ECW

Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was a professional wrestling promotion, founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon. The company was well known for its loyal fan base, as well as its tendency to push the envelope with storylines. The group showcased many different styles of professional wrestling, ranging from lucha libre to hardcore wrestling.

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) purchased the rights to ECW and its video library in the summer of 2003. In 2005 and 2006, WWE promoted an ECW pay-per-view event called ECW One Night Stand. However, it is not to be confused with the current ECW brand, whose weekly series premiered on June 13, 2006 on the Sci Fi Channel and bears little similarity (outside of the name) to the original ECW.

History

ECW was founded in 1992, under the name Eastern Championship Wrestling and as a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). After owner Tod Gordon had a falling out with head booker "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert (over his unstable behavior and drug abuse), Gordon hired Gilbert's friend and fellow WCW alumni Paul Heyman to replace him. Heyman's first show with the promotion was NWA Ultra Clash '93 on September 18, 1993 at the New Alhambra Arena (which would eventually be dubbed The ECW Arena) in Philadelphia.

When ECW was branching out, professional wrestlers had far more cartoonish gimmicks, and the overall product was marketed more towards children than the 18-35 male demographic that ECW was aiming towards. There were also far more taboos, such as blading and women getting regularly beaten up by the male wrestlers; Heyman envisioned ECW as the professional wrestling equivalent to the grunge movement.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

In 1994, Jim Crockett's no-compete clause with Ted Turner (who purchased [[World Championship Wrestling from Crockett in 1988) was up, and he decided to use ECW as the vehicle to promote the NWA again. A tournament for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was held at the New Alhambra Arena on August 27, 1994, but 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 informed 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 away from the NWA. In a now classic post-match speech, Shane Douglas said that he didn't want to be a part of an organization that "died" seven years earlier (presumably in reference to Jim Crockett selling WCW to Turner Broadcasting in 1988). After ECW withdrew from the NWA and officially changed its name from Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme Championship Wrestling, it became an underground sensation; the group would showcase many different styles of professional wrestling, popularizing bloody hardcore wrestling matches and the 3-Way Dance. ECW always intended to be counter-culture and a grittier alternative to multi-million dollar organizations such as World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and WCW. In addition to their hardcore match types, they provided an alternative to North American wrestling with technical wrestling that was common overseas. International stars such as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko anchored a solid technical wrestling core in ECW, and lucha libre stars such as Rey Misterio Jr., Psicosis, Konnan and Juventud Guerrera imported a style of wrestling rarely seen in national wrestling promotions.

Wrestlers such as Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, The Sandman, Cactus Jack, Terry Funk, Sabu, Public Enemy and Taz were seen as being too dangerous for the multi-million dollar companies and were given a chance in ECW, as well as being the main competitors that assisted in launching the new ECW at the time. One of the promotion's marquee feuds was the long-standing feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven, which involved many ECW wrestlers over a period of two and a half years. Another was between Raven and the Sandman, which included the now infamous crucifixion angle. The bulk of ECW's shows remained at the New Alhambra Arena (soon renamed the ECW Arena), a rundown bingo hall secluded under a section of Interstate 95. Seating comprised simple folding chairs and four sets of portable bleachers, and the unconventional set up reflected the gritty style of the wrestling itself. Shows were actually broadcast on Sports Channel Philadelphia (a Philadelphia local cable sports station) on Tuesday evenings. After Sports Channel Philadelphia went off the air in 1997, the show moved to WPPX-TV 61, and later to WGTW 48 (a former independent broadcast station) in Philadelphia on either Friday or Saturday nights at 1 or 2 a.m. Shows were also aired on the MSG Network in NYC on early Saturday mornings at 2 a.m. Due to the obscurity of the stations and ECW itself, expletives and violence were not edited out on a majority of the broadcasts, which helped ECW get noticed.

After noticing ECW's growing popularity, the "Big Two" (WCW and WWF) started adopting their ideas and hiring away their talent; Paul Heyman contends that ECW was the first victim of the "Monday Night Wars" between WCW Monday Nitro and Monday Night RAW. While the WWF had a somewhat working relationship with ECW (going as far as allowing cross-promotional angles, and providing financial aid to Heyman for a considerable period of time), WCW refused to even mention ECW by name with a few notable exceptions, including a passing remark by Raven in late 1997, referring to it as "barbed wire city" and "a major independent promotion" that wrestled in bingo halls during a segment directed at Diamond Dallas Page. Vince McMahon claimed that he put Paul Heyman on the WWF's payroll as compensation for the talent (namely Taz, Steve Austin, Cactus Jack and The Dudley Boyz) defecting ECW for the WWF. On the other hand, Heyman believed that Eric Bischoff never compensated him for ECW bred talent such as Mikey Whipwreck, Raven, The Sandman, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Stevie Richards, The Public Enemy and Chris Jericho leaving to go to WCW.

