Name(s) Team ECK
Team RECK Years active 2000-2001 | Debut 2000 | |
Members Edge Christian Kurt Angle
Rhyno | ||
Team ECK, later known as Team RECK, was a professional wrestling stable in World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 2000 to 2001. The stable consisted of Kurt Angle, Edge and Christian, and Rhyno. The stable lasted from mid-2000 to mid-2001. The name came from the first names from each wrestler: Rhyno, Edge, Christian and Kurt Angle.
Contents
Established around the time when Angle won the King of the Ring crown in 2000, the group was known best for its comically nerdy or awkward promos, which usually included either Edge or Christian, whose lingo caught popularity with the fans. Although the team was very successful at getting over as the comic heel unit of the WWF in 2000-2001 without taking away from the individual characters, this stable had ostensibly come to an end around mid-2001.
Formation
For Angle's first few months in the WWF, he went on an "unbeaten streak". While he lost half of his matches, he has never been successfully pinned. The streak was officially ended by Big Show in April 2000. At this point, Angle went on a losing streak, in which most of his matches ended after Angle himself was pinned. He formed an alliance with the Tag Team Champions, Edge & Christian.
From then on, the team members would frequently help each other to win matches or even team together. The team spent much of their time helping Kurt reach the WWF Championship. In early 2001, Rhyno became Edge & Christian's bodyguard. While Rhyno focused mainly on his own singles career, he frequently attacked rivals of Edge & Christian, helping them to win matches. Rhyno had little interaction with Kurt, but did swear loyalty to Angle during their first on-screen encounter.
Edge & Christian were once in a faction with Rhyno and Joe E. Legend before signing with WWF/E. Legend would also later sign with WWF, but would not align with any members of Team RECK.
Split
At King of the Ring 2001, the four members of this stable took up all four of the semi final spots, guaranteeing Team RECK's victory in the King of the Ring tournament in the semi finals. Although this was a historical achievement, as no stable has ever controlled the tournament like this before, it was often overlooked because the stable self-destructed almost immediately after the fact.
Edge defeated Rhyno in their semifinal match, Angle defeated Christian in their semifinal match, and with interference from Shane McMahon, Edge beat Angle to become King of the Ring. Around this time, the WWF Invasion storyline was working its way in, and Rhyno joined the WCW/ECW Alliance as an ECW member. Edge's victory started a rivalry between Edge and Angle that would build up and last for the next year, as well as was the basis for Christian's jealousy which led him to turn on Edge on the September 3, 2001 episode of Raw in Edge and Christian's hometown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Eventually, Rhyno, Angle, and Christian were all part of the Alliance; although Angle was in it as a mole, and outside of a feud between Christian and Edge (who stayed with WWF) over the Intercontinental Championship, as well as Angle defeating Rhyno for the WCW United States Championship (prior to his defection), then losing it to Edge, the members were never involved in any of the same spots within that angle.
Members of this faction have come together in matches and storylines very rarely in the years since then, though the most notable of these reunions, other than the on-and-off reunion of Edge and Christian during 2004-2005 and again in 2011, was the reunion of Christian Cage and Rhino after a character falling-out was mended in 2008 in TNA, ironically against an assortment of heels led by Kurt Angle.