8 Wrestlers Who Restored The Value Of Championships
5. Dean Malenko (ECW Television Championship)
ECW’s Television Championship served as the company’s secondary title. It started out that way when it was being passed around wrestlers like Glen Osbourne and an ageing Jimmy Snuka back in the early 90’s, but really started building prestige when the likes of Terry Funk and Sabu entered the fray.
2 Cold Scorpio, Eddie Guerrero and a slew of others ensured ECW’s TV division was home to some of the most exciting wrestling on the planet, but the division hit a crushing low in 1994. Jason Knight is best known as The Impact Players’ heel manager, but he was an incredibly underwhelming in-ring performer. He won the belt from Mikey Whipwreck that August, and is widely regarded as one of the worst wrestlers in ECW history, a stark contrast to those who’d populate the division in later years.
Jason’s reign ended at Scorpio’s hands after 83 days, but it was Dean Malenko who really restored the TV Title’s prestige. Known as one of the world’s best mat wrestlers, Malenko was a million miles from Jason, who was little more than a basic brawler. Though Rob Van Dam would take the belt to great new heights in later years, Malenko salvaged it from its lowest ebb and made it worth winning again.
His matches with the likes of Scorpio and Taz were never anything less than exciting, and were instrumental in putting the belt on the map.