Extreme Championship Wrestling: Encyclopedia II - Extreme Championship Wrestling - Extreme Championship Wrestling - History

Extreme Championship Wrestling - Extreme Championship Wrestling - History

After noticing ECW's growing popularity, the "Big Two" (WCW and the WWF) started adopting their ideas and hiring away their talent. Paul Heyman believes that ECW was the first victim of the "Monday Night War" between WCW Monday Nitro and Monday Night RAW. While the WWF had somewhat of a working relationship with ECW (going as far as allowing cross-promotional storylines), WCW refused to even mention ECW by name, calling it "barbed wire city" and "a major independent promotion" that wrestled in bingo halls.

Vince McMahon claims that he put Paul Heyman on the WWF's payroll as compensation for the talent (namely Taz, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and The Dudleys) leaving ECW for the WWF. On the other hand, Heyman believes that Eric Bischoff never compensated him for ECW bred talent such as Mikey Whipwreck, Raven, Sandman, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Steven Richards, Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock) and Chris Jericho leaving to go to WCW.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - Tommy Dreamer Versus Raven

The legendary feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven started in April 1995 and lasted until June 7, 1997, when Dreamer won a loser leaves ECW match at the ECW Arena. Dreamer had not won a singles match against Raven the entire feud. Dreamer stole Beulah McGillicutty from Raven during this feud.

Beulah was introduced soon after the outset of Raven/Tommy Dream. Her backstory was that, while Raven and Dreamer (allegedly former childhood friends) had been attending a summer camp in their teens, they had met Beulah, then fat. Beulah had fallen in love with Tommy Dreamer, but he rejected her, so she slept with Raven. Raven's lackey Stevie Richards brought Beulah to ECW so she could gain revenge on Dreamer by helping Raven. Beulah became Raven's valet, and suffered several piledrivers at the hands of Dreamer during the course of the feud.

After Raven left WCW in 1999, he rejoined ECW to team up with his old enemy, Tommy Dreamer. A reluctant tag team, Raven and Dreamer reigned as ECW World Tag Team Champions for several months. When they lost those belts, they feuded once again before Raven left for the WWF in the summer of 2000.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - The Dudley Family Reign

The original Dudley Boys debuted in ECW on July 1, 1995. They were Dudley Dudley (the only "pure" Dudley in that both of his parents had the same last name, Dudley), Big Dick Dudley (the menacing enforcer, who Dudley Dudley claimed was the result of Big Daddy's fornication with the Holland Tunnel) and Lil' Snot Dudley (the underdog).

The original Dudley Boys were members of Raven's Nest throughout the summer of 1995. After Snot was injured by The Pitbulls at Hardcore Heaven 1995, he was replaced by Dances with Dudley, supposedly the result of Big Daddy Dudley's visit to a Cheyenne Indian reservation in Oklahoma, though he could, somewhat suspiciously, only speak Spanish or sing "One little, two little, three little Indians". Dances With Dudley was followed by the stuttering, dancing, overweight hillbilly Buh Buh Ray Dudley. The entourage was later expanded when the obese, slobbish Chubby Dudley and the mute, placard wielding Sign Guy Dudley (the result of Big Daddy Dudley's incarceration in an asylum) began accompanying the Dudleys to ringside. Bushwhacker Luke and Bushwhacker Butch even became honorary Dudleys for one night (hailing from the 'Little New Zealand neighborhood of Dudleyville'). Adult film star Jenna Jameson also had a one night appearance as Lady Dudley at an ECW pay per view.

On April 13, 1996 Dances With Dudley suffered a leg injury, and was attacked by the debuting African American D-Von Dudley as he was stretchered out. D-Von began warring with all the other Dudleys, citing that the comedy act they had been putting on all this time was not the way true Dudleys should be conducting themselves. He eliminated Dances With Dudley, Dudley Dudley and Chubby Dudley before eventually joined forces with Buh Buh (who he helped overcome his stutter) and Big Dick. The Dudleys became a powerful, unified heel force in 1997, but were soon challenged by the debuting stoner Little Spike Dudley ("LSD"), the last hold out face Dudley.

In 1998, Beulah McGillicutty grew tired of the wrestling business and was written out of storylines by having The Dudley Boyz "break her neck" by giving her their 3-D finisher.

