ECW World Heavyweight Championship

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ECW World Heavyweight Championship
The final belt design of the ECW Championship used in WWE from July 2008 to February 2010
Details
PromotionExtreme Championship Wrestling
(1992–2001)
World Wrestling Entertainment
(2006–2010)
Date establishedApril 25, 1992
Date retiredFebruary 16, 2010
Other name(s)
  • ECW Heavyweight Championship
    (1992–1993)
  • NWA-ECW Heavyweight Championship
    (1993–1994)
  • ECW World Heavyweight Championship
    (1994–2001, 2006)
  • ECW World Championship
    (2006–2007)
  • ECW Championship
    (2007–2010)
Statistics
First champion(s)Jimmy Snuka
Final champion(s)Ezekiel Jackson
Most reignsThe Sandman (5)
Longest reignShane Douglas (4th reign) (406 days)
Shortest reignEzekiel Jackson (2 minutes, 25 seconds)
Oldest championMr. McMahon (61 years, 248 days)
Youngest championMikey Whipwreck (22 years, 146 days)
Heaviest championBig Show (567 lb (257 kg))
Lightest championJerry Lynn (185 lb (84 kg))

The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was a

NWA World Heavyweight Championship. It was established under ECW in 1994 but was originally introduced in 1992 by the promotion's precursor, Eastern Championship Wrestling. The inaugural champion was Jimmy Snuka, however, WWE considers the inaugural world heavyweight champion to be Shane Douglas
, with his reign beginning on August 27, 1994.

The title was deactivated in 2001 when ECW went out of business. ECW was then purchased by WWE two years later during the summer of 2003. In 2006, WWE reactivated the championship as the world title of their newly established

that year's draft. When WWE disbanded the ECW brand in 2010, the championship was subsequently retired following the final episode of WWE ECW with Ezekiel Jackson
as the final titleholder, who also had the shortest reign with the belt at 2 minuties 25 seconds as he won it during the episode.

History

Origin

The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was introduced originally in 1992 as the NWA-ECW Heavyweight Championship with

world title of the NWA, was vacant. Consequently, a tournament was organized to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion and on August 27, NWA-ECW Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in the finals to win the title. However, Douglas immediately relinquished the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and instead proclaimed himself the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion.[2][3] ECW subsequently seceded from the NWA and became Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was thus established, spun off from the NWA title. It remained active until April 11, 2001, when ECW closed and World Wrestling Entertainment subsequently purchased its assets. The final champion Rhyno went on to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 2005.[4]

Recommission

By 2005, WWE began reintroducing ECW through content from the ECW

ECW brand, recommissioned the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to be the brand's world title and awarded it to Rob Van Dam as a result of winning the WWE Championship at One Night Stand 2006. Heyman had originally stated that either the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship would "become" the ECW World Heavyweight Championship if a competitor designated to the ECW brand became WWE Champion or World Heavyweight Champion at the event.[7] However, Rob Van Dam later declared that he would hold both titles simultaneously instead.[8] The title became known as the ECW World Championship in July 2006, and later simply as the ECW Championship in July 2007.[9][10]

ECW World Championship Tournament (2007)

The ECW World Championship Tournament was a tournament created to determine a new

Semifinals Finals
      
CM Punk Pin
Marcus Cor Von
06:45
CM Punk Pin
Johnny Nitro(*) 08:15
Chris Benoit Sub
Elijah Burke 06:38

(*) – Johnny Nitro was an event-day replacement added by WWE after Chris Benoit was a no-show, with the official statement a "family emergency". It was later discovered Benoit's double murder/suicide had taken place that weekend.

Brand designation

Following the events of the

WWE draft was established, in which select members of the WWE roster are reassigned to a different brand.[12] ECW was revived as a third brand in 2006 to rival Raw and SmackDown and continued to operate until February 16, 2010, rendering the title inactive once again.[13]

Date of transition Brand Notes
June 13, 2006 ECW After Rob Van Dam defeated John Cena to win the WWE Championship at ECW One Night Stand, the ECW Championship was reactivated and awarded to Van Dam, who held both titles. The ECW Championship subsequently became the top championship of WWE's ECW brand.
January 22, 2008 SmackDown The ECW Championship moved to SmackDown after Chavo Guerrero Jr., a member of the SmackDown brand, defeated CM Punk to win the ECW Championship.
March 30, 2008 ECW ECW Champion Kane was transferred to ECW.
June 23, 2008 Raw ECW Champion Kane was drafted to Raw during the 2008 WWE Draft.[14]
June 29, 2008 ECW The ECW Championship was returned to
triple threat match at Night of Champions to win the ECW Championship.[15]
February 16, 2010 N/A The ECW brand was discontinued, subsequently also retiring the ECW Championship.

Championship belt designs

CM Punk with ECW championship at 2007

The original belt was a five-plate title belt made by Mike Vartanian.[citation needed] The belt was an exact copy of NWA-ECW's forerunner Tri-State Wrestling Alliance's Heavyweight title. The only difference was that the NWA-ECW's main plate featured the promotion’s name and had areas painted blue. During this belt's period of use, it was treated badly and was grinded, repainted, and had jewels placed on the main plate, which would explain why it appears different in almost every photo of it. By the time the belt was replaced, it was in a very bad state and two of the side plates were broken off or missing.

When Eastern Championship Wrestling withdrew from the NWA to become Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1994 it continued using this belt until 1996 when it had a new belt created in 1996 starting during Raven's second title reign and was used through 1998.[citation needed]

In 1998, ECW had a new belt created for its championship that would be used until the promotion ceased operations in 2001.

Soon after its recommissioning, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt design was updated to a design similar to the belt used before ECW's original closure in 2001, which featured a black

tooling
, red ECW logos, and the innards of the steel cage pattern outlined in black.

On July 22, 2008, ECW General Manager

biker cross
-shape pieces that feature a design similar to that of the centerpiece.

Reigns

Overall, there have been 49 ECW World Heavyweight Championship reigns shared among 32 individuals.[1] The inaugural champion was Jimmy Snuka, who won the title by defeating Salvatore Bellomo in April 1992. The Sandman holds the most reigns as champion, with five. Shane Douglas, in his fourth reign, had the longest reign in the title's history which lasted 406 days. Ezekiel Jackson's 3-minute reign following his defeat of Christian on the television finale of ECW is the shortest, as the title was retired with the cancellation of the ECW brand.[13] Christian's second reign was the longest under WWE at 205 days.

Notes

References

  1. ^ a b "ECW World Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  2. ^ "NWA World Title Tournament - August 27, 1994 in Philadelphia". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
  3. ^ "History of the ECW World Title". WWE. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  4. ^ Kreikenbohm, Philip (October 23, 2005). "NWA World Heavyweight Championship". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Shields, Brian; Sullivan, Kevin (2009). WWE: History of WrestleMania. p. 58.
  6. ^ "WWE brings ECW to Sci Fi Channel". WWE. Retrieved 2006-06-02.
  7. ^ "WWE RAW results - June 5, 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
  8. ^ "ECW on Sci-Fi results - June 13, 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  9. ^ "ECW on Sci-Fi results - July 11, 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  10. ^ "ECW Championship". WWE. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
  11. ^ Kreikenbohm, Philip. "ECW World Heavyweight Title Tournament « Tournaments Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database".
  12. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved 2008-12-21.
  13. ^ a b Medalis, Kara A. (2009-07-26). "Results:Dominant farewell". WWE. Archived from the original on February 20, 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
  14. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original
    on 2008-06-27. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  15. on 2008-07-02. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  16. World Wrestling Entertainment
    .

External links