10 WWE ECW Stars You Probably Don't Remember

June 13 marks the debut of the relaunched ECW, a show which (somewhat bizarrely) premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel fifteen years ago today.

There had been much hope that the rebooted brand would not only revive and make careers, but also capture the spirit of the original Paul Heyman-led promotion.

Expectations were high, especially coming off the back of two very well-received One Night Stand pay-per-views.

Regrettably, WWECW was simply a third WWE brand - with tables!

Some of the old faces were there, sure, and other new faces were a welcome sight, but the booking and presentation left a lot be to desired.

It didn't take long for WWE to abandon any pretence and start using it as a testing ground to get would-be superstars ready for the bright lights of Raw or SmackDown, while simultaneously giving established performers on the back burner something to do.

By the end of its run, ECW was was essentially a glorified developmental league, buoyed by one or two hardworking veterans like Christian or Tommy Dreamer but, ultimately, a way to give hopefuls some important TV time.

Throughout its various forms, many wrestlers, as well as managers, announcers and authority figures, came and went with varying degrees of success. Some went on to become megastars, some failed to live up to their potential and some you'd have a hard time picking out of a line-up.

Often a dumping ground for obscure castoffs, WWE's version of ECW gave a stage to some truly forgettable faces, something which no doubt helped erode its legacy and had hardcore fans of the original crying into their Slayer t-shirts.

10. Ryan Braddock

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Braddock was one of the many long-term prospects that WWE saw fit to give a chance on the 'C' show.

Well, he had the one match there, anyway.

He had been in the developmental system for an age, signing in 2005 and going from Deep South, to Ohio Valley, to Florida Championship Wrestling, before finally earning his call up.

Despite having good size and a half-decent look and having been on their books for years, WWE apparently saw nothing in Braddock, as he was instantly jobbed out when he made his debut, which actually took place on SmackDown.

He lost to Big Show, Super Crazy and Jesse & Festus on the blue brand and, in his sole ECW appearance, did the honours for Ricky Ortiz, another 'remember him' who likewise flamed out.

From there, he was relegated to dark match and house show duty, before being released. He's since (as Jay Bradley) had a commendable career, working for IMPACT, Pro Wrestling NOAH and a host of other organisations around the world.

9. Trinity

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Trinity was exactly the type of new blood that WWE should have been injecting into the relaunched ECW in the summer of 2006.

She was experienced, having spent time on the indies and in TNA, while still being relatively fresh to the business and, importantly, she was totally unique when compared with WWE's other female performers.

Her look and personality were vastly different to the norm, as was her background, since she was an accomplished stunt woman, having worked on some major motion pictures and TV shows.

Unafraid to mix it up and perform dangerous moves like moonsaults to the floor, Trinity couldn't help but catch the eye.

Unfortunately, it was doing that exact move on a house show that she suffered a knee injury, which halted her momentum. Still, Trinity had a couple of highlights, such as winning the ECW Halloween costume contest (beating Kelly Kelly and Ariel) and, well, that's about it, really.

Most of her action was reserved for non-televised events and she was quietly released from her contract in June 2007. Trinity subsequently left the business to go back to stunt work.

8. DJ Gabriel

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Like the aforementioned Ryan Braddock, Steven Lewington was a long-term developmental prospect with a good look that, if he were introduced to the original ECW audience, probably would have been eaten alive.

The Englishman had stints in OVW and FCW before landing on ECW in late 2008, where he was introduced as dancing babyface DJ Gabriel.

Managed by Alicia Fox, Gabriel got an initial push defeating local enhancement talent, before he and Fox engaged in a quick feud with Paul and Katie Lea Burchill.

Following defeat to Mark Henry, Gabriel then lost a series of matches with Tyson Kidd, before Fox was drafted back to SmackDown and he was sent back to developmental to work on a new character.

He never returned to the main roster, instead receiving his release in January 2010.

The problem with Gabriel - like many of similar ilk - is that he was so cookie-cutter. He had a decent physique, a clean-cut face and a bland, WWE factory style. There was nothing to distinguish him from about fifty others like him and it's really no shock that he came and left without making much of an impression.

7. Rebecca DiPietro

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Though she didn't win the competition (she was eliminated third), Rebecca DiPietro did enough during the 2006 Diva Search to convince WWE that she was worth a shot and they hired her.

She reported to Deep South Wrestling for training, where it was decided that her main function would be as a backstage interviewer and bikini contest participant.

A former model who had appeared in Playboy, Maxim and a host of other saucy publications, Rebecca was a competent interviewer and did other things when needed, like act as a 'Lumberjill', but she didn't exactly stand out or anything.

At the time, it was reported that the reason for her quick promotion to the main roster was due to the recommendation of Batista, who she was dating back then.

DiPietro debuted in October of '06 and was released in March of 2007, supposedly at her own request.

Following her release, she returned to modelling.

6. Caylen Croft

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Caylen Croft is yet another young, good-looking guy who did his time in the thankless developmental system before being thrown a bone on an ECW show that was, at that point, a million miles removed from whatever it was going to be several years earlier.

Croft debuted on the show with Dude Buster tag partner Trent Barreta in December of 2009, just a few months before ECW vanished and was replaced by NXT.

In his time on the show, he and Barreta worked some short matches with enhancement talents before engaging in a brief feud with the odd couple team of Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu.

