Global InformationExtreme Championship Wrestling information
 | |
| Acronym | ECW |
|---|---|
| Founded | April 25, 1992 |
| Defunct | April 4, 2001 (de facto)[1][2] January 31, 2007 (de jure)[3] |
| Style | Hardcore wrestling |
| Headquarters |
|
| Founder(s) | Tod Gordon |
| Owner(s) | Tod Gordon (until 1995) HHG Corporation (from 1995) |
| Formerly | Eastern Championship Wrestling |
| Predecessor | Tri-State Wrestling Alliance |
| Successor | Official: ECW (WWE brand) Unofficial: Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling Hardcore Homecoming Extreme Rising House of Hardcore |
| Website | ECW on WWE.com |
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was an American professional wrestling promotion that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and operated by its parent company HHG Corporation. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) affiliate Eastern Championship Wrestling. The following year, businessman and wrestling manager Paul Heyman took over the creative end of the promotion from Eddie Gilbert. Under Heyman, the promotion was rechristened as Extreme Championship Wrestling.
The promotion was known for highlighting a "hardcore wrestling" style, with matches regularly featuring weapons (including the frequent use of tables and fire) and revolving around adult-themed storylines. Though the hardcore style was the main focus, ECW also showcased various international styles of professional wrestling not usually seen in the U.S., ranging from Mexican lucha libre to Japanese puroresu.
Heyman's creative direction created new stars, and established ECW as the third major national wrestling promotion in the United States in the second half of the 1990s, competing with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). HHG folded ECW in 2001 when it was unable to secure a new national television contract, and World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. purchased the assets of the company from bankruptcy in January 2003. The company would nominally remain active until 2007.
Following the success of the One Night Stand tribute show in 2005, WWE relaunched the ECW franchise as a third brand in 2006 alongside their existing Raw and SmackDown brands. It debuted on June 13, 2006, on Sci Fi in the United States and ran for close to four years until it aired its final episode on February 16, 2010, on the rebranded Syfy.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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- ^ "HHG Corp. bankruptcy 04-05-01 - dockets". Sites.google.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved January 17, 2022.