What if RVD Never Had to Lose the WWE and ECW title?

[SAIYANS]

What do you guys think would have been the fate of the ECW brand had RVD not got busted, or the status of RVD for that matter?

Everyone has different opinions about ECW being rebranded and RVD in general, so I thought this would be a good discussion.

I personally feel ECW would have expanded into a regular 2 hour stand alone brand. I also feel that the likelihood of Heyman staying on payroll would have increased. Lastly, I feel that RVD would have been looked at Ina brighter light. There is also the slight chance that Benoit wold have been moved to ECW sooner

 

[Hoss]

I wouldn't go as far as to say it would have gone for 2 hours or developed it's own identity on the same level as Smackdown or Raw, but it was on its way to bigger and better things. I was shocked when RVD won the titles. I never saw him being much more than an IC champ in WWE, and when he actually help 2 world titles at the same time (something done by so few before) I was astonished. It was obvious WWE had big things in store for RVD, and who knows, right now we could be a seeing an RVD/Brock feud?

 

[SAIYANS]

The thing is ECW was running standalone houseshows in its infancy. They were doing 2-5000 early on, then RVD got busted, Credible no showed events, Balls got suspended, Kurt got suspended and released, and so on.

The original roster of the brand had potential but boy they managed to assemble a group of guys who all screwed up at the same time.
Rvd
Kurt
sabu - busted with rvd
sandman - struck a fan and got a lawsuit slapped on them balls - drugs
Test - drugs

I mean they needed leadership and professionalism. RVD was the guy so he had to at least lead by example like Cena or Dave on Raw and SD at the time IMO. If he led and I have a hard time not seeing the brand gaining some ground. We all joke about how awful December to Dismember was, but it got more buys than TNA could pull in a year despite there only being two announced matches on the card

The only saving grace to RVD screwing up was Big Show for me

 

[PHX]

I just think all it would have done was delayed the inevitable. I mainly say that because Vince was not gonna let ecw be ecw and let Heyman fully control it the way he wanted it to which is the main thing that fucked up the ecw experiment. I don't think RVD was gonna hold on to the wwe title that long regardless but the ecw title would have probably been a different story. Despite that I don't think it would have changed a whole lot outside of Big Show probably wouldn't have gotten the big push he got.

 

[SAIYANS]

You don't think Show and RVD would have had a big time feud culminating at D2D over that chamber mess? I think ideally they wanted to line up Show as the top heel and RVD as the top face. Sabu and Kurt would have been 2/3 with Holly and Test being 2/3 on the other side the spectrum. I honestly think the ppv D2D would have saw them have three separate one on one match attractions under extreme rules. And I think if the ppv was successful (6 figures buy wise) they would have had a reason to look at expansion. I just think it was a domino effect

 

[PHX]

I just can't see it cause the Big Show push seemed very last minute in needing to go a whole different direction due to the RVD fuck up. Heyman had big plans for CM Punk it seemed so much so that they were gonna have Show choked out quick by Punk at D2D so I think that is the guy to look at and wonder if they maybe would have rolled with a heel CM Punk and feuded him with RVD.

 

[The Cork]

NxT would not have evolved from it, and guys like Danielson and co. wouldn't of got the same notoriety due to differing circumstances.

RVD personally would of carried on phoning in his performances and being a bore.

So in summary, nothing earth shattering would of happened.

 

[We Are Legion]

I seriously doubt ECW would have become more than it already was because 3 wrestling shows per week is too much to keep up with. Even Smackdown has been facing a significant decrease in popularity in recent years.

Not just that, but I also doubt WWE ever had any intention to push the ECW Championship on the same level they push the other two. For most of it's duration, the show served as a platform to establish new young stars or just returning stars from TNA and it was pretty effective at it. Much more effective than the way the show was when RVD and the rest of the old ECW guys were there. No one cares about them anymore. Even TNA tried an ECW stable after most of those guys jumped ship from WWE afterwards and it fell flat as well.

If anything, RVD would have become a more credible WWE Champion if he hadn't been forced to drop it, but that's it. No one was going to make that ECW program anything major.

 

[The_King]

Like it's already been said, Vince would've only allowed ECW to operate as ECW for a short period after and then would begin destroying. Plus, I know RVD eventually left WWE b/c he was tired of the schedule and his wife was sick (cancer I believe), so I imagine that the same result would occur anyways unfortunately.

 

[The New F'n Show]

He may have put someone over that could have carried ECW for a while because of that Rub. Other than that not much, product would have still disintegrated eventually.

 

[Deezy]

ECW would've still been replaced by NXT and RVD would've failed as champion.

 

[rcoot93]

ECW still would have been changed and then scrapped, what would have happened to RVD is tough I feel he would either be on a legend contract, intercontnental champion or in a booker t type role

 

[Keith]

Don't think he ever had Booker's personaity or talent and I think a legends contract is now the best he could hope for in WWE.