Greatest ECW Champion

[A Guy Who Injects Heroin Into Kids' Eyes 0]

All over this board I've seen posts that said "Justin Credible was the worst guy ECW could have picked to be champion" and "Jerry Lynn as champion was so boring" and I got to wondering who was the best ECW champion? From a total mark standpoint I'd have to choice either Terry Funk or Mikey Whipwreck.

 

Terry Funk had the story behind him. It began around the Raven/Dreamer feud, with Raven saying he'd lie down from Dreamer if Funk didn't get his shot at the title, and Joey Styles' "Do you believe in miracles?" as Funk got the 3 count off of Raven. Throw in the footage from Beyond the Mat of Terry Funk after the match, and what he went through and I can't help but cheer the middle aged crazy bastard.

 

Mikey Whipwreck has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I don't know what it is but I can't help but cheer for him, ever since I saw my first Mikey match which was Guilty as Charged 2001. maybe it's because nothing about him says wrestler, and he still goes out there and entertains.

 

 

From a 'smark' stand point I'd have to say Raven. The Dreamer/Raven feud was epic and monumental, especially for it's time. You could feel the HATRED between the two and Raven always went over Dreamer. He was always booked as a strong champion (at least as far as I know) and you wanted him to lose the belt to Dreamer every time they fought.

[deancoles 0]

Jerry Lynn could have a great title run if had turned heel while he had the belt.

[1234-5678 0]

Probably Tazz. His bad ass persona, and Heyman's booking of him gave the title a lot of legitimacy. It's just too bad the WWF came calling, and he hads to leave ECW with a whimper rather then a bang.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

Probably Tazz. His bad ass persona, and Heyman's booking of him gave the title a lot of legitimacy. It's just too bad the WWF came calling, and he hads to leave ECW with a whimper rather then a bang.

Seeing as Tazz had wanted to work with WWF (at the time), i'm sure he wasn't too sad leaving ECW, although he wouldn't really regret it since ECW died about a year later, with or without him.

[Guest JMA]

I liked Shane Douglas with the title. ECW was arguably most successful during his reigns and he was a great cocky heel. I especially liked when Francine joined him. Then again... Raven was a very innovative character and one could argue he was the better champion.

 

I'd say it's a tie between Raven and Douglas.

[Guest Markingout]

Raven. He was talented. His fued with Tommy was good. Plus there is nobody better. The only one who could of been Taz if he would of stayed longer and if Paul payed him

 

As for Lynn we all knew Corino was going to get it. They were building up too it. Corino was a killer heel.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

I'm picking Raven. Taz made his own belt; yes, he helped built the ECW title, but he alsu spent time putting over the FTW belt, so I can't find it in me to rate him #1. Raven changed what a heel in wrestling is, and he did so to a large degree with the help of the ECW title.

 

Shane Douglas comes in at a not close, but not too far either, second place. The promos he cut back in the day were good (until they got stale, like they've been for the last several years).

 

I don't know who'd come after that - Sandman or Taz. You could really argue either one.

[JN News 0]

Definately, "The Franchise" Shane Douglas. Bar none.

[Youth N Asia 0]

From a total mark standpoint I'd say Mikey. I'm a huge Whipwreck mark. After the first match I saw of him (Double Tables 95) he's been my favorite ECW guy.

 

I'd say Raven was the best. Douglas was good but his Nov 97-Jan 99 run was sooooo shitty. I got real bored with ECW halfway through that. They kept it on him over a year and he was hurt and missed too much time.

[Guest Indikator]

I´d say Shane´s first run.

Lynn wasn´t boring, he just had no good opponents

[Youth N Asia 0]

Lynn just got the belt with no build up and no real story after. They just blindly passed the belt from Justin to Jerry to Steve to Sandman to Rhyno...I didn't like the last few ppvs having 3 and 4 way matches

[PsychoDriver 0]

I'd say RAVEN.

 

Though I also liked Justin Credible's reign... even if no one else did...

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Raven or Shane Douglas......I don't think anyone else touches them two. So choose between them.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I was happy as fuck the moment Dreamer won the title.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

I was happy as fuck the moment Dreamer won the title.

Yeah...

