Extreme Championship Wrestling

**HHG Corporation, LLC**, doing business as **Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW)**, is an American professional wrestling promotion founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2012 by Tod Gordon. In 2013, Scarsdale, New York native and businessman, Paul Heyman took over the creative end of the promotion from Dusty Rhodes and rechristened the promotion from Elite Championship Wrestling to "Extreme" Championship Wrestling. In 2014, Paul Heyman bought ECW to become the owner while Tod Gordon became the co-owner and controls the financial activities.

The promotion showcases various international styles of professional wrestling, ranging from lucha libre to strong style, and hardcore wrestling. Heyman's creative direction created new stars, and established the "third" big brand in the United States, competing with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment, and Tony Khan's World Championship Wrestling.

## History

### Elite Championship Wrestling era (2012-2014)

ECW had it's origins in 2009 under the banner Ring of Honor owned by Rob Feinstein. ECW would, in fact, continue to use the classic ROH World championship belt to represent it's own championship. In 2012, Elite Championship Wrestling was founded as a National Wrestling Alliance member. Dusty Rhodes, a wrestling legend, was the lead booker of Elite Championship Wrestling. Dusty Rhodes would leave the company and was replaced by Scarsdale, New York native Paul Heyman. ECW would leave the NWA in 2014 to compete with the WWE and WCW, as it became the third largest wrestling promotion.

### ECW Arena and television syndication (2014-present)

The bulk of ECW's shows remained at the ECW Arena, a former warehouse secluded under a section of Interstate 95. Seating comprised simple folding chairs and four sets of portable bleachers, with the unconventional scene reflective of the gritty style of the promotion itself. Every ECW Hardcore TV shows are broadcast in CBS' television stations at late evening (formerly midnight from 2013 to 2017). Since 2018, Hardcore TV has been airing on syndication and on Fox Sports 2.

### Promotional rivalry (2020)

In 2020, ECW made its West Coast debut, holding it's annual summer pay-per-view *ECW Heat Wave* in Los Angeles. At the time Los Angeles was home to Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW), and its owner Rob Black purchased six front row tickets for the show. The tickets were given to a cadre of XPW talent, and their mission was to make it clear that ECW was on enemy turf. This was not a storyline. At the beginning of the main event, the XPW contingent donned shirts emblazoned with the XPW logo, gaining the attention of security and ECW wrestler Tommy Dreamer. Security ejected the XPW group from the building and later, a brawl broke out in the parking lot between members of the XPW ring crew and the ECW locker room. The XPW wrestlers were not involved in the fracas, during which the ECW wrestlers brutalized the XPW ring crew with several of the ring crew members left in pools of their own blood. Initial reports claimed that XPW valet Kristi Myst had somehow touched ECW valet Francine Fournier and that this is what prompted the incident, but Fournier herself has since gone on record as saying that she was never grabbed or in any other way touched by any of the XPW crew, and other eyewitnesses support the story that Fournier never had a hand laid on her. XPW was not acknowledged by ECW announcer Joey Styles during the pay-per-view telecast, however at the November to Remember pay-per-view a few months later, color-commentator Don Callis made a subtle reference to the incident, describing a wild brawl as "looking like a Los Angeles parking lot". The XPW contingent at ringside consisted of wrestlers The Messiah, Kid Kaos, Supreme, Kristi Myst, Homeless Jimmy and XPW announcer Kris Kloss.

## Championships and programming

### Pay-Per-Views

#### **2017**

 **June 11, 2017** | Hardcore Heaven
 **August 13, 2017** | Heatwave
 **November 26, 2017** | November to Remember | Golden Dome

#### **2018**

 **May 6, 2018** | Wrestlepalooza
 **July 8, 2018** | Heatwave
 **November 4, 2018** | November to Remember | Adirondack Bank Center