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WWE

2006-09-24T17:54:42Z

Pedrito: World Wrestling Entertainment

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wrestling_Entertainment Wikipedia:WWE]

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[[Category:Promotions]]
World Wrestling Entertainment
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World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. World Wrestling Entertainment logo
Type: Public (NYSE: WWE)
Founded: 1952
Headquarters: United States Stamford, Connecticut, USA
Key people: Vince McMahon, Chairman
Linda McMahon, CEO
Shane McMahon, Executive Vice President of Global Media
Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, Senior Vice President of Creative Writing
Industry: Professional wrestling, sports entertainment
Revenue: $400.3 million USD (2006) [1]
Operating income: $71.5 million USD (2006) [1]
Net income: $47.0 million USD (2006) [1]
Employees: 460 (April 2006, excluding wrestlers) [2]
Website: www.wwe.com

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) is a publicly traded, privately controlled integrated media (focusing in television, internet, and live events), sports, and entertainment company dealing primarily in the professional wrestling industry, with major revenue sources also coming from movies, music, product licensing, and direct product sales. Vincent K. McMahon is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife Linda McMahon holds the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media Shane McMahon and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.

The company's global headquarters are located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, Connecticut, with international offices in Los Angeles, New York City, London, and Toronto. The company was previously known as Titan Sports, Inc. before changing to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc., and most recently becoming World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

WWE's business focus is on professional wrestling. It is currently the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world, and holds an extensive library of videos representing a significant portion of the visual history of professional wrestling. The promotion previously existed as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, which promoted under the banner of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), and later the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). WWE promotes under three brands; RAW, SmackDown! and ECW. WWE is also home to three of the eight internationally recognized world heavyweight titles.

WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). the Owner and Chairman Vince McMahon is a billionaire with a net worth of $1.7 billion, its stock is traded on the NYSE as WWE.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
o 1.1 The beginning/Capitol Wrestling
o 1.2 World Wide Wrestling Federation
o 1.3 World Wrestling Federation
+ 1.3.1 The Golden Age
+ 1.3.2 The new generation
+ 1.3.3 The attitude era
# 1.3.3.1 Business advances
+ 1.3.4 Acquisition of WCW and ECW
o 1.4 World Wrestling Entertainment
* 2 Championships and accomplishments
o 2.1 Current champions
o 2.2 Accomplishments
o 2.3 Current developmental champions
o 2.4 Defunct championships and accomplishments
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

[edit]

History

Main article: History of World Wrestling Entertainment

[edit]

The beginning/Capitol Wrestling

Roderick James "Jess" McMahon was a boxing promoter whose achievements included co-promoting a boxing match in 1915 between Jess Willard and Jack Johnson. In 1925, while working with Tex Rickard (who, ironically, despised wrestling to such a degree he prevented wrestling events from being held at Madison Square Garden between 1939 and 1948), he started promoting boxing in Madison Square Garden in New York. The first match during their partnership was a light-heavyweight championship match between Jack Delaney and Paul Berlenbach.

Around the same time, former pro wrestler Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt had a revolutionary concept. He decided to take wrestling to a higher level, bringing it out of back alleys and rough areas into sporting arenas. He also made wrestling more exciting, with his "Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling." His next move was to form a promotion with Ed Lewis and Billy Sandow. They persuaded a lot of wrestlers to sign up contracts with the newly-named 'Gold Dust Trio'. They also were the group that developed the concept of working. Of course that changed the course of professional wrestling history forever.

Eventually the trio dissolved and the promotion did also, after a disagreement over power. Mondt formed partnerships with several promoters. When Jack Curley was dying, Mondt knew that New York wrestling would fall apart. Realizing this he gained help from several bookers, one of these being Jess McMahon.

Together, Jess and Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC). There is not a lot of information on the early days of the CWC, but it is known that it joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1953.

In 1953, Ray Fabiani, one of Mondt's other associates, brought in Vincent J. McMahon. He replaced his father Jess in 1953.

McMahon and Mondt were a successful combination, and within a short time, they controlled approximately 70% of the NWA's booking, largely due to their dominance in the heavily populated Northeast region. Mondt taught McMahon about booking and how to work in the wrestling business.
[edit]

World Wide Wrestling Federation

The NWA recognized an undisputed NWA World Heavyweight Champion that went from wrestling company to wrestling company in the alliance and defended the belt around the world. In 1963, the champion was "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers.

The rest of the NWA was unhappy with Mondt because he rarely allowed Rogers to wrestle outside of the Northeast. Mondt and McMahon wanted Rogers to keep the NWA World Championship, but Rogers was unwilling to sacrifice his $25,000 deposit on the belt (title holders at the time had to pay a deposit to insure they would honor their commitments as champion). Rogers lost the NWA World Championship to Lou Thesz in a one-fall match in Toronto, Ontario on January 24, 1963, which led to Mondt, McMahon and the CWC leaving the NWA in protest, creating the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in the process.

In mid-April, Rogers was awarded the new WWWF World Championship following an apocryphal tournament in Rio de Janeiro. He lost the title to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17, 1963, after suffering a heart attack shortly before the match. To accomodate Rogers' condition, the match was booked to last under a minute.

Mondt left the company in the late sixties for unclear reasons, probably due to old age.

The WWWF rejoined NWA in 1971. This meant that the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship was downgraded (was no longer a world title) and was renamed the WWWF Heavyweight Title, though the WWWF champions during this NWA Membership were recognized retroactively as World Champions by WWE today.

In March 1979, the WWWF became the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The change was purely cosmetic, and the ownership and front office personnel remained unchanged during this period.
[edit]

World Wrestling Federation
The World Wrestling Federation logo (1984 - 1995)
Enlarge
The World Wrestling Federation logo (1984 - 1995)

In 1980, the son of Vincent J. McMahon, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc. and in 1982 purchased Capitol Wrestling Corporation from his father. The elder McMahon had long since established the northeastern territory as one of the most vibrant members of the NWA. He had long since recognized that professional wrestling was more about entertainment than actual sport. Against his father's wishes, McMahon began an expansion process that would fundamentally change the sport, and place both the WWF - and his own life - in jeopardy.

Leaving the NWA for a second time in itself was not that big of a step; the American Wrestling Association (AWA) had long ago ceased being an official NWA member, and just over a decade earlier the WWWF itself had rejoined the NWA. But in neither instance did the defecting member attempt to undermine, and destroy, the territory system that had been the foundation of the industry for more than half a century.

Other promoters were furious when McMahon began syndicating WWF television shows to television stations across the United States, in areas outside of the WWF's traditional northeastern stronghold. McMahon also began selling videotapes of WWF events outside the Northeast through his Coliseum Video distribution company. He effectively broke the unwritten law of regionalism around which the entire industry had been based. To make matters worse, McMahon would use the income generated by advertising, television deals, and tape sales to poach talent from rival promoters. Wrestling promoters nationwide were now in direct competition with the WWF.

According to several reports, the elder McMahon warned his son: "Vinny, what are you doing? You'll wind up at the bottom of a river." In spite of such warnings, the younger McMahon had an even bolder ambition: the WWF would tour nationally. However, such a venture required huge capital investment; one that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse.

The future of not just McMahon's experiment, but also the WWF, the NWA, and the whole industry came down to the success or failure of McMahon's groundbreaking concept, WrestleMania. WrestleMania was a pay-per-view extravaganza (in some areas; most areas of the country saw WrestleMania available on closed-circuit television) that McMahon marketed as being the Super Bowl of professional wrestling.

The concept of a wrestling super card was nothing new in North America; the NWA had been running StarrCade a few years prior to WrestleMania, and even the elder McMahon had marketed large Shea Stadium cards viewable in closed-circuit locations. However, McMahon wanted to take the WWF to the mainstream, targeting the public who were not regular wrestling fans. He drew the interest of the mainstream media by inviting celebrities such as Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper to participate in the event. MTV, in particular, featured a great deal of WWF coverage and programming at this time, in what was termed the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection.
[edit]

The Golden Age

The original WrestleMania, held in 1985, was a resounding success. This event is sometimes credited as the debut of what McMahon called "sports entertainment." However, as mentioned above, his father had emphasized pro wrestling's entertainment value some years before. The WWF did incredible business on the shoulders of McMahon and his all-American babyface hero, Hulk Hogan, for the next several years, creating what some observers dubbed a second golden age for professional wrestling. However, by the 1990s the WWF's fortunes steadily declined as fans were tired of Hulk Hogan's ability to beat anyone and everyone whenever he wanted.
[edit]

The new generation
The World Wrestling Federation logo (1995 - 1998)
Enlarge
The World Wrestling Federation logo (1995 - 1998)

The WWF hit a low point in the wake of allegations of steroid abuse and distribution made against McMahon and the WWF in 1994; there were also allegations of sexual harassment made by WWF employees. McMahon was eventually exonerated, but it was a public relations nightmare for the WWF. The steroid trial cost the WWF an estimated $5 million at a time when revenues were at an all-time low. To compensate, McMahon cut the pay of both wrestlers and front office personnel - close to 40% in the latter case (and about 50% for top level managers such as Bobby Heenan and Jimmy Hart, who both left). This helped drive many WWF wrestlers to its only major competition, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), between 1994 and 1996. During this time period, WWF promoted itself as "The New WWF Generation" which was led by Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker. In an effort to promote them and other young talent as the new superstars of the ring WWF began to play on the age restrictions which former WWF wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage (who by now were working for WCW) now faced. This is best seen in the humorous Billionaire Ted parodies of 1996 which culminated in a "rasslin" match during the warm-up to Wrestlemania XII.
[edit]

The attitude era

During the 1990s wrestling boom, starting with Steve Austin's now infamous Austin 3:16 speech, shortly after defeating Jake Roberts in the tournament finals at the 1996 King of the Ring pay-per-view, the WWF moved away from its "family era" and began broadcasting more violence, swearing, and more edgy angles in its attempt to compete with WCW. After Bret Hart left for WCW following the infamous Montreal Screwjob incident, Vince McMahon used the resulting backlash in the creation of his "Mr. McMahon" character, a dictatorial and fierce ruler who favored heels who were "good for business" over "misfit" faces like Austin. This, in turn, led to the Austin vs. McMahon feud, which, along with the formation of D-Generation X, laid the foundation for the Attitude Era. The Attitude Era also featured the established Monday Night Wars, where both WCW and the WWF had Monday night shows that competed against each other in the ratings.
The World Wrestling Federation logo (1998 - 2002). This is the logo which WWE is prohibited from using after its agreement with the conservation organization WWF.
Enlarge
The World Wrestling Federation logo (1998 - 2002). This is the logo which WWE is prohibited from using after its agreement with the conservation organization WWF.
[edit]

Business advances

On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as SmackDown! on the fledgling UPN network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999.

On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing.

In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network NBC, announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American television). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that SmackDown! be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.[citation needed]
[edit]

Acquisition of WCW and ECW

With the success of the Attitude Era, WCW's already shaky financial situation deteriorated even further. It only survived because Ted Turner retained control over it as a result of Turner Broadcasting System's merger with Time Warner. However, after Time Warner merged with AOL, Turner's power was considerably reduced, and the newly merged company decided to shed its dead weight, namely WCW which was now losing scores of millions of dollars each year. In March 2001, WWF Entertainment, Inc. acquired World Championship Wrestling, Inc. from AOL Time Warner for a number reported to be around $7 million.

The assets of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), which had folded after filing for bankruptcy protection in April 2001, were purchased by WWE in mid-2003.
[edit]

World Wrestling Entertainment

In 2000, the World Wildlife Fund (also WWF), an environmental organization now called the World Wide Fund for Nature, sued McMahon and WWFE. A British court agreed that Titan Sports had violated a 1994 agreement not to use the WWF initials outside North America. On Sunday May 5, 2002, the company quietly changed all references on its website from "WWF" to "WWE", while switching the url from WWF.com to WWE.com. The next day, a press release announced the official name change to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., or WWE, and the change was publicized later that day during a telecast of Monday Night RAW. For a short time, WWE used the slogan "Get The 'F' Out". [3]

In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on RAW, the other on SmackDown! due to the overabundance of talent left over from the Invasion storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE Brand Extension. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly Draft Lottery was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand. The new ECW program airs Tuesday nights, on the Sci Fi Channel. [4]
[edit]

Championships and accomplishments
[edit]

Current champions
Brand Championship Current champion(s) Held since
RAW WWE Champion John Cena September 17, 2006
WWE Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro June 25, 2006
WWE Women's Champion Vacant † September 18, 2006
World Tag Team Champions Spirit Squad††
(Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky, and Mikey) April 3, 2006
SmackDown! World Heavyweight Champion King Booker July 23, 2006
WWE United States Champion Mr. Kennedy August 29, 2006
(aired September 1, 2006)
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms January 29, 2006
WWE Tag Team Champions Paul London and Brian Kendrick May 21, 2006
ECW ECW World Heavyweight Champion The Big Show July 4, 2006

†The WWE Women's Championship was declared vacant on September 18th after a retiring Trish Stratus won the title at WWE Unforgiven.
†† All five members of the Spirit Squad are recognized as the World Tag Team Champions, and any two members can defend the title. This type of title defense is known as the Freebird Rule.
[edit]

Accomplishments
Brand Accomplishment Latest winner Date won
SmackDown! King of the Ring King Booker (Booker T) May 21, 2006
RAW and
SmackDown! Royal Rumble Rey Mysterio January 29, 2006
Money in the Bank Rob Van Dam April 2, 2006
Diva Search Layla El August 16, 2006
[edit]

Current developmental champions
Promotion Championship
or accomplishment Current champion(s) Held since
OVW OVW Heavyweight Champion Chet the Jett August 30, 2006
(aired September 2, 2006)
OVW Television Champion Charles "The Hammer" Evans August 23, 2006
(aired August 26, 2006)
OVW Southern Tag Team Champions The Untouchables
(Deuce Shade & "Domino" Cliff Compton) August 2, 2006
(aired August 5, 2006)
OVW Women's Champion Serena September 13, 2006
(aired September 16, 2006)
DSW Deep South Heavyweight Champion Bradley Jay September 7, 2006
Deep South Tag Team Champions High Impact
(Mike Taylor and Tony Santarelli) May 18, 2006
[edit]

Defunct championships and accomplishments

* WWE Undisputed Championship (2001-2002)
* WWE Hardcore Championship (1998-2002)
* WWE European Championship (1997-2002)
* WWF Light Heavyweight Championship (1981-2001)
* WWF North American Championship (1979-1981)
* WWWF United States Championship (1970-1976)
* WWWF United States Tag Team Championship (1963-1967)
* WWF Women's Tag Team Championship (1983-1989)
* WWF International Heavyweight Championship (1959-1963, 1982-1985)
* WWF International Tag Team Championship (1969-1985)
* WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship (1967-1985)
* WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (1991)
* WWF Million Dollar Championship (1989-1992, 1995-1996)
* WWF New Japan Martial Arts Championship (1978-1985)

[edit]

See also
World Wrestling Entertainment
History
Black Saturday | Monday Night Wars | Montreal Screwjob
The Invasion | Brand Extension
Current programming
RAW | Friday Night SmackDown | Extreme Championship Wrestling
Saturday Night's Main Event | HEAT
Afterburn | A.M. RAW | Bottom Line | The WWE Experience
Developmental territories
Ohio Valley Wrestling | Deep South Wrestling, LLC
Subsidiaries
The World | World Bodybuilding Federation | WWE Films | XFL
Miscellaneous
24/7 | Alumni | Diva Search | Draft Lottery | Hall of Fame | Pay-per-view
Ratings | Roster | Tough Enough | Video Library
[edit]

References

1. ^ a b c World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. Reports Q4 Results. WWE.com. Retrieved on August 28, 2006.
2. ^ WWE 2006 10-K Report. WWE.com. Retrieved on August 28, 2006.
3. ^ World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Drops The "F" To Emphasize the "E" for Entertainment, the WWE also must censor the old WWF logo on any DVDs and merchandise.. WWE.com. Retrieved on August 28, 2006.
4. ^ WWE brings ECW to Sci Fi Channel. WWE.com. Retrieved on August 28, 2006.

[edit]

External links

* Official WWE website
* Official WWE Corporate website
* WWE Stock

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wrestling_Entertainment"

Categories: Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | Articles with unsourced statements | 1952 establishments | Companies based in Connecticut | Entertainment companies of the United States | Sports entertain

NWA

2006-09-24T17:53:18Z

Pedrito:

==History==

The [[National Wrestling Alliance]] was, for most of the 20th Century, the preeminent wrestling promotion in the world. In actuality, the NWA was a confederation of many different promotions operating under a common name for both marketing and networking purposes. One could see an NWA show in [[Los Angeles]], [[Mexico City]], [[Tokyo]], or even small towns throughout the [[United States]] or [[Mexico]], and be assured of a quality show. In addition, talent was traded between cities or "territories" to keep a constant influx of fresh faces for fans to see. The arrangment was beneficial to the promotors, the wrestlers, and the fans.

The NWA traces its lineage back to the turn of the 1900's, when professional wrestling was still in its infancy, having only recently become something other than a completely legitimate sporting event.

Internationally renowned member promotions of the NWA included [[EMLL]] (until the Lutteroth family pulled out of the NWA and necame [[CMLL]]), Jim Crockett Promotions (until Ted Turner bought the company, eventually pulling out of the NWA and forming [[WCW]]), and even Vince McMahon Sr's [[WWF]], which was a member on two occassions, once upon its inception until a [[1960]] dispute over [[Buddy Rogers]] possession of the [[NWA World Heavyweight Championship]], and again in the early 1970's until the advent of cable television allowed [[Vince McMahon Jr]] to make the WWF a national entity in its own right.

The NWA sputtered after the secession of CMLL and WCW, and only recently became a major player in the international wrestling scene with the advent of [[Jeff Jarrett]]'s [[Total Nonstop Action]] promotion. TNA has seemingly revived the NWA from the dead, and the name of the NWA is once again strong.National Wrestling Alliance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The National Wrestling Alliance NWA is a group of independent professional wrestling promotions, in operation since 1948. Prior to the 1980s, it acted as a governing body for pro wrestling, operating the 'franchise'-like "territory" system.
National Wrestling Alliance
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Territories
* 2 Former Member Territories
* 3 Decline and Fall of the Territory System
* 4 The NWA Today
o 4.1 Hall of Fame
o 4.2 Current Major Promotions
* 5 Titles in the Company
o 5.1 World Championships
o 5.2 National Championships
o 5.3 Regional Championships
* 6 External links

[edit]

Territories

During its heyday, all the member promotions of the NWA had a monopoly over their given territory; the members of the NWA would all recognize the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as their highest title. Wrestlers, like Ric Flair, who held the NWA Title, could also go on tours of member promotions.

What this meant is that any member territory who broke the NWA's rules faced expulsion, and thus risked missing out on having wrestlers with household names appear in their territories. Similarly, if another promoter began performing shows in an NWA's territory, all the NWA members were obligated to send their best talent across to fend off the threat. Reportedly, threats of violence or physical retaliation were used against promoters who disregarded the territory system.

Thus the NWA used a "carrot and stick" approach to maintaining the territory system. For most promoters under the NWA umbrella, the benefits of membership were well worth the dues.

[edit]

Former Member Territories

Some prominent former NWA member promotions included:

* The now-defunct original American Wrestling Association (AWA) promotion was a member until 1960, but continued to attend the annual Board of Directors meetings and kept a close relationship with the NWA until 1986.
* The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), the forerunner to today's WWE (formerly WWF), was at various times an NWA member, or de facto member (The NWA would cooperate with the WWF in an NWA storyline in 1998 which featured former Jim Crockett promotion stars as part of the NWA faction). The angle involved Jim Cornette as the manager with wrestlers Jeff Jarrett, Barry Windham, Rock-N-Roll Express, and New Midnight Express.
* Sam Muchnick (two time president of the N.W.A.) and his "Wrestling at the Chase" organization in St. Louis
* The forerunners to the now defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW) were members of the NWA until 1993. These include:
o Jim Crockett Promotions
o Georgia Championship Wrestling (See Jim Crockett Promotions)
o Championship Wrestling From Florida
o Heart of America Sports Attractions Inc
o Mid South Sports withdrew to become the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) and later was bought out by Jim Crockett Promotions
* Pacific Northwest Wrestling
* Ed Farhat Promotions, which did business in Detroit as "Big Time Wrestling", was a member until owner Ed Farhat (who also wrestled as The Sheik) was expelled for violating NWA rules by appearing in an "outlaw territory" as a wrestler.
* National Wrestling Federation (Buffalo)
* Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was originally Eastern Championship Wrestling, an NWA member (ECW is now a WWE brand).
* United States Wrestling Association and its forerunners:
o Pro Wrestling USA
o World Class Championship Wrestling
o Continental Wrestling Association
* Continental Wrestling Federation and its forerunners:
o Southeastern Championship Wrestling
o Continental Championship Wrestling
* Southwest Championship Wrestling was a member from 1978 to 1983.
* Ohio Valley Wrestling was a member until 2001, when it became a developmental league for WWE
* Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) was an NWA member promotion up until their withdrawal in 2004. Soon after, they received the license to the rights for the NWA World Heavyweight & World Tag Team Championship belts.
* The Mexican promotion Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (now CMLL) was a member until the late 1980s
* In Japan, the membership was as follows:

NWA logo used by NJPW during 1992-93.
Enlarge
NWA logo used by NJPW during 1992-93.

*
o Japan Wrestling Association, originally owned by Rikidozan, until 1973.
o All Japan Pro Wrestling from 1973 to the late 1980s.
o New Japan Pro Wrestling has been a NWA member at various points, from 1975 to 1985 (only for control of the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship), from 1992 to 1993 (for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, and since 2004, although the NWA connection is rarely emphasized, and again it is for NWA World junior heavyweight title control).
o During the 1990s and early 2000s, NWA membership was scattered among a few independent promotions: International Wrestling Association of Japan (1994-96); Wrestle Yume Factory (1995-97), Universal Fighting Organization (1999-2000); and Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE (2001-04).
* There were two Caribbean promotions were NWA members:
o World Wrestling Council, owned by Carlos Colon and based in Puerto Rico; WWC/Capitol Sports was an NWA member from 1973 until 1987.
o International Wrestling Association, founded in 1994 by promoter Victor Quiñonez is also based in Puerto Rico(and for a short time promoting also in Japan) and left the NWA in 2001.
* Several Canadian promotions were also NWA members:
o Frank Tunney Sports, operated by Frank Tunney and based in Toronto. Tunney served as NWA president in the early 1960s. This promotion was an NWA member until 1984, when it joined forces with Vince McMahon's WWF
o NWA All Star Wrestling, co-owned by Gene Kiniski and Sandor Kovacs (sold to Al Tomko in the late 1970s) and based in Vancouver, British Columbia; it was an NWA member until 1985, when it withdrew to become the Universal Wrestling Alliance
o Stampede Wrestling, owned by Stu Hart and based in Calgary, Alberta; Stampede was part of the NWA until the early 1980s
o Canadian Wrestling Federation, owned and operated by the now last NWA President, Ernie Todd; it was an NWA member until 2005, when Todd resigned as NWA President, withdrawing the CWF, and joined AWA Superstars of Wrestling, run by Dale Gagne
o Eastern Sports Association, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia and run by Al Zinck; this NWA member ran in the Canadian Maritimes (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) during the summer months until 1977

[edit]

Decline and Fall of the Territory System

Video tape trading and cable television paved the way for the eventual death of the NWA's regional business, as fans could now see for themselves the plot holes and inconsistencies between the different regional storylines, and the presence of stars like Ric Flair on TV every week made their special appearances in each region less of a draw. World Wrestling Federation (WWF) promoter Vince McMahon used these gathering trends, and talent raids, to turn his northeastern territory into a national federation. To compete against this threat, various NWA promoters, along with the AWA, attempted to co-promote shows under the Pro Wrestling USA banner. However, this eventually fell apart, and the AWA ended up in possession of the group's ESPN timeslot, and used it to broadcast its own weekly shows.

Meanwhile, to hold off the threat of the WWF, promoter Jim Crockett Promotions decided to unify parts of the NWA, and create a national federation, by buying out some of the member promotions (or, in some cases, allowing them to quietly die out and simply absorbing their rosters.) However, by 1988 this led him to bankruptcy, and he sold off the promotion to Ted Turner as World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1991, the flagship WCW realized the NWA needed it more than it needed the NWA, and left. WCW continued, however, to claim certain aspects of the NWA's lineage. To make matters even more confusing, WCW spent much of 1992 and 1993 recognizing its own WCW World Champions in addition to the resurrected NWA Titles. In September of 1993, WCW severed its NWA connections for good, due to a lawsuit over whether or not WCW had the right to select NWA champions without supervision.

After the AWA's bankruptcy, and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) leaving, the NWA was a shell of its former self. Through the mid to late '90s, the all-but-forgotten organization was left with a small collection of independent federations during the peak of the Monday night ratings wars between the WCW and WWF.
[edit]

The NWA Today

There is still a group of promoters which hold membership in the NWA and continue to use the NWA name, although (with the exception of New Zealand's Steve Rickard) no members are holdovers from the membership of the promotion's "glory days" of the 1940s-1980s.

In order to join the NWA, a promoter must have been operating for at least one year in a territory uncontested by any other NWA member, and their application must be approved by a majority vote of the Board of Directors, although there are numerous exceptions to this bylaw currently within the organization. The presidency of the NWA was dissolved and the duties of the office assumed by the Board of Directors following the resignation of Ernie Todd, the promoter of NWA: Canadian Wrestling Federation, in August 2005. On his promotion's site, [1], not only does he explain his reasons for resigning from the NWA and its Board of Directors, but he states that he will be joining AWA Superstars of Wrestling. [2] In light of Mr. Todd's departure from the NWA, a couple users on the NWA's message board, [3], have posted ramblings and rantings that Mr. Todd has posted not only on his promotion's website, but on an indy message board. Other members on the NWA's message board have posted their thoughts on Ernie's departure and his decision to join the AWA. They criticize what Mr. Todd and the AWA President, Mr. Dale R. "Gagne" Gagner have been up to. It was announced on the NWA's website on Monday, October 10, 2005, that current NWA legal council Bob Trobich would become the new Executive Director to the NWA. As the new NWA Executive Director, Trobich will be the primary contact and decision maker for all NWA business.
[edit]

Hall of Fame

On October 8, 2005, the NWA launched its official Hall of Fame. Its inductees included:

* Lou Thesz
* Harley Race
* Sam Muchnick
* Jim Barnett
* Gordon Solie
* James Hogan

[edit]

Current Major Promotions

The NWA brand name has been seen most prominently in recent years in conjunction with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), a former NWA member promotion started by Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett in 2002 that later withdrew from the NWA in 2004. TNA was originally based in Nashville, Tennessee before moving to Orlando, Florida in 2004. TNA ran weekly pay-per-views for over two years before securing a national television deal with Fox Sports Net in June 2004 and Spike TV in 2005. When TNA secured the deal with Fox Sports Net, they began switching to a more conventional monthly PPV model. In addition, TNA have featured popular wrestlers such as Sting who have never appeared in WWE. In late 2003 the Jarretts sold a majority of their interest in the company to Panda Energy International, and then in 2004 negotiated a new deal to license the NWA name and the use of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Tag Team Championship for ten years.

The most visible NWA member promotion in the United States in recent times was undoubtedly NWA Wildside, which aired 300 consecutive weeks of syndicated television before closing in April 2005, when the promoter, Bill Behrens, signed a deal to work as a television syndicator for WWE.

The largest and most successful member promotion of the NWA was New Japan Pro Wrestling, which is the second largest and most profitable wrestling promotion in the world after WWE. NJPW is sanctioned by NWA member the legendary Antonio Inoki, who at times has also sanctioned Zero One and Universal Fighting Organization as NWA promotions. NJPW holds events consistently throughout Japan, and has also run shows in Europe and the United States.
[edit]

Titles in the Company
[edit]

World Championships

Upon its founding in 1948, the NWA Board of Directors recognized only three championships as world titles. There were however no rules within the organization preventing individual members promoting titles in other divisions as world titles. Only the first two are still recognized by the Board.

* NWA World Heavyweight Championship
* NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship
* NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (not an official NWA Title)

NWA promoters from EMLL in Mexico began promoting two more championships as World Titles, which were essentially regional titles controlled by EMLL. When EMLL withdrew from the organization in the 90's, the titles were no longer officially sanctioned by the NWA, however they were still promoted as NWA sanctioned titles by EMLL. In Lucha Libre, titles generally stay with their holder when that competitor leaves a region or company. This practice, has caused theses titles, along with the Light Heavyweight Championship, to be accepted as "world titles" in Japan and Mexico. Weight limits for the titles are loosely followed by Lucha Libre promotions.

* NWA World Middleweight Championship (not an official NWA Title)
* NWA World Welterweight Championship (not an official NWA Title)

In 1992, after decades of regional tag team championships being labeled as world titles by various promoters, the NWA held a tournament to crown the first Board of Directors recognized World Tag Team Champions. The tournament was conducted by member promotion WCW, which continued to recognize the NWA Mid-Atlantic/WCW version of the Tag Team Championship as well.

* NWA World Tag Team Championship

Prior to 1992, many NWA promoters sanctioned a regional version of a tag team championship as the "World Championship". Although named as world titles, none of the titles were sanctioned as the official world title by the Board of Directors, and were technically regional championships. The Mid-Atlantic version, promoted by Jim Crockett Promotions, became widely accepted as the legitimate World Title when many promotions began folding, or being bought out by JCP. With this consolidation, the Mid-Atlantic version became known as the World Tag Championship, although it was not technically recognized as such by the Board of Directors. It was, however, recognized as such by kayfabe magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated. As JCP evolved into World Championship Wrestling, this version of the title would become known as the WCW World Tag Team Title.

* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic Version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Los Angeles version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Texas version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Chicago version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Georgia version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Florida version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Detroit version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Minneapolis version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Central States version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-America version)
* NWA World Tag Team Championship (Vancouver version)

The following titles were also called "World Championships", but were actually just regional or company titles.

* NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic/World Class Championship Wrestling)
* NWA World Television Championship (Mid-Atlantic Version)
* NWA World Brass Knuckles Championship (Tennessee Version)
* NWA World Women's Championship
* NWA World Women's Tag Team Championship
* NWA World Midget's Championship
* NWA Independent World Heavyweight Championship

[edit]

National Championships

* NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship
* NWA North American Heavyweight Championship
* NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Amarillo version) (defunct)
* NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Hawaii version) (defunct)
* NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (defunct)
* NWA North American Tag Team Championship
* NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Mid-Atlantic/Georgia/WCW Version) (defunct-now a WWE Title)
* NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Chicago version) (defunct)
* NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Central States version) (defunct)
* NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Hawaii version) (defunct)
* NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Toronto version) (defunct)
* NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Detroit version) (defunct)
* NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (San Francisco version) (defunct)
* NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic/Georgia/WCW Version) (defunct)
* NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Northeast version) (defunct)
* NWA United States Women's Championship (defunct)
* NWA National Heavyweight Championship (US Version)
* NWA National Tag Team Championship (US Version)
* NWA National Television Championship (defunct)
* NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship (Calgary version) (defunct)
* NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship (Halifax version) (defunct)
* NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship (Toronto version) (defunct)
* NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship (Vancouver version) (defunct)
* NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship
* NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship (Calgary version) (defunct)
* NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship (Vancouver version) (defunct)

[edit]

