20 Most Underappreciated WWE Stars Of The 21st Century

7. Elijah Burke

Montel Vontavious Porter
WWE.con

Not long after WWE revived the ECW brand, it became clear that they weren't particularly interested in putting on a show true to the spirit of the old ECW. All of the ECW Originals - men like Rob Van Dam, Sabu, and Tommy Dreamer - were shoehorned into a feud with "The New Breed." That included abysmal workers Matt Striker and Kevin Thorn, as well as former TNA star Marcus Cor Von, who left the company very soon after debuting.

It was the leader of The New Breed, Elijah Burke, who looked to have the brightest future. Burke had previously worked as a manager for Sylvester Terkay, proving his charisma - as a singles star, it was soon evident that he was also a great hand in the ring. He challenged CM Punk for the ECW Championship and even had a mini-feud with Batista, but his stock soon plummeted and he was taken off TV.

Burke ended up released in late 2008, having barely gotten an opportunity to prove himself. Undoubtedly he could have been a major player if he had more support backstage.

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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013