ECW World Heavyweight Championship

The Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the original world title of the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion, later used by WWE as the world title of the ECW brand, complementing the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship. The championship also briefly appeared as the only world title featured on the Raw brand in 2008. It was established under ECW in 1994 but was originally introduced in 1992 by the precursor to ECW, Eastern Championship Wrestling.

History

Origin

The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was introduced originally in 1992 as the NWA-ECW Heavyweight Championship with Jimmy Snuka becoming the inaugural champion on April 25. However, its origin is attributed to events that began in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an organization with many member promotions. In the early 1990s, Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) was a member of the NWA and by 1994, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the world title of the NWA, was vacant. Consequently, a tournament was organized to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion and on August 27, NWA-ECW Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in the finals to win the title. However, Douglas immediately relinquished the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and instead proclaimed himself the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion. ECW subsequently seceded from the NWA and became Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was thus established, spun off from the NWA title. It remained active until April 11, 2001 when ECW closed and World Wrestling Entertainment subsequently purchased its assets.

World heavyweight championship

World heavyweight championship may refer to:

ECW

ECW may refer to:

Professional wrestling

Military

Other

Paul Heyman

Paul Heyman (born September 11, 1965) is an American entertainment producer, writer, performer, marketer, promoter and occasional professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE. Heyman owned and was the creative force behind the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion from 1993 until its closure in 2001. Before running and owning ECW, he was a manager under the ring name Paul E. Dangerously in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and other promotions. He is the co-owner of the Looking4Larry Agency in New York City, was named one of Advertising Age's Top 100 Global Marketers, and continues to work for both WWE and his agency as dual full-time careers.

In WWE, Heyman has managed a record five WWE Champions: Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, and CM Punk, with Lesnar being his sole current client. Commentators have praised his abilities at managing and on the microphone. Heyman has also competed sporadically in the ring; he participated in the WWE Championship match main event of the 2002 Rebellion pay-per-view.