When one thinks of ECW Originals, certain names always come up. The Dudley Boyz, Tazz, Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, Sabu, you know how it goes. Wrestling is a fickle business however, and the man who deserves to be front, line and centre of that line up more than any other is often removed from the conversation. It was Shane Douglas who initiated the era of Extreme with a post match promo after winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in August 1994. Douglas listed all the great names to have held the title, a veritable who's who of wrestling legends, before throwing it to the ground in an incredible show of disrespect. It is important to remember that in the middle of the 1990s professional wresting was still fairly protected and obsessed with respect, making Douglas' move even more brazen. He declared the ECW World Title the only world title, and the torchpaper was ablaze. Douglas would hold the ECW strap for 385 days until Sandman defeated him for the title, needing a double cross to do so. After an aborted run in the WWF, Douglas returned to ECW in 1996. It was during his second tenure that Douglas would get his longest ECW World Championship reign, a run that lasted a frankly incredibly 406 days. He defeated former stablemate Bam Bam Bigelow for the title, suffering a broken arm in the process. This injury, along with various illnesses kept Douglas off of ECW TV for stretches of 1998, but the title was kept on him throughout. After 406 days, Taz finally defeated Douglas for the ECW Championship.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
