10 Times WWE C-Shows Were AMAZING

ECW was a C-Show.

Entrusted to spearhead just one pay-per-view, the least-purchased ever under the WWE banner, Vince McMahon tired of the concept before it even made air. Acquiescing to network demands to inject the show with a science fiction flavour, the reboot subverted most Hollywod reboots; where major studios are obsessed with the so-called "gritty" reimagining, Vince took a gritty property and covered it in an alienating, glossy sheen.

Bizarrely, wonderfully, where WWE was reluctant to restore ECW to its roots, of all performers, Ric Flair was happy to roll around in thumbtacks for the cause. The man who criticised Mick Foley for his reckless brand of hardcore ("garbage") wrestling wrestled in that style to add a strand of competition to their meta onscreen feud.

The narrative was simple, but brutally effective. The Big Show was massive and strong. Ric Flair was years and years removed from the glittering prime of his career, but f*cking insane.

This dynamic yielded a gruesome, hard-to-watch massacre. It was bad enough suffering through Flair's plight, as Show slammed him to the mat, before even the weapons made an appearance. Naitch juiced a gusher (natch), then cut open Show's face with a barbed wire bat before falling to a backbreaker, exploiting Flair's agonising history in that regard in a bloody exploitation flick of a wrestling match.