The Shimmy 6.09.08: The History of the (WWE) ECW Title (Part One)

Posted by Andy Clark on 06.09.2008

Follow the history of the ECW Championship 2.0 from it's rebirth in 2006! Plus One Night Stand feedback and more!

Two titles down, one to go.

At One Night Stand in 2006 Rob Van Dam cashed in his Money in the Bank title opportunity against WWE Champion John Cena. Thanks to the assistance of a Paul Heyman, Edge, and a table, RVD defeated Cena for the title much to the delight of classless, intolerant ECW fans worldwide. However it was not the WWE Title that the forthcoming celebration was for, as the annoying ECW ring announcer proclaimed that RVD was in fact the new ECW Champion. Two days later on the inaugural edition of ECW on Sci Fi Paul Heyman officially awarded the revived ECW Championship to Rob Van Dam. RVD decided to keep the WWE Championship as well because "it spins" and simultaneously held both belts.

For the next few weeks RVD would focus on defending his WWE Title and carried the ECW Championship around as a reminder to watch Sci Fi on Tuesday nights. Then it happened: Rob Van Dam had the Worst Week Ever. First he stupidly gets busted for pills after getting pulled over, then he loses the WWE Championship to Edge in a Triple Threat Match that also effectively kills Saturday Night's Main Event as a viable entity. Then, the next night, when ECW makes their grand return to Philadelphia, RVD answers the challenge of the seven foot, 500 lb. Big Show. Big Show challenges RVD for the ECW Title in an Extreme Rules Match. With RVD having already secured legitimacy for the ECW Title by beating Cena at One Night Stand, Paul Heyman decides he no longer needs him and dumps both RVD and the elitist charade and aligns himself with the Big Show, helping the giant win the title and sending RVD home for 30 days.

Despite winning the title by nefarious means Big Show proved to be a fighting champion, taking on challengers from all three brands. His first defense of the title comes in an Extreme Rules Match against the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Partly to become a 17 time World Champion and partly to show off to his rival Mick Foley, Flair brings the goods in the extreme environment but ultimately Big Show walked away with the title in tact. His next challenge would come by way of the Undertaker, but thanks to interference by fellow giant The Great Khali, Taker wins the match by disqualification but not the title. A week later Big Show found himself in another Extreme Rules Match, this time against Undertaker's step-brother Kane. Despite a hotly contested battle Big Show once again retained his title. Big Show concluded his Interpromotional round of defenses by putting the belt on the line against Batista inside the hallowed halls of the Hammerstein Ballroom. In a match that would have made legendary ECW Champions like Johnny Hot Body and Justin Credible proud, Big Show and Batista tore down the house. Unfortunately the match came to an end when ECW original Sabu attacked the champion, setting his sites on the ECW Title.

Sabu's interference would set up a string of matches with Big Show. At SummerSlam the two men met in an Extreme Rules Match, a match won by the champion. The following Tuesday they engaged in a rematch but Sabu was disqualified for splitting Show open with the ring bell. Then they met in a third match, this time in ECW's debut in Madison Square Garden, and once again Extreme Rules applied. Sabu would come up short yet again however.

With Sabu out of the way Big Show would turn his attention to other challengers. The first was another ECW original, The Sandman. After receiving a vote of confidence from announcing legend Jim Ross, The Sandman was feeling pretty good about his chances. He should have been feeling even better when Big Show himself asked that Singapore canes be legal in the match. The ECW original may have even walked away with the title if not for the interference of YOUR teacher, Matt Striker.

Big Show would soon find himself in the crosshairs once again of Rob Van Dam. After defeating Big Show in a non-title Ladder Match RVD earned a title shot against the big man. RVD wanted to take that shot at ECW's December to Dismember PPV, but Paul Heyman decided to stack the deck against RVD by making the match an Extreme Elimination Chamber Match. Sabu defeated Kevin Thorn, Test defeated Tommy Dreamer, and CM Punk defeated Mike Knox to also qualify for the match. For the final spot in the chamber Paul Heyman offered the spot to anyone from any brand. For some reason Heyman didn't think anyone would accept the offer and he had planned on giving the spot to Hardcore Holly to help watch Big Show's back. Unfortunately for Heyman, SmackDown's Bobby Lashley answered the call. Holly would still make it into the match however as Sabu would be mysteriously attacked the night of the PPV and need to be replaced. It didn't matter, though, as Lashley would steamroll through the competition and claim the ECW Title. That Tuesday, in his last act as ECW Representative, Paul Heyman booked Big Show in a rematch the title. Once again Lashley bested the big man and sent Big Show out of the WWE for over a year and a half.

