titles from The Miz and Morrison he lost it to Mark Henry at Night of Champions.

Mark Henry
This reign really helped bring back Mark Henry's career. He went from a jobber to the stars to an actual threatening member of the roster. Henry is a good monster heel, although a lot of people don't like him, his reign was great, although to short. After feuding with Dreamer, and then defended it against Matt Hardy at Summerslam, he lost it to Hardy in a championship scramble at Unforgiven.

Matt Hardy
Once again not much to say. I don't think anyone was actually surprised by Matt Hardy winning the ECW title. He was drafted to ECW for he sole purpose of winning the title IMO, to continue the momentum of his singles push after he won the United States title. Not much to say about this reign though. After he defended it against Henry a hundred times, Finlay a few times, and had a really brief feud with Koslov he lost the title to Jack Swagger.

I'm not gonna talk about Swagger's reign yet as he still is a new champ.

But yeah, those are my opinions.

 

[Jon422002]

I think that it has got to be CM Punk because i think it created some excitment around the ecw title (which has been lacking so much since its return) and also I believe helped elevate CM Punk in being able to show his talents and was an important step for him in his career.

Thanks

 

[supergav67]

Gotta be a bore (as usual) & say RVD.while I like the Big Show & feel he,s overlooked,(but not enough to top the bill at WM25 though).& like others ,wonder how Lashley woulda done if he felt wanted.RVD is the one we all pine for,The one We,D tear up this Wellness shit to see again.The one whose idea it was to bring back ECW AS it was (Vince;No it wasnt!).
Looking down ESs list it just struck me,Angle left without getting the ECW title .Yet name a guy who was there at the start of Vinces ECW &,first on your list would be,,,,,.weird.
But I agree,so far CM Punk (& to a certain extent Morrison) has been ThE one to acheive something since.

 

["Cool Guy" Jensen]

If you ask me, no one has really benefitted all that much from holding the E.C.W. Championship since its return. For some of the holders it was a bit of a more positive thing because it was the closest they would get to a World Title, but still. I would say that the best title reign since the title's return was Big Show. I believe he held it the longest and with Paul Heyman as his manager, he was unstoppable. He would really bring back the meaning of the term ''Extreme Rules'', with matches with Sabu, Ric Flair, and Kane. The title reigns from Lashley, Morrison, and Punk weren't all that bad either, but Big Show's title reign really stood out to me. If he would have a title reign now, I do not think it would be anywhere near as successful as the one has had in 2006. Now, Jack Swagger has potential to really bring back meaning into the ECW Championship, as his almost 2 month title reign is going pretty good.

 

[NSL]

It pains me to say this, but Mark Henry. His career was obviously going nowhere until he turned into WWE's "Silverback". The title has given him the biggest rub, and he had some of the best matches as champion. His feud with Hardy worked well, and led to agood reign by Hardy.

If Swagger goes on to the bigger better things that we all foresee for him, then it would go to him. But, he's still champion, and hopefully still has a while to go before handing it off to someone else.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Hmmm this is tough. Some of them had pretty good reigns, and some of them.... not so great.

I am gonna have to give it to Big Show or Lashley. When they held the title (like some others have pointed out) it seemed like a world title. When the other guys had it though, it has slowly become more on the levels of the IC or US titles. Morrison and Punk both had great reigns as well, but it had become turning into more of a midcard title by then, from how I see it. As for Swagger, he still has the title but so far his reign falls below Morrison or Punk and above Chavo or McMahon.

Big Show and Lashley both win in a tie, I cannot decide. They were the best.

 

[Crush1]

I'm going to go with Rob Van Dam. Not because he was the best of the best, its just because he made the ECW title look good. Something most wrestlers couldn't do. RVD as champion was fresh and it reminded you of the good o'll extreme ECW days. His feud with Cena was spot on, but because of some stupid creative decisions it went wrong in the end. But RVD as beloved as he is, was not championship material in Vince's nor Triple H's eyes (as RVD has stated it himself!). But he was a fine and entertaining champion in my eyes and he always will be.

