The night Wrestling became Extreme.Hello again wrestling fans. Ernesto Heleno wrote an article on missing the ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) style and I must agree that a different style of wrestling was exciting. I recall staying up until 2 am to watch the show, the one person that stood out to me was “The Franchise” Shane Douglas. He was the main reason why I watched the show. The Franchise gave great promos that made me want to attend live events. He was a great champion and he held the top two titles for single competitors in ECW. He formed a stable called the Triple Threat, with “No Gimmick Needed” Chris Candido, “The Beast from the East” Bam Bam Bigelow and Francine. As of matter of fact Shane, started the extreme movement, by crowning himself the new ECW World Heavyweight champion, on August 27, 1994. I remember that night like it was yesterday, he cut a perfect promo that made history, by denouncing the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight title. I respect all titles from all the wrestling organizations, but what he did that night made me a true fan of The Franchise. Here is the back story for what happen on that night. ECW was member of the National Wrestling Alliance, which means they were a wrestling territory for the NWA. ECW had a champion, but only recognized the NWA title as World Heavyweight Championship. On that night, Paul Heyman, Tod Gordon and Shane Douglas where the only people that knew he was going to denounce the NWA title and that ECW was going to separate themselves from NWA. This is a clip of the promo Shane gave that night.
*Note the first members of the Triple Threat were Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko.
Written by Harrington Bayas and The Wrestling Fans Review
