2. The Re-Invention Of The Big Show, Mark Henry And Kane
These three legendary superstars and future hall of fame inductees have had quite the up and down careers during their tenure at the WWE, and a lot of it was simply ultra-bad (is that even a term?) booking and the ignorance of management in terms of how to market these monstrous mountains of humanity. If it was not for WWECW these wrestlers would most likely not be in main events today. Let us look at Mark Henry first. And I won't even discuss the Sexual Chocolate angle. Although sometimes entertaining it was never really a way to get this legitimate Olympic athlete over as a main eventer. But after reworking his character and giving him a brief World championship storyline run with Kurt Angle and the Undertaker, he essentially became developmental talent. The world's strongest jobber. Then came the rebirth of Extreme. Now we have Mark Henry as who is was meant to be, an unstoppable killing machine. He went on to become ECW champion, which paved the way for a World championship title run, which did in fact lead to Smackdowns highest ratings in quite some time for that period. Now he is a permanent fixture on television and a legitimate contender to the WWE World Heavyweight championship. A similar story with the Big Show. After his initial introduction in the Attitude era and although given a brief WWE title run in 2002 and a memorable tag team title run with Kane, after the brand split he too became somewhat of a comical sideshow attraction and a 7ft jobber rather than the unmovable object he was always meant to be. But after becoming ECW champion he too gained significant credibility as a main event and although he went on hiatus in 2007, came back to World Championship glory. And last but not least, Kane. Quite possibly the most underutilized talent and gimmick in the history of WWE (a personal opinion). And although he was part of some major storylines he always lost in the end (even after the Katie Vick debacle) and pretty much ended up on the lower card, stuck in the tag team division with various partners. Then came his ECW Championship run, which reminded people why he should be in the main event in the first place. And just as Mark Henry and the Big Show did, Kane went on to become World Heavyweight Champion and has since been involved in major main event angles, although lately his use is once again being diminished for reasons I have no idea. But the result is the same. Without WWECW these three icons of the ring might not have even kept their jobs as part of the WWE roster, much less go on to headline PPVs. But at least they had a job to begin with. As the number one spot goes to one of the biggest superstars of the modern era that you may have never even heard of, if it wasn't for the reboot of the brand.