RetroBuzz: TPE vs. Dudleys

As much as love WWE, I have to admit that mid-to-late '90s ECW was, hands down, the best professional wrestling of all-time. Paul Heyman may have been bad at paying people on time, but he was a genius when it came to creating characters and angles. The WWE's "Attitude" era came about almost purely as a response to the sort of R-rated wrestling that Heyman was peddling out of a former bingo hall in Philadelphia.

As much as the weird, almost uncomfortable gimmicks, violence, raw sex and cursing were core to ECW's appeal, it's worth noting that the in-ring product was also by-and-large better than what was on offer in either the WWE – then called the WWF – or WCW at the time. While those two promotions were arguing over the ownership of superstars that were a half-decade past their sell-by date, the ECW was turning garbage into gold, letting the big two's off-cuts, as well as imported luchadores and a few actual criminals, go wild in the ring.

Of course, in the word's of the immortal Cyndi Lauper, money changes everything, and the stars of ECW were quickly offered big money contracts by the WWE and WCW, forcing the promotion to constantly hunt for new talent.

Here are two tag teams who made their name in the ECW before seeking big money and big fame with the WWE. One of them became the most successful tag team in WWE history, the other lasted a little less than a year.