Everything about Extreme Championship Wrestling totally explained
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was a
professional wrestling promotion that was founded in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by
Tod Gordon, and closed when his successor,
Paul Heyman, declared
bankruptcy in April 2001.
The company became known for its loyal fan base as well as its tendency to push the envelope with
storylines. The group has showcased many different styles of professional wrestling, ranging from
lucha libre to
hardcore wrestling.
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) bought the rights to ECW and
its library after its 2001 closure and
revived the promotion in a full-time fashion on
June 13,
2006 with a weekly television series on
Sci Fi Channel in the United States,
FOX8 in Australia,
SIC Radical in Portugal and
Sky Sports 3 in the
United Kingdom. In 2005 and 2006, WWE promoted an ECW-brand event called
ECW One Night Stand, and in June 2006, it became a separate brand of WWE programming, along with
Raw and
SmackDown!
History
Tri-State Wrestling Alliance and Eastern Championship Wrestling
Technically, ECW had its origins in 1991 under the banner
Tri-State Wrestling Alliance. Joel Goodhart was the owner of Tri-State Wrestling Alliance. In 1992, Goodhart sold his share of the company to his partner,
Tod Gordon, who in return renamed the promotion
Eastern Championship Wrestling. When Eastern Championship Wrestling was founded, it was a member of the
National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
After Tod Gordon had a falling out with head
booker Eddie Gilbert, Gordon chose Gilbert's friend and
WCW alumnus
Paul Heyman to replace him. Eddie exhibited unstable behavior and
drug abuse before he was replaced. Heyman's first show with the promotion was
NWA Ultra Clash '93 on
September 18 1993 at
Viking Hall (which was eventually dubbed
The ECW Arena) in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
ECW contrasted contemporary professional wrestling, which contained many cartoonish
gimmicks and was marketed more towards children. ECW, aiming at males between 18 to 35, broke a few
taboos such as
blading and women getting regularly beaten up by the male wrestlers. Heyman saw ECW as the professional wrestling equivalent to the
grunge movement, and focused on taking the company in a new direction as well.
Withdrawing from the NWA
In 1994,
Jim Crockett's non-compete agreement with
Ted Turner, who purchased
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from Crockett in 1988, was up and he decided to start promoting with the NWA again. Crockett went to Tod Gordon and asked him to hold a tournament for the
NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the ECW Arena on
August 27,
1994. NWA President Dennis Coralluzzo thought that Crockett and Gordon were going to try to monopolize the title (much like Crockett did in the 1980s) and told them they didn't have the NWA board's approval so he took control over the tournament. Gordon was upset at Coralluzzo for his power plays so Gordon and
Shane Douglas, who was booked to win the title against
2 Cold Scorpio, planned to have Douglas throw the title down after he won it and break ECW from the NWA.
What made the decision easy is Dennis Carluzzo's commentary about Shane at the time
In accord with this speech, Paul Heyman later stated that "the National Wrestling Alliance was old-school when old-school wasn't hip anymore. We wanted to set our mark, we wanted to breakaway from the pack, we wanted to let the world know that we weren't just some independent promotion." Raven "brainwashed" Sandman's son to join his cult-like following and turned him against his father. Raven got at Sandman by having his son deny his relationship with his father and perform Raven's taunt to slowly eat away at his father. This led to many bloody matches, in which Sandman's son interfered to help his father. After the match, the two embraced, but Raven came from behind with a
Kendo Stick, and smacked his enemy. Stevie Richards and the
Blue Meanie came out, got a wooden cross out from under the ring, then tied Sandman down to it, and then lifted it up and "crucified" him. At the time,
Kurt Angle was backstage and the offensive angle caused him to leave and threaten a lawsuit if his name appeared on the same episode as the "crucifixion". There were rumors that WCW Executive Vice-President Eric Bischoff wanted Awesome to drop the ECW World Championship belt in the trash can on television, as had been done previously with the
WWF Women's title by
Alundra Blayze when she jumped from the WWF to WCW. Due to concerns over legal issues, WCW refrained from having Awesome appear on Nitro with the ECW belt, but did acknowledge him as the ECW Champion. Eventually, a compromise was reached which resulted in one of the more bizarre moments in professional wrestling history. Awesome (a newly signed WCW employee and the reigning ECW champion) appeared at an
April 13,
2000 ECW event in
Indianapolis, IN, accompanied by WCW's head of security, where he lost the title to Tazz (a former ECW wrestler who was working for the
World Wrestling Federation).
