2) that was after the fact that they already told Rhino he could keep it. they found out about the angle and tried to stop it. so yeah after the fact they threatened legal action but again as you should realize by Team 3D coming out with WWE, WCW & ECW Replica Belts as well as the WWE womens title being dumped in the garbage on Nitro years ago, it was really against the law to show the belts on TV, the WWE was more concerned with a repeat performance of Nitro. Even though they don't technically own the belt that Rhino owns, it still represents a company they do. And they could win an unfair buisness tactics suit against TNA if they had shown the belt actually thrown in the garbage. Think about it this way. If WWE actually ligit owned the ECW Belt, and were worried about the angle why sue if it appears? Why not sue Rhino for possesion of stolen merchandise? This would have caused authroities to cease the belt until it was settled in court. The reason, cause they didn't own the actual belt.
If WWE didn't own the belt, then how could they forbid the showing of it in the first place? If Rhino owned the belt and couldn't show it, that's like Kurt Angle being forbidden to show his gold medal. How can WWE even have the legal right to forbid it? If they don't own the belt, then they couldn't stop Rhino from burning it even if they wanted to.