Extreme Championship Wrestling/Awesome

THIS...IS EXTREEEEME...ly AWESOME!

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• Shane Douglas had just won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a very grueling tournament, defeating 2 Cold Scorpio in the final match at an Eastern Championship Wrestling event. After beginning a speech about how honored he is to accept the title, he starts running down the list of names of people who held the title... then he swerves everyone - including the NWA itself - by declaring the NWA "dead," throwing down the championship, and crowning himself the "new ECW Heavyweight Champion of the World". The NWA dissolved its association with the company and officially stripped Douglas of the NWA Championship, while Eastern Championship Wrestling officially changed its name to the name diehard fans know, love, and revere: Extreme Championship Wrestling.
  • This is also the night the "ECW!" chants were born.
  • According to several sources, the only other people to know about the speech before Douglas made it were ECW bookers Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman, who made the plan in response to the NWA trying to take control of the booking away from ECW.
• Tommy Dreamer, a fan-hated pretty boy, lost a match against The Sandman in which the loser was to be beaten with a Singapore cane (playing on the news story where an American in Singapore was to be punished in a similar fashion). When Dreamer accepted his punishment, Sandman absolutely let him have it with the cane. After about the tenth shot, a beaten and bleeding Dreamer staggers to his feet, grabs the microphone, and spitefully demands, "Thank you, sir, may I have another?!" This is the moment where Tommy Dreamer went from being a hated WCW-wannabe to "the heart and soul of ECW".
  • Then there's the "Sandman gets blinded" storyline, where Sandman was supposedly blinded by Tommy Dreamer. For months, Sandman stayed at home, never having any contact with another human being except for his wife (who helped by answering the door or the phone for him); his commitment to the storyline was absolutely phenomenal. He was booked to come out, blind, to confront Dreamer. When Dreamer turned his back, however, Sandman pulled off his bandages - revealing that his eyes were perfectly fine - and lit up Dreamer with a Singapore cane.
  • Tommy would have another career-defining moment later in his ECW career. When his valet (and future wife) Beulah was revealed to have been cheating on him with Raven's valet, Kimona Wanalaya, Tommy's reply to the revelation helped to further cement his legacy:

"I'll take 'em both, I'm hardcore!"

• The ECW fans (lovingly referred to as "The Mutants") have nearly, if not more, moments of awesomeness than the wrestlers themselves:
  • Mick Foley (then competing as Cactus Jack) signaling for someone, anyone, in the crowd to throw him and/or his tag team partner Terry Funk a chair to use on their opponents, Public Enemy. What happens next? EVERYONE in the first few rows throws their chairs into the ring. Don't ask for folding chairs from the audience, because the audience will fucking deliver. This footage would be part of ECW's promo packages up until the end.
  • Bam Bam Bigelow picked Little Spike Dudley up over his head, and threw him from the ring into the first few rows. But instead of letting him back over the other side of the guard rail, the fans lifted him up and bodysurfed him throughout the entire arena.
  • ECW superfans "Hat Guy" and "Kato" invaded other shows put on by WCW and WWF, in particular, WCW Slamboree 1994 and WWF King of the Ring 1995, both in Philadelphia. This troper was at the latter show; it was the first pay-per-view event he ever attended live.
  • Public Enemy invited the crowd into the ring to celebrate after one match. The ring was packed; fans were right up against one another. When they all started jumping up and down to the music - you guessed it! - the ring collapsed. And the fans loved it.
  • There's also One Night Stand 2005 where Sandman comes down to the ring with Enter Sandman as his entrance theme and the fans sing along to it
• There was a moment that was both a Narm for two fans and a crowning moment for Joey Styles at the same time. Two fans held up signs denouncing Styles and his commentary partner Joel Gertner, claiming they were no Mike Tenay or Larry Zybysko. The narm was when the fans couldn't spell Larry's name properly. The CMoA came when Styles unloaded on them:

"First of all, I think I speak for Joel [Gertner] and myself, that we're thankful we'll never be Mike Tenay and Larry Zybysko. Why don't you go sell whatever decrepit little motor home you live in, trade it in for a $.50 wrestling magazine and figure out how to spell his name? See, I remember you; you're the illiterate moron who spelled it wrong last time, six months ago. You're the best argument for not sending my kids to a public school I have ever seen!"

• Jim Ross may be unparalleled as a commentator, but he never got fans chanting "Fuck 'em up, JR, fuck 'em up! * clap clap* ".
• The final match in the Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko series in 1995. Just...WOW. Watching those two amazing wrestlers perform for an hour straight, each trying to one-up the other, with the crowd chanting "please don't go" and "one more match"? It didn't get any better for this troper.
• Tommy Dreamer got a measure of revenge against longtime rival Raven in a Steel Cage Match that ended with Raven handcuffed crucifixion-style to the cage. After getting him cuffed, Dreamer wound up with a steel chair and obliterated the seat of said chair against Raven's skull. The spot came to be known as "The Chairshot Heard 'Round The World"; it is not only a regular part of ECW highlight reels, but it became a part of every ECW opening package up until the promotion's demise. For some time, it was even a part of Tommy's WWE entrance video.
• After holding the ECW Television Title for almost two years, Rob Van Dam was injured at the hands of The Network broke his ankle outside an event, and the title was vacated under the old "defend the title every thirty days" rule. The company held a tournament to crown a new champion, and Rhino (the Network's chosen representative) was given a bye in the semifinals, while Super Crazy won a tough semifinal match against his rival Little Guido. Crazy, with a little help from The Sandman, had one of the most epic come-from-behind wins ever, pinning Rhino to win the title.
• At As Good As It Gets in September 1997, Beulah McGillicutty and Tommy Dreamer were in a mixed tag match with Rob Van Dam and his manager, Bill Alfonso (aka Fonzie). Eventually, the match turns into Beulah vs. Fonzie - then it turns into one of the most brutal bloodbaths in the history of the industry as Beulah annihilates Fonzie (who, due to a rather deep bladejob ended up losing about a third of the blood in his body). Fonzie's blood ended up coating both his face and the ring in crimson before Beulah finally pinned him.
• September 19, 1999. I mean literally, as Mike Awesome was Crowned ECW Champion at that event. *rimshot*
  • So shouldn't that go on the Awesome Moment of Crowning page?
• The Dudleys, leaving ECW for the WWF, are threatening to take the ECW Tag Team Championship belts with them. Tommy Dreamer takes them on single-handed for the title, and fights valiantly, but is overwhelmed - before being saved by the very last person anyone expected, the man he had bitterly feuded with for three years before he left, now making his return from WCW: Raven. After one well-timed Evenflow DDT, former enemies became the Tag Team Champions.
• Any Joel Gertner promo. Any of them. You wanna pick? Go ahead and try.
  • If you're gonna bring up ECW promos, there's only one you need to watch: "Cane Dewey."
  • Another very good one came from Steve Austin - his "Superstar" promo, where he denounced WCW's handling of him and declared he was going to be become the very top at ECW because nobody could stop him. It was so good that Steve got a standing ovation from the wrestlers watching off-camera once he cut. "Here it is, on YouTube"
  • How can anybody forget Paul Heyman's classic tirade from ECW Hardcore TV? "Hey, Network! I dare you! THROW ME OFF THE AIR!"
• Aside from being a solid match, Rob Van Dam vs. Tommy Dreamer is known for its infamous piledriver spot. Dreamer piledrives Van Dam, who springs up three feet in the air before landing on his back. To this day, no one knows exactly how he pulled that off. (It's a safe bet that not even Rob knows how he did it!)

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