Wrestling (WWE).
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Details
Acronym ECW
Established 1992
Style Hardcore wrestling, lucha libre, shoot style
Location Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Founder(s) Tod Gordon
Owner(s) Tod Gordon (1992-1996)
Paul Heyman (1996-2001)
Vince McMahon (2003-present)
Parent Eastern Championship Wrestling, Inc.
(1993-94)
Extreme Championship Wrestling, Inc.
(1994-99)
HHG Corporation
(1999-2001)
World Wrestling Entertainment
(2003-present)
Formerly NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling
Philadelphia Portal
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was a ground-breaking and influential 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 and Sky Sports 3 in the United Kingdom. Since 2005, WWE has promoted an annual 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
Main article: History of Extreme Championship Wrestling
ECW was founded in 1992, under the name Eastern Championship Wrestling as a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). After owner Tod Gordon had a falling out with head booker "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert, Gordon chose Gilbert's friend and WCW alumnus Paul Heyman to replace him. Heyman's first show with the promotion was Ultra Clash '93 on September 18, 1993 at Viking Hall (which would eventually be dubbed The ECW Arena) in Philadelphia. Some people have accused Heyman of stabbing Eddie Gilbert in the back and taking his job. The popular belief is that Eddie's drug use and unstable behavior was the real reason for his departure from ECW.

Paul Heyman felt that mainstream professional wrestling had become like rock and roll hair bands. When ECW was branching out, professional wrestlers had far more cartoonish gimmicks. The 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 blood-letting and women getting regularly beaten up by the male wrestlers. Heyman saw ECW as the professional wrestling equivalent to the grunge movement.


Extreme Championship Wrestling
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. 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 when Jim Crockett Promotions itself withdrew from the NWA).

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 st