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WWE shamefully exploited Eddie Guerrero's death and went love/hate with ECW in 2006.
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00:002006, WWE. You've said this before, but it was nuts. Vince McMahon was desperately trying to
00:05figure out what his product was going to be and the end result was everything. If one attempt
00:09doesn't click, we pivot and go totally in the other direction. I guess at least you can say
00:14it was never boring. It was very often offensive. To carry on what we have been doing recently
00:18though, let us take a trip down memory lane because I am Simon Miller. And yeah, it's the
00:23absolute worst of WWE in 2006. Number 10, the ECW zombie. This was always the fear. When WWE brought
00:32ECW back to life after the super successful one night stand event, hardcore fans assumed it wasn't
00:37going to be authentic. They then found out the TV station airing it was going to be sci-fi. I remember
00:43the reaction to that. It's kind of ironic. It was utter terror. It was also strange because a huge
00:47reason for the momentum returning was down to the fall of ECW DVD that WWE released. That thing
00:53smashed records and told management, oh hi, there's still a market for this. Logic would tell you,
00:59you just go back to what was. Nope. Let's just use the letters and see what the flub happens.
01:04The first ever episode actually got people pumped because Paul Heyman, Edge, Lita, and even John Cena
01:08got involved, but that was short-lived. And why? Because come the main event, we got a big debut,
01:13the arrival of a zombie. Yep. It looked like it had just fallen out of a bad Resident Evil game and
01:19was only there to get caned by the Sandman. It really did feel like WWE had decided this was the
01:24right way to cater to both the fans and the TV executives, but that never works. It just got
01:29both sides mad. The match, if you can call it that, only went 19 seconds, which sort of felt like you
01:34had been short-changed. But moreover, a zombie. And if we got a zombie on day one, what on earth was next?
01:40It also just told these hardcore followers this wasn't going to be the ECW of old and that wasn't
01:45what they had been sold. It was meant to be a throwback. Instead, it was extreme wrestling.
01:50As per Vince McMahon, it turned out that was very, very strange. Amazingly, it was Shane McMahon that
01:56had the best plan for this. Why don't we make it online only show? Because then you can get away
02:01with more. Talk about being ahead of the game. Number nine, December to dismember, which could have
02:06been the worst pay-per-view of the year known as 2006. I mean, just go online and read about some
02:11of the arguments before it did go down between Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon. They had totally
02:15different ideas for what the new ECW should be. And as the company was Heyman's baby, well,
02:20he wasn't going to take it lying down. You can see on the screen right now, Paul's face during the
02:24Elimination Chamber main event, because yes, it was horrible. And even fans on the night were mad.
02:30Some of them chanted, what the hell are you doing? It didn't help that WWE ECW had become almost a
02:35training ground for stars that weren't clicking. So you had matches like Balls Mahoney versus
02:40Match Striker. Kevin Thorne and Ariel versus Mike Knox and Kelly Kelly. And Tommy Dreamer versus
02:45Daivari. That was the other problem. It was half ECW guys versus those who were still finding their way.
02:51Sort of fine for TV. Not when you have been asked for $50. It was this main event that saw fans lose
02:57their minds, however, even if it was in the Elimination Chamber. It's all sort of underlined that
03:02Heyman had gone to Vince McMahon and said, CM Punk has to win this. And he got told no.
03:07As some sort of punishment, Punk then got eliminated super fast and the crowd was furious.
03:12Then they got even madder because Rob Van Dam was gone as well. These are the people they love the
03:16most. It also meant the remaining field was test, big show, hardcore Holly and Bobby Lashley. And look,
03:21this was not the Bobby of today. He was still finding his way. I think most understood he was going to
03:26win a world title, but not now on the ECW brand. Once again, it just told everybody what this was
03:32going to be. If you do decide to watch this, you will see why many still call it one of the worst
03:36WWE pay-per-views of all time. And yes, the live fans turn on it too. It really was quite bad.
