Best (WWE) ECW Champion?

Cactus Col

Have been watching a bit of ECW recently, and have to say I'm impressed. The match between Christian, and Zack Ryder was great. Althugh Zack has the worst ring gear I have seen in a long while.

But got to wondering about past ECW champions, there have been 14 in all (since WWE brought it back).

So for kicks I thought I'd ask the question, who was the best ECW champion?

Whether you judge this by who elevated the title most, who was elevated by it, how they defended, etc, I will leave up to you.

Max Power1

As an RVD mark, this is an easy one.

chopperbyrne

Morrison had the best series of matches while ECW champion.

flahavaj

I actually thought Mark Henry was bloody fantastic in his role as the dominant monster heel champion. Seriously.

Cactus Col

I was thinking the same. He made one heck of a champion, and his reign started a period (which is still ongoing) where the ECW title belt was treated with some respect.

Henry was a good heel champion, I think both he and the belt benefited from him holding it. The show itself began to stand on its own feet more and more.

When RVD and Big Show held it, it seemed the idea was to try to legitimise the title and ECW with big names. Which patently didn't work, and didn't nothing for the show, the belt, or the title holders.

Lashley only held it as a way to build him and his feud with Vince up, which I thought did more to devalue the title.

Morrison and Punk did good work with the title for a while, but a lack of any challengers meant seeing a lot of matches between them and Elijah Burke.

All their good work was undone with Kane (who I'm a fan of) and Chavo Guererro.

So to me Mark Henry's reign signifies the begining of a long period of stability for the show, where more and more it is proving it's worth.

Rjd2

Henry was great, Punk also had a series of great matches with Jo Mo over the belt but Christian is my pick.

He along with Rey has been the best WW wrestler of the year, his matches with Swagger were awesome and unlike some his matches are never formulaic. His matches with the likes of Kidd and Ryder are great examples of how superb he has been since his return.

I honestly dont remember him wrestling this good in either his Tna run or his WWE 2005 push.

Cactus Col

Rjd2 wrote: »

His matches with the likes of Kidd and Ryder are great examples of how superb he has been since his return.

I honestly dont remember him wrestling this good in either his Tna run or his WWE 2005 push.

Watched his match with Ryder on the way in to work this morning. And was well impressed. I haven't been this impressed since seeing some of Finlay's moves when he first returned to ring action in the WWE.

I hope that when Matt Hardy returns from his injury he'll be put back in ECW, because I think a feud between these two would be immense.

SlickRic

RE: Christian...

what's been so impressive about Christian's return is that he could easily have spit the dummy out and gone on auto-pilot. he could be a comfortable midcard performer for the rest of his career. but he's really upped his game.

it would be a travesty if he doesn't get a really strong push sometime soon on one of the top 2 brands.

Bubs101

Christian has been awesome but Morrison's tenure at ECW will never be matched. Went from Awesome champ to Best new tag team of the decade all while on the C show

flahavaj

Great points by everyone who voted Christian actually. I reckon if you re-did this poll in 6 months he'd be mine and everyone else's choice. Hes been a revelation since he returned and as someone else said up there with Rey as far as worker of the year goes. Credit to him for just getting on with it as well. He'll be rewarded in time. I douby Ryder will ever have a better match than the one with himself this week on TV.

currythis

Christian really has been phenomenal since he returned,he can drag a good match out of anybody and his feud with swagger was great.
His match with Zak Ryder was one of the best matches that I've ever seen on a WWE/ECW episode.

On another point I dont think that John Morrison was a great ECW champ at all,I'm a big fan of his but I don't think he was ready for the title when he won it.
Aside from match where he dumped the title to punk on ecw in a awesome match before he began his suspension,I thought his other matches with punk at NOC 07 and Summerslam 07 were really poor.

flahavaj

I actually agree with currythis actually here. While Morrison turned out to be fantastic in his role under that gimmick, he wasn't entirely ready for the belt when they first gave it to him. He actually only started the gimmick shortly after he won the belt and it took him a while to get going with the new persona. I remember his first few promos with the "Shaman of sexy" gimmick being fairly poor. It as only when he teamed with Miz that he really took off into being as aweome as we now know he is. If I remember his title reign was dominated by the Punk feud which kinda dragged on and produced a few decent matches, but nothing major. So while Morrison is really great, I wouldn't say he was the best ECW champion to be honest.

JP Liz

RVD, Punk and Lashley were all great champions

Tricity Bendix

I voted Big Show because he was the only one to bring "big match" atmosphere to title bouts.

The ECW title actually seemed like a main event prop back then, as opposed to a midcard/development title.

Mr.Nice Guy

I voted Big Show as he actually exceeded my expectations in the role. I was gutted when they took the belt off Van Dam and I hated that it went on Show but in hindsight I realise he steadied the ship. He worked hard for the brand and when the belt went on Lashley the show suffered in my view.

As much as I love RVD, I think the circumstances surrounding why he lost the belt tarnish his reign.

Mr. Guappa

Jack Swagger for me, the ECW Title is on the same level as the US and IC belts and therfore should be used to elevate the holder. When Swagger won the belt I wasnt too sure about him but he carried it well and now looks like he belongs in the upper mid card on Raw.. job well done I would say

Diabhal Beag

Punk. It was a great thing to see him suceed and it led him to greater things

Shaneomac

I think Chavo as the antagonist for the title was a decent run and could have continued in this type of role as both a trainer and a on/off champ.

Trail_Blazer

RVD had the ECW title for about 5 weeks before he screwed it up.

I chose Tommy Dreamer. His first title reign lasted half an hour in the original ECW. So it was nice to see him win it again this year, and hold onto it for about a month and a half or so. He's also the only man to retain his Title in a scramble championship match as well. So while not overly long, him winning it for the 2nd time in his career was very memorable for me.

Though realistically Big Show's been the best ECW Champion since the WWE brought the title back. He defended it against the most opponents, and I believe he's had the longest reign since 2006 as well.