ECW, originally known as Eastern Championship Wrestling, was founded in 1992 as an independent wrestling promotion based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ECW was originally part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and was one of the few promotions under the NWA banner that did not fold following the debacle when WCW split with the NWA.
ECW had its origins traced back to 1989 under the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance banner under owner Joel Goodhart. Goodhart sold the company to his business partner Tod Gordon in 1992, who renamed it Eastern Championship wrestling.
The majority of ECW shows throughout its entirety were ran out of the "ECW Arena" in Philadelphia, a former warehouse under a section on Interstate 95. The ECW Arena would be used as a bingo hall and those who shoot on ECW always referenced the fact ECW wrestled in a bingo hall. Folding chairs and several sets of bleachers were the seating arrangements to keep it simple looking.
In 1993, ECW introduced "Hardcore TV" as its weekly syndicated show that was the main show for ECW until its demise in early 2001. It would be broadcast originally on Philadelphia's SportsChannel Philadelphia. It would also be shown on New York City's MSG Network before more and more channels started to pick it up, including my hometown of Buffalo's then-Empire Sports Network.
Hardcore TV and ECW in general was known graphic nature with lots of violence, blood, swearing, and sex, all these were not shown in professional wrestling at that time which meant ECW was groundbreaking. Also groundbreaking was that ECW used music from actual musicians such as heavy metal bands like White Zombie and Nine Inch Nails as well as other alternative rock and gangsta rap groups, etc.
The early intros of ECW Hardcore TV featured the beginning of Nine Inch Nails' Closer and then went right into White Zombie's Thunder Kiss 65. It eventually changed to this. Each episode of ECW Hardcore TV ended with a series of promos by many different wrestlers with Dick Dale's version "Misirlou" as background music. These would be called "Pulp fiction" promos.
The early days of ECW did not have pay-per-view events like WWF and WCW had. They did, however, still hold monthly supercards that were not shown live as the only way you could see them live is to be at the event. They would show matches and highlights on upcoming episodes of ECW Hardcore TV. PPV events would not happen until 1997. Early day ECW events would be held at sports bars and bingo halls in front of crowds of less than 100 people.
The show as well as every event in ECW history was called by announcer Joey Styles, who became the voice of ECW. He was well known for his over-the-top calling of matches with his famous "Oh My God!!" that would be yelled in a really high-pitched voice the more intense something became. Styles was also groundbreaking as he usually called matches by himself instead of having a color man next to him.
Since ECW was an independent, wrestlers such as former wrestles of the WWF and WCW as well as young up-and-coming stars who would move up to the big time along with those who were just cut out for the independent scene made up the original roster.
ECW would become the biggest and most popular independent wrestling promotion in history due to its cult following from wrestling magazines, videos, and eventually the internet. The wrestling and the action was crazy and the fans were even crazier. ECW reached incredible heights because of the in-ring (and out-of ring) action and the participation of the fans.
ECW wrestlers would soon use extreme violence in "hardcore" matches where they would use items like chairs, tables, trash cans, cheese graters, even at times a staple gun, a frying pan that a fan would randomly bring the arena, and many other either items found at the arena or brought to the ring by the wrestlers or even fans.
Despite the violence in the ring, the wrestlers helped grow the company by doing odd jobs for ECW in addition to wrestling. Many would work the hotlines and answer phones to place orders for merchandise, tapes, etc. Some would setup the rings and some would even go door-to-door to sell promoting ECW in various different towns.
In 1993, Tod Gordon hired "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert to be the lead booker. Gilbert had a falling out in September that year and was replaced by Paul Heyman as lead booker. Heyman was known as Paul E. Dangerously just like he had been in WCW before he left. Heyman was a manager as well as the lead booker as he would eventually go to his Paul Heyman name.
One of ECW's first superstars was a former WCW wrestler by the name of Shane Douglas. Douglas joined ECW shortly after being let go by WCW in May 1993. Douglas was a squeaky clean, babyface character when he was in WCW, Bill Watts' UWF, and even for a brief time in the WWF.