Big Dick left ECW in 1999, and Buh Buh and D-Von followed soon after. Sign Guy then changed into Lou E. Dangerously, leaving Spike as the only remaining Dudley in ECW before the promotion folded in April 2001.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - The Steve Austin Period

In 1995, Steve Austin was fired by World Championship Wrestling Vice President Eric Bischoff. Austin, who was healing from a tricep injury at the time, was disgruntled because he felt that Bischoff should have fired him to his face rather than via the telephone. Eventually, Austin was contacted by Paul Heyman, who had managed him in WCW. Heyman told Austin that since he had a TV show and Austin had a grievance, it would be a great opportunity to go on ECW television to air it.

While at ECW, Steve Austin used the platform to not only develop his furture "Stone Cold" persona, but to also vent his frustrations toward WCW. Thus, what came was a series of humorous and biting vignettes which featured Austin lampooning such WCW luminaries as Hulk Hogan (Steve-a-Mania instead of Hulk-a-Mania) and most notably, Eric Bischoff (where Austin wore a bad, jet-black wig while targeting Bischoff). Perhaps Austin's most memorable promos involved a spoof of Monday Nitro entitled "Monday Nyquil." On Monday Nyquil, Austin as Eric Bischoff announced that there would be a "Bottle of Geritol on a Pole" match, in which aging WCW performers who were past their prime (presumably Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, etc.) would use their canes and walkers to do battle. At "Bischoff's" side was Bongo as opposed to Steve Mongo McMichael.

While with ECW, "Superstar" Steve Austin feuded with the Sandman and Mikey Whipwreck. Whipwreck, who was the ECW World Champion at the time, scored a huge upset win over Austin at the November To Remember, on November 18, 1995. Years later, Paul Heyman stated that he originally wanted to book Austin to win the World Championship, but Austin disagreed, feeling it would be better for business if Austin was the "hunter" instead of the "hunted."

Extreme Championship Wrestling - WWF Cross-Promotion

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 chant "ECW." At the subsequent In Your House: Mind Games event in Philadelphia, ECW stars (the Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Paul Heyman and Taz) were on hand in the front row with Sandman even interfering in one match (when he spat beer on Savio Vega during his strap match with Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw). McMahon acknowledged ECW's status as a local, up and coming organization on the air.

On the February 24, 1997 edition of RAW from the Manhattan Center, ECW "invaded." They advanced a storyline, plugged their first ever pay-per-view and worked three matches in front of the WWF audience, and Vince McMahon called the action with both Jerry Lawler and Paul Heyman on color.

Jerry Lawler himself was not a fan of ECW, and even went as far as dubbing ECW "Extremely Crappy Wrestling." Lawler was upset at McMahon for giving "valuable airtime" to one of their competitors.

The Manhattan Center in New York was peppered with a large number of ECW fans, who gave the WWF wrestlers "BO-RING" 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.

Perhaps the most memorable moment from the ECW/RAW cross-over episode involved Sabu executing a plancha onto "Team Taz" from atop the giant "R" in the word RAW that decorated the wrestler's entrance. Another memorable moment involved then ECW Tag Team Champions The Eliminators—Perry Saturn and John Kronus—delivering their finisher Total Elimination (two simultaneous spin kicks - one taking out the legs, the other hitting the chest) to a hapless ring attendant. Paul Heyman then entered the ring and told Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler that their "challenge has been accepted."

At the 1997 Wrestlepalooza event, Jerry Lawler made a surprise appearance at the ECW Arena. Wrestlepalooza '97 featured Raven's final ECW match before leaving for WCW. In this match, Tommy Dreamer finally beat his long time nemesis Raven. 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 Tommy Dreamer and Jerry Lawler at the 1997 Hardcore Heaven PPV on August 17, which was won by Dreamer.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - The Crucifixion

One of the most infamous moments in ECW history came on October 26, 1996 at an event called High Incident. The incident involved Raven crucifying the Sandman. The Sandman was locked in a feud with Raven over control of Tyler Fullington, the Sandman's young son. Tyler came out to hug his father before Raven came out through the crowd to hit Sandman with a cane. Raven proceeded to piledrive Sandman through two tables. With the help of the Sandman's estranged wife Lori, Stevie Richards, The Blue Meanie, and Super Nova, Raven tied Sandman to a wooden cross and gave him a barbed wire crown/halo around his head.

Kurt Angle was at the ECW Arena the night that Sandman was "crucified." Angle, who was fresh off of his 1996 Summer Olympic gold medal win was brought to ECW by Taz. Angle claims that he was so disgusted by the incident that he told Paul Heyman that if his name or image was seen on the same TV program as the crucifixion Heyman would be hearing from Angle's attorney. Heyman claimed that he had no idea that the crucifixion was going to happen at the time.

