Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) is a professional wrestling brand of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), based on the independent Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion that lasted from 1992 to 2001. It debuted on June 13, 2006 with a weekly television series. The ECW brand is one of WWE's three brands, the other two being RAW and SmackDown!.
ECW can be seen on Sci Fi Channel in the United States, X-Treme Sports and Global in Canada, Sky Sports 3 in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland , Sky Italia in Italy , Premiere in Germany , in Finland on MTV3 MAX , FX Latin America in Latin America, Ten Sports in India , Astro in Malaysia , Solar Sports in the Philippines , FOX8 in Australia, The BOX in New Zealand , e.tv in South Africa , SIC Radical in Portugal and AFN Xtra and in Saudi Arabia and Middle East on Showtime Arabia ShowSports 4.
ECW Superstar Big Show, became the first person to hold the WWE Championship, WCW Heavyweight Championship and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship when Big Show won the ECW title on the July 4, 2006 edition of Extreme Championship Wrestling. Big Show won the WCW title on two occasions (October 29, 2005 and April 22, 1996) and the WWE title twice (November 14, 1999 and November 17, 2002).
After years of growing as a premiere independant wrestling federation under the guidance of Paul Heyman, the Philadelphia-based Extreme Championship Wrestling gained national television exposure on TNN. The show showcased their violent, hardcore matches and featured the color commentary of Joey Styles and Joel Gertner. Unfortunately, a bad Friday night time slot combined with a need to edit matches resulted in low ratings, and the WWF's RAW program moving to TNN was the final nail in the coffin. ECW closed its doors and ended the show in 2001. Written by Anonymous
To help with financial issues, owner Paul Heyman received a loan from the WWF and became the first promotion to have multiple wrestlers appear on WWF TV programing while still under contract with the competition. During these agreements, Heyman allowed WWF first right-of-refusal for various talent leaving ECW. The promotions' connections filtered to the championship belts when ECW's title were practically duplications of those by WWF. Written by trivia