 

[My$terio_Fan]

While my personal favorite was RVD I am going to say Bobby Lashley. Lashley had just come off of smackdown as a pretty good midcarder(to upper midcard)but wasn't fully established as a maineventer. He came and instantly feuded with Big Show.

The feud actually seemed someone like a legit mainevent feud. Then he won the title. And while his reign wasn't good in the sence he rarely defended the title or what not, but he got the title some good publicity. When Lashley was champion you heard about ECW and the belt. And while feuding with Vince would help do that, it doesn't change the fact ECW got some extra publicity from it. Most of all the title not only seemed like a legit mainevent(or somewhat)title, it also helped elevate Lashley to the next point in his career which was eventually cut short.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

By far amd away. its easily Vince Mcmahon. That was the greatest idea of all the times, just executed at the wrong time. Had they done it when ECW was first resurrected, with him down talking all the originals, it wouldve been absolute gold. It wasnt quite as effective with him feuding against Lashley, but it was still wildly entertaining to me. He was the perfect heel, with his doo rag, and the fact he was VINCE wearing the ECW TITLE. That was magnificent, and I wish it couldve had more done with it

 

[Christian Battlez]

I gotta be honest, the ECW title hasn't really had a truely great champion since it was brought back, it didn't really help anyone's career all that much, and each holder either got fired, or went straight back the mid-card after their reign. however I'll examine each champ a little bit.

and now I'll do it as well.

Rob Van Dam
Well if you're gonna base it on name power, RVD was one of the top guys to hold title, and with this he became the only guy to hold the WWE and ECW title at the same time. However with that said, his reign was really anti-climatic, mostly due to the fact that he and Sabu were caught with drugs. I believe he only had one actual title defense before loosing it to Big Show less than a month later.

Yeah his only title defense was against Edge at Vengeance in an Extreme Rules Match before losing both the WWE and ECW titles in consecutive days. While RVD is responsible for bringing the brand and the title back in the first place one title defense isn't enough for me to say he is the best.Although he was arguably the most popular champion since its return.

Big Show
Like him or not, I consider Big Show probably the best guy to hold the ECW title since it was brought back, it seemed to have meant something when he held it. he had a great feud with Sabu for it, then multiple wrestlers from other brands came to ECW to fight in Extreme Rules matches for the belt. When guys like Ric Flair, Kane (who later won it), Batista, and The Undertaker came to fight Big Show for it, it felt like it was an actual world title. Plus with Paul Heyman as his manager, Big Show's reign was probably the best.

You forgot the fact that Big Show was also the only man to ever win the WWE,WCW,and ECW titles in his career. If your gonna bring up that RVD was the only man to hold the WWE and ECW titles simultaneously then you have to bring up Big Show's major accomplishment as well.

Bobby Lashley
I'm still undecided with this one honestly, I mean Lashley held the title twice, the only guy to do so since the title was brought back, but his reigns lacked truly memorable moments. I guess you could say by this time ECW was become more WWE'ized so to speak, Heyman was leaving Big Show was gone, and the ECW originals were becoming less important. Anyway, so Lashley wins in the Elimination chamber match, defends it against Big Show, and then what? Feuds with Test for a little, then has a few good matches with Hardcore Holly, gets invovled in the Battle of the Billionaires, then looses it to Vince.

You forgot him diving through the steel cage at Umaga didn't you. That shit was crazy so I wouldn't say he had no defining moments with the belt. Plus he was involved in one of the major selling points of WM 23 and a feud with Mr.McMahon if he headn't been fired he might have gotten the biggest rub from the belt of all.

Vince McMahon
Not much to say here. I always took this as Vince's way of saying, 'yeah ECW is mine and I'll do what I want with it.' After a few Handicap matches with Lashley, and a face off or two with some ECW originals, Vince looses it back to Lashley at One Night Stand 07.

Distasteful. nothing further.

