10 Times WWE Was Categorically Worse Than It Is Right Now
4. WWECW
WWE's bastardised take on ECW was so sketchy that it never gained enough identity to be pinned down as one failed experiment. It was instead, about six.
1) The relaunch of the 'proper' ECW was killed on Night One, with a Zombie gimmick installed to service their Sci-Fi network home and an extended opening promo that centred as much around Edge and John Cena as it did new WWE and ECW World Champion Rob Van Dam
2) The last gasps for the above - the company's return the Hammerstein Ballroom and the one and only pay-per-view December to Dismember - were unmitigated catastrophes that convinced Vince McMahon he needed to aggressively remodel it as an unapologetic WWE brand.
3) A loss of credibility due to 1) and 2) rendered new ECW Champion Bobby Lashley the captain of a sinking ship and further sunk potential breakout such as CM Punk and John Morrison by virtue of their desperation to challenge for such a tainted title.
4) Punk and Morrison's advancement to Raw and SmackDown exposed ECW for what it had by then become - a C-show developmental project nobody of any worth wanted to be associated. It existed, but the roster were either too good to be there or not really good enough to be on telly in the first place.
5) Matt Hardy, Kane, Mark Henry, Christian or anybody chosen as champion were done so to be the lone well-regarded star to guide the brand gently to death as progressively less and less actual storylines occurred.
6) 'ECW' is dead. Again.