10 ECW Flops In WWE That Should Have Been Huge
4. Shane Douglas
He might not be the first guy you think of when considering ECW’s hardcore legacy, but Shane Douglas was at the heart of the company’s transition from Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme. When ‘The Franchise’ threw the NWA championship down in August 1994, he immediately became one of the biggest heels in the business, and ECW’s new figurehead.
Douglas was ECW Champion for 385 days, but WWE came calling the following year, and Shane decided to make the jump. Once there, he was rechristened Dean Douglas, and immediately saddled with a bland schoolteacher gimmick typical of the New Generation era. The run was a flop, with his most memorable moment coming when he was gifted the Intercontinental Championship at In Your House 4, only for Razor Ramon to defeat him just 11 minutes later.
Douglas had left WWE by the end of the year, and while he returned to ECW soon after, his career never reached its old heights. Given his excellence on the microphone, it’s surprising that WWE couldn’t make more of his talents, but Dean Douglas’ failure sums up the era as a whole. Had he been allowed to work the gimmick that shot him to ECW prominence in the first place, perhaps ‘The Franchise’ would’ve made a greater impact.