After the intermission, Raven had to come back out and apologize to anyone who was offended by his usage of religious iconography. Ultimately, the crucifixion incident was never televised because the nature of the imagery involved was deemed too controversial (even by ECW standards).

Extreme Championship Wrestling - Mass Transit

On Christmas Eve, 1996, ECW almost lost a chance at getting a PPV due to the negative publicity surrounding the Mass Transit Incident. Mass Transit was the wrestling name of a 17 year old named Eric Kulas. ECW held a house show in Revere, Massachusetts on November 23, 1996. Kulas asked Paul Heyman if he could fill in for Axl Rotten, who was scheduled to tag with D-Von Dudley, in a match against the Gangstas, New Jack and Mustapha Saed. The problem was that Kulas had little to no previous training, yet insisted that Killer Kowalski had trained him. He also lied to Heyman about his age (claiming that he was 19) and falsified his documentation. His father also vouched for him.

Kulas was informed before the match that he would have to blade. Kulas asked New Jack to blade him since he never had done it himself and New Jack agreed. New Jack cut Kulas' forehead too deeply with an exacto knife and severed two arteries in Kulas' forehead. Kulas eventually passed out as the blood was literally spraying out of his head. Kulas' family sued ECW and New Jack over the incident, but the jury acquitted New Jack and ECW. Kulas passed away on May 12, 2002 at the age of 22 due to complications from gastric bypass surgery.

Soon after the Barely Legal PPV, Tod Gordon sold ECW to Paul Heyman. They would then broadcast bi-monthly on PPV. Gordon was kept on as a figurehead commissioner. Gordon was ultimately fired or resigned (at least according to the storyline) due to continuing rumors that he had been working as a "locker room mole", who was helping WCW secure ECW talent.

Eventually, Paul Heyman was in the process of suing WCW for the breach of contract of Raven who had joined WCW in June 1997. Heyman though, didn't have the legal power and finances so he dropped the case for a while and it was never picked up again.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - Barely Legal

On April 13, 1997, ECW had its first wrestling card (Barely Legal) broadcast on pay-per-view, highlighted by 53-year-old legend Terry Funk winning the ECW World Heavyweight Championship at the ECW Arena. Getting the PPV on in the first place was a struggle. iN DEMAND, which at the time was called Viewer's Choice, was very hesitant at putting ECW on pay-per-view because of they felt that ECW was too vulgar and brutal. Viewer's Choice relented after fans repeatedly called and mailed Viewer's Choice demanding that ECW would get a PPV. Viewer's Choice agreed to give ECW a pay-per-view under the condition that it air at 9:00 p.m. rather than the usual 8:00 p.m. time slot. A power transformer blew out shortly after the show went off the air due to all the power being used by the building. It is believed had the show gone on 10 seconds too late they would have lost the feed and nobody would have seen Terry Funk win the ECW World Title.

• The Eliminators defeated The Dudleys (Buh Buh Ray & D-Von) by pinfall to win the ECW World Tag Titles
• Rob Van Dam defeated Lance Storm by pinfall
• The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada & Masato Yakushiji defeated Taka Michinoku, Dick Togo & Terry Boy by pinfall
• "The Franchise" Shane Douglas defeated Pitbull #2 by pinfall to retain the ECW World TV Title
• Taz defeated Sabu by submission with the Tazmission
• Terry Funk won a triangle match by pinning Stevie Richards (w/ the Sandman's help) and then pinning the Sandman
• Terry Funk defeated Raven by pinfall to win the ECW World Title

Extreme Championship Wrestling - The Justin Credible Period

In 1997, Peter Polaco left the World Wrestling Federation in favor of ECW, where Paul Heyman promised to make him a star. Polaco, who was previously performing under the names Aldo Montoya and The Portuguese Man O'War, shaved his head and switched to a grunge style of dress. The newly branded Justin Credible ("Now that's not just the coolest, that's not just the best, that's JUST INCREDIBLE!"), adopted a cocky, sneering, egomaniacal attitude. Jason Knight became his manager, along with Chastity and Nicole Bass. For his theme music, Polaco used the Prong song "Snap Your Fingers," later covered by Grinspoon.

He quickly ascended the ranks, eventually forming a tag team, the Impact Players, with his trainer, Lance Storm. The teaming was successful, as the Players won the ECW Tag Team Championships on August 26, 1999 and March 3, 2000. The team split when Storm left ECW to go to WCW, at which point Polaco formed the New Impact Players with Steve Corino.

