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Extreme Championship Wrestling (WWE)

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 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, tvN in South Korea, e.tv in South Africa, SIC Radical in Portugal, Sportmanía in Spain and AFN Xtra and in Saudi Arabia and Middle East on Showtime Arabia ShowSports 4.

Show history

Original format

WWE acquired Extreme Championship Wrestling and its video library in 2003 and later began reintroducing ECW through a series of DVDs and books. The enormous popularity of ECW merchandise prompted WWE to organize ECW One Night Stand, an ECW reunion pay-per-view in 2005. The financial and critical success of the event motivated WWE to organize a second One Night Stand the following year. With rejuvenated interest in the ECW product, WWE began exploring the possibility of reviving the promotion full time. On May 26 2006, WWE announced the launch of ECW as a stand-alone brand, congruous to Raw and SmackDown!, with its own show on SCI FI. Despite initial concerns that professional wrestling would not be accepted by SCI FI's demographic, network President Bonnie Hammer stated that she believed ECW would fit the channel's theme of "stretching the imagination". SCI FI is owned by NBC Universal, parent company of USA Network and exclusive cable broadcaster of WWE programming.

The ECW brand initially attempted to differentiate itself from WWE's other brands. The hard cameras were placed in a different location. The ring mat featured an ECW logo, and the WWE logo turnbuckle covers were replaced with blanks. The male performers were also referred to as "Wrestlers" as opposed to "Superstars" (later "Extremists" was used as the official label), and female performers were called "Vixens" instead of Divas. It also featured original ECW talent. Later however, changes were made to differentiate it from the original ECW promotion, including changing the original promotion's rules where weapons were legal in all matches and there were rarely any count outs or disqualifications. WWE now classifies such matches as having "Extreme Rules", and are only fought when specified. The only pay-per-view event hosted exclusively by the ECW brand since its launch was December to Dismember in December 2006. On March 14 2007, before another one could be scheduled, WWE announced that all future pay-per-views would feature all three brands.

Former ECW owner Paul Heyman served as the on air "ECW Representative" (a reference to how Heyman had been identified on Monday Night RAW back in 1997). According to an interview in the UK newspaper The Sun, Heyman wrote the brand's weekly scripts and submitted them to writers for possible changes, and then Vince McMahon for final approval. Following the December to Dismember 2006 Heyman was relieved from both his on and off air duties with World Wrestling Entertainment. After Heyman left, there was no ECW authority figure until August 14 2007, when Armando Estrada was announced as the General Manager. On June 3 2008 Estrada was replaced by Theodore Long as General Manager of ECW.

ECW on SCI FI

ECW's weekly series was originally given a thirteen episode run as a "summer series" on SCI FI. The premiere received a 2.79 rating, making it the highest rated show on cable in its time slot. Because of its good ratings it was granted an extended run through the end of 2007. On October 23 2007, the network renewed the series through 2008.

While the show started out a ratings success, it began drawing criticism from fans of the original ECW early on. This was most evident by the negative crowd reaction "old school" fans gave the main event of Batista vs. the Big Show at the August 1 2006 show from Hammerstein Ballroom. During the match, fans chanted "Boring", "You both suck", "same old shit" and "change the channel".

On October 16 2007 a "talent exchange" was started between the SmackDown! and ECW brands, allowing their respective talent to appear on either brand. On May 6 2008, ECW celebrated its 100th episode on SCI FI.

ECW moved to 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central beginning Tuesday, September 30 2008.

On September 8 2008 edition of Raw it was announced a "talent exchange" was started between the Raw and ECW brands, allowing their respective talent to appear on either brand.

Online presence

At ECW's launch, WWE.com introduced Hardcore Hangover, a video feature which allowed fans only in the United States to stream or download video footage from the weekly show. On October 16, 2007 it was replaced by a new feature which made full episodes of the show available for streaming on WWE.com the day after they aired. After gathering a list of names from fans and conducting an online poll, the feature was named ECW X-Stream on October 31 2007.

Production

ECW brand shows are held in large arenas as a part of the SmackDown! brand's Tuesday taping schedule. This is in sharp contrast to the original Extreme Championship Wrestling which ran most of its events in smaller venues. The show generally airs live on Tuesdays directly before — when touring the west coast — or after SmackDown! has taped, though it has been recorded and placed on a broadcast delay until later in the night depending on what circumstances dictate.

ECW's initial theme song was "Bodies" by Drowning Pool, which had been used by WWE for Extreme Championship Wrestling since before the brand was established. Since then the theme song has changed between a number of different songs before settling on "Don't Question My Heart", sung by Kyle Morrison of the band Shattersphere. It has also used "This Is the New Shit" by Marilyn Manson. A remix of "Don't Question My Heart" by Saliva featuring Brent Smith is now used.

On January 22, 2008, ECW began broadcasting in HD, along with a new HD set, which is shared among all three WWE brands.

Special episodes

Episode title	Date	Rating
WWE vs. ECW: Head to Head	June 7 2006	2.8
Best of ECW 2006	December 26 2006	1.9
Best of ECW 2007	December 25 2007	0.9
ECW 100th episode	May 6 2008	1.08

On-air personalities

Champion

Championship	Current champion	Date won	Date aired
ECW Championship	Matt Hardy	September 7 2008	September 7 2008

General Managers

General Manager	Date Started	Date Finished
Paul Heyman	June 13 2006	December 4 2006
Armando Estrada	August 14 2007	June 3 2008
Theodore Long	June 3 2008	Present

Commentators

Commentators	Year(s)	Notes
Joey Styles and Tazz	June 2006 - April 2008
Mike Adamle and Tazz	April 2008 - July 2008
Todd Grisham and Tazz	July 2008
Todd Grisham and Matt Striker	August 2008 - Present

Ring announcers

Ring announcer	Year(s)
Justin Roberts	June 13, 2006 - September 18, 2007
Tony Chimel	September 25, 2007 - Present

Recurring segments

Segment	Host	Year(s)
Kelly's Exposé	Kelly Kelly	2006, 2008
Striker's Classroom	Matt Striker	2006 - 2008
Extreme Exposé	Kelly Kelly, Layla, Brooke	2007
15 Minutes of Fame	John Morrison	2007
The Dirt Sheet	John Morrison and The Miz	2008 - present