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When it was founded in 1992, ECW was called Eastern Championship Wrestling, and upon its foundation, it was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance. That all changed in 1994, when after a tournament held in the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Title, tournament winner Shane Douglas threw down the belt and proclaimed ECW Extreme Championship Wrestling, thus starting the hardcore revolution.
With the backing of owner Todd Gordon and booker Paul Heyman, ECW withdrew from the NWA and 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 would also be a stop for many popular wrestlers seen today.
At a time when the World Wrestling Federation (the WWF is now known as WWE - World Wrestling Entertainment) were having wrestling clowns and pig pen matches, ECW was having barbed wire matches and creating new stars ( Steve Austin drank his first on-screen beer on ECW TV years before the "Stone Cold" era in WWF). After noticing that ECW was the future of the business the "Big Two" ( World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and WWF) started stealing their talent and ideas. While the WWF had somewhat of a working relationship with ECW (going as far as allowing cross-promotional anglesIn professional wrestling, an angle is a fictional storyline. The wrestler Kurt Angle's name is a co-incidence. The scope and variety of angles vary widely. An angle may be as small as a single match or a vendetta that lasts for years. In addition, an ang), WCW refused to even mention ECW by name, calling it "barbed wire city" and "a major independent promotion" who wrestled in bingo halls.
In AprilApril is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 30 days. Derived from the Latin aprilis either from the Latin word aperire which means "to open", probably referring to growing plants in spring, or from the Etruscan name Apru for Aphr 19971997 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Reef''. Events January January 3 NBC's Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time January 8 Mister Rogers receives a star on t, ECW had its first wrestling card broadcasted on pay-per-viewPay-per-view is the name given to a system by which television viewers can call and order events to be seen on TV and pay for the private telecast of that event to their homes later. The event is shown at the same time to everyone ordering it, as opposed, highlighted by 53-year-old legend Terry FunkTerry Funk (born 30 June, 1944) is a professional wrestler known for his excessively violent, hardcore matches. His style of wrestling inspired many later wrestlers, most notably Mick Foley in his "Cactus Jack" and "Mankind" personas. Chainsaw Charlie was winning the ECW World Heavyweight TitleThe top title of the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion. Last holder Rhyno Professional wrestling championships.. Soon after the PPV, Gordon sold ECW to Heyman. They would then broadcast bi-monthly on PPV.
In AugustSee August (album) for the album by Eric Clapton. August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days. Named in honor of Augustus Caesar. The month reputedly has 31 days because Augustus wanted as many days as Julius Caesar's Ju 1999, ECW began to broadcast nationally on The Nashville Network; however, this signalled the beginning of the end. Despite poor advertising and promotion, ECW became TNN's highest rated show, but was cancelled in October 2000 in favor of the World Wrestling Federation jumping over to the network.
ECW stuggled for months after the cancellation, trying to secure a new national TV deal, but could not. Despite help from the WWF, Heyman could not get out of financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy on March 2001.
Soon after ECW closed, Heyman was hired by the WWF as an on-air character and writer. During the " WCW Invasion" into the WWF, the former ECW wrestlers "rejoined" ECW with Paul Heyman as the owner.
In summer 2003, WWE purchased ECW's assets in bankruptcy court, getting the rights to ECW's video library. They used this video library to put together a two disk DVD entitled The Rise and Fall of ECW to be released on November 16, 2004