WWE: One Year Later, Where Are the Last ECW Extremists?

When Mr. McMahon made a rare appearance on RAW Monday night, he came with an announcement. His words were short and subtle while not being completely honest about the point.

It reminded me of a similar announcement he made a year ago this month. While Monday night was about a host for WrestleMania, last year's statement talked about the end of the ECW brand.

12 months after the extreme brand left Tuesday nights, what has happened to the roster from the final show of ECW? While some are no longer with the company and others have suffered some setbacks, this slideshow may question if it would have been better to keep ECW around.

We'll let you be the judges...

Abraham Washington

His late night talk show gimmick made a lot of fans angry. However, his gimmick was just beginning to get over when ECW ended. Since then, Abraham Washington has been off of WWE TV for those outside of the Florida area.

Washington has been a mainstay on FCW, the developmental territory of WWE. In FCW, Washington has been an authority figure, a manager and even a commentator. He has also wrestled in FCW but never had a match in ECW.

After ECW went off the air, Washington was one of the few talents to not attempt a move to RAW or SmackDown. Instead, Washington went back to FCW where he has been ever since. We don't know if or when we will ever see him again, but Washington certainly is flexible enough to merit another chance.

As for Tony Atlas, who was his announcer, the Hall of Famer was done with the WWE except for random appearances, such as when RAW went Old School.

Byron Saxton

Saxton was a pretty decent commentator for ECW when Jim Ross' medical problems caused a shuffle with announcers. When ECW was gone, so was Saxton. It seemed rather clear that Saxton may never be seen on WWE TV again.

Fast forward to later in the year when NXT, the show that replaced ECW, was casting its fourth season. Saxton was named as one of the six rookies for the season. Saxton's lack of personality as a commentator was gone when NXT rolled around and we were introduced to a jacked version of Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, personality and all.

This week, Saxton became the third rookie to be eliminated from the competition. Like most of the other rookies from NXT, Saxton the wrestler may go the way of Saxton the commentator: away forever.

Caylen Croft

I'm still not quite sure what a Dudebuster is supposed to be, which may be one reason why we don't see Caylen Croft anymore. Croft, along with tag partner Trent Baretta, were two small guys that, as far as we were told, acted a lot like close college roommates. The problem is that we seldom saw anything, short of exploding fist bumps and a revolving door of entrance music, to show that these guys had any personality.

Croft was released late last year from WWE. His tag partner, however, is still around, but we will get to him in a little bit.

Christian

After returning from TNA, Christian claimed his place on top of ECW, becoming the brand's champion on two occasions. Christian had great feuds with Jack Swagger and Tommy Dreamer during his first run, while having a fantastic match with Shelton Benjamin in his second reign.

Along with Swagger, he kept himself afloat as a major player in the company while also getting over talent such as Swagger, Zack Ryder and Ezekiel Jackson.

After losing the ECW title to Jackson on the last show, Christian went to RAW, where he hardly stuck out. The draft brought him to SmackDown, where he helped solidify the mid-card. An injury has sidelined Christian since September and he is expected back any week now.

Many fans have been calling for Christian to have a chance at a world title. However, at this point in his career, it may be better for Christian to be one of the greatest non-world champions in history, as opposed to a guy with a great career that, on paper, peaked at age 37.

Ezekiel Jackson

Big Zeke went from enforcer of The Brian Kendrick to a force to be reckoned with in his ECW days. In ECW, Jackson joined The Ruthless Roundtable with Vladimir Kozlov and William Regal. Jackson then was betrayed by his two allies, only to realign with Regal. Regal was then in Jackson's corner when he defeated Christian in ECW's last episode. Jackson was the last man to ever call himself a champion of ECW.

Since then, Jackson was hyped to join SmackDown. In April, Zeke suffered a major quadriceps injury and would be injured for months. In that time, Jackson was drafted to RAW without much notice. Zeke shocked us all by returning for RAW's Bragging Rights team. After some squash matches, he was promoted to join SmackDown once again without much reason as for why.

When Jackson finally showed up on SmackDown, he aligned himself with Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, forming The Corre. With The Corre, Ezekiel has had the number of Big Show and signs point to a potential showdown at WrestleMania.

Goldust

The Bizarre One was a part of an epic 15-man trade in June 2009. In his time on ECW, wins were rare but highlights did exist. Goldust gave Sheamus his first loss in WWE during The Celtic Warrior's short stint on ECW. Goldust also formed a tag team with Yoshi Tatsu, including having a tag team title match on the final ECW.

