History of Extreme Championship Wrestling

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This is the history of Extreme Championship Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion. For the history of the newer promotion backed by World Wrestling Entertainment, see Extreme Championship Wrestling (WWE).

Contents

[edit] NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling

ECW was founded in 1992 on the ashes of the old Tri-State Wrestling Alliance, 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 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 & 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 Nirvana. Terry Funk and Sabu also boosted the popularity of Eastern Championship Wrestling further and further.

[edit] 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. So 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 became WCW).

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 styles of professional wrestling, popularizing bloody hardcore wrestling matches and the 3-Way Dance. ECW was always intended to be counter-culture and a grittier alternative to multi-million dollar organizations such as World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and WCW. Wrestlers such as Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, Cactus Jack, Terry Funk, Sabu, Public Enemy and the Tazmaniac helped launch the new ECW at this time. The bulk of ECW's shows remained at the aforementioned ECW Arena, a rundown bingo hall secluded under a section of Interstate 95. Seating comprised of simple folding chairs and four sets of portable bleachers, and the whole sort of unconventional set up reflected the gritty style of the wrestling itself. Shows were actually broadcast on a local cable sports station (SportsChannel America's local affiliate) on Tuesday evenings and an independent broadcast station (WGTW 48) in Philadelphia on either Friday or Saturday night at 1 or 2 a.m. Due to the obscurity of the stations and ECW itself, many times expletives and violence were not edited out of these showings, helping to get ECW noticed.

After noticing ECW's growing popularity, the "Big Two" (World Championship Wrestling (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 Wars" 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 angle), 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 Tazz, Steve Austin, Curtis Hughes, 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, The 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.

ECW was also said to have ushered in the WWF's "Attitude Era" because of its use of violence and backstage brawls.

[edit] Tommy Dreamer vs. 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 Dreamer. 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.

[edit] The Kimona striptease

One of the more controversial ECW moments happened at ECW Hardcore Heaven 1996, held at the ECW Arena. When the ring collapsed just before the scheduled main event between Rob Van Dam and Sabu, promoter Paul Heyman was forced to find a way to entertain the fans while the ring crew could repair it. His solution was to send ECW valet Kimona Wanalaya out onto the balcony atop the arena to do a striptease involving a towel, a $20 bill and very little else. In true pro wrestling fashion however, the striptease was more tease than strip - Kimona did not actually strip naked, rather she removed her underwear and brandished them, while concealed by her towel. It is rumored that this incident was what caused Kimona to leave ECW, although it hardly seems likely that a former stripper would be upset about something she used to do all the time, and actually showed less than she would have as a stripper. She was supposedly told that ECW would not film and show the footage, but it was aired and then included on an early ECW home video.

[edit] Technical wrestlers

In the early nineties, ECW started fleshing out their roster with many Japanese-style technical workers. Too small and not charismatic enough to attract the attention of WCW or WWF, some of the world's greatest in-ring performers were going unused in North America. Chris Benoit, particularly, made a major impact as "The Crippler", a moniker he developed after breaking Sabu's neck, and using his hard-hitting technical style to cripple his opponents. He allied himself with shoot fighter Dean Malenko to feud with a red-hot young worker named Eddie Guerrero. Other notable additions included Chris Jericho and Perry Saturn.

It was long thought that the hardcore ECW audience wouldn't adapt to the smaller, technical wrestlers. That fanbase was used to seeing larger stars destroy each other with weapons and bleed each and every night, so when Paul Heyman introduced the light-heavyweights and middleweights, it was refreshing to the ECW audience who appreciated the pure wrestling aspect of the product, with an ECW twist. Granted, pure wrestling greats such as Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, and Chris Jericho weren't expected to be "hardcore", the fans enjoyed their work because they gave it their all each and every night. This love of pure wrestling would culminate with a series of matches between "Shooter" Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero, ending with an emotional final match in the ECW Arena to which the fans emotionally chanted "please don't go" at the departing wrestlers.

Still looking for new stars to push that envelope, ECW management looked south. It had long been considered a simple fact of the business that American fans would never accept or enjoy the Mexican Lucha Libre style. But once again thumbing his nose at tradition, Heyman recruited such Luchadors as Rey Mysterio, Jr., Psicosis, Konnan and Juventud Guerrera. These diminutive workers looked almost like children next to the industry's usual 300 pound titans, but their lightning-fast, high-flying style quickly became a sensation in ECW.