03:43Number eight, the Boogeyman squashes Booker T. Thankfully, a few months after this, Booker T won
03:47the King of the Ring, created the King Bookar gimmick, became one of the most entertaining things on the
03:52show. Before that though, sheesh. It was WrestleMania 22, so Booker T and wife Sharmel were an established
03:58part of the landscape. WCW had died years before this. It's not like we were still trying to wave
04:03that flag. Why then were he and his better half thrown into a match with the Boogeyman that went
04:08less than four minutes? Once again, it would be fine if this was on SmackDown, but it was WrestleMania.
04:14Sharmel had to run away too, after Boogey kissed her with a mouth of worms. What? T was so terrified,
04:20he cowered again before Mr. Man utterly destroyed him. It is just so strange. Nothing against the
04:26Boogeyman gimmick, but even here it was clearly more of a novelty than anything else. Just left
04:30Booker in no man's land. The biggest show of the year? People had paid good money for this.
04:35The timing of it was also bizarre, because WWE did this right after Booker T and Chris Benoit
04:40had furthered their best of seven feud, which yes, did start in WCW. Just felt so redundant now.
04:45And look what came before it in the match card. Mick Foley vs Edge, when we had people set on fire.
04:52Booker was done absolutely no favours. It really did come down to how Booker T was used in
04:56WrestleManias, because not only had he faced Edge in a fight for a Japanese shampoo commercial,
05:01there was also that WrestleMania 19 farce against Triple H. I think come 2006 fans just had enough.
05:07For goodness sake, just give Booker his moment already.
05:09Number seven, the Punjabi Prison.
05:11So you should be able to work out the problem instantly. When it comes to the Punjabi prisons,
05:16fans couldn't see the action. For whatever reason, the way the bamboo was put around the
05:20ring meant trying to figure out what was going on was really frustrating. I don't know about you,
05:24but that sounds like the last thing you want in a wrestling match. It was a disaster before the
05:28bell rang too, because this was meant to be the Great Khali vs The Undertaker at the Great
05:32America Bash when Khali got injured. Therefore, the Big Show was drafted in, which made even less
05:37sense, because just do a different match. As redundant as it was as a concept,
05:41the only reason it was a Punjabi prison is because Khali was involved.
05:44It then got even more bizarre, because Khali did walk down halfway through this match,
05:48so what were we doing? I mean, The Undertaker vs The Big Show would have been better without
05:51these obstacles too. And from day one, we had taken somebody's brand new signature belt and
05:56killed it. The counterpoint was some fans may have felt shortchanged given the gimmick
06:00had been advertised, but when does that ever stop WWE? Card subject to change has been their
06:05catchphrase for years as of when they needed it. So it was a bad idea, which is quite funny,
06:09because WWE tried this over and over again, and the feedback every single time was,
06:14yeah, that's great, but we can't see. WWE did it anyway. I do not know.
06:19Number 6, Vince McMahon fights the Almighty. The less said about this one, the better. It was
06:23Vince McMahon thinking he could do what he wanted, which hits harder today, but this sucked. Bottom
06:28of the barrel stuff. It was just more shock TV as McMahon dug deeper into his barrel when he
06:33decided he should fight the Lord himself. It was so tacky as this came off the back of Shawn
06:38Michaels finding religion, so it was hard not to take it as a shot. Nobody was going to stop
06:42McMahon though, so at Backlash we had a tag match. Vince and Shane versus Shawn and the Lord.
06:48The latter even had an entrance. This was really shit, excuse my language. The twist of course was
06:53meant to be the McMahon's way of having a handicap match against HBK, but there are so many other
06:58better ways to do this. You do not need to drag people's belief systems into it. There's also
07:03another issue too, as rightfully so, fans thought this was wrestling nonsense, and actually was the
07:07tease that Michaels was going to reveal a special guest partner on the night. Nope, none of that.
07:12It was so lame, I hated it. Number 5, Kane vs Kane. In 1994, the WWF as it was at the time did an
07:19Undertaker vs Undertaker storyline. I always find it interesting to speak about, because I first saw
07:24this as a kid, and I thought it was the best thing ever. You then re-watch it as an adult, and yeah,
07:29I understand why people didn't like it. 12 years later though, the WWE decided to do it again.
