ECW World Heavyweight Championship

The Current ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt

The ECW World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling title. It was the highest title in the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion from its start in 1992 up until the promotion's bankruptcy in 2001. It was revived in 2006 and is now the only title in the new ECW brand of World Wrestling Entertainment.

History

The belt was known as the NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship from 1992 to 1994. On August 27, 1994, after severing ties with the NWA and claiming world status on their heavyweight championship, the belt became known as Extreme Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship (although it would not get World Title status by PWI until 1999).

Mike Awesome was still into his second reign as the ECW World Heavyweight Champion when he unexpectedly showed up in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). It was due to this fiasco that Paul Heyman was forced to sign a match with Awesome and Tazz (who at the time was signed to the World Wrestling Federation) to defend his title, which Tazz eventually won. This was the only time that a WWF contracted wrestler faced a WCW contracted wrestler in an ECW ring.

ECW declared bankruptcy on April 11, 2001, with the then-champion, Rhino, joining the WWF. During his WWF tenure, Rhino was recognized as the final ECW World Heavyweight Champion, and notably at the 2005 ECW One Night Stand event he was heralded as the final champion as well; however, he did not appear with the title at the event, and was not referred to as the "current" champion.

The ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt used from 1999-2001

The title was reactivated on June 13, 2006 when Paul Heyman presented it to Rob Van Dam. Van Dam was originally awarded with an ECW replica title belt on June 13, 2006, but eventually got a brand new (leather and plates) ECW World Heavyweight Championship title belt.

The original ECW championship belt is still in the possession of Rhino. On July 13, 2006, during TNA iMPACT!, Rhino came to the ring with a sack that he claimed contained the original ECW World Heavyweight Championship title belt, but noted that he couldn't bring it out due to threats from WWE's legal department. So Rhino took the "belt" (placed in a sack), took it outside and appeared to destroy it in a trash can by setting it on fire. It should also be noted that, the ECW logo was purple in the original belt, but the logo appears red in the current belt.

Even if the belt was the same, it is not known if the belt was still in the can when the fire started: after Rhino dropped the sack into the trash can, but before he set the contents on fire, the camera moved away from the can as Rhino temporarily walked away, allowing for the contents to potentially be removed. There was no shot of the contents of the can on fire, just the fire coming out of the top of the can. As such, it is unclear (and unlikely even though he did in an interview state it was the real title being burnt) that Rhino actually destroyed his ECW title belt on iMPACT!.

Statistics

Record:

Record holder:

Record number:

Notes:

Most reigns

The Sandman

Five

The Sandman won his 5th title on January 7, 2001, after he defeated champion Steve Corino and Justin Credible in a 3-way dance. He had previously been tied with Shane Douglas for the most reigns, with 4 each.

Longest reign

Shane Douglas

406 days

Douglas beat Bam Bam Bigelow for the title on November 30, 1997. He would hold the title through all of 1998, before losing the belt to Taz on January 10, 1999.

Shortest reign

The Sandman

c. 15 minutes

The Sandman won the title from Steve Corino and lost it to Rhino on January 7, 2001. The record edges Tommy Dreamer's record on April 22, 2000 of 25 minutes.

Oldest champion

Terry Funk

53 years

Funk beat Raven for the title at ECW Barely Legal on April 13, 1997. He would lose the title to Sabu on August 9, 1997, in a barbed wire match.

Youngest & shortest champion

Mikey Whipwreck

23 years; 5 ft 7 in

Whipwreck upset The Sandman for the title on October 28, 1995, but would lose it back to The Sandman on December 9 of that year.

Tallest & heaviest champion

Big Show

7 ft; 507 lbs.

Big Show won the title from Rob Van Dam on July 4, 2006 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under Extreme Rules. He is currently the reigning ECW Champion.

Lightest champion

Jerry Lynn

185 lbs.

Lynn won the ECW title from Justin Credible on October 1, 2000. He lost the title to Steve Corino on November 5 of that year.

Trivia

* 6 former ECW Champions, Terry Funk, Shane Douglas, Sabu, Steve Corino, Raven, and Rhino have won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
* 8 former ECW Champions, Raven, Taz, Mike Awesome, Tommy Dreamer, Justin Credible, Rhino, Rob Van Dam, and The Big Show have won the WWE Hardcore Championship.
* 3 former ECW Champions, Bam Bam Bigelow, Terry Funk, and Shane Douglas have won the WCW Hardcore Championship.
* 5 wrestlers have won the ECW Heavyweight, Television, and Tag Team championships. This accomplishment is sometimes called "The ECW Triple Crown". The first to accomplish this was Johnny Hotbody, who won the Tag title with The Suicide Blondes on April 3, 1993. Next was Sabu, after he won the Tag title with The Tazmaniac on February 4, 1995. Mikey Whipwreck was the next man to do this, after winning the Heavyweight title on October 28, 1995. The penultimate person to do this was Taz, after winning the heavyweight title on January 10, 1999. The most recent was Rob Van Dam, who was awarded the world title on June 13, 2006.
* As of 2006, only two ECW Champions have ever won the WWF/WWE Championship, Rob Van Dam and The Big Show. Van Dam defeated John Cena for the WWE Championship at ECW One Night Stand 2006 on June 11, 2006, and was awarded the ECW World Heavyweight Championship by Paul Heyman on June 13, 2006, while still the WWE Champion (making him the first person to have held both titles, and obviously the first to hold them simultaniously). On July 4, 2006, The Big Show defeated him for the title, making Show the first person to ever win the WCW, ECW, and WWF/E Championships.
*A record 7 former ECW Champions have been employed as wrestlers by the WWE at 2 different periods of time: From July 2001 to February 2002 (Raven, Tazz, Awesome, Dreamer, Credible, Lynn, & Rhyno) and ever since The Big Show won the title on July 4 of this year (Sandman, Funk, Dreamer, Credible, Sabu, RVD, and The Big Show)
*On the flipside, there have been 4 instances of time where no former ECW champs were on the WWE's roster:
**From ECW's inception in 1992 until Shane Douglas' hiring in 1995.
**From Douglas' resignation that same year until Terry Funk's signing in 1998.
**From Funk's leaving that same year until Tazz's debut in 2000.
**From Rhyno's firing in 2005 until the revival of ECW in 2006.

Current champion

Big Show, the current ECW World Heavyweight Champion

Big Show is the current champion, defeating Rob Van Dam on July 4, 2006, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on ECW on Sci Fi. This is Big Show's first reign as ECW champion, and makes him the only wrestler to have held the ECW, WCW, and WWE Championships.

References

* The ECW Championship at WWE.com
* Wrestling Information Archive

ECW World Heavyweight Championship: Encyclopedia BETA