Extreme Championship Wrestling was formed on August 27, 1994 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The National Wrestling Alliance held a tournament to crown its new champion. Because of bad blood between NWA Dennis Coralluzzo and Tod Gordon, the owner of Eastern Championship Wrestling, at the end of the tournament, Shane Douglas, having defeated Too Cold Scorpio in the finals, raised the belt as the new champion, but then threw it down to the canvas, declaring the NWA to be a “dead promotion.” Douglas raised the Eastern Championship Wrestling belt, calling it the only real world title left in professional wrestling.
Days later, Gordon announced that he was withdrawing from the NWA, folding Eastern Championship Wrestling and renaming his promotion “Extreme Championship Wrestling.”