Polaco ascended to the main event in 2000, winning the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on April 22, 2000 at Cyberslam. Polaco managed to defeat Tommy Dreamer for the title just 18 minutes after Dreamer won it by defeating Taz (it was the first and only ECW World Heavyweight Championship in Dreamer's career). Polaco held the title for over five months, and defeated Tommy Dreamer once again in a Stairway To Hell match at Heatwave. He finally lost the title to Jerry Lynn on October 1, 2000.

In 2001, with ECW facing imminent bankruptcy and Paul Heyman becoming unable to pay the roster, Polaco returned to the WWF.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - The FTW Heavyweight Championship

Taz announced the creation of the FTW (Fuck The World) Heavyweight Championship on May 14, 1998. Frustrated by his inability to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship from Shane Douglas, who was at the time absent and refusing to face him, Taz created and defended his own World title, billing himself as the "real" World champion.

Taz lost the title only once, intentionally pulling an unconscious Sabu over himself on December 19, 1998 (he was confident that he would defeat Shane Douglas in an upcoming title bout, and thus no longer needed the FTW Heavyweight Championship). Taz regained the title at Living Dangerously on March 21, 1999, where he unified the FTW Heavyweight Championship with the ECW World Heavyweight Championship (which he then held) by defeating Sabu in a title versus title match. Taz then began using only the ECW Heavyweight Championship title belt.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - The Mike Awesome Title Controversy

On September 19, 1999 at the Anarchy Rules pay-per-view, in Villa Park, Illinois, Mike Awesome defeated Taz and Masato Tanaka in a 3-Way Dance to win the ECW World Heavyweight Title. Mike Awesome would hold on to the title until December 13, 1999 when he lost to Masato Tanaka. Ten days later though, Awesome would regain the title from Tanaka.

In March 2000, Awesome suddenly left ECW to join WCW even though he was still the reigning ECW World Heavyweight Champion. This led to threats of legal action from ECW, so Awesome agreed to return to ECW to drop the title to 'anyone'. This would set up one of the most unique matches in professional wrestling history. It marked the only time that a WCW contracted wrestler (Mike Awesome) would wrestle against a WWF contracted wrestler (Taz) in an ECW sanctioned event.

The historic match between Mike Awesome and Taz took place in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 13, 2000. In a three minute long match, Tommy Dreamer hit the ring to give Awesome a DDT (in retaliation for an angle in which Awesome tried to collect a bounty on Dreamer) and Taz following it up by applying the Tazmission for the win. Taz then took the microphone and explained that he came back because when he left he did business "the right way" and that he just showed Awesome the right way by making him tap out. Awesome entered and departed the arena through the crowd, to avoid the tense ECW locker room.

Mike Awesome never came to the back. He stayed at his hotel with WCW security chief Doug Dillenger and several police officers until the match was to begin. He showed up at the building 15 minutes before the match, went in, lost, and went back out through the crowd and left. All contact between Awesome and ECW for the purposes of this match was done over cell phones.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - XPW

In 2000, ECW decided to promote a PPV in Los Angeles. It was the first time that ECW tried to stage a West Coast event. Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) soon started to make statements that ECW was on their "turf" and that they would disrupt ECW's upcoming PPV. ECW was taking big financial risks by promoting the show in California and felt that XPW was just a small indy fed (even though ECW essentially started out the same way) who was trying to get themselves over at ECW's expense. So when XPW wrestlers showed up at the PPV, ECW was ready for them.

As the PPV was starting, XPW wrestlers made their way to the front row where they managed to get tickets for. During the PPV, they wore XPW shirts and shouted at the wrestlers. Things unfortunately got too serious when one of XPW's valets, Kristi Myst, pushed ECW's Francine (Several eyewitnesses claim that Myst grabbed one of Francine's breasts). Chaos immediately ensued as a bunch of ECW wrestlers ran down to ringside and started fighting with the XPW wrestlers. The fight continued all the way into the parking lot where the ECW guys defeated the XPW roster in a street fight.

The whole confrontation didn't help XPW though since most of the fans didn't know what was going on and the entire fight was not caught by the cameras. Most fans also think that ECW did what they had to do and XPW was way out of line to begin with and shouldn't have been there.

