In 1993, Eastern Championship Wrestling took its first step towards becoming legendary when it officially became Extreme Championship Wrestling. This would be the ECW that the majority of wrestling fans know and still love. While ECW never truly rivaled WWE or WCW, it was instrumental in changing pro wrestling during the 90s.
RELATED: 10 Most Unhinged Stunts in ECW History, Ranked
ECW diehards know that before WWE introduced "Attitude" to the masses, ECW was already catering to an edgier fan base. Throughout its existence, ECW housed some truly great World Champions, both as an independent promotion and under the WWE umbrella. Unfortunately, at times, the promotion also featured some questionable champions that made it look weak.
10 Chavo Guerrero
It should be said Chavo Guerrero is a legend in the wrestling business. He's one of the rare cases of a performer's legendary last name hurting them more than helping them. If Chavo wouldn't have been a Guerrero, perhaps Eddie Guerrero wouldn't have cast such a long shadow over him. Regardless, Chavo's ECW Championship reign came at a bad time.
It wasn't that Chavo was a necessarily poor ECW Champion. It's more that WWE had never presented Chavo as anything more than a lower mid-card talent. By the time he won the ECW Championship in 2008, the title's status had slipped considerably and Chavo didn't help the cause.
9 Johnny Nitro
Here's yet another example of a solid performer whose status was perceived as being low, thus bringing down the status of the ECW Championship. In 2007, a real-life tragedy forced WWE to scramble and change its plans for the ECW Championship. At Vengeance: Night Of Champions 2007, Johnny Nitro would be a last-minute substitution in a match against CM Punk for the vacant ECW Championship.
Shockingly, Nitro would defeat Punk and win the title. The only problem is that before that, Nitro had been a mid-card tag team performer with little credibility as a singles star. Hindsight proves that Nitro wasn't a terrible choice, but fans in 2007 didn't have the benefit of hindsight. At the time, Nitro as champ was seen as a step down for the brand.
8 Mikey Whipwreck
The original ECW had a certain charm to it. The true magic behind the promotion was that booker, Paul Heyman, had a knack for getting the most out of his limited performers. Perhaps the greatest example of that was the ECW success of Mikey Whipwreck. Whipwreck was a former member of the ECW ring crew who managed to break intot the ECW roster.
Whipwreck accomplished this by taking a beating like no one else. He was ECW's loveable loser. Shockingly though, Whipwreck was able to capture every major championship in ECW. This included a short run as ECW Champion after he defeated The Sandman in a Ladder Match. While it was a nice story, having an average-looking Joe like Whipwreck as World Champion didn't exactly help ECW's credibility at the time.
7 Justin Credible
Despite its obvious shortcomings, ECW was an important part of the wrestling business. If only because it provided an alternative for both fans and performers. Many wrestling stars saw ECW as a place where they could go to reinvent themselves and get a new lease on their wrestling life. Justin Credible was a great example of this.
RELATED: How Paul Heyman Turned Justin Credible From A Jobber Into An ECW Star
In WWE, Credible had portrayed the masked Aldo Montoya. As "The Portuguese Man O' War," Credible experienced limited success. In ECW though, Credible would reach World Champion status towards the tail end of the promotion's existence. His reign was rather uneventful and ECW would close down less than a year after his big win over Tommy Dreamer.
6 Jack Swagger
When WWE relaunched ECW in 2006, many fans were filled with hope that ECW would accomplish everything it couldn't in the 90s with WWE's financial backing. Sadly, things wouldn't play out that way. By 2008, it was becoming painfully obvious that the watered-down WWE version of ECW was a flop. That year, WWE introduced a new version of the ECW Championship.
In all, six men would hold that strap. One of them was Jack Swagger. From strictly a technical talent standpoint, Swagger was very deserving. Unfortunately, his character work wasn't up to snuff when he captured the title in 2009. His 102-day reign only cemented the fact that the ECW brand was inferior to Raw and SmackDown.
5 Don Muraco
During the 80s, particularly the early 80s, "Magnificent" Don Muraco was a big contributor for WWE. He was a former two-time WWE Intercontinental Champion, though he was never quite reached to crack the main event scene. In 1988, Muraco left WWE and started working in various promotions In 1992, he would pop up in ECW.
There, he managed to defeat another star from yesteryear, Jimmy Snuka to win the ECW Championship. Muraco would hold the title for about six weeks, drop it to The Sandman, then win it again. His second reign would last 127 days. Both his reigns only made ECW look like the senior tour in wrestling as he had clearly lost a step at the time of his reigns.
4 Ezekiel Jackson
By 2009, ECW was in full-blown third brand mode. At that point, the brand was essentially on the same level as Superstars, Velocity, and other historically less important shows. The original vision for the ECW relaunch barely got a chance to succeed before Vince McMahon and company just turned it into another WWE-type show.
The final nail in the ECW coffin would be the crowning of Ezekiel Jackson as ECW Champion. Jackson was a focal point of the show during its final days. He would unsuccessfully challenge Christian for the ECW Championship at Royal Rumble 2010. Then, on the final episode of ECW, Jackson would conquer Christian to win and retire the ECW Championship.
3 Tito Santana
Much like Don Muraco, Tito Santana was a huge part of WWE during the 80s. Santana was a former two-time WWE Intercontinental Champion and was a top babyface in the company at a time when the business was red-hot. By the early 90s though, Santana was starting to lose a step inside the ring. After a ten-year run with the promotion, he left WWE in 1993.
RELATED: 10 Things WWE Fans Should Know About Tito Santana
That same year, Santana would pop up in ECW and renew his feud with longtime rival, Don Muraco. On the 8/24/93 episode of Hardcore TV, Santana would defeat Muraco to win the ECW Championship. He'd hold it for just under a month before ending his uneventful title reign by forfeiting it to Shane Douglas and leaving ECW.
2 Johnny Hotbody
Every promotion has a questionable champion or two if they're around for long enough. Very rarely though does a name leap off the page with big "Who the hell is this?" energy. Johnny Hotbody certainly falls in that category though. If you find yourself wondering who in the world Johnny Hotbody is, you're not alone.
Hotbody isn't a name most pro wrestling fans are familiar with. Honestly, only true ECW diehards likely remember him. Believe it or not, Hotbody was the second-ever ECW Champion. He defeated Jimmy Snuka a day after Snuka originally won the title. He'd hold the ECW Championship for 79 days until dropping it back to Snuka and fading back into obscurity.
1 Vince McMahon
Sometimes in life, a curse can be disguised as a blessing. At first, the wrestling world was ecstatic at the news of ECW relaunching in 2006. Regrettably, that excitement would soon turn into disappointment as the watered-down WWE version of ECW was a far cry from the renegade promotion fans fell in love with in the mid and late 90s.
WWE did a lot of questionable things with the ECW brand. Undoubtedly the worst thing was having Vince McMahon win the ECW Championship in 2007. After a durag-wearing McMahon strutted around wearing the ECW Championship, it seriously took the shine off the title. From then on, the ECW Championship would only continue to lose prestige in WWE.