Bobby Lashley was the new face of ECW but he would soon have to deal with the old face of ECW, Rob Van Dam. The two men's first match ended in a double count out, resulting in a rematch the following week. That match was ruined by Test who wished to insert himself into the championship picture. The next week all three men competed in a Triple Threat Match for the title, a match that Lashley would win but would then be jumped by Test who was not pleased with the result. Lashley and Test would have a one-on-one title match at the Royal Rumble but Test would decide discretion is the better part of valor and got intentionally counted out. Not happy about not being able to decisively defeat Test, Lashley gave him one more shot at the title. This time Lashley did beat Test and Test was never seen in a WWE ring again.

Lashley's championship schedule would soon get a lot tougher. After escaping being chosen as Undertaker's WrestleMania 23 opponent, Lashley found himself defending his belt against former cheerleader Kenny Dykstra on a special edition of Raw. Kenny got in a few good licks but Lashley still walked away with his belt. Soon Lashley would find himself crossing the boss as he signed on to be Donald Trump's representative against Mr. McMahon for the Battle of the Billionaires at WrestleMania. Looking to win the ECW Title for Mr. McMahon, Mr. Kennedy challenged Lashley for the title at SmackDown's No Way Out PPV. Unfortunately for Kennedy, Lashley was particularly pissed off that night and go himself disqualified. Two nights later Lashely defended his title against Kennedy again, but this time Lashley's ECW rival Hardcore Holly was also in the match as it was a Triple Threat. Lashley won the Triple Threat Match but that didn't stop his challengers from coming after him. The next week on ECW Lashley met Hardcore Holly inside a Steel Cage with the stipulation that he would have to beat Holly in five minutes in order to retain the title. He managed to retain his title in time and then shocked the world with a dive through the cage wall, sending it crashing down on his WrestleMania opponent Umaga. Mr. McMahon was not done stacking the deck against Lashley, as on SmackDown Lashley found himself competing against Mr. Kennedy one more time. The match was No Holds Barred as far as it pertained to Mr. Kennedy, but regular rules applied to Lashley. In fact, if Lashley did get disqualified the title would change hands. Even with those stipulations in place Lashley would retain the title and walk into WrestleMania as the champion.

After causing Mr. McMahon to be shaved bald at WrestleMania, Lashley still had some issues with Umaga to be resolved the next night on Raw. He defended his title against the Samoan Bulldozer and his manager Armando Estrada in a Handicap Match in one of the most boring post-WrestleMania Raw main events in some time. Of course Lashley would come out victorious and one week later he would put his title on the line yet again, this time in a Title vs. Hair Match against Shane McMahon, who was looking for revenge for his father. The match was just a set up, though, allowing Shane, Umaga, and Mr. McMahon to jump Lashley and inform him that he would be defending the title against all three of them in a Handicap Match at Backlash.

At Backlash Bobby Lashley fought valiantly but it was not enough to handle three men. After attacks by Umaga and Shane there was only one thing left to do. The referee counted to three and the greatest ECW Champion of them all was crowned: Vincent Kennedy McMahon.

To Be Concluded…

PPV in Review: One Night Stand

The Falls Count Anywhere Match was a good choice to open the show. Jeff Hardy and Umaga have surprisingly good chemistry together and I don't think they've ever had a bad match. I actually liked that on a show full of gimmicks that we got an old Hardcore Title style brawl. Jeff sliding down the banister to attack Umaga was particularly cool. The finish was a bit eye rolling but I'll give them some credit for creativity.