Cross-promotion

Storyline-wise, Vince McMahon first became "aware" of ECW during the 1995 King of the Ring event in ECW's home base of Philadelphia; during the tournament final between Mabel and Savio Vega, the crowd suddenly started to angrily chant "ECW ECW ECW". At the September 22, 1996 In Your House 10: Mind Games event in Philadelphia, ECW stars The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Paul Heyman, and Taz were in the front row, with Sandman even interfering in one match (when he threw beer on Savio Vega during his strap match with Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw); McMahon acknowledged ECW's status as a local, up and coming promotion on the air. On February 24, 1997, ECW "invaded" Monday Night RAW from the Manhattan Center. They advanced a storyline, plugged their first ever pay-per-view and worked three matches in front of the WWF audience, as Vince McMahon called the action with both Jerry "The King" Lawler and Paul Heyman. The Manhattan Center in New York City was peppered with a large number of ECW fans, who gave the WWF wrestlers "BORING!" chants when they felt it was warranted. Likewise, when the ECW performers arrived, they popped and introduced the WWF Monday night audience to some trademark ECW group chants. It was said that this episode was the beginning of what would eventually be called The Attitude Era of the WWF. After a series of struggles, ECW broadcasted its first pay-per-view wrestling card ("Barely Legal") on April 13, 1997, which was highlighted by Terry Funk winning the ECW World Heavyweight Title. At the 1997 Wrestlepalooza event, Jerry Lawler (a noted critic of ECW) made a surprise appearance at the ECW Arena, aiding Rob Van Dam and Sabu in a post-match (against Raven, who made his final appearance in ECW) attack on Tommy Dreamer; this set up a match between Tommy Dreamer and Jerry Lawler at the 1997 Hardcore Heaven PPV on August 17, which was won by Dreamer.

ECW continued through 1998 and early 1999 with a string of successful pay-per-views. In August 1999, ECW began to broadcast nationally on The Nashville Network for what was initially a three year contract; despite no advertising and a low budget, ECW became TNN's highest rated show. In March 2000, Mike Awesome suddenly defected to WCW, even though he was still the reigning ECW World Heavyweight Champion. There were rumors that Eric Bischoff wanted to drop the ECW belt in the trash can on television (much like he did with the WWF Women's Championship with Alundra Blayze), which led to threats of legal action from ECW. As a result, Awesome agreed to drop the title to anyone, which turned out to be current WWF star/former ECW champion Tazz; it marked the only time that a WCW contracted wrestler would wrestle against a WWF contracted wrestler at an ECW sanctioned event.

ECW on TNN was canceled in October 2000 (with the final episode airing on October 6, 2000), in favor of broadcasting WWF Monday Night RAW; to this day, Paul Heyman still maintains that the lack of a national television deal 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 final time, and ECW Guilty as Charged 2001 (which aired on January 7, 2001) would turn out to be ECW's final PPV. ECW Living Dangerously was going to air on March 11, 2001, but it was cancelled because of financial trouble; despite help from the WWF, Heyman could not get out of financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy on April 4, 2001. The company was listed as having assets totaling $1,385,500; included in that amount was $860,000 in accounts receivable owed to the company by iN DEMAND, Acclaim Entertainment and Original San Francisco Toy Makers. 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) and thousands of dollars; the highest amounts owed to talents were Rob Van Dam ($150,000), Tommy Dreamer ($100,000), Joey Styles ($50,000), Shane Douglas ($48,000) and Francine ($47,875).

Revival

Alliance storyline

A few months after the promotion's 2001 demise, ECW resurfaced as a stable in the WWF's 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. On the very same night, it was revealed that Stephanie McMahon was ECW's new "owner", and she would soon conspire with her brother Shane to oust their father from his leadership position in the World Wrestling Federation. 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, resulting in less focus 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, with the feature of the first disc being a three-hour documentary on the company's history, and the other disc featured 7 classic matches from the promotion. The DVD sold very well, and is still ranked as WWE's second highest-selling DVD of all time (behind WrestleMania 21) to this day.

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 featured stories from wrestlers who were not employed by WWE, as well as providing their side of ECW's history.

Reunion shows

The strong sales of The Rise and Fall of ECW prompted both World Wrestling Entertainment and Shane Douglas to promote ECW reunion shows in 2005. Douglas's inaugural Hardcore Homecoming event was held before WWE's ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view, and both shows produced phenomenal revenue. While WWE chose not to pursue ECW any further, Shane Douglas ran a brief 2-date Hardcore Homecoming tour, which did not produce a revenue as successful as the first event; Hardcore Homecoming ran one last event, November Reign, in late 2005.

Lawsuits

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 about Kulas' age (claiming he was 19 years old, instead of 17). In addition, Kulas had misrepresented his wrestling experience by claiming that he was trained by retired wrestler Killer Kowalski. In the end, ECW and New Jack were acquitted of the charges, but the lawsuit delayed (and at one point resulted in the cancelation of) 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.

In December 2005, ECW 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 authority to sell that section of the video library to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment; he claimed that Eastern Championship Wrestling, Inc. was a separate entity from Extreme Championship Wrestling/HHC inc. On May 8, 2006, the case was thrown out, and Gordon is now one of the owners of the New Alhambra Arena-based Pro Wrestling Unplugged promotion.

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 OJ 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.

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 and several times becoming the winner of the match themselves (though not officially a part of the bout). ECW was known for popularizing several types of matches, such as the Barbed Wire Match, the Flaming Tables Match, the Singapore Cane Match, the Stairway to Hell Match, the Three-Way Dance and Fans Bring Their Own Weapons Matches.

Championships

ECW World Heavyweight Championship (1992-2001, 2006-present)
ECW World Tag Team Championship (1992-2001)
ECW World Television Championship (1992-2001)
ECW Maryland Championship (1993)
ECW Pennsylvania Championship (1993)
FTW Heavyweight Championship (1998-1999)

Books

Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of the ECW (ISBN 1-59670-021-1) - Scott Williams
Rise And 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 - Tod Gordon