You know things were going bad for the ECW brand when Vince McMahon himself became the ECW Champion. It was during the ECW reboot. The first year didn't go great, so after McMahon made Bobby Lashley his long term champion, he feuded with him. Following WrestleMania 23 where McMahon had his head shaved by Donald Trump because Lashley beat Umaga, Vince went after the ECW Title. At Backlash 2007, when he was nearly 62 years old, McMahon became the ECW World Champion. McMahon only held the ECW Title for five weeks before dropping it back to Lashley again. It was his way of trying to put over a younger wrestler that he wanted to make into a main event performer. It didn't work perfectly, but he certainly tried hard to make it happen. There are a number of booking decisions that could be pointed to as the downfall of WWE's ECW brand. It's the title reign of Mr. McMahon that really signaled the death of the brand because once that happened it became too much of a silly WWE storyline and not enough of what made ECW good in the first place.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
