10 Crippling Times WWE Worked Themselves Into A Shoot

7. Joey Styles Gets Extreme

“I’m not good enough to call Backlash?” - Joey Styles

ECW nostalgia was running high in 2006.

After two successful pay-per-views and an overall apathy with the main WWE product, many fans were looking for something a little more extreme in their wrestling. Shockingly, Vince McMahon decided to bring Extreme Championship Wrestling back from the grave full time and make it a weekly show. In order to do so, he first needed to get people talking.

Joey Styles had been the play-by-play announcer on Raw for six months but things weren’t going so well. Vince is notorious for shouting through the headset at the lead announcer. Joey was no exception. His excitement was drastically turned down and he was no longer the guy fans grew to love. The company ended up turning this into an angle.

The Spirit Squad were the GMs of Raw for the night and told Styles he’d have to wear a cheerleader outfit the following week. Jerry Lawler then started making fun of him for it. That was the former ECW announcer’s breaking point.

He pushed Lawler, grabbed a mic and sounded off on backstage issues like the firing of Jim Ross. He tore down the absurdity of not being able to say “professional wrestling” on a wrestling show. He also complained about being pulled from WrestleMania (which was true). He also blasted Vince’s “insatiable ego" and how he mocked God in a storyline and made out with the women wrestlers on air.

WWE told Styles to tell the audience how he really felt. He gave them exactly what they wanted. It’s just a shame that the ECW relaunch itself didn’t have this level of intrigue or passion behind it.