A week after the fight took place XPW owner Rob Black started making statements about how the ECW performers double-teamed his XPW performers and even went as far as beating up a woman and child. These claims are thought to be false though since the woman and child in question never came out to confirm the claim.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - TNN

Before ECW got a national television deal, its main sources of exposure were on the SportsChannel America syndication package, on AIN satellite, the Internet and tape trading. ECW would reguarly hold a convention called Cyber Slam, where matches were broadcast over the Internet and fans could chat online with the wrestlers themselves.

In August 1999, ECW began to broadcast nationally on TNN (for what was initially a three year contract); however, this signalled the beginning of the end. TNN didn't give ECW much money to produce their program, yet expected ECW to have high-quality production values like WCW Monday Nitro and Monday Night RAW. This was a problem within itself because Paul Heyman didn't want to change the look or compromise the integrity of the ECW brand anyway. Also, TNN poorly advertised and promoted ECW -- there were barely any press releases or television ads. The only time that TNN actually advertised ECW was during the ECW program itself.

TNN also censored a great deal of the program even though the violence and raunchiness were what made ECW so unique in the first place. TNN didn't want the theme song -- which was a combination of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" (the heartbeat that spells out E-X-T-R-E-M-E) and White Zombie's "Thunderkiss '65" -- because according to Paul Heyman, it sounded "too demonic." TNN also didn't want any references to "hate" (they preferred "intense dislike") and wanted no music videos on the ECW program. During the first edition of ECW on TNN, Paul Heyman was so unsatisfied with the shoot that he did for TNN that he instead showed a replay of a match between Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn from the 1999 Hardcore Heaven pay-per-view.

Paul Heyman was so frustrated with the way TNN treated ECW that he went as far as cutting a shoot promo and addressed his utter hatred for TNN (or "The Network" as Heyman called it on television). Heyman believed that TNN used ECW as simply a guinea pig to see if professional wrestling could work on the network.

Heyman decided to recruit Don Callis, who played the part of Cyrus, to serve as an onscreen metaphor for the real problems between ECW and TNN at that point. Callis played a representative for TNN/The Network, who constantly criticized the violent nature of ECW programming.

Even though ECW became TNN's highest rated show, TNN was at the time of Heyman's "shoot" publicly negotiating with Vince McMahon's WWF product. ECW on TNN was cancelled in October 2000 (with the final episode airing on October 6, 2000) in favor of RAW jumping over to the network.

To this day, Paul Heyman strongly believes that the lack of a national television deal (especially after the TNN trial) was the main cause of ECW's demise.

Rob Van Dam, who joined ECW in 1996, became nationally (and internationally) known in ECW, culminating in a record 23-month reign as ECW World Television Champion, before suffering a broken leg just weeks before he was scheduled to perform in a "TV champion vs. World champion" pay-per-view bradcast's main event. Many ECW fans have cited this unfortunate event as the beginning of the end for the trendsetting, yet financially shaky, promotion. This match would have been the most (potentially) lucrative PPV main event in company history; Paul Heyman was depending on this mega-match to bring an influx of badly-needed cash. Business problems aside, "RVD" was arguably the most popular wrestler to ever grace an ECW ring, and has become one of the most popular and talented wrestlers in the world today.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - Bankruptcy

ECW struggled for months after the cancellation, trying to secure a new national TV deal, but could not. On December 30, 2000, ECW Hardcore TV aired for the last time. 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 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 ($4,000).

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 $0 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 ($100,000), Joey Styles ($50,480), Shane Douglas ($48,000), and Francine ($47,275).

Rumor has it that Paul Heyman didn't pay the wrestlers for well over a month as the company was dying. He supposedly never told the wrestlers the company was on its last legs. ECW performers saw Heyman on WWE RAW and put two and two together. Moreover, Heyman allegedly wasn't even at the ECW shows. He allegedly was able to buy himself time by telling everyone to be patient because he was out in California working on securing a new TV deal for ECW. It is now argued by some that Heyman was actually spending the money on hiring an agent, filming the movie Rollerball, and spending money buying drinks and suites for Hollywood, California types with the wrestlers' pay. Many say that is because Paul Heyman's ego wouldn't allow him to give up so much stake (and go meet with potential fiancial backers) in the company.

Towards the end of ECW's run, Tommy Dreamer had started doing a lot of the booking along with Raven and Lance Storm.

Extreme Championship Wrestling - Tod Gordon takes on WWE

In December 2005, Eastern Championship Wrestling founder Tod Gordon successfully 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 seperate from Extreme Championship Wrestling. A hearing is set for January 26, 2006 to determine if Gordon's suit bears any merit. This has now been postponed until March 5, 2006.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Extreme Championship Wrestling - History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki