10 Super Rare Times WWE Promoted Rival Titles

9. Eliminating The Competition

Mickie James
WWE

Paul Heyman had the devil in his eye when he asked if "this show sucked without ECW or what?" during a February 1997 invasion of Monday Night Raw, but he was fuelled by the Manhattan Centre popping huge for a double team spot missing for years from Vince McMahon's show.

When Perry Saturn and John Kronus drilled an aimless techie with a devastating Total Elimination and held up ECW's tag team titles, a division filled with the likes of The Godwinns, The Bodydonnas and The New Blackjacks looked genuinely pathetic by comparison.

The footage is interesting when watched back, too - both Saturn and Kronus hit the posts with the alien hardware expecting to be captured in all their glory by the hard camera, but focus instead goes in tight on an energised Paul Heyman instead. This proved to be the evening WWE brought the Legion Of Doom back for one last proper run, so there's every chance this directorial decision was made not to undercut the returning (and slightly ageing) legends.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett