10 Best Booking Decisions In Wrestling History
8. Shane Douglas Throws Down The Belt
Paul Heyman could not have pinpointed a more ideal time to commit the transgression with which NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling became Extreme Championship Wrestling.
In 1994, infamously, Heyman and founder Tod Gordon convinced Shane Douglas to throw the NWA World Heavyweight title to the ground. Douglas cut a promo claiming that he did not want the rub from an organisation "that died, RIP, seven years ago".
The cartoonish WWF and its desperate sheep, WCW, were out.
Counter-culture was in. A disdain towards traditional values was in. Disillusionment was in. As a result, very quickly, so was ECW and its laser-focused assault on the mood.
The idea in and of itself was tremendous, bold, never done before, a shockwave of an opening statement that instantly cast ECW as a promotion that gave no effs: if they were willing to do that, what were they prepared to let the wrestlers do in the ring?
The timing was the thing. The NWA was dead, but still perceived with a degree of prestige - enough to make the gesture feel profoundly disrespectful, anyway. There was never going to be any pushback; the organisation had been weakened significantly, and they could do sod all about it. No staunch traditionalist fans really existed to thwart the movement.
ECW was set.