Final ECW Championship Regulation Ranked by Quality

ecw The championship was at one point one of the most popular titles in the wrestling business, especially during the ECW boom of the 1990s. WWE bought ECW in 2003 and eventually played the show as the third WWE brand behind Raw and Smackdown. WWE also revives the ECW Championship, but gradually fell to feel like it’s just a glorious mid-card award, as it is considered a world title.

In 2010, the ECW Championship was discontinued with the brand as WWE chose to move away from nostalgia and pursue a new concept called NXT. Looking at the quality of governance of the last 10 ECW titles, we decide the best, worst, and everything in between.

10

Ezekiel Jackson

The final ECW champion of all time

Ezekiel Jackson was the latest individual to receive WWE’s “monster push” because of his physique and dominant presence…but he wasn’t enough to survive under the spotlight of this role.

It was a slap in the face of Brando’s face that the man with zero ECW’s relationship was tall and didn’t even receive a proper push on his back, further exacerbating this singular night’s reign. His match against Christian wasn’t bad, but bookings for this title change were horrifying.

9

Kane

The complete waste of ECW title governance

Kane won the Battle Royale and won a shot at the ECW Championship at WrestleMania 24. He defeated Chabo Guerrero in 10 seconds in a match that felt like a weak excuse to break the record.

Kane wasn’t even part of the ECW roster, and for the next three months he had only one successful defense – another victory over Guerrero.

He had little addition to the ECW brand, but WWE was clearly not very interested in introducing him as a combat champion.

8

Mark Henry

Henry gave some hints of quality, but governance was nothing special

It will still take a few years for Henry to dominate within his “Hall of Pain” gimmick, but his heels as an ECW champion showed signs of how interesting he is as a strong and unstoppable champion.

Unfortunately, Henry’s reign was not characterized by many impressive matches or memorable moments. For three months as a champion, the most notable thing was his loss of title to Matt Hardy.

7

Tommy Dreamer

Dreamer’s victory was a good moment

After years of waiting, WWE finally awarded Tommy Dreamer as ECW Champion. His title victory in the aptly named first Extreme Rules PPV was a lovely moment, but this was almost the peak of his reign.

His most notable defense came in a rather standard Championship Scramble. He then returned the gold to Christians without doing too much with the belt.

6

CM Punk

Punk’s reign was fine, but it might have been better yet.

Standing on top of the ECW brand, CM Punk has been the perfect way to showcase the potential of WWE as the main event, thriving on the microphone and always produce goods in the ring. He defended titles very often, but he often didn’t get enough time to play high quality matches.

Punk defended titles like John Morrison, Miz, Elijah Burke (and a really scary match against Big Daddy V that we’re not talking about). The governance was up and down, and despite his good work, bookings left a lot of things that were sometimes desired.

5

Christians

Christian’s first reign was up and down

The victory of the Christian ECW title at the 2009 Backlash event was a strong moment, and he was able to bring the necessary star power and class to ECW and Gold. His character’s work was strong and his in-ring work was consistent, but his initial reign was largely dominated by a storyline with Tommy Dreamer, featuring non-finishes other than finishes.

In any case, the story of Tommy Dreamer, chasing Christians, was enough to push this rule a little more onto this list.

4

Chaboguerrero

Guerrero held himself as ECW champion

Chavo Guerrero may not have been the first choice for anyone to win the ECW title gold, but he rebutted the title in 2008, making a good match against CM Punk and proved to be a decent champion.

Furthermore, Guerrero spent a lot of time competing in the Smackdown brand during his reign, allowing him to make the title a full show with one of WWE’s two big brands. He was not presented very strongly, but the governance was still pretty decent.

3

Matt Hardy

Hardy had the opportunity to lead the whole brand

Matt Hardy never won one of the two big world titles in WWE, but he was given the opportunity to become the face of ECW and won gold in the fun Championship Scramble. He continued to do some decent games and also shared some great moments with his brothers and new WWE champion Jeff Hardy in the 2008 backend.

He didn’t have any particular feuds, but he brought decent star power to ECW and felt like a respectable champion.

2

Jack Swagger

Swagger was reserved as the dominant young star

Before Jack Swagger’s prominent drop in WWE, he was rolling as a young prospect for ECW. He didn’t really portray ECW history very well, but WWE presented him as a dominant force, which led to a rather good reign of ECW titles.

Swagger played a solid match with Matt Hardy at the 2009 Royal Rumble event. This is the dominant show against Finlay, a match that spent 20 minutes beating Christians on ECW TV and actually showed his quality between the ropes. It’s a shame he couldn’t maintain this momentum when he moved to life.

1

Christian (Second rule)

The best ECW titles govern under the WWE banner

In the WWE world, Christians were able to create synonyms with the ECW brand that emerged as the face of the entire show after WWE returned in 2009. His second gold was extremely strong, and he desperately added fame to the title when he needed it, defending the week and week.

If we often forget ECW’s weekly shows, Christian has outstanding matches with William Regal, Tatsu, Tommy Dreamer and Shelton Benjamin.