Conflict with XPW
In 2000, ECW made its West Coast debut, holding its annual summer pay-per-view
Heat Wave in Los Angeles. At the time Los Angeles was home to
Xtreme Pro Wrestling, and its owner
Rob Black purchased six front row tickets for the show. The tickets were given to a cadre of XPW talent, and their mission was to make it clear that ECW was on enemy turf. (This wasn't a storyline.) At the beginning of the main event, the XPW contingent donned shirts emblazoned with the XPW logo, gaining the attention of security and ECW wrestler
Tommy Dreamer. Security ejected the XPW group from the building and later, a brawl broke out in the parking lot between members of the XPW ring crew and the ECW locker room. The XPW wrestlers were not involved in the fracas, during which the ECW wrestlers brutalized the XPW ring crew with several of the ring crew members left in pools of their own blood.. Initial reports claimed that XPW valet
Kristi Myst had somehow touched ECW valet
Francine Fournier and that this is what prompted the incident, but Fournier herself has since gone on record as saying that she was never grabbed or in any other way touched by any of the XPW crew, and other eye witnesses support the story that Fournier never had a hand laid on her. XPW wasn't acknowledged by ECW announcer
Joey Styles during the pay-per-view telecast. The XPW contingent who had sat a ringside consisted of wrestlers
The Messiah,
Kid Kaos, Supreme,
Kristi Myst, Homeless Jimmy and XPW announcer Kris Kloss.
Television deal with TNN
In August 1999, ECW began to broadcast nationally on
TNN (for what was initially a three year contract). Despite no advertising and a low budget, ECW became TNN's highest
rated show.
ECW on TNN was canceled in October 2000 (with the final episode airing on
October 6 2000) in favor of
WWF RAW moving to the network. To this day, Paul Heyman strongly believes that the lack of a national television deal (especially after the TNN ordeal) was the main cause of ECW's demise.
Bankruptcy
ECW struggled for months after the cancellation, trying to secure a new national TV deal. On
December 30 2000,
ECW Hardcore TV aired for the last time and
Guilty as Charged 2001 was the last PPV aired on
January 7 2001.
Living Dangerously was going to air on
March 11 2001, but because of financial trouble it was canceled before
March 11. Despite help from the WWF, Heyman couldn't get out of financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy on
April 4 2001. Heyman supposedly had never told his wrestlers that the company was on its dying legs and was unable to pay them for well over a month before finally filing for bankruptcy.
The company was listed as having assets totaling
$1,385,500. Included in that number was $860,000 in accounts receivable owed the company by
iN DEMAND Network (PPV),
Acclaim (
video games), and Original
San Francisco Toy Company (
action figures). The balance of the assets were the video tape library ($500,000), a 1998
Ford Truck ($19,500) and the remaining inventory of merchandise ($4).
The liabilities of the company totaled $8,881,435.17. The bankruptcy filing included hundreds of claims, including production companies, buildings ECW ran in, TV stations ECW was televised on, travel agencies, phone companies, attorney's fees, wrestlers, and other talent. Wrestlers and talent were listed, with amounts owed ranging from $1 for Sabu and
Steve Corino to hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars. The highest amounts owed to talents were
Rob Van Dam ($150,000),
Tommy Dreamer ($125,000),
Joey Styles ($50,000),
Shane Douglas ($48,000), and
Francine ($47,875).
Revivals
Alliance storyline
A few months after the promotion's 2001 demise, ECW resurfaced as a stable as part of the
World Wrestling Federation Invasion storyline. As a participant in the inter-promotional feud between
Shane McMahon's
WCW and
Vince McMahon's WWF, ECW was initially "owned" by
Paul Heyman and harbored no loyalty to either promotion. Soon after (on the very same night), it was revealed
Stephanie McMahon was ECW's new "owner", and she soon conspired with her brother Shane to oust their father from his leadership position in the World Wrestling Federation. Although WWE used the ECW name, the rights to the company were disputed at the time. With the creation of
The Alliance, the inter-promotional feud shifted into an internal power struggle among the McMahon family. The defection of WWF superstars to The Alliance continued the shift as less focus was placed on WCW and ECW performers. The feud lasted six months and concluded with WWF defeating The Alliance at the
2001 Survivor Series. The WWF's victory also marked the end of the Invasion storyline, and WCW and ECW wrestlers were reintegrated into the WWF.
Documentaries
In the summer of 2003, WWE purchased ECW's assets in bankruptcy court, acquiring the rights to ECW's video library. They used this video library to put together a two-disc
DVD entitled
The Rise and Fall of ECW. The set was released in November 2004. The main feature of the DVD was a three-hour documentary on the company's history, with the other disc featuring matches from the promotion. The DVD sold well, and is currently ranked as WWE's second highest-selling DVD of all time, behind
WrestleMania 21.
An unauthorized DVD called
Forever Hardcore was produced by former WCW crew member
Jeremy Borash in response to
The Rise and Fall of ECW. The DVD had stories of wrestlers who were not employed by WWE telling their side of ECW's history. However, due to the WWE owning the ECW video library, there was no video of ECW events. But there was footage of XPW events which featured former ECW wrestlers.
Reunion shows
The strong sales of
The Rise and Fall of ECW prompted both
World Wrestling Entertainment and Shane Douglas to run ECW reunion shows in 2005. Douglas's first
Hardcore Homecoming show was held before WWE's
ECW One Night Stand and subsequently went on tour.
Revival as a WWE brand
In June 2006,
World Wrestling Entertainment revived ECW as a third brand to complement their existing Raw and SmackDown brands. Under the WWE banner, ECW is presented in a different style to that when it was an independent promotion. ECW now only features the occasional no rules match and these bouts are said to be fought under Extreme Rules. Also, the only championship on the brand now is the
ECW Championship.