I LOVED the Singapore Cane Match. This match is up there with the Matt Hardy-Gregory Helms match from Great American Bash 2006 and the Jeff Hardy-Umaga match from GAB 2007 as a match that everybody else is all like, "Well, that was OK" and I just loved. Big Show looked like a total beast and everyone else (Shawn Merriman included) looked great as well. I will say that not having the ECW Champion on the card was a bit too WCW for my liking, but I suppose that's a small gripe. Anyhow, this was a great match and I don't care what anyone else says about it.

The First Blood Match was OK, but that's all. Cena and JBL proved that their awesome I Quit Match a few years ago was an anomaly because they really don't have great chemistry together. The brawling wasn't bad, and I'm glad Cena won, but the finish was particularly lame. The blood came up a bit too fast and considering we didn't get any real blood all night (except for Big Show's accidental injury) we should have really seen a crimson mask.

I'm one of the few that didn't seem to enjoy the I Quit Match between the ladies. It really wasn't outwardly bad, but I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other matches. Not really much else to say in that regard. It was funny that they replayed the paparazzi guy falling on his ass during Melina's entrance.

The Stretcher Match was great to watch. The match itself wasn't super special, but HBK has needed a good ass kicking ever since WrestleMania and Batista sure gave him one. I like Michaels but I enjoyed every minute of Batista just dismantling him. It was kind of silly to see Jericho come down to the ring and for Batista to just stand there and not kill him, but I can let that slide since HBK got more abuse. The "I'm NOT sorry and I DON"T love you" line was awesome.

The Last Man Standing Match was another match that fell kind of flat for me. I'm not punishing because of Orton's injury, because frankly it didn't look like it was going to wind up being a classic even before Orton hurt himself. In fact, the injury probably upped my enjoyment of the match, not because I enjoyed seeing Orton hurt but because it gave the match a bit of historical significance that it wouldn't have otherwise had. It sucks that Orton got hurt like he did but he should be damn glad that he didn't land on those steel steps that were sitting upside down nearby. If it were me I would have just let the ten count occur then instead of going for the sledgehammer shot, but I understand the chaos of trying to rebook a finish without hurting Orton any more then he already was.

The main event was awesome. Right now it is just below HBK-Flair as my WWE Match of the Year. I understand some of the spots were particularly contrived and that Ray Charles could see where someone would be going through a table, but I still enjoyed both the match and the story they were telling. I called Edge winning but this is one of those matches that you just aren't sure until it's finally over. They did a great job at selling the fact that Undertaker would be "gone forever" and that last walk out of the arena was cool.

All in all this was a good PPV and I would say it was the either the third or fourth best WWE PPV of the Year, just behind WrestleMania, No Way Out, and maybe the Royal Rumble.

Andy Enjoyment Index: One Night Stand

1) TLC Match
2) Singapore Cane Match
3) Stretcher Match
4) Falls Count Anywhere Match
5) Last Man Standing Match
6) First Blood Match
7) I Quit Match
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Andy! Andy! At Last You Have Some Feedback!

Chris Pownall (awesome name by the way) writes my first e-mail in a long time:

You hit them all... HBK, RVD, HHH, Jericho....Angle and Eddie I guess can count...but in that case can you technically count Jeff Jarrett??? Former World Champ (although it was WCW)....Euro, Tag, and IC.

Then again...the refuse to acknowledge anything about Kurt Angle in the WWE anymore, so maybe they are only referring to Eddie.

Good call in saying that Jarrett would count if the World Heavyweight Title and WCW were one in the same, and if there were a transference between WWE Title and WCW Title. I think a lot of my readers last week didn't get that I thought there should be a new distinction out there instead of the outdated Grand Slam. Perhaps I should have offered up a new name. In any event, if I had to guess between Angle and Eddie which one they meant I would have to go with you and say Eddie. Thanks for writing!

The Shimmy Likes It Raw!

What's on tap for tonight's show?

Nothing. Don't watch Raw tonight. Please. The less people that watch the more likely I am to win some of Vinnie Mac's millions.

Well that does it for this week. Next week I'll finish up my look at the (WWE) ECW Title. Until then, don't die. Clark…out.