Shortly after Douglas' debut in September 1993, he was awarded the ECW Heavyweight Championship by forfeit. ECW officially joined the NWA after WCW left the NWA and the title became known as the NWA-ECW Heavyweight Championship. ECW was now called NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling.
Douglas went from being a babyface to a heel when he turned on Tommy Dreamer in a tag team match and accompanied himself to the ring with women, especially manager Sherri Martel, in between her stints in the WWF and WCW.
Douglas went from a squeaky clean face to an arrogant, foul-mouthed heel that was best known for his killer rants and promos that were the antithesis of what we knew and saw of Douglas. Douglas would dub himself "The Franchise" of ECW.
Terry Funk also joined Douglas in ECW from WCW. One of Douglas' best memories early on was his Three Way Dance match along with Funk and Sabu for the ECW Title as "The Night the Line Was Crossed" on February 5, 1994 at the ECW Arena. The thrilling three-way match ended in a one-hour draw.
Some of ECW's early superstars in its first couple of years that were created by ECW include Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, The Tazmaniac (later "Taz"), Mikey Whipwreck, The Public Enemy, Ian and Axl Rotten (Bad Breed), The Pitbulls, and The Sandman.
Since its founding, ECW had been with the NWA and the NWA wanted to present a brand new NWA World Heavyweight Championship after WCW parted ways with the NWA in September 1993 and kept the belt the NWA used as their World Heavyweight Championship.
Jim Crockett contacted Paul Heyman following Heyman's departure from WCW to help him promote Crockett's new NWA promotion. Crockett's no-compete clause was up following selling his promotion to Ted Turner which became WCW and he wanted to create a new NWA promotion that featured old school wrestling.
Heyman told Crockett old school wrestling was dead and they needed to go with a new brand of wrestling. This ended the partnership between Heyman and Crockett. Crockett tried to run his own promotion in Dallas and in New York but it failed and Crockett was soon done with wrestling.
NWA President Dennis Coralluzzo, who replaced Crockett as NWA President, wanted Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman to hold a tournament to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Heyman knew Coralluzzo wanted the same old shit old school wrestling just like Crockett and Heyman knew things needed to be different to keep up with the times.
The Tournament was to be held on August 27, 1994 at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia with eight wrestlers in the tournament. ECW Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas would be the winner and champion. However, Gordon, Heyman, and Douglas proposed a finish without Coralluzzo and the NWA's knowledge for Douglas to throw down the belt after winning it and denouncing the NWA and its heritage.
Douglas defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in the finals to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as planned. Douglas did what was planned after the match, albeit only with Gordon and Heyman allegedly only knowing. He gave a short speech where he thanked his late father and would then run down the legendary champions that wore the NWA World Title.
Douglas then would say "they can all kiss my ass!!" and then threw down the NWA belt. He said he didn't want to be a champion of a company that "died" seven years ago. Douglas then was handed the ECW Championship belt proclaiming himself to be the "Extreme Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Champion of the World" and that a new era was going to begin that very night in what was really the first well known "shoot" or dare I say "Pipe Bomb" in professional wrestling.
Dennis Coralluzzo was interviewed shortly after and said Douglas' actions were a "disgrace" and that he would be stripped of both the ECW and NWA Heavyweight Titles. There are some who believe Coralluzzo knew and was in on this and his disapproval was actually a "work."
In response, Tod Gordon said on the August 29, 1994 edition of ECW Hardcore TV that they have left the NWA and that Eastern Championship Wrestling was no more. In its place was "Extreme" Championship Wrestling. He also said that Shane Douglas was their renamed ECW World Heavyweight Champion. The NWA World Heavyweight Championship remained vacant until Chris Candido won it in a tournament in November 1994.
This was the Attitude Era long before the Attitude Era even existed. The incident preceded the WWF Attitude Era by at least three years and two years before the nWo "took over" WCW. This is where wrestling began to cross the line of kayfabe to real life to where fans who think they know what's going to happen get blinded by what really happened.
Outside of Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA title, the other real notable event that occurred in ECW came in the feud between Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman. Dreamer and Sandman were both a lot different in the beginning than the characters we got used to knowing throughout their careers in ECW.
