ECW World Heavyweight Championship
ECW World Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Promotion | Extreme Championship Wrestling (1992–2001) World Wrestling Entertainment (2006–2010) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Date established | April 25, 1992 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Date retired | February 16, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was a
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
History
Origin
The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was introduced originally in 1992 as the NWA-ECW Heavyweight Championship with
Recommission
By 2005, WWE began reintroducing ECW through content from the ECW
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
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]
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February 16, 2010 | N/A | The ECW brand was discontinued, subsequently also retiring the ECW Championship. |
Championship belt designs
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
On July 22, 2008, ECW General Manager
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
- ^ a b "ECW World Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
- ^ "NWA World Title Tournament - August 27, 1994 in Philadelphia". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
- ^ "History of the ECW World Title". WWE. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
- ^ Kreikenbohm, Philip (October 23, 2005). "NWA World Heavyweight Championship". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
- ^ a b Shields, Brian; Sullivan, Kevin (2009). WWE: History of WrestleMania. p. 58.
- ^ "WWE brings ECW to Sci Fi Channel". WWE. Retrieved 2006-06-02.
- ^ "WWE RAW results - June 5, 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
- ^ "ECW on Sci-Fi results - June 13, 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
- ^ "ECW on Sci-Fi results - July 11, 2006". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
- ^ "ECW Championship". WWE. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
- ^ Kreikenbohm, Philip. "ECW World Heavyweight Title Tournament « Tournaments Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database".
- World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
- ^ a b Medalis, Kara A. (2009-07-26). "Results:Dominant farewell". WWE. Archived from the original on February 20, 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
- World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the originalon 2008-06-27. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the originalon 2008-07-02. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- World Wrestling Entertainment.