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| THE HISTORY OF HARDCORE (Overview of ECW) ECW began operating in 1992 as Eastern Championship Wrestling. On 08/27/1994, the name was changed from Eastern to Extreme. It operated in Philadelphia, with spot shows in the surrounding Pennsylvania area. The wrestling operations were handled by Paul Heyman (manager Paul E Dangerously) who later bought the promotion from former owner Tod Gordon in 1996. ECW quickly gained popularity and built a name for themself senonamous with words like 'EXTREME' and 'HARDCORE'. ECW had the distinction of using "real" music for it's wrestlers, and fairly obscure music at times at that. The opening theme music used to consist of a combination of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" (the heartbeat that spells out E-X-T-R-E-M-E) which cuts to White Zombie's "Thunderkiss '65" (the guitar part and the Pitbull's music). After Barely Legal, they switched a specially written, non-commercial piece of music as their new theme. It was also used for Rob |
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| Van Dam's WWF/WWE matches. ECW were the outlaws of professional wrestling with rampid cult-like fans. Infact, the fans were just as much of the show as the wrestlers themselves. ECW were the originaltors of hardocre wrestling in the United States. Soon after the extreme phenomenon grew popular other big promotions copied or mimicked the style that ECW birthed before them. ECW had some of the most extreme types of matches imaginable. Street fights, scaffold matches, barbed wire matches, death matches, cage matches, stairway to hell matches, dog collar matches, stretcher matches among others. It was not so much the type of match though since they were all EXTREME. In ECW anything went. Fans would actually bring weapons to the arena for the wrestlers to use on each other. I've witnessed everything from chairs, to stop sighns, to playstations and even toilet seats. The wrestlers themselves were so extreme that they didn't even need weapons. High flyers like Sabu and Rob Van Dam were just as extreme without the use of foreign objects. ECW live was the ultimate in fan interaction as the wrestlers would actually leave the ring area and fight right in the stands! ECW was definitley one of a kind and in a time when wrestling was losing steam, getting boring and repetive ECW may have saved professional wrestling and made it what it is today. ECW was more then another wrestling promotion but a movement aswell. ECW housed some of pro wrestlings biggest stars, some way before they were stars. The likes of Steve Austin, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Jimmy Snuka, Don Muraco, Tito Santana, Road Warrior Hawk, Bam Bam Bigelow, Abdullah the Butcher, Sabu, Kevin Sullivan, The Sheik, Shane Douglas, Cactus Jack, Terry Funk, Scott Hall, 2 Cold Scorpio (Flash Funk in the WWF), Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Ron Simmons (Farooq in the WWF), Stevie Richards (Steven Richards in the WWF), Al Snow, Hayabusa, Eddie Guerrero, Luna Vachon, The Steiner Bros., Perry Saturn, Psicosis, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, Chris Candido (Skip in the WWF), Tammy Lynn Sytch (Sunny in WWF). ECW also went on to develope there own stars who later went on to WWF fame. Taz, The Dudley Boys, Little Guido (Nunzio), Rob Van Dam and others. |
| ECW finally hit it big on August 26, 1999 when they aired there first national syndicated show on The Nasville Network better known as TNN to a 0.9 rating. ECW being on a national televised network helped them reach a new audience. ECW went on to make video games with Acclaim Entertainment, action figures by San Francisco Toymakers, and even branch off into the world of racing with the introduction of the ECW monster truck. ECW also released 2 music cd's, Extreme Music Vol. 1 and Anarchy Rocks: Extreme Music Vol. 2 aswell as landing a deal with Pioneer Entertainment to distribute there videos. ECW seemed like it had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Sadly ECW's ratings didn't pick up most likely due to lack of promotion, not to mention the show was on Friday nights at 8 and who's gonna stay home on a Friday night to watch an hour or wrestling? TNN later dropped ECW and picked up WWF Raw. ECW to the naked eye still seemed like it was still going strong and showed non sighns of stopping. Little did we know what was about to happen next. |
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| On April 11, 2001, the wrestling world was shocked and die hard fans like myself were devastated when ECW declared bankruptcy making it officially dead. On that week, Paul Heyman made his WWF debut as a color commentator replacing Jerry "The King" Lawler. Other ECW stars began to appear on WWF television including Justin Credible, Rhino, Spike Dudley, and Jerry Lynn. HHG Corportation, the parent company of Extreme Championship Wrestling, has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The petition was filed in New York on April 4th by Paul Heyman. 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 Entertainment Inc. (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 run on, travel agencies, including one owned by Bob Ryder, 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 are Rob Van Dam ($150,000), Tommy Dreamer ($100,000), Joey Styles ($50,480), Shane Douglas ($48,000) and Francine ($47,275). On July 9, 2001, ECW was recreated in Atlanta, Georgia on WWF's "RAW is WAR." During a tag tem match between WCW's Lance Storm and Mike Awesome and WWF's Kane and Chris Jericho, a group of WWF wrestlers came out and confronted the WCW tag team, then they slowly turned and attacked the WWF tag team. This group of wrestlers were Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Justin Credible, The Dudley Boyz, Tazz, Raven, and Rhyno. Paul Heyman announced the invasion of this new group and suddenly formed a "merge" with WCW when Shane McMahon announced that Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley is the new "owner" of ECW, But this basically ruined The ECW Reputation and made it look bad. ECW is now officially gone but not forgotten. Years later in huge sports arenas and various wrestlng venues across the world whenever something EXTREME happens "E-C-DUB" chants still break out. ECW's impact on the wrestling world will be remembered for years, decades, even centuries to come. ECW were the true originators of HARDCORE wrestling and although often imitated, (EX: The now defunct XPW) ECW could never be duplicated. On November 16, 2004 WWE Home Video will be releasing The Rise+Fall of ECW. A look at the history of Extreme Championship Wrestling. The DVD will be a 2-disc set that will also include interviews from past stars and classic matches. For the most in-depth look at the history of ECW pick up WWE's The Rise+Fall of ECW DVD in stores now! By: Bobby "The Real F'N Show" Blaze AKA "The Innovator" (A True Life-Long Fan of ECW) |
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~Arena History~ ~PPV History~ ~ECW On TNN History~ ~Ratings History~ ~Theme History~ ~Title History~ ~PPV Buyrate History~ |
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| Throughout 1996 and 1997 ECW invaded the WWF to hype up there first Pay-Per View, Barely Legal on April, 13, 1997. Barely Legal was a huge event held at the infamous bingo hall, the ECW Areana (Viking Hall) in South Philladelphia, Pennsylvania. This historic event was witness to some of the greatest matches in ECW history including a 3 way dance between Terry Funk, The Sandman and Big Stevie Cool (of the BWO, NWO spoof group). The winnder went on to face Raven for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship with Tommy Dreamer looking on (Terry was Dreamer's mentor). Terry Funk (who first one the title back on October 15, 1993 from Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka before Eastern Championship Wrestling went EXTREME!) went on to defeat Raven in this epic battle. The first Pay-Per View was only the begining. ECW went on to host 2 more Pay-Per Views in 1997 and 18 more within the next few years up until GAC '01 (the very last PPV event that ECW held). |
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