This is a script for my YouTube channel. You can find the video by clicking Here
August 27th 1994 should have been a proud moment for the National Wrestling Alliance. It was the day that they were set to crown a new World Champion, their own World champion following the separation of the Alliance from WCW. Crowning a new champion was an exciting prospect for the NWA with it's top title no longer under WCW's control as it had been. It also signified the return of the most famous design of the NWA World title as WCW had replaced it with what is today known as the 'big gold belt'. A one night tournament was held in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in one of the alliances' biggest territories, Eastern Championship Wrestling, including some impressive names of the day like the Tazmaniac, Dean Malenko, and Doink the Clown for some reason. The final of the tournament saw two more up and coming stars vie for the gold, with Shane Douglas, the former dynamic dude, defeating Too Cold Scorpio to win the championship, but what happened next the NWA hadn't bargained for, as Shane took the microphone, presumably to give his victory speech.
"I stand here before God and my Father in Heaven tonight, as I said I would be, Worlds heavyweight champion. In the tradition of Lou Thez. In the tradition of Jack Brisco, of the Brisco brothers (not those ones). Of Dory Funk Jr. Of Terry Funk, of the real nature boy Buddy Rogers upstairs tonight. From the Harley Race's to the Barry Windhams, to the... Ric Flair's. I accept this heavyweight title. Of Kevin Von Erich, of the fat man himself Dusty Rhodes, this is it tonight Dad. And Rick Steamboat, and they can all kiss my ass." With that line, Shane would take his newly won World championship, whose lineage could be traced back to 1948, and he would throw it to the ground. Shane goes on to declare the NWA to be a dead promotion, proclaiming himself the new ECW world champion. Why did Shane do this? Who's idea was it? What would be the consequences for Eastern Championship Wrestling?
According to Shane Douglas in a 2018 interview, the whole idea came from ECW's founder Todd Gordon and booker Paul Heyman, who had been part of creative in ECW for almost a year by that point. Shane was already ECW's champion at the time, having beaten Terry Funk for the title in March of 94, so the plan was made since ECW was one of the largest and best drawing NWA territories at the time, to crown the ECW champion as NWA World champion also. In the 2005 WWE produced documentary 'The Rise and Fall of ECW, Paul Heyman claims that he pitched the idea as a way of breaking Eastern Championship Wrestling away from the traditional perception of wrestling upheld by the NWA. In Paul's words, the old school NWA was "everything we wanted to get away from". In that documentary Paul doesn't mention a man who is important to this story, who Paul and Todd Gordon had heat with at the time. A fellow promoter and competitor who he claimed in a 2006 interview would call the fire department on ECW shows claiming overcrowding just to be a nuisance, Dennis Corraluzzo.
The match and Shane's actions would air on the August 30th episode of Eastern Championship Wrestling, and would be followed by an interview with at the time joint NWA president who was in the building that night, Corraluzzo. Dennis was a fellow promoter in the Philadelphia and New Jersey area, and had made clear his distaste for Todd Gordon and ECW because of it's mature product. Even before ECW became extreme by name, they had already begun the shift towards its new direction. Dennis also was against ECW hosting the title tournament, but was over-ruled by the NWA board as ECW was one of the few Alliance members with a stable television presence, therefore it would give the new champion more exposure. At the time, Dennis was understandably shocked by what he saw in the ring, but was assured by Todd and Paul that it was just a storyline to start an NWA vs ECW feud. Neither side, Dennis on one and Paul and Todd on the other trusted the other's intentions for the NWA World title, so Paul and Todd planned the swerve to distance themselves from the NWA, to create buzz for their new brand, and to firmly define Shane Douglas as their guy. Having won the NWA world title tournament, their regional champion was now able to rebrand himself as a World champion in the eyes of ECW's fans.
On the Hardcore TV episode moments after Douglas' actions were aired, Corraluzzo, who at this point still wasn't aware he had been swerved, claimed on camera that Shane was still the NWA champion and the NWA board would get involved since ECW was one of their members. Little did he know at the time that his comments would play directly into Todd and Paul's hands, as this interview would be directly followed by a message from Todd Gordon himself, announcing that NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling as a company was being folded, and in it's place would be Extreme Championship Wrestling, not an NWA member and so not subject to it's rules. The show would close with the Public Enemy, one of ECW's hottest tag teams of the day, spray painting over the word 'Eastern' on the logo banner, and painting the word extreme under it. While the name 'Hardcore TV' had existed since April '93, the following weeks show aired on September 6th 1994, would be the first episode of Extreme Championship Wrestling.
In the interview with Shane Douglas I referenced earlier, he noted that he initially felt that the idea when pitched to him by Paul Heyman was the wrong thing to do. In the promo when he won the title he listed many esteemed names that had held that honour, who he did have respect for , well most of them. For those not in the know Shane held a long time grudge against Ric Flair for his treatment in WCW while Flair was booking the shows, a grudge he has referenced for decades now. He claimed to spend the whole week leading up to the event wrestling with the idea of it, and notes that Paul never forced him to do it. He claims his mind was made up after receiving a phone call from of all people, Mike Tenay, future voice of TNA Wrestling, who at the time hosted a radio show called 'wrestling insiders'. Tenay told Douglas that on his show the previous night Dennis Corraluzzo made some negative comments about him. When Shane heard the comments from a man Shane didn't even really know, he was incensed, and this was enough to convince him to follow Heymans plan. Dennis, again not knowing what he had started, unwittingly caused a great deal of damage to the NWA, damage that it would take a long time for the Alliance to come back from.
In November he would oversee another tournament to crown a new NWA World champion, this time held in association with Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain Wrestling. Jim has stated that given his former ties to the NWA and respect for it, he was appalled when he learned what had happened. Jim has a fairly rocky history with Paul Heyman, and this no doubt made things worse between them. Cornette has claimed that while not an official NWA member, he offered to host a new tournament to crown a champion, one Cornette trusted in future ECW star Chris Candido. Unfortunately for the NWA the bloom was already off the rose, and the NWA would struggle through the rest of the 1990's. There would be a few notable names to hold the title over the next eight years, such as Sabu, Steve Corino, more ECW names, and former UFC champion Dan Severn, who in his first reign held it for four years and a month. After some dark years for the title where it usually changed hands at non-televised events, it wouldn't be until NWA TNA launched in June 2002, that the title would be seen by a national, and eventually global audience as TNA grew.
While the NWA entered it's wilderness years through the rest of the 90's ECW would continue to thrive. At this point I'll confess that this video has an ulterior motive. While continuing the videos I make on this channel, I also want to chronicle ECW month by month, starting with Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA title and ECW becoming extreme. If you're interested in this idea please let me know in the comments, and I'll hopefully cover September 1994 very soon.
Sources (directly referenced)
ECW August 30th 1994: https://network.wwe.com/video/73525/ecw-hardcore-tv-aug-30-1994?playlistId=15447
Heyman 2006 interview: https://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=20037&p=1
Shane Douglas Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBBB9hakIPA&t
Cornette on Shane throwing the belt down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlU18p0LlRM
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