15 Exact Moments Failed WWE Ruthless Aggression Gimmicks Actually Got Over

5. CM Punk | August 1, 2006

The WWE ECW reboot was infamously very bad. 

Vince McMahon was never not going to revert to type; it was borderline miraculous that WWE presented the undiluted, authentic experience at the 2005 and 2006 One Night Stand events. Almost as soon as the brand was rebooted proper, it was impossible to determine why Vince even bothered. He had zero interest in pushing the ECW originals; the WWECW show was essentially a means of procuring a modest rights fee and launching the career of Bobby Lashley, who was dismissed as a body guy and obvious McMahon project by any remaining ECW fans (of which there were probably very few). 

What’s irritating is that this all could have worked. Nobody reasonably thought that the Sandman was going to become a headliner or anything, but WWECW could and should have functioned as a “what ECW would have looked like if it had never shuttered” deal - a more violent take on Ring Of Honor, essentially. 

CM Punk performed in the idiosyncratic spirit of the original promotion (and would have made a near-perfect heel in the bingo hall, given the characters he’d have interacted with). He was an ECW wrestler born a few years too late, bringing with him a cool style that the mainstream had yet to adopt and a classic pro wrestling sensibility alike. The rave-reviewed sensation was already over before he first appeared on TV, and the in-the-know fans in the Hammerstein Ballroom immediately responded to his accomplished, eye-catching win over Justin Credible. He was their guy - but in 2006, that no longer mattered. 

It wasn’t that simple, however; Punk was thought to be a bust. In OVW, he bulked up too much, reasoning that he had joined the land of the giants and needed to fit in, and even the “smarks” were bored senseless by his overlong matches with Brent Albright.