5. Rob Van Dam, 2002
There weren't many bright spots in the WCW and ECW "invasion" of 2001. Dream matches never came to fruition as the bigger stars from WCW didn't sign on right away, and the two wrestling federations homogenized into "The Alliance". Yet, one of the few positives that came out of the invasion was the emergence of Rob Van Dam as a top superstar. Van Dam was one of the biggest competitors during the original run of ECW, but that was very much a case of being a big fish in a small pond. However, once WWE fans got to see The Whole Dam Show, they were just as enamoured with him as the Philadelphia faithful were. RVD was unlike anything WWE fans had ever seen before. His moves, like the Van-Daminator, split-legged moonsault and five-star frog splash catapulted him to the number one baby face spot on RAW during the early days on the Brand Extension. When he squared off against Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at Unforgiven in September of 2002, fans thought for sure that Van Dam would win the title, and cement himself as a top star in the company, but it was not to be. Triple H won the match, and it wasn't until June of 2006 that RVD got to wear WWE World gold. By then, though still beloved, RVD was nowhere near as popular as he had been four years ago, and fans were left wondering what could have been.