07:34This time, it was going to be Kane vs Kane. It's one of the reasons the character did hit some lows.
07:38When the creative team ran out of ideas, they just hit the copy and paste button. The big red
07:43machine did not need to be a carbon copy of the Deadman. It was the 29th of May Raw though,
07:47and the old Kane returned, or at least somebody wearing the mask. It was actually Luke Gallows,
07:53because he was a big dude, but you could tell that he had a wig on. It's not ideal.
07:57WWE also started to refer to him as Imposter Kane, which felt so insulting to the fans,
08:02and amazingly, the OG monster lost to this liar at Vengeance. Was there any payback? Of course
08:08there wasn't. Even management then realised how bad this was, so the whole thing was dropped.
08:12You should never do that. As much as the majority may not like it, one person will. Don't screw that
08:17guy over. Just write an ending. It was also poorly timed, as Kane had done a decent job of becoming
08:22the master psychopath, and this just felt like it was muddying the waters. So I suppose at least
08:27WWE did correct their mistake. That is good, but yeah. Just wrap it up like a burrito. Don't go
08:33quiet and think nobody will notice. We always do. We're nerds.
08:37Number 4. The unfair goodbye to Lita
08:39It's fair to say that the likes of Trish Stratus and Lita were super responsible for the women's
08:43wrestling we have today in WWE. They both had to stick their neck out to sell the female division
08:48as something to take seriously, and hell yeah. That's quite the story, and they achieved their goal,
08:53main evented Raw during a time when that felt impossible. It meant when Lita was ready to walk
08:57away at the 2006 Survivor Series, the send-off should have been huge. Lita lost her women's
09:02title to Mickie James, and that was fine. Traditionally, you do lose on your way out.
09:06Instead, as soon as she had been pinned, out came Crime Time to sell off her belongings that
09:11they had stole earlier in the day, including her underwear. I mean, that whole sentence is
09:16offensive in about 78 different ways. Of course, yeast medication was part of this because we just had to
09:21take shots, and due to all of the above, fans started to chant some really awful things.
09:27This was so rotten. No respect given at all. As ever, all the proof you need is that WWE would
09:32never do this today because the backlash would be huge. You don't need to humiliate somebody on
09:37the way out, even less so when they gave so much. It's such a down moment, this. I hope somebody
09:42apologized to Lita. This wasn't cool. Number 3. The end of RVD
09:46This was due to Rob Van Damme's own personal choices, but still, bad is bad. Like Sesame Street.
09:52We were all living in a fever dream after One Night Stand 2006 because RVD had beaten John Cena for
09:57the WWE title, and look, nobody ever thought this would happen. Van Damme was so ECW, Cena was Mr.
10:03WWE. Fair play to all involved for risking it, though. Made it all feel very fun. He even got the restored
10:09ECW belt by Paul Heyman soon after this to let people realize what we were doing here, and it really
10:14did feel like a mega push. And almost instantly, it fell apart. Because during a ride between
10:19buildings, the cops pulled over RVD and Cebu, and yep, they got busted because their car was filled
10:24with drugs. Certainly sounds like these were recreational, but WWE didn't like it. You're
10:29now our champion. That comes with some serious responsibility. Therefore, on the July 3rd Raw,
10:34Edge beat him for that title. On the 4th of July, the big show took the ECW 1-2. Nobody could really
10:40believe it. How did this change so fast? RVD then also got suspended for 30 days. Management clearly
10:46also were just done with him as well because all of this was forgotten about so fast, and instead,
10:51Edge and Cena became the focal point. Rob was left to languish in ECW, and do not forget about that
10:56Elimination Chamber match we've discussed in this video. He thinks there was a reason he was taken
11:00out so quickly. The WWE title was always going to be fine, of course, but anybody who was hoping for
11:05the ECW brand to flourish felt like they were done. The big show was a good wrestler, but not the right
11:10guy. It soon all fell apart, so yeah, I don't think this was good at all. Number two, Kurt Angle
11:16leaves, which was great for TNA. Let's not pretend Kurt Angle didn't go over there and have the best
11:21run of his career. It was incredible. It didn't mean the way he left the WWE was good, however, and in
11:26fact came under the worst possible circumstances. Just go and listen to Angle on the Joe Rogan podcast or
11:31one of many others. He talks about taking dozens of pills every single day, including being a wreck
11:37before the iconic SmackDown Iron Man match with Brock Lesnar. Go and watch that now with this
11:41knowledge in your brain. It's awful, of course, but the fact Kurt performed the way he did truly was
11:47one of a kind. Angle also spent his days throughout this period sending crazy text messages to Vince
11:51McMahon because he was medically out of his mind when Vince told Angle to go to rehab. Made sense.
