ECW

Extreme Championship Wrestling, also known as ECW, was a hardcore professional wrestling promotion that was founded in 1992 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001. After subsequently purchasing the assets of ECW, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), relaunched the Extreme Championship Wrestling franchise as a WWE brand from June 2006 until February 2010 to compliment their existing Monday Night Raw and Smackdown brands. The promotion showcased various of international styles of wrestling, ranging from Lucha Libre to Shoot Style Wrestling to Hardcore Wrestling.

ECW Origins
ECW had its origins in 1989 under the banner of Tri-State Wrestling Alliance owned by Joel Goodhart. In 1992, Goodhart sold his share of the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance to his partner, Tod Gordon, who in return renamed the promotion to Eastern Championship Wrestling.

When Eastern Championship Wrestling was founded, it was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). At the time, "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert, was the lead booker of Eastern Championship Wrestling. Gilbert, after having a fallout with Tod Gordon, was replaced in September 1993 by Paul Heyman. Paul Heyman, known on television as Paul E. Dangerously, has just left the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and was looking for a new challenge.

Heyman would then give ECW, under its new name of Extreme Championship Wrestling and a hardcore wrestling-based promotion gimmick, its first set of television tapings under the name of ECW Hardcore TV from 1993 to 2000, followed by ECW on TNN from 1999 to 2000. ECW eventually got put onto Pay Per View, which was banned from television providers due to their hardcore nature in 1997, however, had smaller Pay Per Views before their graphic, hardcore-style of wrestling in 1993.

WWE would later go on to purchase ECW in 2001 when Paul Heyman filed bankruptcy and would be brought to WWE television, along with WCW, as part of the Invasion storyline to put the WWE out of business.