Regional Championships

* NWA Alabama Heavyweight Championship
* NWA America's Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA America's Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA American Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA American Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Arizona Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Arkansas Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Atlantic Coast Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA "Beat the Champ" Television Championship (defunct)
* NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship
* NWA California Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Central States Television Championship (defunct)
* NWA Central States Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Colorado Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Eastern States Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Florida Television Championship (defunct)
* NWA Florida Bahamian Championship (defunct)
* NWA Florida Brass Knuckles Championship (defunct)
* NWA Florida X Division Championship
* NWA Florida Women's Championship
* NWA Florida Junior Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Florida Tag Team Championship
* NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Florida Southern Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Georgia Junior Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Georgia Southern Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Georgia Television Championship (defunct)
* NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship
* NWA Hawaii Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship
* NWA Heartland State Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Idaho Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Illinois Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Indiana Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Iowa Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Ireland Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Ireland Tag Team Championship
* NWA Kansas Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Louisiana Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship
* NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship
* NWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Midwest X Division Championship
* NWA Midwest Tag Team Championship
* NWA Midwest Women's Championship
* NWA Mid-Atlantic Television Championship (defunct)
* NWA Mid-Atlantic Women's Championship
* NWA Mississippi Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Mountain State Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Mountain State Light Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Mountain State Tag Team Championship
* NWA New England Heavyweight Championship
* NWA New England Junior Heavyweight Championship
* NWA New England Tag Team Championship
* NWA New England Television Championship
* NWA New England Colonial Heavyweight Championship
* NWA New England Brass Knuckles Championship
* NWA New England Women's Championship
* NWA New England X Division Championship
* NWA New Zealand Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Ohio Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Oklahoma Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Pacific International Championship (defunct)
* NWA Pacific Coast (San Francisco) Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Pacific Coast (San Francisco) Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Pacific Coast (Vancouver) Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Pacific Coast (Vancouver) Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Pacific Northwest Television Championship (defunct)
* NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Rocky Mountain Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Scottish Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Shockwave Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Shockwave Internet Championship
* NWA Shockwave Cruiser X Championship
* NWA Shockwave Tag Team Championship
* NWA Shockwave Women's Championship
* NWA Southeast Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southeast Continental Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southeast Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southeast Continental Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southeast Television Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southeast United States Junior Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southeast Alabama Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southeast Alabama Junior Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southern Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southern Women's Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southwest Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Southwest Junior Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Tennessee Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Tennessee Southern Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Texas Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA United Kingdom Central Counties Championship
* NWA United Kingdom Heavyweight Championship
* NWA United Kingdom Junior Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Virginia Alpha Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Virginia Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Virginia Junior Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Virginia Tag Team Championship
* NWA Western States Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Western States Heritage Championship (defunct)
* NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (defunct)
* NWA Wildside Hardcore Championship (defunct)
* NWA Wildside Light Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Wildside United States Heavyweight Championship (defunct)
* NWA Wisconsin Heavyweight Championship
* NWA Wisconsin Tag Team Championship
* NWA Wisconsin X Division Championship

[edit]

External links

* The Official Website of the National Wrestling Alliance
* The Official Website of TNA Wrestling
* NWA Title Histories

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Wrestling_Alliance"

Categories: National Wrestling Alliance | Jim Crockett Promotions | 1948 establis

==Relation to Lucha Libre==

EMLL was a strong member of the NWA until the 1990's, and were given control of many of the world-class championships of the alliance, such as the [[NWA World Middleweight Championship]], the [[NWA World Welterweight Championship]], and the [[NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship]] soon after the NWA was created.

While the current version of the NWA no longer recognizes these championships, CMLL still presents them as if the old version of the NWA still existed and was running the same way it had at it's start. NWA title match referees are required to wear NWA patches on their shirt, and CMLL has used the idea of (fictional) NWA rankings to explain why and when wrestlers gets NWA title chances.

[[NWA World Heavyweight Championship|NWA World Heavyweight Champions]] occasionally wrestled in Mexico and defended the championship, though it has never changed hands in Mexico.

==For More Information==

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Wrestling_Alliance Wikipedia:NWA]

{{stub}}

[[Category:Promotions]]

WCW

2006-09-24T17:51:35Z

Pedrito:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Championship_Wrestling Wikipedia:WCW]

{{stub}}

[[Category:Promotions]]
World Championship Wrestling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jump to: navigation, search

For the Nintendo Entertainment System video game, see WCW Wrestling. For the Australian promotion, see WCW Australia.

World Championship Wrestling
Details
Acronym WCW
Established 1986
Style American Wrestling
Location Atlanta, Georgia
Founder(s) Ted Turner
Owner(s) Turner Broadcasting System (TBS)/Turner (1988-96)
Time Warner (1996-2001)
Vince McMahon (2001-present)
Parent Turner Broadcasting System (TBS)/Turner (1988-96)
Time Warner (1996-2001)
World Wrestling Entertainment (2001-Present)
Formerly NWA Eastern States Championship Wrestling
NWA Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling
Georgia Championship Wrestling
Jim Crockett Promotions
NWA World Championship Wrestling
Universal Wrestling Corporation
Merged with World Wrestling Entertainment

World Championship Wrestling or WCW, was a professional wrestling promotion based in Atlanta, Georgia that existed from 1986 to 2001. In March 2001, the company's assets, including trademarks, some wrestler contracts, and extensive video library were purchased by the World Wrestling Federation, who continued to use the name as part of a storyline until November 2001, when the promotion officially ceased. The intellectual properties of WCW, including the tape library and assorted trademarks, are now organized as WCW, Inc., a subsidiary of WWE.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
o 1.1 In the beginning: The NWA years
o 1.2 WCW Under Ted Turner: The Early Years
o 1.3 The Bischoff era begins
o 1.4 Monday Night Wars
o 1.5 Starrcade 1997
o 1.6 Vince McMahon strikes back
o 1.7 The Death of WCW
* 2 Final champions
* 3 WCW titles
* 4 WCW special tournaments
* 5 Books/DVD
* 6 See also
* 7 External links

[edit]

History
[edit]

In the beginning: The NWA years

Although World Championship Wrestling was a brand name used by promoter Jim Barnett for his Australian promotion, the first promotion in the United States to use the World Championship Wrestling brand name (though it was never referred to as "WCW") on a wide scale was Georgia Championship Wrestling (although Vincent James McMahon's Capitol Wrestling Corpotation did in fact use the name in some house show promotion).

This promotion, owned primarily by Jack Brisco and Gerald Brisco and booked by Ole Anderson, was the first NWA territory to gain cable TV access. In 1983, Georgia Championship Wrestling changed the name of its television show (and thus its public face) to World Championship Wrestling since it was already starting to run shows in "neutral" territories such as Ohio and Michigan. Although many in the business felt that Anderson was mismanaging the company, Georgia Championship Wrestling had managed to compete against the other major territory trying to go national (Vince McMahon's WWF).

Main article: Black Saturday (1984)

In May 1984, the Brisco brothers sold their shares in Georgia Championship Wrestling, including their timeslot on the TBS cable TV network to Vince McMahon. The WWF show did not fare well in ratings. World Championship Wrestling's core audience was not interested in the WWF's cartoony approach, preferring a more athletic style. Despite originally promising to produce original programming for the TBS timeslot in Atlanta, McMahon chose instead to provide only a clip show for TBS, featuring highlights from other WWF programming. In May 1985, McMahon sold the TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions, owned by Jim Crockett, Jr., under pressure from Ted Turner, who resurrected the World Championship Wrestling name (Turner Broadcasting had copyrighted it and prevented McMahon from using it).

By 1986, Jim Crockett, Jr. controlled key portions of the NWA under the name Jim Crockett Promotions, including the traditional NWA territories in The Carolinas, Georgia, and St. Louis. Crockett merged his various NWA territories into one group, and promoted it under the name NWA World Championship Wrestling. A feud between Crockett and Vince McMahon's WWF sprang up, and both companies attempted to outmaneuver the other to acquire key TV slots.

In the same year, WCW also purchased Heart of America Sports Attractions Inc (HASA), which owned the rights to promote wrestling shows through several central states (Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa). HASA was known to fans as NWA Central States, and ran a TV show called All Star Wrestling.

In 1987, WCW would purchase Championship Wrestling from Florida, and Universal Wrestling Federation (which covered Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana), which was not an NWA member. Florida & Mid-South (and its wrestlers) were absorbed into WCW.

Crockett had almost accomplished his goal of creating a national promotion. Between his purchasing several NWA territories, World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas leaving the NWA in 1986 (and later merging with Jerry Jarrett's Championship Wrestling Alliance in Memphis to create the United States Wrestling Association) brand, and the once highly viable Portland territory going bankrupt (it closed in 1992), he was the last bastion of the NWA, and the last member with national TV exposure. Since it was all they now saw, many people began to believe that World Championship Wrestling was the NWA. Although WCW and the NWA were still two separate entities, with Crockett as NWA President, they were very much on the same page. The NWA was effectively an on-paper organization funded by Crockett, and allowed Crockett to use the NWA brand name for promoting.

With the large amount of capital needed to take a wrestling federation on a national tour, Crockett's territorial acquisitions had seriously drained WCW's coffers. He was in a similar situation to that of the WWF in the early 1980s: a large debt load, and the success or failure of a federation hinging on the success or failure of a series of PPVs. Crockett marketed StarrCade '87 as the NWA's answer to WrestleMania. However, the WWF promoted Survivor Series on the same day, and threatened to withhold WrestleMania IV from any PPV company that refused to show it. Later, in January 1988, WCW promoted the Bunkhouse Stampede PPV, and McMahon counter-programmed with the first Royal Rumble on USA. Both WCW PPVs achieved low buyrates.

In 1985, Crockett had signed Dusty Rhodes and made him booker for WCW. Rhodes had a reputation for creativity and authored many of the memorable feuds and storylines of this period and gimmick matches like WarGames. By 1988, after three years of trying to compete with Vince McMahon, and a long, drawn-out political struggle with champion Ric Flair, Rhodes was burned out. He was unable to draw fan interest in his storylines, and the Dusty finish had reduced the house show market. By the end of 1988, Rhodes was booking cards seemingly at random, and planning at one point to have mid-card wrestler Rick Steiner defeat Ric Flair in a five-minute match at StarrCade for the NWA World Championship. At the end of 1988, Rhodes was fired by the promotion after an angle he booked where Road Warrior Animal pulled a spike out of his shoulderpad and jammed it in Rhodes's eye busting it wide open.
[edit]

WCW Under Ted Turner: The Early Years

To preserve the inexpensive network programming provided by professional wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions was purchased outright by Turner on November 21, 1988. Originally incorporated by TBS as the Universal Wrestling Corporation, Turner promised the fans that WCW would be the athlete-oriented style of NWA.

1989 proved to be a turnaround year for WCW, with Ric Flair on top for most of the year both as World Champion and also as head booker. Flair had helped bring in Ricky Steamboat and Terry Funk, and his PPV matches with both were successful, financially and critically. Young stars such as Sid Vicious, Sting, Scott Steiner, The Road Warriors, Brian Pillman, The Great Muta and Lex Luger were given big storylines and championship opportunities.