 

WHY couldn't they let him have a long reign with the belt before dropping it to Credible if they had to have him drop it to Credible.

 

Dreamer deserved better with the World Title than he got.

[snuffbox 0]

Shane Douglas

[Papacita 0]

I was happy as fuck the moment Dreamer won the title.

Yeah...

 

WHY couldn't they let him have a long reign with the belt before dropping it to Credible if they had to have him drop it to Credible.

 

Dreamer deserved better with the World Title than he got.

He didn't want the belt, from what I heard. Something about him wanting to go ECW's entire history without winning a title.

 

I'll say Raven was the best champ, even though I'm a mark for both Douglas and Taz. With Shane, I was barely watching back in 94/95 so I don't remember much from his first reign, and the last two weren't anything special. As for Taz...I dunno. The build towards him getting the title was great (although I don't like how they hotshotted him into the ME at Guilty as Charged 99), but once he beat Shane, he really didn't have any serious competition. The Tajiri feud was pretty nice while it lasted (they should've done a rematch at Anarchy Rulz), but besides that, Taz really didn't do anything as champ.

[Human Fly 0]

Raven

 

A strong argument can be made for Shane Douglas but as pointed out above his late '97 - early '99 run where he was on the shelf for so long really hurt the company.

 

In retrospect I think the Tommy Dreamer mini run was perfect for his character.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Tommy's win sucked cause you've never seen it. His match with Tazz wasn't shown on tv and Cyberslam wasn't released on video.

[pochorenella 0]

No love for Mike Awesome?

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

No love for Mike Awesome?

No

[1234-5678 0]

No love for Mike Awesome?

No

I remember marking out big time for him at Heatwave '98. A guy almost 300 pounds leaping over the top rope into the crowd? I think it's a shame that WCW and WWE didn't use him better.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

He didn't want the belt, from what I heard. Something about him wanting to go ECW's entire history without winning a title.

Dreamer won the tag titles with I believe Johnny Gunn (?) early in ECW's existence, so he already had held a title.

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

Definitely Raven. Fuck the craptacularity that is Shane Douglas. I liked Awesome but his only really good matches were with Masato Tanaka. And spike's best match ever, which got a lot of hate for it's position on the card, but I genuinely enjoyed it.

 

EDIT: How about best worker? At the end it was certainly CW Anderson for my money, but overall I'd say Tajiri or Lynn.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Awesome was decient...but he seemed too forced onto the fans in the "this is your champion, now deal with it" way

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

No love for Mike Awesome?

No

I remember marking out big time for him at Heatwave '98. A guy almost 300 pounds leaping over the top rope into the crowd? I think it's a shame that WCW and WWE didn't use him better.

Don't get me wrong, I actually like Awesome. But he just wasn't among the best ECW Champions of all time, or even close. The quality of opponents for Awesome was way lower than say a Douglas/Raven. When Douglas/Raven were champions ECW had the most talent. So that's why I said that. Sorry for not explaining myself.

[Papacita 0]

He didn't want the belt, from what I heard.  Something about him wanting to go ECW's entire history without winning a title.

Dreamer won the tag titles with I believe Johnny Gunn (?) early in ECW's existence, so he already had held a title.

That was before the crossover if I'm not mistaken. He probably meant Extreme (not Eastern) Championship Wrestling when he said it (I'm sure I heard it somewhere before...I think in reference to his Tag Title win with Raven in 99).

[Youth N Asia 0]

No love for Mike Awesome?

No

I remember marking out big time for him at Heatwave '98. A guy almost 300 pounds leaping over the top rope into the crowd? I think it's a shame that WCW and WWE didn't use him better.

Don't get me wrong, I actually like Awesome. But he just wasn't among the best ECW Champions of all time, or even close. The quality of opponents for Awesome was way lower than say a Douglas/Raven. When Douglas/Raven were champions ECW had the most talent. So that's why I said that. Sorry for not explaining myself.

I agree...while I like Tanaka as well he wasn't a huge name. They should have run an Awesome feud with Raven, Sabu, Dreamer, or RVD. They waited too long to do the RVD one and he got hurt right after. They ended up with Spike Dudley (although I liked the ppv match)