Over in the WWF it was the epic Brother vs Brother storyline of Bret Hart vs Owen Hart that had taken center stage, leading up to a 5 star cage match at Summerslam. Even though things were getting better in the WCW/WWF than they were in 1993, they were still pretty stale. Both promotions were still using the tried and true "Good Guys vs Bad Guys" formula that had grown quite stale by this point, and everything still had a thick cartoon feel to it. For instance, take a look at the Undertaker vs Undertaker main event from Summerslam 94, and a majority of the characters in WCW/WWF at the time including Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, Kwang, Doink The Clown, and Thurman "Sparky" Plugg, all of which were prominently featured on Raw throughout the summer of 1994.
Meanwhile in a small bingo hall in Philly an NWA affiliated promotion named Eastern Championship Wrestling was using characters that were drastically more up to date with what was going on in pop culture in 1994.
Throughout 1994 the ECW continued to improve from show to show, and they
continued to get more and more extreme and gritty with each show as
well. As the buzz grew around Eastern Championship Wrestling, it was
becoming evident that ECW didn't need the NWA.
The entire split from the NWA centered around Todd Gordon's(Then ECW Owner) rivalry with cross town Philadelphia promotion named WWA, ran by Dennis Corruluzo.
Dennis Corruluzo's beef with the ECW went all the way back to it's spiritual successor Tri States Wrestling Alliance, ran by Joel Goodhart(see one of the previous posts for more details). Corruluzo and Goodhart had a healthy competitive relationship, but when Tod Gordon took over TSWA, and transformed it into ECW, the rivalry started to get personal.
Corruluzo and Gordon's fued got personal when Gordon stole away the WWA's main draw, Eddie Gilbert. After that, Corruluzo repeatedly tried to sabatoge ECW shows by calling the Philly fire department complaining that the shows exceeded the maximum occupancy of the ECW Arena.
This is where the story gets a bit fuzzy, because all of the books leave out the part where Corruluzo becomes an authority figure for the NWA. I don't know when/where it happened, but somewhere along the ride he became the president of NWA, and continued to try to make life miserable for Todd Gordon's ECW.
Sources have stated that Corruluzo was jealous of the buzz surrounding ECW, mainly because his WWA promotion was much more successful financially, but it didn't recieve half the press that ECW was at the time.
The situation boiled over when Todd Gordon and Paul Heyman decided to kill two birds with one stone.
The plan was set into motion when NWA decided to hold a tournament for their vacant World Title in the ECW(due to the fact that they were the territory with the best television coverage). During one of the matches in the tournament 911(the enforcer of Extreme) defeated Doink the Clown. After the tournament Joey Styles took a swipe at the WWF/WCW:
"That's one clown down, Bischoff & Mcmahon remain."
Shane Douglas would go on to win the tournament, and the NWA title, and what would happen immediately afterwards kicked off the beginning of a new era in pro wrestling.
"I stand here before god, and my father in heaven tonight. As I said I would be Worlds Heavywieght champion.
In the tradition of Lou Thesz, in the tradition of Jack Briscoe, of The Briscoe Brothers, of Dory Funk Jr., of Terry Funk the man that will never die....
And the REAL Nature Boy Buddy Rogers up stairs tonight. From the Harley Races, to the Barry Whindams, to the..................
Ric Flair's.
I accept this heavywieght title......
Wait a second...
Wait a second...
Of Kerry Von Erick, of the fat man himself Dusty Rhodes......
This is it tonight dad.
God this belt is beautiful.
...And Rick Steamboat.....
...And they can all KISS MY ASS!!!
BECAUSE, I AM NOT THE MAN THAT ACCEPTS THE TORCH TO BE HANDED DOWN TO ME FROM AN ORGINIZATION THAT DIED, R.I.P, 7 YEARS AGO!
THE FRANCHISE, SHANE DOUGLAS IS THE MAN WHO IGNITES THE NEW FLAME OF THE SPORT OF PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.
TONIGHT, BEFORE GOD AND MY FATHER AS WITNESSES I DECLARE MYSELF "THE FRANCHISE", as THE NEW ECW HEAVYWIEGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!"
I stand here before god, and my father in heaven tonight. As I said I would be Worlds Heavywieght champion.
In the tradition of Lou Thesz, in the tradition of Jack Briscoe, of The Briscoe Brothers, of Dory Funk Jr., of Terry Funk the man that will never die....
And the REAL Nature Boy Buddy Rogers up stairs tonight. From the Harley Races, to the Barry Whindams, to the..................
Ric Flairs.
I accept this heavywieght title......
Wait a second...
Wait a second...
Of Kerry Von Eric, of the fat man himself Dusty Rhodes......
This is it tonight dad.
God this belt is beautiful.
...And Rick Steamboat.....
...And they can all KISS MY ASS!!!
BECAUSE, I AM NOT THE MAN THAT ACCEPTS THE TORCH TO BE HANDED DOWN TO ME FROM AN ORGINIZATION THAT DIED, R.I.P, 7 YEARS AGO!
THE FRANCHISE, SHANE DOUGLAS IS THE MAN WHO IGNITES THE NEW FLAME OF THE SPORT OF PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.
TONIGHT, BEFORE GOD AND MY FATHER AS WITNESSES I DECLARE MYSELF "THE FRANCHISE", as THE NEW ECW HEAVYWIEGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!
We have set out to change the face of professional wrestling. So tonight, let the new era begin. The era of THE SPORT of professional wrestling, the era of The Franchise, the era of the ECW!"
That was the original pipe bomb. May not seem like much now, but it was a big deal back then.
The major consensus is that Paul Heyman, Todd Gordon, and Shane Douglas were the only ones who knew about this shoot. Evidence says otherwise. Ring announce Bob Artese has been quoted that he knew it was coming, and was even told to grab the NWA belt as soon as Shane threw it down. I personally believe all of this was a work, and that Corroluzo was in on it. Dennis Corulluzo's comments after the event are seen in The Rise and Fall of ECW documentary, and what he says is incredibly like a wrestling promo.
I believe that Gordon and Heyman convinced Corroluzo to go along with this in return for an ECW vs NWA storyline. The work came when they never delivered on their promise to Corroluzo.
ECW was officially done with NWA, and the next day they were officailly changed from Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme Championship Wrestling.
Many don't know that Paul Heyman actaully considered changing it to Extreme Combat Worldwide, to further distance themselves from traditional wrestling, but at the end of the day he felt like was a bad move.
I'm going to skip through the first couple of shows of Extreme Championship Wrestling, and pick up at their first big show of 1995, Double Tables. You'll notice that the promotion never stopped improving, and that they did in fact do what Shane said they would do.
Here are the results of the shows that I will be skipping:
August 13, 1994--Hardcore Heaven in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at ECW Arena: Chad Austin b Tommy Cairo, Hack Meyers b Rockin' Rebel, Jason Knight b Mikey Whipwreck to win the ECW Television title, The Tazmaniac & Jimmy Snuka b The Pitbulls (#1 & #2), 911 b Mr. Hughes, Sandman b Tommy Dreamer by DQ in a "Singapore Cane" match, Sabu b Too Cold Scorpio, Cactus Jack vs Terry Funk ended in a NO CONTEST..
August 27, 1994--NWA World Title Tournament in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at ECW Arena: Too Cold Scorpio b Chris Benoit, 911 b Doink (Matt Borne), Dean Malenko b Osamu Nishimura by Submission, Shane Douglas b The Tazmaniac, Too Cold Scorpio b 911 by Count Out, Shane Douglas b Dean Malenko, Cactus Jack & Mikey Whipwreck b The Public Enemy to win the ECW Tag Team titles, Shane Douglas b Too Cold Scorpio to win the NWA World title (Shane Douglas threw down the NWA title belt after the match and proclaimed himself the EXTREME Championship Wrestling World Champion, kicking off the "Era of Extreme")..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eastern Championship Wrestling becomes Extreme Championship Wrestling
November 5, 1994--November to Remember in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at ECW Arena: JT Smith b Hack Meyers, The Pitbulls (#1 & #2) b Axl & Ian Rotten, Too Cold Scorpio b Mr. Hughes, Tommy Dreamer b Tommy Cairo by KNOCK OUT, Dean Malenko b The Tazmaniac, Shane Douglas b Ron Simmons to retain the Television title, The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) b Cactus Jack & Mikey Whipwreck to win the ECW Tag Team titles, Chris Benoit vs Sabu ended in a NO CONTEST when Benoit "broke" Sabu's neck, Chris Benoit vs Too Cold Scorpio ended in a DOUBLE COUNT OUT..
December 17, 1994--Holiday Hell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at ECW Arena: Stevie Richards b JT Smith, Dean Malenko b Ray Odyssey, Chris Benoit b Hack Myers, 911 b The Pitbulls (#1 & #2) in a "Handicap" match, Mikey Whipwreck b Don E. Allen, Tommy Dreamer & Cactus Jack b Tommy Cairo & Sandman, Shane Douglas b Ron Simmons to retain the ECW World Heavyweight title, The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) b Sabu & Taz to retain the ECW Tag Team titles.
And these are the end of the year awards the ECW won from Wrestling Observer Newsletter for 1994:
Best Technical Wrestler: Chris Benoit(also wrestled in Japan)
Best Brawler: Cactus Jack(also wrestled in WCW)
Best Weekly Television Show: Hardcore TV
Rookie Of The year: Mikey Whipreck
Best Television Announcer: Joey Styles
Best Booker: Paul Heyman
Readers Favorite Wrestler: Sabu(previously won by Ric Flair for 10 years prior)
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