After ECW, Goldust spent time with the SmackDown brand for the first time in his career before being drafted back to RAW. On RAW, Goldust had a feud with Ted DiBiase for his unsanctioned Million Dollar Championship and was a Pro on the third season of NXT. Goldust was the Pro for Aksana, who became his wife.

Goldust suffered a shoulder injury in December and will be out until after WrestleMania.

Hurricane Helms

Hurricane Helms went to ECW as a part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft, where he was normal backstage interviewer Gregory Helms. Helms used that gig to hide his identity of The Hurricane, his superhero alter-ego. This rendition of The Hurricane was much darker than the past, with longer hair and more of an emphasis on staying a secret. It led to a feud with Paul Burchill, which was pushed heavily on ECW but not recognized much anywhere else in WWE.

After ECW went off the air, Hurricane Helms was released from his contract. Currently, he travels around the independent circuit.

Josh Mathews

Josh Mathews seems to be in the best position career-wise of anyone from the old ECW. As the play-by-play guy, Mathews was a good voice of the brand and made people forget about Mike Adamle... well, almost.

Once ECW was done, Mathews has been everywhere, literally.

Mathews does backstage interviews constantly and has done commentary on RAW, Superstars, SmackDown, NXT, as well as pay-per-views. He has received the blessing by Jim Ross about being a great commentator and, due to the feelings by many of Michael Cole, Matthews is viewed by many as the best play-by-play commentator in WWE right now.

Paul Burchill

Paul Burchill probably shouldn't be on this list, but he was a part of ECW as it was winding down. Burchill had his feud with The Hurricane that was mentioned earlier, which dominated most of what Burchill did in the end of his tenure at ECW.

Burchill even lost a match that got rid of his contract, only to have him don a mask and ask for a contract as The Ripper, the supervillain to The Hurricane's superhero. The Ripper was easily the best gimmick that WWE ever gave him, given the fact that he was made into a pirate a few years prior.

Unfortunately, Burchill's time with the company had run out right with ECW. When the one ended, so did the other.

Rosa Mendes

The extremely attractive Rosa Mendes was brought to ECW in what seemed to be a random move. Divas on ECW never seemed to work. However, the point of Mendes on the extreme brand was in order to align with Zack Ryder. Ryder attempted for weeks to woo... woo woo (see what I did there?) Mendes until it finally worked.

At the side of Ryder, it looked as if Zack would be given a slight push. However, after some time, Mendes was taken away from her man, moving to SmackDown during the Supplemental Draft.

Mendes spent her time on SmackDown working out backstage. Her original intent was to try and join Lay-Cool to no avail. According to her Wikipedia page, Mendes is considered neutral at this point. She is so seldom seen at this point that it is hard to really know for sure.

Shelton Benjamin

The Gold Standard stayed in ECW for a long time while he tried to figure out whatever it was that made him so dull. Benjamin's WWE career can be summarized as so much athletic ability and so little personality or appeal. The only mouthpiece that Benjamin was ever given was his "momma."

On ECW, Benjamin was handcuffed to random matches and seldom chances at the only championship in the brand. Benjamin put on one hell of a ladder match with Christian at TLC 2009 but that was the last real high point for Benjamin.

After ECW, Benjamin had one more Money in the Bank match, which he lost, before being released in April 2010. Benjamin did rounds through the independents before signing with Ring of Honor and reuniting with Charlie Haas to reform The World's Greatest Tag Team.

Tiffany

Tiffany was not that bad of an authority figure. At the helm of ECW, Tiffany seemed to be pretty fair and her mic skills began to improve. After ECW, people wondered what would happen to Tiffany. Where would she go to be in charge?

Nowhere. Tiffany went to SmackDown to be a regular Diva again. It literally took all of the importance that ECW had and threw it out the window. After some fights on SmackDown, Tiffany would be suspended for a backstage fight with real-life husband Drew McIntyre.

She would never be put back on television and was released in November. She now works the independent circuit.

Trent Barreta

When Caylen Croft was released from WWE, we all assumed that this meant the same for Trent Barreta. However, Barreta somehow seemed to last in WWE.

After ECW, he popped up on SmackDown. Barreta has been a major part of Superstars on an almost weekly basis. Barreta has had some fantastic matches with the likes of Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks as of late. However, with cuts expected after WrestleMania, don't be suprised to see Barreta get the pink slip soon.

