The ECW, or Extreme Championship Wrestling or Eastern Championship Wrestling, was first introduced in America from the thunderous and groundbreaking professional wrestling championship in 1992 and was later called Extreme Championship Wrestling.

The founder of the Extreme Championship Wrestling was Todd A. Gordon a member of the National Wrestling Alliance or the NWA, from Philadelphia.

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As a startup venture Extreme Championship Wrestling had little publicity and so Todd Gordon signed up bad man Jimmy "Super fly" Snuka, from the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). Todd later sold his rights from the NWA to his head booker, Paul Heyman, in 1996.

Snuka was given a break to recuperate before joining the ECW and came back in excellent health he went on to win the first Extreme Championship Wrestling world championship title.

This gave Extreme Championship Wrestling their much-needed legitimacy, which was badly needed at that point of time. The "Super fly" was also fielded against his arch rival Don Muraco, his old WWE nemesis, in a few wrestling matches.

But it was superstar wrestler "The Magnificent One" who beat the Superfly, ending hissecond straight reign as the winner of the Extreme Championship of Wrestling Championship, and as king of ECW on the 30th of September, 1992 in Philadelphia. Don Muraco and the Super fly continued to fight in ECW and built up an alliance later on.

It was the presence of Don Muraco and the Super fly that helped future Extreme Championship Wrestling superstars like Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman solidify their roots in Extreme Championship Wrestling.

The Sandman won his first Extreme Championship Wrestling championship title by beating Don Muraco on the16th of November 1992 in the city of Philadelphia, PA.

After it was sold to Heyman, Todd Gordon continued as the Extreme Championship Wrestling as commissioner, doing and conducting interviews but later on quit Extreme Championship Wrestling relinquishing all his Extreme Championship Wrestling duties for personal and family reasons.

It has been rumored that Heyman sacked Tod Gordon for being a spy and a mole working for Ted Turner's rival on the sly, the World Championship Wrestling promotion, and secretly transferring Extreme Championship Wrestling superstars there with lucrative offers.

But there has never been any documented proof and in an interview Todd Gordon took a few years later he smilingly refuted the story claiming that the rumor was nothing other than a work of fictitious imaginations and floated by his business rivals.

Extreme Championship Wrestling became famous for its huge fan following for this extreme sport and the popularity of its stars. They had introduced and promoted plenty of varieties and many innovative styles in the professional wrestling circuit, which were not showcased in the WWE or WWF but depite this popularity the ECW closed its doors in April 2001, when Heyman filed for bankruptcy protection from the Federal Government.

The World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE then purchased the rights to Extreme Championship Wrestling and started an annual Extreme Championship Wrestling event, named the "ECW One Night Stand", in 2005.

After its initial success the WWE re-launched the promotion on the 13th of June, 2006 changing it to a weekly format televised on Sci Fi Channel in America, the Sky Sports 3 TV channel in the UK, as well as in the Television Channel FOX8 in Australia, and the Ten Sports channel over the rest of the world. Its most popular event was the "Smack Down" weekly contest.

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