Unfortunately, the success of these new styles didn't escape the attention of World Championship Wrestling. Every single one of the performers mentioned above was signed away by WCW, each one a crushing blow to ECW fans. ECW took the risks in introducing these workers to North America, and WCW reaped the rewards.

[edit] 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 angrily chant "ECW." At the September 22, 1996 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 February 17, 1997, during a broadcast of RAW, while the camera focused on the commentators, Jerry Lawler noticed a (planted) fan behind him holding an ECW Rules sign. Irked, Lawler grabbed the sign from the fan and destroyed it, but the fan quickly held up a replacement sign. Annoyed still, Lawler did a worked shoot where he criticized The Blue Meanie and The Sandman. He went on to claim that ECW stood for Extremely Crappy Wrestling. Later in the broadcast, Paul Heyman called into the show (he was identified on-screen as "ECW Representative") and claimed that he would show up, along with several ECW wrestlers the next week on Monday Night RAW from the Manhattan Center.

The following week, ECW "invaded." They advanced a storyline, plugged their first ever pay-per-view and worked three matches in front of the WWF audience while Vince McMahon called the action with both Jerry Lawler and Paul Heyman.

Lawler was upset at McMahon for giving "valuable airtime" to one of their competitors. It has long been believed that McMahon at this point was willing to do anything to get one over on WCW. (Although, to his (dis)credit, Todd Pettengill mistakenly referred to the ECW wrestlers as "WCW stars" on the WWF's weekend recap show, WWF Blast-Off.) During this time period, Monday Night RAW was being destroyed in the ratings of the Monday Night Wrestling Wars and it was thought that bringing in ECW for a couple of shots would attract that fanbase to WWF.

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. It was said that this episode was the beginning of what would eventually be called The Attitude Era of the WWF.

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. In fact Sabu actually fell off the "R." This is metioned on The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD. Taz has been making fun of Sabu for this ever since. 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.

[edit] 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 didn't know what ECW was. He thought ECW was a new wrestling promotion that was trying to be as realistic and trying to adopt an amateur-style performance. However, this was not to be as Angle realized that ECW was trying to be as sadistic and as brutal as it could be. Angle claims that he was so disgusted 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. Angle said on The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD that he believed him, but criticized Paul Heyman for not having at least some sort of reasonable control over his employees.

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).

The footage can be seen on the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD.

[edit] Mass Transit

Main article: Mass Transit incident (ECW)

On Christmas Eve, 1996, ECW lost the 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 Erich Kulas. ECW held a house show in Revere, Massachusetts on November 23, 1996. Kulas asked manager Paul Heyman if he could fill in for a wrestler. Kulas, who had little to no previous training, allegedly lied to Heyman about his age (claiming he was 19) and falsified his documentation. During the match, wrestler New Jack bladed Kulas with an exacto knife (which New Jack now claims was a surgical scalpel) and severed two arteries in Kulas' forehead. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital. The resulting controversy delayed ECW's arrival on pay-per-view, damaging its ability to compete with other wrestling organizations such as WCW.

[edit] Barely Legal

Main article: ECW Barely Legal

On April 13, 1997, ECW had its first wrestling card, Barely Legal, broadcast on pay-per-view, highlighted by Terry Funk winning the ECW World Heavyweight Championship at the ECW Arena. Getting the pay-per-view 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 they felt that ECW was too vulgar and brutal, and did not air the show. Paul Heyman claimed that this was part and partial due to the fact that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was being reprimanded over its violent content at the time, but it was still getting PPVs. Request TV agreed to give ECW a pay-per-view under the condition that it aired at 9:00 p.m. rather than the usual 7:00 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.

Funk collapsed shortly after the show from exhaustion, from having to wrestle through two matches and bleeding throughout almost all of both.

[edit] Negotiations with Extreme Associates

In March 1998, Buh Buh Ray Dudley (Mark Lamonica) brokered a deal between ECW and adult film company Extreme Associates. Lamonica was friends with Extreme Associates CEO Rob Black and set up meetings between Black and Paul Heyman, in which the two discussed the possibility of engaging in interpromotional dealings between each other's companies. There were plans for ECW to run shows on the West Coast, and also for their video tapes to be distributed in Brazil. However, for the most part, the deal did not work out and ECW broke its ties with Extreme Associates in early 1999, and subsequently Black and Heyman developed an intense dislike for one another. One result from the dealings that did transpire was the ECW debut of former-adult film star Jasmin St. Claire. Also, several ECW superstars such as Lamonica made (non-sex) appearances in adult films produced by Extreme Associates. Personal issues between Rob Black and ECW lawyer Steve Karel also contributed to the breakdown in talks. Black ended up forming his own independent organization, Xtreme Pro Wrestling, which developed a rivalry with ECW.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Mike Awesome title controversy

