12 Exact Moments WWE Titles Became Worthless
4. Mr. McMahon = ECW Champion?
Admittedly, WWE’s own version of the ECW Title was on shaky ground when Big Show beat Rob Van Dam to win it in July 2006. Still, fans were willing to stick in there because hopes were high that the McMahons would make something of extreme as a third brand and capitalise on hot One Night Stand pay-per-views in both 2005 and 2006. Then, Vince McMahon's version of extreme as a TV product rolled out properly and people were disheartened.
Vince went on to win the ECW strap from Bobby Lashley at Backlash 2007, and that ushered in the true end of any pretence that Extreme Championship Wrestling could be a standalone brand. Whilst true that McMahon was an urgent character on WWE TV and brought eyeballs no matter what he did, he didn't need to be ECW Champ. This was even crummier than his one week WWF Title reign in 1999, which is saying something.
McMahon (complete with baffling bandana) as champ was a nail in the coffin for Paul Heyman's once proud original vision. WWE ECW dwindled from that point on before being abolished in 2010. Final champion Ezekiel Jackson had one of the shortest reigns ever - Vince brought the hammer down on extreme before he'd even won it on the 16 February episode.
By then, ECW was a pale shadow of its former self. There was next to nothing linking WWE's 'Sunday Night Heat by another name' product to Heyman's renegade offering, and that slide began once McMahon became a focal point on the spin off version. It was curtains for the original belt after that.
This is extreme...ly unwanted.