brand see ecw wwe . extreme championship wrestling formerly called eastern championship wrestling 1992 1994 extreme championship wrestling 1994 2001 type private industry professional wrestling founded april 25 1992 founder tod gordon eastern paul heyman extreme headquarters philadelphia pennsylvania area served worldwide products television internet and wwe network website http www.wwe.com shows ecw extreme championship wrestling acronym ecw style professional wrestling hardcore wrestling extreme championship wrestling ecw was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in philadelphia pennsylvania in 1992 by tod gordon . ecw closed when then owner paul heyman declared bankruptcy in april 2001 . the promotion showcased various international styles of professional wrestling ranging from lucha libre to puroresu and hardcore wrestling and became known for having an intelligent often rowdy and vocal fanbase that rejected the more cartoonish programming of ecw s competitors . widely considered the most daring wrestling company many fans were heartbroken when ecw declared bankruptcy citation needed . after purchasing the assets of ecw in 2003 world wrestling entertainment relaunched the extreme championship wrestling franchise as a wwe brand with their existing raw and smackdown brands . it debuted on june 13 2006 on sci fi in the united states and ran for close to four years until it aired its final episode on february 16 2010 on the rebranded syfy . it was replaced the following week with wwe nxt . contents 1 history 1.1 tri state wrestling alliance and eastern championship wrestling 1.2 secession from the nwa 1.3 ecw arena and television syndication 1.4 paul heyman and cross promotion 1.5 mike awesome controversy and promotional rivalry 1.6 ecw on tnn 2 legacy and resurface 2.1 the alliance 2.2 documentaries 2.3 reunions and relaunch 2.3.1 wwe 2.3.2 other reunions 3 championships and programming 3.1 championships 3.2 programming 4 see also 5 references 6 further reading 7 external links history edit tri state wrestling alliance and eastern championship wrestling edit ecw had its origins in 1989 under the banner tri state wrestling alliance owned by joel goodhart . 1 in 1992 goodhart sold his share of the company to his partner tod gordon who in return renamed the promotion eastern championship wrestling . 2 when eastern championship wrestling was founded it was a member of the national wrestling alliance nwa . at the time hot stuff eddie gilbert 3 was the lead booker of eastern championship wrestling . gilbert after a falling out with tod gordon was replaced in september 1993 by paul heyman . heyman known on television as paul e. dangerously had just left world championship wrestling wcw and was looking for a new challenge . 2 eastern championship wrestling logo . secession from the nwa edit see also nwa world heavyweight championship extreme championship wrestling in 1994 jim crockett s non compete agreement with ted turner who purchased world championship wrestling wcw from crockett in november 1988 was up and he decided to start promoting with the nwa again . 2 crockett went to tod gordon and asked him to hold a tournament for the nwa s top prize the nwa world heavyweight championship in ecw s home area of philadelphia pennsylvania on august 27 1994 . nwa president dennis coralluzzo alleged that crockett and gordon were going to try to monopolize the title 4 akin to crockett s actions in the 1980s and stated crockett did not have the nwa board s approval which resulted in coralluzzo personally overseeing the tournament . gordon took offense at coralluzzo for his power plays and began contemplating a plan to secede ecw from the nwa through a controversial and public manner that would attract attention to ecw and insult the nwa organization . gordon planned to have shane douglas who was scheduled to face 2 cold scorpio in the tournament finals throw down the nwa world heavyweight championship upon winning as an act of defiance . 5 6 the idea of throwing down the nwa world heavyweight championship was originally planned by tod gordon and paul heyman . heyman persuaded douglas by noting that the negative would only be that nwa traditionalists would just see them as traitors to tradition . adding to douglas decision was the animosity between douglas and nwa president dennis coralluzzo who at the time publicly criticized douglas and told nwa affiliated bookers not to book douglas for shows . coralluzzo believed that douglas was a bad risk and had the tendency to no show events . 7 douglas ultimately decided to go through with gordon and heyman s plan inspired by his father s motto of doing right by the people that do right by you . after looking up and saying this is it tonight dad douglas threw down the nwa world heavyweight championship stating that he did not want to be champion of a dead promotion that died seven years ago . 2 he then raised the eastern championship wrestling title and declared it to be a world heavyweight championship calling it the only real world title left in professional wrestling . when recalling this event years later paul heyman stated the following in a 1998 chat 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 . 1 coralluzzo was interviewed after the event and declared that douglas would be the world champion of the nwa whether he likes it or not calling douglas actions a disgrace and said he would move to have douglas stripped of both the nwa world heavyweight championship and the eastern championship wrestling heavyweight championship calling him undeserving of both titles . 