Tyler Reks

Tyler Reks debuted on ECW with his surfer dude gimmick that nobody seemed to get on board with (pun intended). Reks would work a lot of dark matches and go down to FCW too, all the while still appearing as an ECW superstar.

When there was no more ECW to belong to, Reks would still be seldom seen until he suddenly appeared on SmackDown with a different attitude. Physically speaking, he just seemed more pissed off and less clean, letting his dreadlocks go wherever they may.

Reks confuses me because they act like they want to push him but don't seem to do anything about the actual matter. It's almost as if they present Reks to wrestling fans with the intent of us knowing that he will be a big deal, only to not give him anything to do or any reason to care.

Vance Archer

The scariest thing about Vance Archer was his theme and the fact that you weren't certain if his TitanTron was giving you a seizure. Beyond that, this tall man that never hid his lower back tattoo just seemed to be there. He was given a lot of blow off matches without any real competition. Then again, if I didn't have any real dominating maneuvers, I wouldn't want to face anyone important either.

Archer's main contribution in the past year was to accompany Curt Hawkins to the ring as they both attempted to make an impact. They did until Archer was gone.

Hawkins is still around for now. If you thought Hawkins got released too, you'll have to trust me on this one.

Vladimir Kozlov

ECW would have to do Kozlov some good while building him some momentum again. The Ruthless Roundtable did wonders for that as well. However, Kozlov was the only one of the trio that didn't have serious chances at the ECW Championship.

Regardless, the change of scenery also brought a change in attire and a tweak in his gimmick. Now, Kozlov wore red and was shown as an expert in Sambo, whatever that is.

He then was on RAW and Santino wanted to team with him, which seemed fine only in the sense of giving him something to do. What a big mistake that was. While it has led to his first championship in WWE, Kozlov has lost every bit of fear built upon him over the years. Now, most of his tron features him dressed in a suit and bowler, smiling and breakdancing.

What happened to the freakish Russian guy I used to know?

William Regal

Regal must have loved his stint in ECW because it gave him his chance to be his normal self and be something he had never been before: a main event player. Regal was chasing a world title for the first time in his long tenure with WWE. While unsuccessful, his faction brought relevance to Ezekiel Jackson and Vladimir Kozlov for the first time in either of their WWE carers.

In the year since, Regal has been on RAW and Superstars with matches once every few weeks. He was also the NXT Pro for Skip Sheffield in the first season. Regal has announced his retirement is imminent but was seen in the Royal Rumble match a few weeks ago.

He is the answer to the following trivia question: "Who knocked John Morrison off the ring when he landed on the guardrail in the 2011 Royal Rumble match?"

Yoshi Tatsu

Yoshi Tatsu bursted onto the scene in ECW much like Kofi Kingston did before him. He didn't seem to really fit the bill of a major ECW player but when he made it over to another show, perhaps he would be a good addition to the mid-card.

After having him surprise Shelton Benjamin in his debut, Yoshi was just kind of there for the rest of his ECW stay. He developed a tag team with Goldust, but that never made Yoshi golden.

Since ECW, nothing has really changed for Yoshi, short of adding some tassels to his elbows. It just seems like WWE never really gave Yoshi much to do or any momentum. He was never given a real storyline or a real gimmick (being Japanese is not a gimmick unless you are in Kaientai). Even a decent finisher has alluded Yoshi. I fail to see where a spinning heel kick from the top rope is so lethal.

Yoshi won the untelevised 26-man battle royale at WrestleMania XXVI, which shows the faith WWE has for Yoshi in a nutshell. I hope to see him around after the cuts in the coming weeks since Yoshi hasn't done anything to merit a pink slip.

Zack Ryder

I have been on the Zack Ryder bandwagon from the beginning and I thank ECW for that. His gimmick was a bit confusing at first. He would mention "The Radio" from time to time, which also appears in his entrance music. Was he being controlled by someone? Is that what Jersey Shore's purpose is?

In all seriousness, Ryder put on some great matches in ECW and, in my opinion, merited a singles title somewhere when he was so close to being ECW champion. ECW did wonders for a guy like Ryder because it gave him a place to be showcased. On Smackdown or RAW, he would be buried. That's exactly what happened.

After ECW, Ryder was buried on RAW. They featured him along the lines of any other comedy act, but things seemed to turn around for Ryder. He was given Rosa Mendes as a valet. He was given some United States title shots. It all then disappeared for Ryder. He became another version of Santino, getting squashed in a WWE Championship match

I would love to see Ryder get one more shot by WWE Creative, especially when you see his following on Twitter. #WWWYKI