On September 19, 1999 at the Anarchy Rulz 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. Rumor had it that Eric Bischoff wanted to drop the ECW belt in the trash can on television, as he did with the WWF Women's title with Alundra Blayze. This led to threats of legal action from ECW, so Awesome agreed to return to ECW to drop the title to 'anyone'. This would mark the only time that a WCW contracted wrestler (Mike Awesome) would wrestle against a WWF contracted wrestler (Taz) in an ECW sanctioned event.

The 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.

[edit] TNN

Main article: ECW on TNN

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

In August 1999, ECW began to broadcast nationally on TNN (for what was initially a three year contract); however, this signaled 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 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. The only times that TNN advertised ECW TV shows were during TNN's NASCAR broadcasts and 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 ECW theme song (This is Extreme! by Harry Slash & The Slashtones) 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. That and the fact they wanted to see if another show, RollerJam, would work as well, as it was right after ECW shows.

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 moving 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.

[edit] 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.

As the PPV was starting, XPW wrestlers made their way to the front row where they had tickets for. Contrary to reports at the time which stated that XPW valet Kristi Myst grabbed or touched Francine, Francine herself has since gone on record as saying that she was never grabbed or in any other way touched by any of the XPW crew, and other eye witnesses support this.

Regardless, chaos immediately ensued as a bunch of ECW wrestlers ran down to ringside and started attacking the XPW ring crew. The fight continued all the way into the parking lot where the ECW guys brutalized the XPW ring crew in a street fight until - according to Balls Mahoney - several of them were left in pools of their own blood.[1]

A week after the fight took place XPW owner Rob Black stated on XPW TV that the ECW performers went as far as beating up a woman. The charges were filed in court but were dismissed as a result of ECW declaring bankruptcy in 2001.

Shortly before the HeatWave incident occurred, XPW and ECW had another legal run in as Paul Heyman tried to prevent Sabu from working for XPW, even though Heyman had breached Sabu's contract by not paying him his salary.

[edit] Rob Van Dam's injury

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 broadcast’s main event. Many ECW fans have cited this 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.

[edit] 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 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 financial backers) in the company.

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

[edit] Alliance storyline

Main article: The Invasion (pro wrestling)

Soon after ECW closed, Heyman was hired by the WWF as an on-air character and writer. During The Invasion, some former ECW wrestlers "reformed" with the storyline being that Stephanie McMahon was the company's new owner. Along with WCW (owned by Shane McMahon), they joined together and formed The Alliance. Heyman and Stephanie McMahon brought together the Dudley Boyz, Tazz, Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer among others.

Throughout the Summer and Fall of 2001, the Alliance and WWF fought back and forth in battles that culminated with a "Winner Take All" match at the 2001 Survivor Series. The Rock and Steve Austin were the remaining survivors for their respective teams. The Alliance lost after Rock pinned Austin, forcing their faction to disband.

[edit] Documentaries

In the summer of 2003, WWE purchased ECW's assets in bankruptcy court, acquiring the rights to ECW's video library. They used this video library to put together a two-disc DVD entitled The Rise and Fall of ECW. The set was released in November 2004. The main feature of the DVD was a three-hour documentary on the company's history, with the other disc featuring matches from the promotion. The DVD sold well, and is currently ranked as WWE's highest-selling DVD of all time.

An unauthorized DVD called Forever Hardcore was produced by former WCW crew member Jeremy Borash and Big Vision Entertainment in response to Rise and Fall of ECW. The DVD had stories of wrestlers who were not employed by WWE telling their side of the ECW's history. The strong sales of both Rise and Fall of ECW and Forever Hardcore prompted both World Wrestling Entertainment and Shane Douglas (Hardcore Homecoming) to run ECW reunion shows in 2005.

[edit] Reunion shows

[edit] Tod Gordon takes on WWE

In December 2005, Eastern Championship Wrestling founder Tod Gordon 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 separate from Extreme Championship Wrestling. A hearing was set for January 26, 2006 to determine if Gordon's suit beared any merit. The hearing was postponed until March 5, 2006. It was reported on May 8, 2006 that the bankruptcy court has thrown out the case. However, it is reported that Gordon plans to appeal the case.

[edit] References

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