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ECW World Heavyweight Championship

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ECW World Heavyweight Championship
Tournament information

The Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. It was originally the highest ranked title of the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion. Currently, it is the only championship on the ECW brand.

History

The ECW Championship was originally known as the Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) Heavyweight Championship of the National Wrestling Alliance.[1] Following the title's introduction in 1992, Jimmy Snuka became the inaugural champion on April 25. In 1994, ECW Heavyweight Champion, Shane Douglas, participated in a tournament for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship and defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in the finals on August 27 to win the title. However, he immediately relinquished it and instead proclaimed himself the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion.[2][3] Following this, Eastern Championship Wrestling left the NWA and was renamed Extreme Championship Wrestling while the title became known as the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) World Heavyweight Championship. The title remained active until April 11 2001 when ECW shut down and World Wrestling Entertainment subsequently purchased its assets.

In June 2006, WWE revived ECW as a third brand and reactivated the championship to be the ECW brand's primary title. On June 13, Paul Heyman awarded the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to Rob Van Dam as a result of winning the WWE Championship at One Night Stand 2006. Heyman had originally stated that the WWE Championship would "become" the ECW World Heavyweight Championship if Rob Van Dam became the WWE Champion at the event.[4] However, Rob Van Dam later declared that he would hold both titles simultaneously instead.[5] Soon after, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt was replaced with an updated design. The title later became known as the ECW World Championship in July 2006.[6] In August 2007, the title began to be referred to as the ECW Championship.[7] The title remained on the ECW brand until June 23 2008, when then-champion, Kane, was drafted to the Raw brand, as a part of the 2008 WWE Draft, in the process making the title Raw exclusive.[8] The title became ECW exclusive once again, after ECW superstar, Mark Henry, won the title in a Triple Threat match at Night of Champions on June 29 2008.[9] On July 22 2008, WWE introduced a new "Black gold" belt design for the ECW Championship belt.

Current champion

The current champion is Mark Henry, who is in his first reign. He defeated then-champion Kane and The Big Show in a Triple Threat match at Night of Champions on June 29 2008 in Dallas, Texas.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "ECW World Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  2. ^ "NWA World Title Tournament
    August 27, 1994 in Philadelphia, PA"    . Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
  3. ^ "History of the ECW World Title". WWE.com. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  4. ^ "WWE RAW results - June 5, 2006". Online World of Wresting. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
  5. ^ "ECW on Sci Fi results - June 13, 2006". Online World of Wresting. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  6. ^ "ECW on Sci Fi results - July 11, 2006". Online World of Wresting. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  7. ^ "ECW Championship". WWE.com. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
  8. ^ Sitterson, Aubrey (2008-06-25). "Tangled Titles". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  9. ^ Rote, Andrew (2008-06-29). "Worlds Strongest Extreme Champion". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  10. ^ "Mark Henry's first reign". WWE. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
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