Extreme Wrestling Empire Wikia

## **Extreme Wrestling Empire**

Extreme Wrestling Empire is a Canadian entertainment company that deals primarily in professional wrestling. It first opened it's doors in August 29th, year of our lord, 2009. It was founded by Chris Jericho and Randy Orton, after both their contracts with World Wrestling Entertainment had expired. They held the first edition of Saturday Night XPlosion that same evening. The company's headquarters are located in Toronto, with offices in London, Aberdeen, Brisbane, Long Island, Bahrain, Manitoba, Idaho, Cardiff and, for some bloody reason, Northamptonshire.

The company's majority owner is Stephanie McMahon, as of October 2015, who serves as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, owning 90% of EWE's equity and 98% of the voting power in the company. The other 10% equity belong, still, to the company's founder, Chris Jericho.

## **Company history**

### **Opening Run (2009 - 2010)**

Toward the end of August, 2009, EWE opened doors, debuting their initial flagship cable program, Saturday Night XPlosion. Soon thereafter, on the backlash of a ratings boom for XPlosion, with fans around the world seeking a more adult-oriented product than the one offered by the WWE, EWE opened a second brand, Wednesday Night Genesis. Genesis and XPlosion would battle for better ratings in a not-entirely healthy competition and, soon enough, Genesis was cancelled by the hosting network, who sought a classier alternative to exhibit on their channel. EWE responded to this by opening Monday Night Exodus.

After entering a legal battle with WWE over the use of some characters and names, EWE folded in May 2010.

### **The Golden Era (2010 - 2011)**

Two months after closing doors, these were reopened as, now without Randy Orton as a partner, Chris Jericho decided to invest from his own pocket to relaunch the EWE brand and company. Re-entering the legal battle with the McMahon family, who were trying to drive Extreme Wrestling Empire, Inc. out of business entirely, Jericho prevailed, and managed to keep the show going on for half a year before bringing back Wednesday Night Genesis.

This period saw both XPlosion and Genesis race far past WWE's Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown in the ratings comparison, and usher in a new era to professional wrestling. Now with an even harsher battle between the brands, dividing EWE into two crowds, where even the fans supported either XPlosion or Genesis, the company reached a peak. But, unfortunately, the unhealthy competition between brands, as good as it was on professional levels, took it's toll on personal levels, and once again, in May 2011, EWE closed it's doors, for an alleged "break".

### **Third Run and MWA (2011 - 2012)**

By June, EWE was purchased by their long-running colour commentator, Matt Striker. Trying to shed away EWE, Matt Striker relaunched the company as the Modern Wrestling Association. Seeking a more resolute, consistent and wrestling-based product, MWA was off to a good start, but with on-screen personalities such as Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Matt Hardy and Single H, the failure was inevitable, as controversy was their main point, as much as Striker fought to avoid it. Here, Chris Jericho saw his chance and, now teaming up with Randy Orton once more, as well as his best friend, Matt Hardy, they got into another legal battle, this time with Matt Striker, to bring back the EWE brand.

### **Three-Month Tryout (2013)**

The legal settlement arrived, after a long and hard (quite like my penis) battle fought in court, and EWE was allowed to reopen it's doors. With no personal feelings harmed, Matt Striker returned to the company to take back his position as Colour Commentator on Saturday Night XPlosion. The hosting network gave EWE three months only to get back to the ratings high that they once signified. Another brand extension came, soon enough, and once again the unhealthy competition was stopping EWE from growing bigger. With loads of backstage problems as well as administrative failures, EWE pressed on, even opening a third brand, after having purchased the defunct Reel Pro Wrestling promotion, EWE: RPW. Despite battling on without the means to do so, the latter fact proved to be too much to deal with, the network dropped XPlosion, and this drove EWE to bankruptcy once again.

### **The Big Show Era (2014 - 2015)**

In what is considered by most to be the strongest ever return in professional wrestling history, nowadays, the Extreme Wrestling Empire reopened it's doors, once more, in October 2014, after Matt Hardy demanded they'd give another chance at it, having received a Lifetime Achievement Award, and considering it to be people seeing his career as a finished one. Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy, themselves, found an investor in the shape of Stephanie McMahon herself. She terminated her contract with the WWE and separated from her then-husband, Triple H, to fund and relaunch the company alongside Kurt Angle.

Still going strong under Stephanie McMahon's reigns, EWE is thriving more than it ever had before, with only one brand, the returning Monday Night Exodus. The weekly programming and Pay-Per-Views have been critically and commercially acclaimed since the return of the promotion to activity. For some reason, EWE uses the Big Show as their poster child, nowadays. However, this seems to be working out, and this era has been since dubbed the Big Show Era for the association of the brand with the image of the World's Largest Athlete. The company closed its doors in June 2015 after issues resulting from Chris Jericho's All or Nothing briefcase, and Kodiak's ownership of the company.

## **Championships and Accomplishments**

#### **Other Accomplishments**

 CHANGE Contract | Chris Jericho | Resolution | January 25th, 2015

#### **Other Championships**

* International Championship
* EWE Championship
* XPlosion Championship
* Legends Championship
* RPW Championship
* Television Championship
* Hardcore Championship
* EWE Tag Team Championships
* Team Interbrand Trio Championship
* Women's Championship
* GloboGym Championship
* Canadian Championship