Despite this influx of talent, WCW soon began working to gradually incorporate much of the glamor and showy gimmicks for which the WWF was better known. Virtually none of these stunts, such as the live cross-promotional appearance of RoboCop at a PPV event in 1990, the Chamber of Horrors gimmick and the notorious Black Scorpion storyline, succeeded. Behind the scenes, WCW was also becoming more autonomous and slowly started separating itself from the historic NWA name. In January 1991, WCW officially split from the NWA and began to recognize its own WCW World Heavyweight Championship and WCW World Tag Team Championship.

For more details on this topic, see Jim Herd.

Both the WCW and the NWA recognized Ric Flair (who was by now no longer the head booker) as their World Heavyweight Champion throughout most of the first half of 1991, but WCW, particularly recently-installed company president Jim Herd, turned against Flair for various reasons and fired him just prior to the July 1991 Great American Bash PPV after failed contract negotiations. In the process, they officially stripped him of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. However, according to Flair's autobiography, they refused to return the $25,000 deposit he had put down on the (physical) belt, so he kept it and took it with him when he was hired by the WWF at the request of Vince McMahon. Flair then incorporated the belt into his gimmick, dubbing himself "The Real World's Champion".

WCW later renegotiated the use of the NWA name as a co-promotional gimmick with New Japan Pro Wrestling, and sued the WWF to stop showing Flair with the old NWA World title belt on its programs, claiming a trademark on the physical design of the belt. The belt was returned to WCW by Flair when Jim Herd was let go and he received his deposit back plus interest, and it was brought back as the revived NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

During the period that WCW operated with its own World Champion while also recognizing the NWA's world title, Flair quit the WWF and returned to WCW, regaining the title from Barry Windham in July 1993. Immediately, the other, now smaller, member organizations of the NWA began demanding that Flair defend the title under their rules in their territories, as mandated by old NWA agreements. The title was later scheduled to be dropped by Flair to Rick Rude, a title change which was exposed by the Disney Tapings, the months-in-advance taping of WCW's syndicated television shows at Disney-owned studios in Orlando, Florida. The NWA board of directors, working separately from WCW, objected to Rude, with WCW finally leaving the NWA for good again in September 1993.

See also: WCW_Disney_tapings#Logistical_Errors

However, WCW still legally owned and used the actual belt which represented the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (Rick Rude even defended it as The Big Gold Belt) but they could no longer use the NWA name. The title thus became known as the WCW International World Heavyweight Title (meaning the World heavyweight championship as sanctioned by "WCW International," a fictional organization made up of promoters from around the world, essentially their in-house version of the real NWA).

WCW realized that the title belt, because of its rich in-ring history and visual impact, was highly sought after and respected in Japan and as such created this fictional subsidiary dubbed WCW International to inject some credibility back into the belt. WCW claimed that "WCWI" still recognized the belt as a legitimate World Championship. For a short while, there were essentially two World titles up for competition in the organization.

Sting eventually won the WCW International Championship and lost the belt to then-WCW World Champion Ric Flair in a unification match in May 1994 when the experiment was jettisoned. To make things more confusing, the WCW title belt, as introduced in 1991, was dropped and the old NWA Championship belt was revived and officially replaced it as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. It was used as such until WCW's closure in 2001. The belt (in a slightly altered design) is still seen today in WWE as the World Heavyweight Championship on their SmackDown! brand (previously on RAW). However, WWE considers it a separate title and WWE.com officially lists the title history of the World Heavyweight Championship as beginning with Triple H being awarded the belt by Eric Bischoff on RAW on September 2, 2002.
[edit]

The Bischoff era begins
WCW logo from 1988-1999.
Enlarge
WCW logo from 1988-1999.

The creative product of the company sank very noticeably in 1992 and 1993 under the presidency of Jim Herd and, subsequently, Bill Watts. There were signs of gradual recovery in late 1993 when former commentator and American Wrestling Association (AWA) booker Eric Bischoff was appointed as Executive Vice President of WCW. Bischoff, originally brought in as a secondary commentator behind Jim Ross after the AWA became defunct, was desperate to give WCW a new direction and impressed Turner's top brass with his confrontational tactics and business-savvy.

Bischoff's first year was considered unsuccessful. Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson were in full creative control at this point, with what were considered to be cartoonish storylines, as well as seemingly pointless feuds with little or no buildup. During a segment of "A Flair For the Gold" on a live Clash of the Champions to build up the Fall Brawl PPV, WCW decided to introduce a "mystery partner" for the babyfaces, a masked man known as The Shockmaster. The Shockmaster (previously known as Typhoon in the WWF) was supposed to crash through a fake wall and intimidate the heels. Instead, he tripped through the wall and fell on live television, rendering himself as a joke character (despite winning some matches.)

WCW in 1993 decided to base the promotion around Ric Flair. This was seen as more or less a necessity, as prospective top babyface Sid Vicious tried to injure wrestler Arn Anderson with a pair of scissors four weeks before StarrCade while on tour in England and was fired. Flair won the title at StarrCade and was once again made booker.

Bischoff would declare open war on McMahon's WWF in the media and aggressively recruited high-profile former WWF superstars such as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in 1994. Using Turner's monetary resources, Bischoff placed his faith in the established stars with proven track records. Because of their high profiles, Hogan and Savage were able to demand and get several concessions not usually allowed to wrestlers at the time, such as multi-year, multimillion dollar guaranteed contracts and significant creative control. This would later become a problem during subsequent years of competition with the WWF, as other wrestlers were able to make similar demands, and contract values soared out of control. Hogan, in particular, was able to gain considerable influence through a friendship with Bischoff. Another thing Bischoff may have failed to consider was the fact that many WCW fans watched it as an alternative to the product of the WWF in the early 90s, and many NWA fans saw the hiring of former WWF talent as an attempt to copy its success, as opposed to being an alternative product with an emphasis on in-ring action.

WCW's first major event since Hogan's hiring, Bash at the Beach, saw the former WWF mainstay defeat Ric Flair for the WCW Championship. The two had worked for the WWF at the same time from 1991 to 1992, and a feud was teased between them, but the big-money match originally planned for WrestleMania VIII was changed to Flair/Savage and Hogan/Sid. When WCW delivered the match, the PPV drew a high buy rate by WCW standards due to mainstream intrigue and hype.

This was not lost on Turner management, however, and Bischoff's bold, expensive steps didn't quite meet their expectations when they came to check up on things in mid-1995. Thus, Bischoff called Turner and requested a private meeting, which he was granted.
[edit]

Monday Night Wars

Main article: Monday Night Wars

Bischoff would be instrumental in launching the weekly show WCW Monday Nitro in September 1995. Turner asked Bischoff how WCW could conceivably compete with McMahon's WWF. Bischoff, not expecting Turner to comply, said that the only way would be a primetime slot on a weekday night, possibly up against the WWF's flagship show, Monday Night RAW. Surprisingly for Bischoff, Turner granted him a live hour on TNT every Monday night, which specifically overlapped with Raw. This format quickly expanded to two live hours in May 1996, and then later three. Bischoff himself was initially the host, alongside Bobby Heenan and ex-NFL star Steve "Mongo" McMichael.

McMahon later admitted to being bitter about Turner's decision to air Nitro live on Monday nights, saying that Turner and Bischoff's only reason for doing this could be to hurt and damage the WWF. Turner and McMahon certainly had something of a personal history: in the early 1980s, when McMahon began buying up local organizations in order to create a nationwide wrestling system, one of the promotions he took over was Georgia Championship Wrestling; thus he was in the position of providing a Saturday night show for Turner's TBS station. When viewers tuned to TBS on July 14, 1984 (a date known as Black Saturday by some in the wrestling community) and saw WWF programming instead of the GCW wrestlers they were used to seeing, many called the station and demanded the NWA's return; two weeks later, GCW returned, albeit on Saturday mornings. Turner quickly grew tired of the personality-driven glitz of McMahon's product and was upset at the fact that McMahon had gone back on his earlier promise not to dump second-rate stars and matches onto TBS. Turner therefore axed McMahon's show and turned to Jim Crockett for the Saturday night pro wrestling slot. It is rumored that on the very same day that Turner later acquired Crockett's territories, he called McMahon to say "Vince, I'm in the rasslin' business!" McMahon claims he congratulated him and then told him "That's great Ted. I'm in the entertainment business."

In 1995, Turner (as sole head and owner of both TBS and TNT), could air Nitro whenever he wanted. The WWF on the other hand was constrained by having to deal with the USA Network, whose executives were pleased about the viewers RAW brought to their network, but were also weary of the stigma associated with being the wrestling channel. WCW Monday Nitro made its debut in September 1995 live from the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and featured the surprise appearance of Lex Luger, who had been working on a handshake deal with WWF after his most recent contract expired, on a week when RAW was pre-empted by the US Open.

In the first head-to-head ratings the following week, Nitro managed to convincingly defeat RAW, seeing WCW beat the WWF for the first time ever. For most of Nitro's first year, the ratings battle between the two promotions were close. In the end, Nitro ended up beating RAW in the ratings for 84 straight weeks between 1996 and 1998.

RAW and the WWF in general was consided to be at a creative nadir from 1995 to 1997, thus helping WCW's meteoric rise. The WWF tried in vain to fight back in early 1996 with the "Billionaire Ted" sketches, which occasionally starred an unbilled Vince Russo and parodied Turner, Hogan ("The Huckster"), Gene Okerlund ("Scheme Gene") and Savage ("Nacho Man") in particular. Only when stars such as ex-WCW wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin began to emerge, and when McMahon selected Russo, a New York DJ and WWF magazine writer, as his head booker, did the WWF begin to pick up steam.

Siphoning off the WWF's talent and airing Nitro on Monday night was not the end of WCW's tactics to defeat the competition (a stunt McMahon himself pulled when he steamrolled over territories to monopolize the WWF, although McMahon would be the one crying "foul" this time). In the early days, as RAW was only live once every three weeks at that point, and as hours of upcoming shows would be taped in one arena on one night, announcers on Nitro could (and would) often give away the results of that week's RAW to keep viewers tuned to Nitro. Much later, with the WWF firmly back on top, this tactic memorably backfired on January 4, 1999, when WCW announcer Tony Schiavone was instructed by Bischoff over his headset to announce that Mick Foley (wrestling as Mankind in the WWF), would win the WWF Championship that night on the USA Network. Schiavone then sarcastically remarked, "that would put a lot of butts in the seats." Nielsen ratings for that night showed that almost immediately after Schiavone's comment, around 300,000 to 600,000 viewers switched from Nitro to RAW in a matter of seconds. This startling ratings switch was seen as a true testament to Foley's dedication to wrestling and the WWF's ever-growing popularity.
[edit]

Starrcade 1997

Main article: Starrcade 1997
See also:NWO

In 1997, WCW entered its peak, largely due to the NWO storyline. During that time, the NWO Feuded with Sting, this feud served to buildup the Starrcade Pay Per View and after Halloween Havoc when Roddy Piper defeated Hogan via Sting, the WCW World Championship match was held on Starrcade. When WCW delivered the Sting VS Hogan match for the WCW World Championship, the PPV drew WCW's biggest buyrate and Bischoff was largely praised in the months leading up to this pay-per-view because of his refusal to "hotshot" (give away a big money PPV match before proper build up, causing a lesser buy rate) Sting vs. Hogan for the WCW world title. However, some wrestling fans consider this show to be the beginning of the end for WCW, even though WCW was dominating the WWF in television ratings at the time. Hogan was heavily criticized for not doing a clean finish which confused and irritated fans who had waited over a year to see Sting take down the nWo.

