10 Best Matches From WWE ECW
WWE's ECW was pretty awful, but there are a few matches worth revisiting.
Sigh. Oh, what could have been...
WWE's version of ECW had a lot of promise at the start. Hot off the heels of another spectacular addition of ECW One Night Stand, the debut of the ECW brand as its own entity in 2006 had fans genuinely excited for the extreme revival. Sadly, what we got instead was zombies, vampires and one of the worst PPVs of the 21st century.
While both versions of the original ECW One Night Stand format were beyond awesome, the product that followed was simply not what was advertised. The label read "ECW" but the product reeked of WWE...and not even good WWE at that. It was the wrestling equivalent of ordering an English dish from an Indian restaurant; the presentation seemed familiar, but the taste just wasn't the same.
Within weeks, it was clear to see that the ECW presented by WWE was lightyears away from the ECW of old. The gritty presentation, the bloody violence and overall anarchic vibe just wasn't there. However, there were sprinkles of brilliance amongst the sludge of C-show filler.
Several superstars in particular went out of their way to deliver the extreme content that the marquee advertised - and the results made for some truly great matches on an otherwise awful show.
10. Kurt Angle Vs. Brooklyn Brawler (1 August 2006)
On the very first televised ECW event held at the Hammerstein Ballroom since One Night Stand, the hardcore homecoming of WWE's extreme revival was a memorable and rowdy affair.
While the main event of Batista vs. Big Show for the ECW Championship will forever go down in history as the prime example of booking without consideration for the audience, the undercard was every bit what the crowd wanted to see.
One such example of this was Kurt Angle's decimation of The Brooklyn Brawler. The Olympian had undergone a violent rebirth since switching to the extreme brand, and had become noticeably more intense in the ring as well as increasingly more stiff to boot.
Angle's a**-kicking of The Brawler in his hometown made for brilliant TV; the vicious headbutt in the early going from 'The Wrestling Machine' was simply brutal. A quick ankle lock to follow spelt the end for Brooklyn's favourite son, and Angle's transition into the extreme badass of ECW continued.
Angle would wrestle just one more time on TV for WWE, before emerging in TNA two months later, headbutting Samoa Joe and appearing just as violent and intense as he left off.