10 Times ECW Was The Most Insane Wrestling Company In The World

2. Denouncing The NWA

Shane Douglas
WWE Network

It was the beginning of the Extreme era. Shane Douglas had just defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in the final an eight-man tournament to win the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the most prestigious title in pro wrestling history. This was the title of Ric Flair, of Lou Thesz, of Harley Race, Buddy Rogers and the rest.

What Douglas did after winning the title remains one of the most controversial moments in professional wrestling history. In his post-match promo, Douglas laid waste to the NWA, throwing the title to the ground and proclaiming the ECW title to be a World championship. Douglas stated that they had set out to change the face of professional wrestling, and boy did they succeed. Unsurprisingly, ECW soon withdrew from the NWA and rebranded itself as Extreme Championship Wrestling.

A lot of ECW’s most extreme and insane moments drew shock and awe from the pro wrestling world, but few created as much anger as this. Many believe that Douglas forever killed the NWA World Heavyweight Championship that night, that its credibility was forever lost. In a world of insane spots and extreme violence, words and idea remain the apex of brutality. Extreme matches are one thing, but disrespecting the legends and history of this proud sport? Insane.

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Contributor
Contributor

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.