The True Story of ECW

ECW! ECW! ECW! ECW! ECW! The Fans chanted, but what the fans didn’t know is the life beyond the curtain. This is the Story of Extreme Championship Wrestling

 ECW in the early 1990s or then known as National Wrestling Alliance-Eastern Championship Wrestling ECW was part of the national wrestling alliance which was crumbling already, had a tournament which would determine the NWA-ECW World champion. On August 27^th 1994 Shane Douglas Was the Winner of the tournament and he had a post-match promo after he won the NWA world title he acknowledged the former great NWA world champions then he said those famous 6 words that changed wrestling as we know it. After that night ECW would become Extreme Championship Wrestling and ECW had become a cult following in the 90s and the big two at the time WCW and the WWF (now called WWE) took notice the WCW had took many of the talents that would revolutionize lightweight wrestling or as WCW called it the cruiserweight division.  WCW took many of their stars like Chris Benoit, Eddie Gurrerro, Rey Mysterio Jr and Chris Jericho. The WWE gave ECW some air time including back in 1997 there was a rivalry between ECW and Jerry Lawler (He called it Extremely Crappy Wrestling) and they even funded ECW’S First Pay per View Barely Legal on April 13^th 1997 the world was exposed to the extreme style. The Promotion gave us the Extreme style of wrestling we see today in promotions backyard and semi-pro like CZW. ECW was not all glitz and glamor ECW’s risk taking style while fun for the fans gave many superstars brain damage. One incident that made people think about how dangerous ECW or wrestling in general is very dangerous and not just any one can do it and that is called the Mass Transit Incident. The mass transit incident was when a 15 year old owner of the arena ECW came out of and was put into a match but what he didn’t know was that one of his opponents New Jack was Very Crazy and unfortunately Mass transit passed away after the match because new jack used many weapons and Mass Transit was untrained in ECW’S Hardcore Style, that incident almost caused ECW to have their first Pay Per View to not be on the air at all but only some cable providers did keep the Pay Per View on the air but some didn’t. Because ECW didn’t make as a big profit as the WWE and WCW the Superstars rarely got payed and Paul Heyman tried so hard to pay but he didn’t and cracked under the pressure But how did ECW become the nationally known promotion at the time well late night tv was the answer but then TNN (Spike) saw it and it was known nationwide then due to too much violence and arena damages gone from the air and then the final blow.  In the 2000’s ECW Crumbled and declared bankruptcy and the WWE had bought them out and ECW was done. While ECW was in the invasion storyline the invasion was not very good so when you talk about ECW you don’t really remember that as much.

ECW Revivals

Now while ECW the original was done the superstars weren’t. The memory of ECW inspired many promotions like CZW and ROH.

Would the fans give up on ECW? No the fans would never give up chanting for ECW so the WWE gave the people what they wanted a revival show ECW One Night Stand 2005 on June 12^th 2005 then next year ECW One Night Stand 2006 was a big hit the main event? The main event was John Cena Vs the ECW Original Rob Van Dam. The reaction For John Cena was Monstrous Boos. But 100% People in the Arena were behind RVD and RVD won due to Edge’s Interference. That win sparked an ECW Revival. The first 2 years were great for WWE but again ECW could not function the only PPV the new ECW had December to Dismember had terrible buy rates but it did bring us CM Punk, a man who would become a 3 Time WWE Champion, A 2X World Heavyweight Champion, A Intercontinental Champion, A ECW Champion, A WWE Tag Team Champion and so many other championships ,and is a current UFC fighter The Final ECW Champion was Ezekiel Jackson after he defeated Christian on The Last ECW Episode and then ECW was done for good and replaced by the Gameshow version of NXT, but TNA did bring ECW back with EV 2.0  with RVD, Tommy Dreamer, Rhyno and Mick Foley, and many other  former  ECW Stars

ECW was a great thing but unfortunately ECW did Impact Peoples life negatively. A lot of people didn’t like the hardcore style, and they didn’t like how it affected people. After The rise of ECW and its hardcore style of wrestling was born in the backyards, in the semi-pro ring, and anywhere else that people could wrestle with weapons

But ECW did impact people in a positive manor. Former superstars have fond memories of the extreme promotion. ECW was living proof that even if people don’t like what you do you keep going because eventually you will grow to love but the extreme ECW unfortunately only had about 7 years but regardless people were talking about it and still are to this day. All the ECW TV Tapings, Pay Per Views,and many talks about ECW can be viewed on the WWE Network

Opinion Time 

As someone who wasn’t alive during ECW’S Prime I wish I could’ve seen it. It would’ve been BREATHTAKING.

So ECW here’s to you!

ECW and WCW are copyright of World Wrestling Entertainment.