FTW Championship

The **Extreme Championship Wrestling FTW (Fuck the World) Heavyweight Championship** (also referred to as the Brooklyn World Championship) was an alternate world heavyweight championship in the professional wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling. This was similar to the WWF Million Dollar Championship in the World Wrestling Federation in that it was not an officially sanctioned championship. Currently, it is seen as an unofficial championship in All Elite Wrestling.

The current FTW Champion is Ricky Starks, winning the title from Brian Cage at AEW Fyter Fest Night 1 on July 14, 2021.

### Extreme Championship Wrestling (1998 - 1999)

Taz announced the creation of the FTW Heavyweight Championship on May 14, 1998 at ECW It Ain't Seinfeld. Frustrated by his inability to challenge for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship due to Champion Shane Douglas' injury and refusal to face him, Taz created and defended his own World title, billing himself as the "real" World champion.

Taz lost the title only once. This was an intentional loss, when he pulled an unconscious Sabu over himself on December 19, 1998 (he was confident that he would defeat Shane Douglas in an upcoming title bout, and thus no longer needed the FTW Heavyweight Championship). Taz regained the title at ECW Living Dangerously 1999 on March 21, 1999, where he unified the FTW Heavyweight Championship with the ECW World Heavyweight Championship (which he then held) by defeating Sabu in a title versus title match. Taz then began using only the ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt, being the sole World Heavyweight Champion in the promotion.

When the title was first created, the FTW belt was actually the same custom ECW World Television Championship belt Taz used for a while with an orange leather strap and a "TAZ" logo at the top. "FTW" stickers were strategically placed over the word "Television" in the middle of the belt as well as the United States and United Kingdom flags on the side plates. A few months later, in an attempt to persuade Taz to team with Sabu and Rob Van Dam against Shane Douglass and The Triple Threat, Bill Alfonso presented Taz with a completely new and original FTW belt with a "TAZ" logo engraved in the belt's centerplate.

According to Taz on the The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD documentary, when he lost the new belt in a match against Sabu, Sabu was legitimately upset backstage over Taz's name being permanently displayed on the belt. From then on, whenever Sabu had the belt with him, he would cover the Taz logo with athletic tape and write "SABU" on it in magic marker. The championship is owned now by the WWE, but they have not chosen to revive it.

### All Elite Wrestling (2020 - present)

On Night 2 of Fyter Fest, Taz reinstated the belt and awarded the FTW Championship to Brian Cage. Jon Moxley was unable to defend AEW World Championship in their scheduled AEW World Championship match that night as he was self-quarantining after his wife Renee Young had tested positive for COVID-19, mirroring the circumstances behind the title's inception.

Following Revolution, Cage said he respected Sting, to which the other of Team Taz (now having Ricky Starks, Powerhouse Hobbs and Hook) along with Taz himself, looking confused. At Double or Nothing, Cage stated he didn't want help beating "Hangman" Adam Page. So when Starks threw the FTW belt to him, he threw it out of the ring, angering Team Taz, which lead to his lost to Page.

Cage would start a rivalry with Starks on the June 11, 2021 episode of AEW Dynamite, when he chased Starks up the tunnel after Starks slapped him for not using the FTW title as a weapon for the second time. Team Taz would announce that at Fyter Fest Night 1 on July 14, that Cage and Starks would battle for the FTW championship in hopes of getting on the same page again. However, Team Taz would screw Cage out of the title when Hobbs hit him intentionally with the championship, allowing Starks to take adventage and win the championship, becoming the first person to win the FTW championship in an AEW match.

## Championship Lineage

* Taz - May 14, 1998 - ECW It Ain't Seinfeld
* Sabu - December 23, 1998 - ECW Hardcore TV
* Taz 2 - March 21, 1999 - ECW Living Dangerously 1999

Retired — March 21, 1999 - Unified with the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
Reactivated by Taz in AEW

* Brian Cage - July 8 2020 - Fyter Fest
* Ricky Starks - July 14 2021 - Fyter Fest
* Hook - July 27 2022 - Fight for the Fallen
* Jack Perry - July 19 2023 - AEW Dynamite
* Hook - August 27 2023 - All In