Dreamer started out as a "pretty boy", who wore green suspenders and was hated by the blood-thirsty ECW crowd. Sandman had a surfer gimmick as he was accompanied to the ring by his real life wife who was named "Peaches" on screen.
Soon, Sandman became this edgy, hardcore and violent character who wore t-shirts, zubaz pants, and came through the crowd smoking cigarettes and drinking cans of beer on his way to the ring. Sandman would enter the ring to Metallica's Enter Sandman as his entrance music.
He storyline left his wife and took Woman (Nancy Sullivan) as his new valet. Woman would light his cigarette for him and poured his beer down his mouth. Sandman began carrying a kendo stick, referred to as a Singapore Cane, and used it as a weapon. Even Woman would use the cane on his opponents as well.
In attempt to mimick the Michael Fay public caning in Singapore in 1994 as ECW was up on the current events of the world, they decided to create a match on August 13, 1994 at Hardcore Heaven between Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman where the loser would get 10 lashes by the Singapore cane from the winner.
Dreamer lost the match and would receive his 10 lashes from The Sandman. Dreamer would take his lashes like a man as the crowd felt each and every whack and felt his pain as his back was bleeding. During the caning, Woman told Dreamer Sandman would stop if he kissed Sandman's feet. He said no and after each lash, he would yell "Thank you sir, may I have another?" as he would get whacked again.
Something happened to Dreamer. The ECW crowd who hated him, now loved him for taking the beating like a man as this transformed Dreamer into the hardcore legend who was eventually nicknamed "The Innovator of Violence" and became one of ECW's most popular and successful wrestlers ever. Dreamer later had Alice in Chains Man in the Box as his entrance theme.
Dreamer continued his feud with The Sandman throughout 1994. As if the caning angle wasn't hot enough, the heat would further be turned up between the two. During an "I Quit" match between the two, Dreamer hit Sandman with the cane with Sandman having a lit cigarette go into this eye and "blinding" him.
Dreamer was upset at what he did and claimed it was an accident. He "broke character" by helping and walking a blinded Sandman to the ring. Sandman wore patches over his eyes to show he was blind. Woman blamed Sandman for the injury and left him. The Sandman announced that he could not wrestle anymore and would retire. Dreamer announced he would dedicate the rest of his career to The Sandman.
At The Sandman's "Retirement Ceremony", Sandman reconciled with his wife Peaches. Woman interrupted and caned Peaches and threaten a blinded Sandman until Dreamer came out to help him. However, Sandman took the bandages off his eyes and attacked Dreamer with the cane to show he wasn't blind and it was a total setup.
Back in this day going back to as far as the typical professional wrestling was around, there was a clear babyface and a clear heel. While ECW had this, faces and heels were really determined if the fans loved or hated someone and these face-heel changes sometimes occurred very randomly and on the fly, which is what made ECW so interesting. It was the fans that ruled this company.
Fans cheered "this is awesome!!" or "holy shit!" if they loved something in the ring. They shouted insults like "you got herpes!" or "you suck dick" or "shut the fuck up!" among many things in perfect chorus which made these fans stand out more than in any other promotion. Of course the simple "E-C-W" chants really made it as fans chant that still to this day and in other promotions.
The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock) were ECW's best tag team in its early days. They were a pair of white boys who loved and embraced the growing hip hop culture in America. Paul Heyman called them "The Public Enemy" from a Newsweek article in the early 1990s talking about the cultural changes in America which made life more dangerous than ever before.
They were one of ECW's most popular acts due to their use of foreign objects and putting opponents through tables as they were "extreme" before ECW became extreme. They were successful winning the ECW World Tag Team Titles three times. They also got over with the fans for them coming out to their hip hop music and hip pop dancing in the ring before and after their matches.
The Public Enemy were involved in two of the most infamous incidents in ECW history. First in 1994, they attacked Cactus Jack and Terry Funk during their match as Funk called for a steel chair as a fan threw one in the ring to them. All of a sudden, fans started throwing chairs into the ring as there were a ton of chairs in the ring with The Public Enemy buried underneath them.
