10 Best Things To Come From The WWE's Worst Moments
5. The July 9th 2001 Monday Night Raw
...for exactly one night.
"July 9th, 2001...a day that will live in Sports Entertainment infamy!" wailed Jim Ross in his own inimitable style as Stephanie McMahon was revealed as the owner of ECW to mark the precise moment the titular "Best Thing" in this entry was no longer that. In fact, that actually came seconds later when both of McMahon's bratty children posed on the apron for the WWE beauty shot as Paul Heyman and the ECW/WCW roster stood behind them, already marginalised by the gimmick.
Before that though? Whew, what a show.
After Booker T and Buff Bagwell's "WCW" main event had been deemed a total bust the prior week, the company had quite the aggressive rethink in an effort to salvage a ship that was already dangerously close to sinking.
The confused heel/babyface lines were at long last un-blurred as Shane McMahon aided Diamond Dallas Page in his feud with The Undertaker to officially make WCW the bad guys in the angle, before an pre-planned ECW assault on Kane and Chris Jericho midway through the show created what appeared to be a three-way war.
The reveal of a WCW/ECW alliance (the word still sticks in the throat to this day) was the latest shock on top of a shock on top of a shock, with months' worth of work retconned in favour of the months' worth of work they delivered in one remarkable night night.