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The Shane Douglas promo that took ECW ‘extreme’

Posted: Aug 28th 2026 By: Jake Jeremy

August 27 1994 was a big moment in the history of ECW and North American wrestling in general. A tournament was held at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia back in ’94 to crown the new NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, which Shane Douglas would capture after beating Too Cold Scorpio.

Douglas would then cut a promo discussing the history and lineage of the title, before saying that all of the icons that had held the belt in the past can kiss his a** (including Ric Flair, obviously). This would later be revealed as a double-cross, rather than just an angle on the show, as Tod Gordon and Eastern Championship Wrestling would then break away from the NWA organization and relaunch as Extreme Championship Wrestling. Paul Heyman would take on creative duties and eventually the full running of the business until the company went under after filing for bankruptcy in April 2001.

Dave Meltzer had quite a lot to say about this one in the Sept. 5, 1994 Observer Newsletter

Shane Douglas and the Extreme Championship Wrestling promo

Here is some of what Dave had to say about the moment and fallout (the rest is well worth reading too):

“In what will go down as one of the more public double-crosses in a business known for lying and double-crossing, Tod Gordon’s Eastern Championship Wrestling after holding the NWA tournament on 8/27 at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, publicly trashed the belt and the promotion on its television show three nights later announced it was quitting the fledgling organization.

“The plan to have ECW champion Shane Douglas win the tournament, then say the belt was worthless and throw it on the ground, was several weeks in the making and had a dual purpose. It was both a way to giving Douglas credibility as more than a local champion as ECW changed its name from being Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme Championship Wrestling and Douglas’ championship of the promotion will now be called “ECW World heavyweight champion” and attempts to expand outside the Philadelphia area; and to publicly double-cross the NWA, particularly Dennis Coraluzzo and possibly Jim Crockett, and give the group the renegade promotion reputation it is building on.
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“With the in-your-face mindset of its ECW arena core audience, when Douglas said how the NWA title had meant nothing in seven years, that the organization was dead and belt was worthless and the only belt that meant anything to him was the ECW belt, saying he would never want a championship that Ric Flair held, it got over surprisingly well. There were even chants of ‘Flair is dead’ as Douglas made his speech. Douglas did the speech while a stunned Coraluzzo looked on. Even after the double-cross, ECW officials, Paul E. Dangerously in particular, tried to placate Coraluzzo telling him it was only an angle to get heat on Douglas, but that turned out to be just another in a string of lies when the reality was obvious on television three nights later that it was a public statement which did get over with the ECW core audience, which heavily booed Coraluzzo from the moment he came into the ring as an NWA rep.

“During the week, Gordon had received approval from the NWA board by getting Coraluzzo’s swing vote by promising that Douglas would lose the title to Chris Benoit, which both Coraluzzo and NWA attorney Bob Trobich were in favor of making the champion. That’s just another agreement that won’t be lived up to. ECW created its bracketing so that Benoit, who it appeared the NWA would make champion later in the year if the organization ever gets past being a paper organization stage, would lose in the tournament’s first round to Too Cold Scorpio. Coraluzzo felt that didn’t matter that Benoit lost in the first round since it he felt Benoit showed himself to be the best wrestler in the tournament, a view shared by most who called in who said the Benoit-Scorpio match (rated at ****1/4) stole what everyone said was an overall great wrestling show.”