The finish actually involved a recently-introduced Bret Hart (Who had refed the Bischoff VS Larry Zbyszko match for control of Monday Nitro in the previous match) coming down to the ring after Hogan "won" the match through a supposedly fast count by referee Nick Patrick, ostensibly to "make things right" and protect Sting from being "screwed," a la the Montreal Screwjob.

Unfortunately, the "fast" three-count which Hogan used to win was quite obviously a normal-speed count, requiring the announcers to act as though it was fast, since that was the finish they had been told - though everyone viewing the show had just seen a clean pinfall.

Rather than the triumphant victory that one would expect the most popular wrestler in the company to gain over the hated man he had been chasing for over a year, as Sting had Hogan, the finish was confused and chaotic, with the live audience visibly displeased at the entire spectacle. Hart "restarted" the match, and Sting quickly won the title, but given the circumstances, excitement was rather muted.

It is rumored that Hogan paid Patrick a sum in cash backstage before the show in exchange for failing to execute the planned finish, with the intent of protecting Hogan's image. The entire debacle resulted in the title being held up for another Hogan-Sting pay-per-view match, which many WCW fans took as a slap in the face and a hapless attempt to draw additional money to see the result WCW had failed to deliver the first time around. After this, WCW would enter a creative stall from which the company would never escape, this gave Vince McMahon and the WWF one last shot from which Vince was quick to exploit.
[edit]

Vince McMahon strikes back

See also:Monday Night Wars: The Tide Turns

When Hart left the WWF after the Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 Survivor Series it looked as WCW was going to push the WWF right off the map. WCW had seemingly the big stars people wanted to see like Hogan, Nash, Hall, Hart, Flair, Etc. as the popular opinion was that this was a deathblow for the WWF and a major score for WCW. The combination of a company screwing over a popular wrestler and angering many fans should have dealt a massive blow to the WWF and given WCW a great amount of hype to work from. However, after WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, the WWF regained the lead in the Monday Night Wars with its new WWF Attitude brand, led in particular by rising stars "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H and Mankind. The classic feud between McMahon (who was re-imagined and re-branded as the evil company chairman character Mr. McMahon) and Austin (who, ironically, had been released by Bischoff in the summer of 1995 for not being marketable) caught the imaginations of fans. The April 13, 1998 episode of RAW, headlined by a match between Austin and McMahon, marked the first time that WCW had lost the head-to-head Monday night ratings battle in the 84 weeks since 1996. WWF didn't stop there. Their ratings increased dramatically in the next two years, more than ever before. WCW attempted to counter this by dividing the nWo into the Hogan-led heel nWo Hollywood faction and the Nash-led face nWo Wolfpac faction, but many felt that it was a poor rehash of the original WCW vs. nWo storyline. Undeterred, WCW also launched a new Thursday TV show, the aforementioned WCW Thunder, around this time.

WCW's next big attempt at ratings supremacy was marketing ex-NFL newcomer Bill Goldberg as an invincible monster with a record-breaking winning streak. Goldberg was indeed incredibly popular from the outset, with chants of 'Gold-berg, Gold-berg' heralding his approach to the ring, but business still quickly fell off for WCW, especially as the list of stars ready to be destroyed by Goldberg grew shorter. One of WCW's last big genuine wins in the Monday night ratings war was on July 6, 1998, when WCW gave the long-awaited World Title match in Atlanta between Hogan and Goldberg (which Goldberg won), away for free on Nitro. By doing this, they indeed 'spiked' and inflated their TV ratings for a week, but lost millions of possible PPV dollars in the process, as Hogan vs. Goldberg was a clear PPV main event. On September 14, 1998, WCW won the ratings war once again with a memorable moment that featured Ric Flair's return to WCW and the reformation of the legendary Four Horsemen. On October 25, 1998, WCW's Halloween Havoc PPV ended up running longer than the time allowed due to the last-minute addition of a Tag Team Title match. As a result, several thousand people lost the PPV feed at 11pm which was during the World Title match between Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg. The following night, WCW decided to correct the problem by airing the entire match for free on Nitro and thus winning the ratings war for the final time.

WCW slowly slid into a period of extravagant overspending and what was viewed almost universally as creative decline with the reason why it happened and who let it happen still a matter of debate. One possible reason was the overuse of celebrities (such as Dennis Rodman and Jay Leno) to wrestle PPV matches. Another was that the WCW's credibility was badly damaged by embarrassing product placement, like Rick Steiner trading barbs with Chucky the killer doll (which was roundly booed by the in-house audience on the live Nitro broadcast) in the hopes of generating interest in the 1998 film Bride of Chucky. Another reason vould be the stale, pointless, and at times self-serving storylines concocted by inexperienced bookers such as Kevin Nash, and that the top-level stars had no motivation to excel in the ring due to their long-term guaranteed-money contracts, and only gave their utmost when it suited them to do so. What is known is that WCW programming slowly started to go downhill in quality with people turning off their TVs or switching to WWF programming, and in reaction the company began to panic and tried to solve its problems by throwing money at a variety of personalities, a practice it could ill-afford to engage in. Many talents were reportedly signed simply to keep them from appearing on WWF television. At one point, WCW held over 260 individual performers under guaranteed contracts, and often paid many of them to simply stay at home and collect a paycheck.

As mentioned above, people were growing suspicious of Nash's questionable storylines, which were dominated by his on-screen persona. After booking himself to win the World War 3 battle royal in November 1998, he went on to end Goldberg's winning streak and win the World Title on the StarrCade PPV just one month later. Then came the infamous "fingerpoke of doom" match with Hulk Hogan in January 1999. The particular Nitro in which this match aired was being advertised as a StarrCade rematch between Nash and Goldberg. As a result, the arena was a complete sellout, with over 40,000 people watching live and millions more around the world hoping for the rematch. Instead, a storyline that put Goldberg in a bad light called for him to be replaced by Hollywood Hogan. The World Heavyweight Championship changed hands when Hogan knocked Nash to the mat by prodding him in the chest with one finger and then pinning him, further damaging the credibility and perceived value of the title. Also damaged was the credibility of the company itself, which did not present the match that had been advertised, as well as what was perceived to be an underhanded way of selling out the arena for that night's telecast. It was also this same episode of Nitro that Tony Schiavone mockingly announced the Mick Foley WWF Title win, which shifted the ratings for the night in the World Wrestling Federation's favor.

For more details on this topic, see Fingerpoke_of_Doom#The_Impact.

Also in 1998, The Ultimate Warrior, a former WWF star, was recruited by Eric Bischoff to feud with Hogan (Warrior's WrestleMania VI opponent). Their October 1998 encounter at Halloween Havoc was mostly seen as sub-par, and Warrior vanished soon after. The Ultimate Warrior also insisted on a number of elaborate and costly apparatuses such as a trapdoor in the ring, which badly injured The British Bulldog when he landed on it.

For more details on this topic, see Warrior_(wrestler)#World_Championship_Wrestling.

In addition, no matter who was in charge, WCW did not like promoting its younger stars to the company's top slots. Despite having many talented younger wrestlers such as Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Billy Kidman, Chavo Guerrero, Jr., Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Raven, Rey Mysterio, Jr., and Booker T on its roster, they were kept away from the main event scene. What was seen as WCW's poor talent decisions combined with the massive popularity of the new, hip and edgy WWF Attitude Era, likely began WCW's rapid demise.

Bischoff was eventually removed from power by the Turner higher-ups on September 10, 1999, the last straws perhaps being what was felt as a bizarre and mystifying push for the 1970s rock group KISS through WCW shows, a storyline involving rapper Master P and The No Limit Soldiers that saw Master P last only two weeks (the "No Limit Soldiers" stable flopped so badly that the West Texas Rednecks heel stable that they were feuding with was cheered by the WCW's traditional southern fanbase); an announced million-dollar contest that was later cancelled; a planned Nitro animated series that was scrapped, as well; and Bischoff's long-standing desire to put on a huge, outdoor rock 'n' wrestling concert featuring KISS on December 31, 1999.

See also: Eric_Bischoff#Downfall

[edit]

The Death of WCW

See also: Vince_Russo#WCW

Bischoff was unexpectedly replaced by former WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrera. Russo and Ferrera had been the head writers for the WWF at the beginning of the Attitude Era, subordinate only to Vince McMahon himself. WCW offered them lucrative contracts to jump ship in October 1999 in an effort to revitalize their own flagging product and weaken the product of the WWF. Russo and Ferrera tried to push the younger WCW talents straight away, and phase out aging stars such as Hogan and Flair. However, Russo was thought by many to be incapable of recreating the intriguing and cutting-edge TV he had produced while working for McMahon.

Russo and Ferrera struggled to gain approval for their near-the-knuckle ideas from the WCW management, such as "Piñata on a Pole" matches between Mexican wrestlers. In late 1999, Russo and Ferrera revived the nWo storyline, this time with Jeff Jarrett and Bret Hart at the helm. They next targeted WWF announcer Jim Ross with a parody character called "Oklahoma", who was played onscreen by Ferrera (Ross had been suffering from Bell's palsy, and the character lampooned his resultant facial defects). Bad luck struck in December 1999 when Hart suffered a genuine (and ultimately career-ending) concussion at the hands of Goldberg, who severely damaged his own hand less than a week later while punching through a limousine window in Salisbury, Maryland as part of a storyline that was written by Russo. Russo himself became an onscreen character during this period, though one whose face was never shown on camera, in a manner similar to Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget and the George Steinbrenner character from Seinfeld. Only his hand and the back of his chair were ever actually seen, as he called wrestlers into his office to receive their marching orders for the night.

