8. Shane Douglas Throws Down The NWA Championship - NWA World Title Tournament, 1994
Few wrestling promotions have enjoyed as dramatic a start as Paul Heyman's Extreme Championship Wrestling. Originally a part of the NWA - under the name of Eastern Championship Wrestling - the Philadelphia promotion was determined to break away and kickstart a new era of bloodthirsty, ultraviolent wrestling, a brand which would act as a precursor to the WWF's Attitude Era. Having won a 1994 tournament for the NWA Heavyweight Championship, ECW main eventer Shane Douglas cut a promo paying tribute to the lineage of the belt, namedropping such past greats as Harley Race, Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes. He then shockingly denounced them all and threw down the belt, declaring himself the first ever holder of the Extreme Championship Wrestling title. This turn of events was apparently only known by Douglas, Heyman, and original ECW owner Todd Gordon prior to its execution. It was an anarchic, tradition-defying beginning, which would perfectly sum the promotion's punk rock ethos.
