Which ECW Champion was most wasted in WWE?

[THTRobtaylor]

To me, it has to be Shane Douglas. I don't remember much about him in WWF, which is exactly why he is my choice. This guy had two long runs as ECW Champion (probably a year long each, i don't recall the exact length), and then goes to WWF, and is gone in no time. He comes back as "Dean Douglas", and again, probably about 8-12 months, he's out the door. I remember Douglas from ECW and even more of WCW than I do from his brief stints in WWF. Justin Credible is a close 2nd for me. Aldo Montoya, i mean c'mon, what was that supposed to be????

Shane's WWF/E career was down to his own behaviour... in 1990/91 he was the original HBK... Vince had a whole gimmick planned, real concerts etc, a "proper rock star" type deal... Shane wanted to leave to spend time with his dying father and/or go back to med school... Vince released him... only for him to sign immediately with WCW for his tag reign with Steamboat... Vince went with plan B, a guy called Shawn Michaels...

No sympathy at all for Shane...

 

[Matisyahu]

I dont want to say Taz because he forged a great future in commentating although some argue he is phoning it in for TNA but I dont believe so. I honestly think Taz is a great commentator and he certainly had an awesome run while in ECW so he didnt do too bad for himself.

I agree that Raven was grossly undertutilized in his WWF run given that his gimmick was quite possibly one of the better ones of the 90's or ever some may argue. Theres no question that there were a lot of things that could have been done better with him but they tried something new and it just didn't work out which seems to be the case a lot of times when you ditch something that a sure fire hit and take a risk of alienating a vast fan base. But at least they didn't completely bury the guy he certainly got a chance to run with it but it just didn't take off.


I think biggest wasted talent coming from ECW and WCW was Lance Storm. The guy had more talent than a good deal of the rest of the roster at the time. I think WCW did a really good job with him especially with the Canadian stable where they would always start with "Rise for the playing of the CANADIAN national anthem" too a HUGE amount of heat from the fans. But when he went to WWE coming off a great WCW run, he just seemed to disappear. I still dont understand why he never came back to the business. Granted he apparently hates TNA for unknown reasons, but I believe he could have and still could be a great talent for the WWE in ring or as a trainer.
The guy could talk, had a very good arsenal of submissions and was an all around awesome talent. Shame and comdemnation Vince McMahon!
Theres no doubt in my mind, he could and would have been a great WWE or World Champion. I would have liked to see him take on the likes of Randy Orton, Kofi, Cena, or did another program with Jericho with whom he broke into the business with

 

[Orton Pose \__0_/]

Mind you before I answer this let me say one thing, the ECW crowd and fan base, for the most part is so completly different than the WWF/E crowd and fan base. So to take these stars from ECW and make them work under a completly different set of fans and what they like would be a hard thing for anyone to pull off. Also let me mention that out of all those people the E misused they did get some good stars out of all of this, Chris Jericho Steve Austin two huge huge stars comming from ECW, Rey Mysterio huge. Onto my next point before I answer Raven and Justin Credible had a try before going to ECW, Johnny Polo the golf club holding man turnin into Raven, and Aldo Montoya turning into Justin Credible so if they couldnt make it the first time through why would they give them a second try with something new.

Onto your actual question though, I gotta think shane dougless was a huge waste and could have been great, and I dont believe this guy won the ECW title but To Cold Scorpio even though he did get a chance in the E was used wrong, give me a break flash funk??? but I would say Shane, or Scorpio.

Id agree with Douglas for the reasons said above and by other posters, though Shane Douglas was the first ECW champion (When ECW dropped the NWA-Eastern Championship Wrestling thing)

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Id agree with Douglas for the reasons said above and by other posters, though Shane Douglas was the first ECW champion (When ECW dropped the NWA-Eastern Championship Wrestling thing)

He was saying Too Cold Scorpio wasnt an ECW Champion, which is correct. He wasn't referring to Shane Douglas.

I have always liked Douglas, I love the whole "Franchise" persona, and Shane has always been a hell of a talent on the mic. However, he was always pissed over how he was treated in the larger organisations/ angry at the veterans who wouldn't stand aside etc, and that cost him. These guys held alot of power in the industry, and still do today. Shane Douglas mouthing off at these wrestlers basically stopped him from achieving as much as he could.

Lets look at it this way. You are Hulk Hogan in WCW, Shane Douglas has been slagging you off on ECW broadcasts, then someone says "hey Hulk, what about that Douglas guy down in Philly? He looks talented, shall we bring him back to WCW?" And you think to yourself "Why the hell should we sign that asshole"..... so Shane remains in ECW. Extremely talented, but needed to learn to keep his thoughts to himself if he ever wanted to go back to the big 2.

 

[Calderownz]

Two guys come to mind. Mike Awesome and Taz.

Especially with Taz. Taz was a guy that was a good worker, who also had a unique look and a good mic worker.

He was jobbing out in months.

Awesome on the other hand was the perfect type of wrestler that you could use with a mouthpiece. Perfect 80's or 90's type of monster that a heat seeker gets paired with. Woulda been great.

 

[King Patrick Star]

When ECW joined the Invasion, they should have not joined the Alliance. Instead, the ECW front of the War (that should have been 3 sided all along) should have consisted of Paul Heyman, Shane Douglas, Sandman, Raven, Taz, and Terry Funk at the front line, with Mike Awesome, Justin Credible, Sabu, Steve Corino, and Tommy Dreamer right behind them, and RhIno (with an “I&#8221 as their “leader” and Champion of Champions…well at least at the start of their Invasion.

So I guess, my answer would be Shane Douglas. He is the Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair of ECW. They should have let him lead Team Extreme.