10 Exact Moments WWE Stopped Trying

WWE announcers called ECW "the third brand" with an alarming amount of patronising, feigned hype towards the end. On screen, the pretence that the Raw and SmackDown wannabe was anything other than Sunday Night Heat with a Paul Heyman-inspired name raged on, but fans weren't fooled.

That's why, when Christian beat Shelton Benjamin and secured the show a pick on the 2009 Draft special in mid-April '09, everyone in attendance yawned at Vladimir Kozlov's announcement. He'd been jousting with The Undertaker and Triple H, and been in the WWE Title mix, so this was defo a step down for Koz.

Drafting Vlad to ECW was Vince McMahon's way of saying, 'I give up, pal'. WWE had done everything they could think of to make Kozlov a monster heel, but they chucked it with the ECW move then plonked the emotionless brute into a comedy tag-team alongside miracle worker Santino Marella.

Thanks for coming, Vladimir.