"The Franchise" Shane Douglas: One of the Best to Do It

As a 25-year-old wrestling fan, I feel like I've seen it all. I've had the opportunity to watch AWA and NWA (through video tapes), ECW, WCW, WWF, TNA, ROH, CZW and countless other promotions. I have seen some of the biggest legends this business has to offer, but one man always sticks out:

"The Franchise" Shane Douglas.

He will always be remembered as the arrogant and outspoken "leader" of ECW; the man with the biggest chip on his shoulder aside from Ric Flair himself.

What made Shane Douglas so entertaining was his ability to cut a promo and involve everyone in it. He could get the fans hot, to the point where it was near riot status, or he could get them behind him.

His ability in the ring was also very good, he was more technical based, sort of similar to Curt Hennig. He has the honor of saying he also took place in one of ECW's best feuds with Taz.

So many different aspects make Shane Douglas memorable though, I could sit here and write a whole bunch but that's not needed. Any old-school ECW fan knows the impact "The Franchise" has had on the business. If it weren't for Shane, we would have never seen "The Game," which is where Triple H essentially ripped his style from. WWE marks can deny it, they can doubt it all they want but in the end, they know it's the complete truth.

We know the Hall of Fame inductions are coming around Wrestlemania time and it hurts me to know that I will probably never see Shane get inducted despite being such a fantastic heel that did his job perfectly.

Some argue, saying Shane had to use curse words to get over, but so what? It added to the character—Shane never was a saint, he even said himself that this was Troy Martin multiplied by a hundred. Shane Douglas, to this day is one of the best promo men in the business that probably will never be recognized for the talent he is.

I know he doesn't care, but the fans, the true fans of "The Franchise" know the injustice this is. I only hope that for once in my life, the WWE can prove me wrong and actually give credit where credit is due. Give the man the credit he deserves. He may be outspoken, but at least he's honest.

Shane Douglas deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame in the future and I think it would certainly help his cause if the WWE broke the Hall of Fame up and added different "wings," if you will.

Due to Vince buying the majority of the promotions that once ran against him, the WWE Hall of Fame should have wings to represent the different organizations that he has accumulated over the years. It would work if he added an AWA, WCW and ECW wing which would allow talent that never stepped foot in the WWF/E ring to be inducted simply for the contributions they made to their respected promotions.

I think that's the only way we will see "The Franchise" inducted into the Hall of Fame. Other than that I believe it's a lost cause. A fan can always hope though—nothing is wrong with believing in something even if that "something" is as unlikely as they come.

On a closing note, despite what he's said regarding other people in the business, when Shane cut a promo, even if he was knocking your favorite wrestler he did it with such passion that it was hard not to buy into it. The way he spoke, his delivery will always set him apart from the pack.