See also: Bret_Hart#World_Championship_Wrestling

Both Russo and Ferrera were suspended just three months later amid rumors that they wanted to make former UFC fighter Tank Abbott the WCW Champion (Abbott, despite his legitimate fighting background, had little wrestling experience and had failed to connect with WCW audiences). Kevin Sullivan, who had been an on/off booker over the course of several years, was placed in charge in the interim. The new writing team attempted to appease the demoralized wrestlers and fans by making Chris Benoit the WCW Champion at the Souled Out PPV in January 2000. However, because of the real-life personal issues between himself and Sullivan, let alone that prior to the PPV he and a few other wrestlers demanded their releases from the company (due to their lack of being pushed to stardom as well as their similar hatred for Sullivan), Benoit handed the belt back right after winning it and the next day left WCW. He signed with the WWF along with his similarly frustrated friends Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko. The four quickly became popular in the WWF as "The Radicalz".

On February 11, 2000, black wrestlers Bobby Walker and Harrison Norris and Japanese manager Sonny Onoo launched racial discrimination lawsuits against WCW, claiming that, as a result of their ethnicities, they had not been pushed, had not been paid as well as other wrestlers and personalities, and had been given offensive gimmicks. Some speculated that the charges of racism brought against WCW (and the resultant bad publicity for the company, which had been dogged by accusations of racism for years), were partially responsible for black wrestler Booker T winning the WCW Championship later that year and his brother Stevie Ray being made a color commentator, with Ray himself acknowledging that it might have been a factor.

In April 2000, with ratings hitting new lows, both Russo and Bischoff were reinstated by WCW. They formed an on-screen union that stood up for the younger talent in the company (which they dubbed the New Blood) in their battle against the Millionaires Club, which consisted of the older, higher-paid, and more visible stars such as Hogan, Sting, and Diamond Dallas Page. Though initially well-received, the storyline quickly degenerated into yet another nWo rehash, with the heel nWo recast as the New Blood and the face WCW embodied in the Millionaire's Club. As well, the unorthodox and often controversial storylines continued. These included making actor David Arquette the WCW Champion in order to promote a WCW-themed movie, Ready to Rumble; Russo himself winning the WCW Championship in September 2000 (Russo, like Arquette, was not a trained wrestler); a botched June heel turn for Goldberg that greatly diminished his drawing power; and a shoot speech by Russo at Bash at the Beach 2000 aimed at Hulk Hogan which led to Hogan resigning and filing a defamation of character lawsuit against the company (which was eventually dismissed in 2002). Bischoff vanished once more in July 2000, and Russo was gone from WCW completely by late 2000, leaving Terry Taylor holding the reins.

For more details on this topic, see Hulk_Hogan#The_end_of_Hogan_in_WCW.

Meanwhile, when Time Warner bought out Turner's cable empire in 1996, it also purchased WCW. Even though Turner was a big fan and faithful to the professional wrestling shows on his stations (a professional wrestling program had helped get Turner's very first TV station, WTBS, off the ground, and WCW was, in fact, the modern incarnation of the promotion that Turner had run on WTBS back in those days) regardless of whether it was losing him money, Time Warner did not share his loyalty, especially when accounts showed that WCW was losing between $12-$17 million a year because of its decline. However, Turner was still the single largest Time Warner shareholder, and WCW was supported at his behest. When AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000, Turner was effectively forced out of his own empire. The new AOL Time Warner finally had the power to auction off WCW, which they saw as an unnecessary drain on resources.

In late 2000, Bischoff and a group of private investors, calling themselves Fusient Media Ventures, inquired about buying WCW but backed out when Turner networks head (and The WB founder) Jamie Kellner formally cancelled all WCW programming from its TV networks. With no network to air its programming, WCW was of little value to Fusient, whose offer was dependent on the Turner networks continuing to air WCW programming.

On March 23, 2001, virtually all of WCW's trademarks and archived footage was sold to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. for $7 million (although the book The Death of WCW claimed it was less than $3 million).

A gloating McMahon opened the last-ever episode of WCW Monday Nitro simulcast with RAW on March 26, 2001 with a self-praising speech. US Champion Booker T cleanly defeated the world champion, Scott Steiner, to become WCW's final World Heavyweight Champion, as well as its final US Heavyweight Champion. Sting vs. Ric Flair (won by Sting) was the highlight nostalgia match of the final broadcast, ending affectionately with a respectful embrace.
The WCW logo used in the WWF during the 2001 Invasion storyline.
Enlarge
The WCW logo used in the WWF during the 2001 Invasion storyline.

When Vince came on RAW after the Sting/Flair match to declare victory over WCW, Vince's son Shane McMahon appeared at the Nitro event, declaring that he had bought WCW. However, this was kayfabe and part of a WWF storyline that would have Shane leading the WCW Invasion of the WWF (a highly anticipated storyline which many considered a squandered opportunity), which lasted from March to November 2001 and marked the end of WCW. Despite aborted attempts to run WCW-branded events (including a proposed Saturday night timeslot that later evolved into WWF Velocity and WWF Excess), the WWF only ran a handful of matches on RAW and SmackDown! under the WCW banner.

When the WWF bought WCW in March 2001, several top WCW wrestlers, including Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sting had high-priced contracts with AOL Time Warner that WWF was unwilling to pick up. Rather than trying to get a buyout of their contracts and taking a pay cut to go to WWF, they chose to sit home and got paid for the remainders of their WCW contracts. This is most often cited as being the main reason the planned WCW Invasion of WWF storyline failed. The WCW was not seen as a powerhouse organization invading WWF when most of their top stars did not appear. However, all of the above wrestlers except Sting signed contracts with the WWE after the Invasion subsided.

It has also been noticed often in WCW that they somewhat misuse the great roster they use to have. At times they tried to recreate the magic of those encounters which were already successful in WWF and Hogan-Warrior and Hogan-Savage was no exception. More there was hardly any face vs. face matches there in WCW except of Goldberg-DDP which was reasonably successful. It was also observed that the roster WCW used to have they could have created some great encounters which have never seen before even in WWF/WWE like Hogan-Bret, Warrior-Bret, Flair-Warrior, Luger-Savage etc. and adding insult to injury the bad timings, short length and poor homework on the part of bookers of various feuds caused a lot of damage to WCW. Savage-Bret rivalry which started when Bret become nWo member was indeed a great idea but it was short lived. Hogan-Nash encounter could have drawn million of dollars had it been on a pay per view but due to the poor booking, timing and execution of the match the result is what we use to remember as ’Fingerpoke of Doom’. All and all the talent of WCW was utilized poorly as majority of superstar and talented athletes had nothing to do but move in the shadow of either Hogan or Nash as a part of nWo while others used to get their opportunity once in a blue moon in the mid card.

The WCW World Heavyweight Championship (which was renamed the World Championship) would continue to be used in WWF until it was merged with the WWF Championship into the WWF Undisputed Championship when Chris Jericho defeated The Rock and Steve Austin for the respective titles on December 9, 2001 on the PPV, Vengeance.

Although new professional wrestling alternatives such as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor have seen rising popularity in recent years, none have achieved the mainstream popularity or financial support that WCW enjoyed and thus are not yet considered competitive with WWE.
[edit]

Final champions

This is a list of the champions as they were at the end of the last WCW Monday Nitro on March 26, 2001 (though all these titles, with the exception of the Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship, continued to be active in WWF until November of that year).
Championship Final champion(s)
WCW World Heavyweight Champion Booker T
WCW United States Champion Booker T
WCW World Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Shane Helms
WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio

Here's a list of the final WCW Champions under the WWF banner.
Championship Final champion(s)
WCW World Heavyweight Champion1 Chris Jericho
WCW United States Champion2 Edge
WCW World Tag Team Champions3 The Dudley Boyz

Footnotes

* 1Renamed the World Championship after Survivor Series 2001; unified with the WWF Championship at Vengeance 2001. The belt design was later reintroduced as the WWE sanctioned World Heavyweight Championship as a RAW exclusive title in September 2002 (now exclusive to SmackDown!).
* 2Unified with the WWE Intercontinental Championship at Survivor Series 2001; reactivated as a WWE sanctioned title on SmackDown! in 2003 by then-General Manager Stephanie McMahon.
* 3Unified with the WWE World Tag Team Championship at Survivor Series 2001.
* 4Title adopted by the WWF after Survivor Series 2001; renamed the WWF / WWE Cruiserweight Championship.

[edit]

WCW titles

* WCW World Heavyweight Championship
* WCW United States Heavyweight Championship
* WCW Cruiserweight Championship
* WCW World Tag Team Championship
* WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship
* WCW World Television Championship
* WCW Hardcore Championship
* WCW United States Tag Team Championship
* WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship
* WCW International World Heavyweight Championship
* WCW Light Heavyweight Championship
* WCW Women's Championship
* WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship

[edit]

WCW special tournaments

* WCW Jesse "The Body" Ventura Strongest Arm Tournament (1992-1993)
* WCW King of Cable Tournament (1992)
* WCW/NWA Gauntlet Series (1990)
* WCW Battle Bowl

[edit]

Books/DVD

* The Death of WCW by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, 2004, ISBN 1-55022-661-4.
* The Monday Night War: WWE Raw vs. WCW Monday Nitro World Wrestling Entertainment, 2004, ASIN B0001CCXCA.

[edit]

See also

* World Championship Wrestling alumni
* WCW Women
* List of professional wrestlers
* List of professional wrestling stables
* List of WCW pay-per-view events
* List of WCW television programming
* Jim Crockett Promotions
* The Alliance
* Monday Night Wars
* Nitro Girls
* WCW Monday Nitro
* WCW Thunder
* WCW Power Plant

[edit]

External links

* WCW Title Histories
* DDT Digest - "The Unofficial Resting Place Of WCW"
* The Complete History of WCW

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Championship_Wrestling"

Categories: 1986 establishments | 2001 disestablishments | Defunct companies of the United States | Sports in Atlanta | Time Warner subsidiaries | World Championship Wrestling

ECW

2006-09-24T17:37:13Z

Pedrito:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Championship_Wrestling Wikipedia:ECW]

{{stub}}

[[Category:Promotions]]
Extreme Championship Wrestling
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This article is about the independent promotion that operated from 1992-2001. For the WWE brand, see Extreme Championship Wrestling (WWE).

Extreme Championship Wrestling
Details
Acronym ECW
Established 1992
Style Hardcore wrestling, lucha libre, shoot style
Location Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Founder(s) Tod Gordon
Owner(s) Tod Gordon (1992-1996)
Paul Heyman (1996-2001)
Vince McMahon (2003-present)
Parent Eastern Championship Wrestling, Inc.
(1993-94)
Extreme Championship Wrestling, Inc.
(1994-99)
HHG Corporation
(1999-2001)
World Wrestling Entertainment
(2003-present)
Formerly NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling
Portal:Philadelphia
Philadelphia Portal

Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon, and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001.

The company became known for its loyal fan base as well as its tendency to push the envelope with storylines. The group has showcased many different styles of professional wrestling, ranging from lucha libre to hardcore wrestling.