Johnny Nitro/John Morrison
This reign was never actually supposed to happen, but after the Benoit tragedy, Vince decided to put it on Nitro, afterward he became John Morrison and had a halfway decent run. I do consider this the reign though that began the transition from World title to Mid-card title for the ECW title. After a few run ins with Dreamer to push Morrison, and a run in or two with Boogeyman him and CM Punk had a great feud for the title with some great PPVs matches a the GAB and Summerslam, before loosing it to Punk on ECW.

It changed Nitro completely. He went from boring Johhny Nitro to a budding star in John Morrison. Though you could argue that hes the budding star because he is working with Miz now. But if he were just Nitro that team would not be half as entertaining as they are now. The belt gave Nitro the character overhaul he needed.

CM Punk
To the best of my understanding CM Punk won the belt from Morrison because Morrison was suspended, but whether or not that is true, Punk was gonna win it eventually. i'd probably say the most memorable part of this reign was his feud with Elijah Burke, two young guys who (at the time) had bright futures ahead of them, fighting for their spot, it was probably Punk's best feud up to this day IMO. Anyway, once that was done, he feuded with Big Daddy V, Mark Henry, The Miz, John Morrison, and finally Chavo, before loosing to Chavo. His reign over all was good, he had some good matches both for the title and non-title against the likes of MVP, kenny Dykstra, and Jamie Noble. But it ended in a very bad way, and that kinda overshadowed his whole reign.

Yeah losing to Chavo was a stupid way of pushing La Familia. But having the ECW title did help make Punk look a little more credible when he won the World championship because he'd been champion before.

Chavo Guerrero
This was a really, really, bad move. Chavo comes back from a suspension/hiatus, has three matches with Punk that end in a no-contest, and then beats Punk for the title when Edge interferes. I guess Chavo became champ to strictly further the LA Familia storyline that was going on. OVerall a short reign that saw only one memorable moment, when he lost it to Kane in an 8 second match.

Yeah I didn't really wanna watch when Chavo was champ although he prolly had the biggest push of his career because he had matches with Triple H and Undertaker afterward. But having the champ in the Rumble killed the belts cred. Chavo was cham when this happened. Then again Chavo having it prolly killed its cred anyway.

Kane
I'm a Kane fan so I was happy to see him win the title, but I still don't see why he actually did win the title. He was involved some feuds with Henry, Big Daddy V, and Shelton Benjamin on ECW, but was never actually an ECW wrestler when he won the title, all in all it seemed rather random to me. But anyway, his title reign to saw few memorable moments, I mean he wasn't even apart of One Night Stand when he was ECW champ. After a title defense or two against Chavo, and teaming up with Punk in a failed attempt to win the WWE tag team titles from The Miz and Morrison he lost it to Mark Henry at Night of Champions.

Not very memorable either but it was vince's way of thanking Kane for his hard work.meh

Mark Henry
This reign really helped bring back Mark Henry's career. He went from a jobber to the stars to an actual threatening member of the roster. Henry is a good monster heel, although a lot of people don't like him, his reign was great, although to short. After feuding with Dreamer, and then defended it against Matt Hardy at Summerslam, he lost it to Hardy in a championship scramble at Unforgiven.

Surprisingly good reign but it was the end of the old ECW as Henry trashed their belt for his ugly Silver one. At least they didn't amke it black. But Michael Hayes wouldn't have that.(that wasn't a racial joke by me that was a shot at Hayes)

Matt Hardy
Once again not much to say. I don't think anyone was actually surprised by Matt Hardy winning the ECW title. He was drafted to ECW for he sole purpose of winning the title IMO, to continue the momentum of his singles push after he won the United States title. Not much to say about this reign though. After he defended it against Henry a hundred times, Finlay a few times, and had a really brief feud with Koslov he lost the title to Jack Swagger.

Not bad either but this was more of a Henry/Hardy feud than a Matt Hardy title run. Anyway the crowd popped loud for it every week so it was pretty good.

Jack Swagger

He's already beaten Hardy twice,Finlay twice and Christian twice. Pretty impressive thus far.

