12 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Raw From 2007

9. Vince As ECW Champ Was Paul Heyman’s Nightmare

John Cena WWE Title 2007
WWE.com

Alice Cooper once crooned: "Welcome to my nightmare, I think you're gonna like it". Now, replace Alice with Vince McMahon and imagine him singing that to an outraged Paul Heyman during WWE creative meetings. A worst case scenario dawned on Paul in 2006 when the dismal December To Dismember pay-per-view sucked wind, but that was nothing compared to what 2007 had in store for him.

He was gone from the promotion, but would've heard all about McMahon winning the ECW Title at Backlash 2007 on 29 April. After booking himself to do that, Vince would stroll around on episodes of Raw sporting the thing for a month or so before dropping it back to Bobby Lashley at One Night Stand.

Lashley then vacated the belt because he was moving to Raw in the Draft, which also blew.

Watching McMahon run around with a championship he'd built must've been nightmare fuel for Heyman. Sure, he already knew the offshoot ECW brand was slop at the tail end of '06, but this latest chapter had to take the biscuit. What next? Making Hornswoggle ECW Champ?! It's a bit of a shocker they didn't think of that, to be fair.

Vince was entertaining an audience of one as ECW poster boy, and he knew it. Despite clearly being a big star, putting the belt on himself and acting like the coolest cat to ever walk on set for Raw wasn't what hardcores wanted to see from the title or the brand.

Paul E. Dangerously was slashing copies of WWE Magazine somewhere in Philadelphia. Probably.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.