8 gordon made the following announcement on the next edition of nwa ecw programming . i listened with great interest as the representative of the nwa board of directors took it upon himself to inform you that they have the power to force nwa eastern championship wrestling not to recognize the franchise shane douglas as a world heavyweight champion . well as of noon today i have folded nwa eastern championship wrestling . in its place will be ecw extreme championship wrestling and we recognize the franchise shane douglas as our world heavyweight champion . and we encourage any wrestler in the world today to come to the ecw to challenge for that belt . this is the ecw extreme championship wrestling changing the face of professional wrestling . the promotion showcased many different styles of professional wrestling including hardcore wrestling matches as well as lucha libre and japanese wrestling styles . ecw arena and television syndication edit see also ecw hardcore tv the bulk of ecw s shows remained at the ecw arena a former warehouse secluded under a section of interstate 95 . seating comprised simple folding chairs and four sets of portable bleachers and the whole sort of unconventional set up reflected the gritty style of the wrestling itself . shows were actually broadcast on a philadelphia local cable sports station sportschannel america s local affiliate sportschannel philadelphia on tuesday evenings . after sports channel philadelphia went off the air in 1997 the show moved to wppx tv 61 . it later moved to a former independent broadcast station wgtw 48 in philadelphia on either friday or saturday night at 1 or 2 a.m. shows were also aired on the msg network in nyc on friday nights early saturday morning at 2 a.m. due to the obscurity of the stations and ecw itself as well as the lack of fcc oversight at that late hour many times expletives and violence were not edited out of these showings along with extensive use of copyrighted music and music videos . paul heyman and cross promotion edit in 1995 tod gordon sold ecw to his head booker paul heyman . afterward gordon remained in ecw as a figurehead commissioner . years after being the ecw commissioner gordon left ecw . his absence was explained on air that he retired from wrestling due to family . rumors circulate however that gordon was fired by heyman after he was suspected as a locker room mole for a rival wrestling promotion helping to lure talent to world championship wrestling . many years later in an interview gordon claims that the wcw mole situation was nothing more than a work . citation needed storyline wise vince mcmahon first became aware of ecw while at the 1995 king of the ring event in ecw s home base of philadelphia . during the match between mabel and savio vega the crowd suddenly started to angrily chant ecw ecw ecw . on september 22 1996 at the in your house 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 bradshaw . mcmahon acknowledged ecw s status as a local up and coming promotion on the air . on february 24 1997 ecw invaded 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 while mcmahon called the action with both jerry the king lawler and paul heyman . the manhattan center in new york 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 . this invasion sparked an inter promotional feud between ecw and lawler s united states wrestling association . lawler disparaged ecw on camera and convinced wrestlers such as rob van dam and sabu to join him in an anti ecw crusade . throughout 1997 ecw wrestlers appeared on uswa television programs and vice versa . as part of the working relationship between ecw and the wwf a number of wwf contracted wrestlers were sent to ecw for seasoning in 1997 including droz and brakkus . 9 10 on april 13 1997 ecw broadcast their first pay per view ppv wrestling card barely legal highlighted by terry funk defeating raven to win the ecw world heavyweight championship . in june 1997 the company s wrestlepalooza 97 event featured raven s final ecw match before leaving for wcw . in this match tommy dreamer finally beat raven his longtime nemesis . dreamer s celebration was short lived though as jerry lawler along with sabu and rob van dam showed up to attack dreamer . this set up a match between dreamer and lawler at the pay per view 1997 hardcore heaven on august 17 which was won by dreamer . ecw continued through 1998 and early 1999 with a string of successful pay per views . mike awesome controversy and promotional rivalry edit in april 2000 mike awesome made a surprise appearance on wcw monday nitro making his debut by attacking kevin nash while still reigning as ecw world heavyweight champion . awesome s friend lance storm has said that awesome refused to sign a new contract with ecw until paul heyman paid him overdue wages . 11 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 madusa when she jumped from the wwf to wcw . after paul heyman filed an injunction wcw refrained from having awesome appear on nitro with the belt but did acknowledge him as the champion . eventually a compromise was reached . awesome a wcw employee and the reigning ecw world heavyweight champion appeared at an april 13 2000 ecw event in indianapolis indiana 12 where he lost the title to tazz who