I'd have to say Big Show was the best though. He had a good reign during a more crucial time and it made SD and Raw stars care about the belt. It felt like a world championship.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Vince, easily. I've been saying it since he got the belt. No other champion in WWECW hirstory got the heat he did. Lashley was helped immensely by the feud. Vince doesn't feud with just anybody, he gives them the rub. And he did just that to Bobby.

RVD might have gone on to become a worthy champion, but we'll never know. And Big Show did a great job, but neither are in the same league as McMahon.

Matt Hardy was having quality matches with everybody, but it was hardly a memorable reign. And Jack Swagger is no better than Mark Henry, Kane, Chavo Guerrero, C.M. Punk or John Morrison. All average reigns, not worth talking about.

 

[mr zbow]

It has to be either RVD, Lashley or Big show, simply because when John Morrison won the title it ceased to be a world title. Has anyone noticed how since Lashley lost it, it wasnt refered to as 'The ECW World Title' anymore. Just 'The ECW Title'.

I have to say that Lashley is the greatest ECW champ. This is because he reminds me so much of Tazz (who is the greatest original ECW champ ever). Both were technical great wrestlers, had lots of strength and speed and they could both suplex the hell out of anyone they wanted. Plus Lashleys ECW title reigns catapulted him straight into the main event on Raw against John Cena at the GAB. I think if he didnt get injured then he wouldnt have left wwe and he would probably have won the WHC or WWE titles.

 

[ECWillRiseAgain]

Kane[/U][/B]
I'm a Kane fan so I was happy to see him win the title, but I still don't see why he actually did win the title. He was involved some feuds with Henry, Big Daddy V, and Shelton Benjamin on ECW, but was never actually an ECW wrestler when he won the title, all in all it seemed rather random to me. But anyway, his title reign to saw few memorable moments, I mean he wasn't even apart of One Night Stand when he was ECW champ. After a title defense or two against Chavo, and teaming up with Punk in a failed attempt to win the WWE tag team titles from The Miz and Morrison he lost it to Mark Henry at Night of Champions.

I felt that Kane's reign was just something to rub the La Familia vs Brothers of Destruction angle, it was pretty random, and just selling the BOD as two-world champions kind of thing, and pretty much after the angle ended, Vince didn't know what to do with it gave Kane some tag-team matches with CM Punk or whoever..

and really, best reign by far would be...

The Big Show's reign! is by far the best, RVD's reign was far too short to be compared to that level. And Big Show held it the longest, and had defended it with anyone, and with extreme rules for that matter, he fought it with Sabu, Kane, The Undertaker, hell! he fought it with Flair, and it was a damn good match, a very memorable testicular carnage on the part of Flair, they even put it over as a world title, with Flair mentioning that he could be a 17-time world champion once he beats the Big Show for it..

 

[Godfather]

id have to say Big Show. They Booked him as a strong champion i remember there was a point for several weeks where he would defend the title every week. He defended it in some great matches including vs Flair, vs Sandman, vs Sabu a couple of times. yea so big show i think had the best but like sum1 already said there really hasnt been a great champion yet.

 

[DD84]

It is between two wrestlers for me. One being the Big Show. He was absolutely dominate when he was champ. He was very good and he had Heyman behind him, again, it was sick. The other guy would have to be the guy Show dropped the belt to, Bobby Lashely. I thought he was very good and had a feud with Vince, I thought he was going to the main event and one day win one of the two big belts. They both were amazing. Punk and Nitro/Morrison were also very good as champ, but not on the Lashely or Show level.

 

[colalella2891]

I'd have to say RVD. He was the superstar with the most championships and the most popularity, until he ruined his career with the whole weed thing. But he was the king of ECW in 2006. Right now, Swagger is champion and I can't stand him. He debuts this year and already gets the title. If you ask me, Christian is the only one on the ECW roster who really deserves it.

 

[Backlash1RKONick]

RVD cos he won the ecw title and the wwe title and that made it exciting cos rvd was the first ever to do that