Lawsuits
Mass Transit
On
November 23 1996, aspiring wrestler Eric Kulas teamed with
D-Von Dudley to wrestle
The Gangstas. Substituting for
Axl Rotten, Kulas was beaten with various weapons and suffered a deep cut as a result of a
blading incident by his opponent
New Jack. Kulas sued ECW and New Jack for physical and psychological damage claiming he was unaware the match was going to be a hardcore match. Furthermore, criminal charges were filed by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts against New Jack. During the civil trial, it was revealed that Kulas and his father lied that Kulas was 19 years old instead of 17. Also, Kulas had misrepresented his wrestling experience by stating he was trained by retired wrestler
Killer Kowalski. In the end, ECW and New Jack were acquitted of the charges, however, ECW suffered long term repercussions. The lawsuit delayed the broadcast of ECW's first pay-per-view after distributors viewed video of the incident. Eric Kulas died on
May 12 2002 at the age of 22 due to complications from
gastric bypass surgery.
Tod Gordon
In December 2005, Eastern Championship Wrestling founder
Tod Gordon challenged WWE's ownership of the
Eastern Championship Wrestling section of the
ECW video library, claiming that the state didn't have the right to sell that section of the video library to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. He also claims that Eastern Championship Wrestling, Inc. was separate from Extreme Championship Wrestling. On
May 8 2006 the case was thrown out and Gordon plans to
appeal the decision. Tod Gordon is now one of the owners of Pro Wrestling Unplugged, running out of the
New Alhambra Arena.
Tradition
There were several distinctive fans that were always in the front row at ECW shows. Among them were
Sign Guy,
Tye Dye Guy,
Hat Guy (also known in the Philadelphia area as
Straw Hat),
Faith No More Guy, and
Kato. They gained their respective
nicknames because Sign Guy always had different creative signs with him, Hat Guy always wore a straw hat and
Hawaiian shirt, Faith No More Guy bore an uncanny resemblance to
"Big" Jim Martin, former
guitarist for rock band
Faith No More and Kato resembled
O.J. Simpson house guest
Kato Kaelin. Regular patrons of ECW Arena events were given
Club ECW status by the promotion and were able to reserve seats ahead of the general public. Many members of
Club ECW were present at
Shane Douglas's 2005
Hardcore Homecoming shows in Philadelphia, and at
ECW One Night Stand.
Crowds at ECW events were well known for their rowdiness and distinctive chants that either supported or demeaned what was transpiring in the ring. ECW chants such as
"You fucked up!" and
"Holy shit!" became infamous during those shows, and are still used by fans in other promotions, as well as other chants (most originating from fans in either
Philadelphia or
New York City), such as
"You both suck!",
"You can't wrestle!",
"Change the channel!" and,
"Fuck 'em up, [name], fuck 'em up!", to name a few.
In ECW, there were virtually no rules. Weapons were abundant, with much blood spilled. There were referees, but their role was normally limited to counting pinfalls and acknowledging submissions, occasionally performing tag team maneuvers with a wrestler during the match, several times becoming the winner of the match themselves though not officially a part of the bout.
ECW was known for making popular several types of matches:
ECW was also infamous for regularly holding "Bring Your Own Weapon Nights" at the
ECW Arena in the early days of the promotion. Fans were encouraged to bring their own weapons to give to wrestlers, as fighting in the crowd was a staple of ECW matches. A dollar store located next to the ECW Arena often supplied the bulk of the weapons, with fans purchasing them while they waited in line for each show. Memorable weapons included crutches, a large piece of cardboard with the words "Use Me!" handwritten on it but actually concealing a full-sized Stop sign, a two-man kayak, a
Leonard Cohen vinyl record, a
VCR (with remote), a
cactus, a cast iron
ladder, and a
Nintendo Entertainment System. An accident actually helped put an end to
Bring Your Own Weapon Night when wrestler
Cactus Jack, believing the weapon he was holding to be an inexpensive aluminum pan, swung the object full force into The Sandman's head. When he heard the resulting "clang" noise, he realized the object was in fact a cast-iron skillet, and The Sandman's resulting injury put him out of action for two weeks.
Also, WWE promoted the ECW One Night Stand 2005 PPV with the "ECW Rules Match", with the same rules as a No DQ match or Street Fight but was regularly contested between former ECW wrestlers, most notably
Chris Benoit and
Yoshihiro Tajiri.
Championships
ECW World Heavyweight Championship (1992-2001, 2006-present)
ECW World Tag Team Championship (1992-2001)
ECW World Television Championship (1992-2001)
ECW FTW Heavyweight Championship (1998-1999)
ECW Maryland Championship (1993)
ECW Pennsylvania Championship (1993)
Books
Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of the ECW (ISBN 1-59670-021-1) - Scott Williams
Fall of ECW (ISBN 1-4165-1058-3) - Thom Loverro for World Wrestling Entertainment
Turning the Tables (ISBN 1-905363-78-8) - John Lister
Sex, Drugs, and Wrestling - The Truth, The Lies, and the Extreme - a Rob Van Dam story - Tod GordonFurther Information
Get more info on 'Extreme Championship Wrestling'.
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