11:57For whatever reason, Kurt refused and begged for his release instead so he could get his head right.
12:02I do get it if you're confused as to why Angle then joined TNA, but I just think that's where he
12:06was at. He can't do the WWE schedule but didn't want to leave entirely. In hindsight, he should
12:12have taken this time to just recover. Stories that came out after him over the next few years were
12:16worrying. It also means when you watch most of his work from ECW in 2006, you have to do so through
12:21gritted teeth. The sheer amount of pain he was in, I don't think he should have been in the ring,
12:26but hey, at least today he's fine. But yeah, for a little while, absolutely terrifying.
12:31Number one, a single line from Randy Orton. So you all know that Eddie Guerrero's passing in late
12:352005 is one of the most tragic things that has ever happened in the wrestling industry.
12:40Nobody saw it coming. And at the time, Eddie's star was burning brighter than ever. I think it
12:45was during this period where we all agreed, oh my gosh, Guerrero is one of the best of all time.
12:49WWE then made sure to honor his memory by doing a touching tribute show on Raw. And of course,
12:54made sure that Rey Mysterio went on to win the Royal Rumble in 2006 because those two were the
12:59best of friends. This did feel nice at the time when all of a sudden Rey got into a feud with Randy
13:04Orton. Now, even Randy has come out and said that he hated having to say this and he would never do
13:08it today. But on the 3rd of February episode of SmackDown, Orton was making light of Mysterio's
13:13repeated tributes to Guerrero and actually said, Eddie ain't in heaven. Eddie's down there in hell.
13:19For context, this promo aired 82 days after Eddie's death. And yes, it was simply done to put more
13:24heat behind the fact we were going to get Randy versus Rey at No Way Out. Now, forget about the
13:28fact this was nothing more than cheap heat. It was just absolutely horribly done and not something
13:33that you wanted to see if you were a wrestling fan. I think all of us were still pretty damn sad about
13:37what had happened to Eddie. So to use it in order to forward a storyline, well, it just didn't sit
13:43right at all. And also it was super duper crass. And listen, if the rest of the Guerrero family all said
13:47this was fine, that Eddie would have loved it, I do understand that, but I could only watch it
13:51through my own eyes. And it just wasn't cool at all. And once again, let's go back to the fact
13:56that Randy Orton said afterwards, yeah, I really didn't want to do that. There was just no need
14:00to go there and you absolutely didn't need to say where Eddie Guerrero was right now. I mean,
14:04the hell line was just completely insensitive. Dare I say there were other more tasteful ways to
14:09skirt around this. I think some would also agree that Randy Orton's heel character was vicious
14:12enough in 2006 that you could have come up with other ways, but it's just so unsavory. I mean,
14:17what did we get from it? A quick, ooh, from the live crowd in Orlando. I mean, something doesn't
14:22sit right with this. And I think most people would agree in 2025, let's never do anything like this
14:27again. Have you recently watched 2006 WWE and realized some of it is pants? Want to get it off
14:32your mind? Then make sure you drop us a comment below before you like the video, share the video
14:36and subscribe. You can also click the video on the screen to get even more information about
14:39wrestling in your life. But otherwise, my friends, thank you for joining me today and I will talk to you again soon.
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