10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2009 Facts
7. ECW Was Down To Just Four Entrants
The distribution of Rumble slots among the three brands went like so: 15 for Raw, ten for Smackdown, one unaffiliated (Rob Van Dam, making a guest appearance), and four for the littlest brand, ECW.
The representation for the diluted "tribe of extreme" consisted of John Morrison, The Miz, Mark Henry, and Finlay. Ironically, Morrison and Miz were the reigning Raw Tag Team champions at that point, showing just how much WWE wanted to get their two blue-chippers away from the ECW dead zone.
This was made even more apparent a few months later, when Miz went to Raw in the annual draft, while Morrison was pulled over to SmackDown. The optimism that existed in 2006 for the purported revival of classic ECW action had long since dissipated.