4. The ECW Invasion Storyline Ended Because OfRoad Dogg?
One of the more underrated stories of 1997 was Vince McMahon being willing to work alongside Paul Heyman in a cross-promotion between the WWF and ECW. Famously, ECW invaded the Manhattan Center in March, just before Wrestlemania, in order to promote their first ever Pay Per View, Barely Legal. In the aftermath, Rob Van Dam stayed on WWF television and promoted himself as Mr. Monday Night, which got him over as a heel in ECW. He debuted on Raw in a win over Jeff Hardy, and teamed with Jerry Lawler until June. The storyline was supposed to go longer, until the WWF made a suggestion that was unforgivable in the eyes of RVDhe has to lose to Jesse James. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0IrsWbzZRE A year before hed become The Road Dogg, Jesse James was a lower-card enhancement talent. Apparently, it wasnt even going to be a clean loss (reports vary that either James was going to beat RVD via count out or the match would go to a draw), but RVD felt like anything less than a clean win over an enhancement talent was beneath him, so he walked out of the company and returned to ECW, and wouldnt step foot in the WWF again until 2001 after ECW folded.