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) bought the rights to ECW and its library after its 2001 closure and revived the promotion in a full-time fashion on June 13, 2006 with a weekly television series on Sci Fi Channel in the United States, FOX8 in Australia and Sky Sports 3 in the United Kingdom. Since 2005, WWE has promoted an annual ECW-brand event called ECW One Night Stand and in June 2006, it became a separate brand of WWE programming, along with RAW and Smackdown!.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
o 1.1 Extreme Championship Wrestling
o 1.2 Cross-promotion
o 1.3 Controversy and ECW on TNN
o 1.4 Bankruptcy
* 2 Revivals
o 2.1 Alliance storyline
o 2.2 Documentaries
o 2.3 Reunion shows
o 2.4 New promotion
* 3 Lawsuits
o 3.1 Mass Transit
o 3.2 Tod Gordon
* 4 Tradition
* 5 Championships
* 6 Books
* 7 See also
* 8 External links

[edit]

History

Main article: History of Extreme Championship Wrestling

ECW was founded in 1992, 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 (which would eventually be dubbed The ECW Arena) 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 and 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 the grunge movement.
[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. 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 itself withdrew from the NWA).

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. In addition to their hardcore match types, they provided an alternative to North American wrestling with technical wrestling that was common overseas. International stars such as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko anchored a solid technical wrestling core in ECW. Rey Mysterio, Jr., Psicosis, Konnan and Juventud Guerrera brought a lucha libre style rarely seen in the national wrestling promotions.

Wrestlers such as Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, The Sandman, Cactus Jack, Terry Funk, Sabu, Public Enemy and The Tazmaniac were seen as being too dangerous for the multi-million dollar companies and were given a chance in ECW. They also helped launch the new ECW at this time. One of the promotion's marquee feuds was the long-standing feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven, which involved many ECW wrestlers over a period of two and a half years. Another was between Raven and the Sandman, which included the crucifixion angle, one of the most controversial angles in wrestling history.

The bulk of ECW's shows remained at the ECW Arena, a rundown bingo hall secluded under a section of Interstate 95. Seating comprised 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 and the World Wrestling Federation) 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 angles, and providing financial aid to Heyman for a considerable period of time), WCW refused to even mention ECW by name (the sole exception being a passing remark by Scott Hall in late 1996), calling it "barbed wire city" and "a major independent promotion" that wrestled in bingo halls.

Vince McMahon claimed that he put Paul Heyman on the WWF's payroll as compensation for the talent (namely Tazz, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and The Dudleys) leaving ECW for the WWF. On the other hand, Heyman believed that Eric Bischoff never compensated him for ECW bred talent such as Mikey Whipwreck, Raven, 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.
[edit]

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 24, 1997, ECW "invaded" Monday Night RAW from the Manhattan Center. 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 Jim Ross and Paul Heyman.

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.

After a series of struggles, on April 13, 1997, ECW broadcasted its first pay-per-view wrestling card, Barely Legal, highlighted by Terry Funk winning the ECW World Heavyweight Title.

At the 1997 Wrestlepalooza event, Jerry Lawler, a noted critic of ECW 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.
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Controversy and ECW on TNN

In March 2000, Mike Awesome suddenly left ECW to join WCW even though he was still the reigning ECW World Heavyweight Champion. There were rumors 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 - which turned out to be Tazz, who was working for the WWF at that time. This would mark the only time that a WCW contracted wrestler would wrestle against a WWF contracted wrestler in an ECW sanctioned event.

In August 1999, ECW began to broadcast nationally on TNN (for what was initially a three year contract). In many people's minds, the beginning of the TNN run signaled the beginning of the end for ECW. A series of disagreements about the content and presentation of the show led to a strained relationship between ECW and TNN.

Despite no advertising and a low budget, ECW became TNN's highest rated show. ECW on TNN was cancelled in October 2000 (with the final episode airing on October 6, 2000) in favor of WWE RAW moving to the network.

To this day, Paul Heyman strongly believes that the lack of a national television deal (especially after the TNN ordeal) was the main cause of ECW's demise.

For more details on this topic, see ECW on TNN.

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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 and ECW Guilty As Charged was the last PPV aired on January 7, 2001. ECW Living Dangerously was going to air on March 11, 2001, but because of financial trouble it was cancelled before March 11. 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. Towards the end of ECW's run, Tommy Dreamer had started doing much of the booking duties along with Raven and Lance Storm. 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.
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Revivals
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Alliance storyline

Main article: The Invasion

A few months after the promotion's 2001 demise, ECW resurfaced as a stable as part of the World Wrestling Federation Invasion storyline. As a participant in the inter-promotional feud between Shane McMahon's WCW and Vince McMahon's WWF, ECW was initially "owned" by Paul Heyman and harbored no loyalty to either promotion. Soon after, it was revealed Stephanie McMahon was ECW's new "owner", and she would soon conspire with her brother Shane to oust their father from his leadership position in the World Wrestling Federation. With the creation of The Alliance, the inter-promotional feud shifted into an internal power struggle among the McMahon family. The defection of WWF superstars to The Alliance continued the shift as less focus was placed on WCW and ECW performers. The feud lasted six months and concluded with WWF defeating The Alliance at the 2001 Survivor Series. The WWF's victory also marked the end of the Invasion storyline, and WCW and ECW wrestlers were reintegrated into the WWF.
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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 second highest-selling DVD of all time, behind WrestleMania XX.

An unauthorized DVD called Forever Hardcore was produced by former WCW crew member Jeremy Borash 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.
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Reunion shows

The strong sales of both Rise and Fall of ECW and Forever Hardcore prompted both World Wrestling Entertainment and Shane Douglas to run ECW reunion shows in 2005. Douglas's first Hardcore Homecoming show was held before WWE's ECW One Night Stand and subsequently went on tour.
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New promotion

Main article: Extreme Championship Wrestling (WWE)

The success of the WWE pay-per-view prompted a second ECW One Night Stand show to be scheduled for 2006 as well as the promotion being revived by WWE. ECW currently has a deal until December 2007 and is airing on the Sci Fi Channel.
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Lawsuits
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Mass Transit

Main article: Mass Transit incident (ECW)

On November 23, 1996, aspiring wrestler Eric Kulas teamed with D-Von Dudley to wrestle The Gangstas. Substituting for Axl Rotten, Kulas was beaten with various weapons and suffered a deep cut as a result of blading incident by his opponent New Jack. Kulas sued ECW and New Jack for physical and psychological damage claiming they were unaware the match was going to be a hardcore match. Furthermore, criminal charges were filed by the State of Massachusetts against New Jack. During the civil trial, it was revealed that Kulas and his father lied that Kulas was 19 years old instead of 17. Also, Kulas had misrepresented his wrestling experience by stating he was trained by retired wrestler Killer Kowalski. In the end, ECW and New Jack were acquitted of the charges, however, ECW suffered long term repercussions. The lawsuit delayed the broadcast of ECW's first pay-per-view after distributors viewed video of the incident. Eric Kulas died on May 12, 2002 at the age of 22 due to complications from gastric bypass surgery.
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Tod Gordon

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. On May 8, 2006 the case was thrown out and Gordon plans to appeal the decision.
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Tradition

There were several distinctive fans that were always in the front row at ECW shows. Among them were Sign Guy, Hat Guy (also known in the Philidelphia area as Straw Hat), Faith No More Guy, and Kato. They gained their respective nicknames because Sign Guy always had different creative signs with him, Hat Guy always wore a straw hat and Hawaiian shirt, Faith No More Guy (real name Lenny from Queens, a grocery store clerk) bore an uncanny resemblance to "Big" Jim Martin, former guitarist for rock band Faith No More and Kato resembled OJ Simpson house guest Kato Kaelin. Regular patrons of ECW Arena events were given Club ECW status by the promotion and were able to reserve seats ahead of the general public. Many members of Club ECW were present at Shane Douglas's 2005 Hardcore Homecoming shows in Philadelphia, ECW One Night Stand and at TNA Hardcore War in June 2006.

Crowds at ECW events were well known for their rowdiness and distinctive chants that either supported or demeaned what was transpiring in the ring. ECW Chants such as "You fucked up" and "Holy shit" became infamous during those shows, and are still used by fans of other promotions.

In ECW, there were virtually no rules. Weapons were abundant, with much blood spilled. There were referees, but their role was normally limited to counting pinfalls and acknowledging submissions.

ECW was known for making popular several types of matches:

* Barbed Wire Match
* Flaming Tables Match
* Singapore Cane Match
* Stairway to Hell Match
* Three-Way Dance

ECW was also infamous for regularly holding Bring Your Own Weapon Nights at the ECW Arena in the early days of the promotion. Fans were encouraged to bring their own weapons to give to wrestlers, as fighting in the crowd was a staple of ECW matches. A dollar store located next to the ECW Arena often supplied the bulk of the weapons, with fans purchasing them while they waited in line for each show. Memorable weapons included crutches, a large piece of cardboard with the words "Use Me!" hardwritten on it but actually concealing a full-sized Stop sign, a two-man kayak, a Leonard Cohen vinyl record, a VCR (with remote), and a Nintendo Entertainment System. An accident actually helped put an end to Bring Your Own Weapon Night when wrestler Cactus Jack, believing the weapon he was holding to be an inexpensive aluminum pan, swung the object full force into The Sandman's head. When he heard the resulting "clang" noise, he realized the object was in fact a cast-iron skillet, and The Sandman's resulting injury put him out of action for two weeks.
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Championships

* ECW World Heavyweight Championship (1992-2001; 2006-present)
* ECW Tag Team Championship (1992-2001)
* ECW World Television Championship (1992-2001)
* ECW FTW Heavyweight Championship (1998-1999)
* ECW Maryland Championship (1993)
* ECW Pennsylvania Championship (1993)

NOTE: All of these titles are now exclusive to WWE, although most of them are defunct.
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Books

* Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of the ECW (ISBN 1-59670-021-1) - Scott Williams
* Rise And Fall of ECW (ISBN 1-4165-1058-3) - Thom Loverro for World Wrestling Entertainment
* Turning the Tables (ISBN 1-905363-78-8) - John Lister
* Sex, Drugs, and Wrestling - The Truth, The Lies, and the Extreme - Tod Gordon (scheduled to be released in December 2006)

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See also

* List of Extreme Championship Wrestling alumni
* List of ECW pay-per-view events

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External links

* ECW.com - Official website of Extreme Championship Wrestling A (World Wrestling Entertainment Company)
* Solie.org - ECW Title Histories
* WrestlingInformer.net - ECW History
* The Wrestling Follower - Eastern Championship Wrestling Results Archive
* Details of Extreme Associates' negotiations with ECW (scroll down towards bottom)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Championship_Wrestling"

Categories: 1992 establishments | 2001 disestablishments | Extreme Championship Wrestling | Sports in Philadelphia | Companies based in Philadelphia