The next incident came in Tampa, Florida in 1995 when they invited the fans into the ring to dance only for the ring to collapse. Public Enemy left ECW to go to WCW for significantly more money in 1996 and stayed there for three years. They made a brief return to ECW in 1999. Sadly, both Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock passed away some years after their final match in ECW.
Sabu was ECW's first real home grown superstar. Sabu was trained by his uncle Ed Farhat, who was known best as the famous professional wrestler "The Sheik." Sabu originally came to ECW and his character was that of an uncontrollable lunatic and was brought to the ring by his "handler" the near 7-foot tall 300 lb. 911 with Sabu strapped to a gurney with a Hannibal Lecter-type mask as Sabu is trying to break free.
When Sabu wrestled, he usually broke a table during the match, usually by putting his opponent through it. If he didn't break a table during the match, he would usually jump through a table and break it by himself. Sabu had success early on by beating Shane Douglas to win the ECW Heavyweight Championship as well as beating Terry Funk to win the ECW Television Championship at the same time in late 1993.
Sabu competed against Douglas and Funk in a Three-Way Dance for the ECW Title at The Night the Line Was Crossed. The thrilling match went to a one-hour time limit draw. Sabu also teamed with The Tazmaniac to defeat The Public Enemy to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship.
In April 1994, ECW surprisingly came to an agreement to work with WCW. WCW wanted to promote its upcoming PPV Slamboree that was being held in ECW's home turf in Philadelphia. WCW approached ECW about promoting the PPV on ECW television with Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton appearing at an ECW show.
Despite disgruntled former WCW employee Paul Heyman's objections about not wanting to work with them, a deal was reached between ECW and WCW to have WCW wrestlers appear on ECW shows with Terry Funk going to WCW and working primarily in WCW for the summer and fall of 1994.
The ageless Hardcore Legend Funk was maybe the main reason why ECW succeeded in its early days. Funk could have made more money in other promotions in the WWF and WCW but did what he always wanted to do. Funk was right for business and was right for business in ECW putting the much younger wrestlers who were not worthy of tying his boots over because it was right for the company.
WCW's Slamboree PPV in May was a very good PPV with a match that made hardcore ECW drool. The Nasty Boys defended the WCW World Tag Team Championship against Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan in what be a Broad Street Bully match, basically a No Holds Barred named after the legendary Philadelphia Flyer teams of the 1970s. Former Flyer goon Dave Schultz was the referee.
The match featured numerous hard bumps and spills and various use of weapons and was a very stiff match. They would be thrown through tables and hit with trashcans and chairs. Jerry Sags attempts to take Schultz's hockey stick, but gets pummeled by the former Flyer. Jack then nails Sags with the hockey stick for the 1-2-3 as he and Kevin Sullivan were new WCW Tag Team Champions.
Jack (Mick Foley) appeared in ECW in the summer while still in WCW and still one-half of the WCW Tag Team Champions. He appeared on ECW TV with the belt and spit on it and threw it to the ground and cut a promo against WCW. He took on Sabu at Hostile City Showdown on June 24, 1994 at the ECW Arena and lost.
Foley left WCW after losing a "Loser Leaves Town" match to his partner Kevin Sullivan at the Fall Brawl PPV in September and joined ECW full-time. He would team with Sullivan to take on The Public Enemy in ECW.
Foley remained as Cactus Jack and had an unlikely alliance with perennial underdog Mikey Whipwreck as the two held the ECW World Tag Team Championship twice. Foley's hardcore wrestling style and killer promos made him an icon with the ECW crowd and it was a stepping stone to his future success as a legend in the WWF/WWE.
ECW had Steve Austin appear or was supposed to appear but was injured. Austin was supposed to team with Shane Douglas and managed by "Sensuous" Sherri Martel, who made the voyage to ECW as well. He was replaced by Brian Pillman, who teamed Douglas instead.
Pillman along with Ron Simmons and 2 Cold Scorpio appeared in ECW. Pillman stayed in ECW for the rest of 1994 before coming back to WCW in early 1995. Simmons and Scorpio remained in ECW and never came back to WCW.
This was just the beginning of ECW as its homegrown talent coupled with some international superstars would help ECW reach new heights in its short time.
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