Following ECW's cancellation, they were switched to SmackDown, where they turned babyface and had a series of bouts with the little-remembered duo of Curt Hawkins and Vance Archer.

Clearly going nowhere fast, they were phased out and Croft was released in November of 2010. He decided to retire from the ring wars and now works as a business and life coach.

5. Rene Dupree

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If you were watching WWE back in the early-to-mid 2000's, you probably remember Rene Dupree (you just might not remember his abbreviated run on ECW).

He was pushed fast and hard as a member of La Resistance, becoming one of the youngest champions in WWE history when he and Sylvain Grenier won the World Tag Team Titles.

Following their split, the French Phenom wound up on SmackDown, feuding with US Champion John Cena before capturing the WWE Tag Team Titles with Kenzo Suzuki.

Young, talented and full of potential, the sky seemed the limit for Dupree but, following another switch back to Raw, his career stalled, not helped by his substance abuse issues, which eventually landed him in rehab.

His last stop before being released was ECW, where he showed up sporting a new, all-white look and uncharacteristically long hair. Claiming he was the 'most extreme athlete in ECW history', his re-debut was hyped for weeks via vignettes and promos.

He beat Balls Mahoney in his debut but was sacrificed in short matches with CM Punk and Bobby Lashley in subsequent weeks.

He mainly competed (and lost) on house shows, and was about to reform La Resistance before he fell afoul of the WWE Wellness Policy, which brought an end to his time on the third brand.

Sacrebleu.

4. Lena Yada

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Lena Yada was another who came to WWE via the Diva Search.

She auditioned for the 2005 version and made the top 30 before being cut, but then auditioned again two years later, made the final eight and finished third overall.

Lena was signed regardless, making her debut on SmackDown as a backstage interview, before being transferred to ECW shortly thereafter.

She hosted a 'Diva Dance Off' between Kelly Kelly and Layla El, only to declare herself the winner of the competition, turning heel and aligning herself with Layla to target the woman so nice they named her twice.

Yada drifted around in a few different roles before undergoing actual wrestling training at the California-based UPW. A week after making her in-ring debut in a 16-diva tag match on Raw (during which she never tagged in), she was released.

Post-WWE she had one other match on an indie show before calling it a career.

Lena Yada was simply a face in the crowd during her time in WWE, battling for scant TV time with a horde of other female performers.

As in interesting aside, she is married in real life to the lead singer of metal band Disturbed, who contributed much to WWE with their 'Glass Shatters' version of Stone Cold Steve Austin's theme music.

3. Sylvester Terkay

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An accomplished amateur wrestler who once lost to Kurt Angle in a tournament final, Sylvester Terkay eventually made the transition to pro wrestling, signing a WWE developmental deal in the early 2000's, before being released and making his name overseas in Japan as 'The Predator'.

WWE came calling back and, after a little more time in OVW, Terkay was called up to be a member of the SmackDown roster.

Doing a pseudo MMA gimmick, he was presented as a no-nonsense ass-kicker who took care of business while his cornerman Elijah Burke bigged him up on the microphone and directed him from ringside.

The two - who dubbed themselves the 'Knock-out Tap-out Connection' -  soon moved to ECW, where they had matches with the Full-Blooded Italians and Hardys.

Soon, however, it became clear that WWE had greater plans for Burke, and Terkay began acting as his ringside enforcer instead.

It wasn't too terribly long later that Sylvester was released from his contract, a limp end for a performer who was once discussed, believe it or not, as a potential WrestleMania opponent for The Undertaker.

2. Bam Neely

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Bam Neely didn't spend an age grinding away in developmental, getting the call up to the main roster after less than two years of fine-tuning.

His height and weight made him stand out and gave him an advantage above others, and putting him with diminutive former ECW Champion Chavo Guerrero seemed like a natural pairing.

The little-and-large combination were two members of the La Familia stable, dividing their time between ECW and SmackDown, typically either providing backup for Edge or trying to regain the ECW Title from Kane.

Once La Familia had run its course, Neely and Chavo made a run of it as a tag team, but didn't enjoy much success. Neely himself was used mainly to put others over and, once he and Guerrero split, was phased out.

He debuted in April of 2008 and, come December, was back in developmental once more. He was released a month later and basically disappeared from the business thereafter.

Nondescript Neely's main asset was his size and, on a show with the likes of the Big Red Machine, Mark Henry and Big Daddy V lumbering about, he didn't have a hope of establishing himself.

1. Gavin Spears

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Several wrestlers who debuted on ECW through General Manager Teddy Long's 'Superstar Initiative' would go on to have themselves decent WWE careers.

But for every Jack Swagger, Sheamus or Evan Bourne there was a Braden Walker, DJ Gabriel or Gavin Spears.

Spears had been plugging away in developmental for a couple of years when he got word of his impending debut, which came on the August 19, 2008 episode of ECW in a loss to Ricky Ortiz.

Not exactly an auspicious start, to say the least, and things wouldn't get much better for the future Tye Dillinger. He lost to Super Crazy the next week, then disappeared for a few months, only to resurface in order to put over Finlay.

You can probably guess what happened next, right?

Yup, just a few weeks later, Spears was given his marching orders and left the company for a good four years before returning as a member of the NXT roster.

Back in his fleeting time as an ECW 'star', Spears was the same as countless other wannabes that came through WWE's derivative developmental system.

Thankfully, he came good in the end, despite his imperfect ten minutes on the C show.