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This is my first column for OWW so I hope you all enjoy it, and feedback, both positive and negative, is welcome. I'm sure you're all aware of the launch of ECW, which seems to be the hottest topic in the wrestling world. I for one am truly excited about the new product, but I've heard a lot of negative thoughts on the ECW. And also a few positives. E-C-W! E-C-W! E-C-W! The chants fill the arenas all over the world. ECW was more than a wrestling company, it was a family. And also you could say the land of the misfit toys. No other company wanted anything to do with some of the wrestlers or the company, it was rumoured that they were too dangerous in the ring or too small or too big, and Paul Heyman made something out of them.

ECW, before it was Extreme, was known as Eastern Championship Wrestling, and was owned by Todd Gordon. The booker was Eddie Gilbert. Eddie Gilbert and Todd Gordon had a big falling out and Todd Gordon appointed a young Paul Heyman as a booker.

But what really shook up the wrestling world was on August 27th 1994 when Shane Douglas defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in a NWA World Title tournament, to be crowned NWA World Champion. After the match he pretty much said for the greats like Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat and Dusty Rhodes to kiss his a**. Which was the era of Extreme and that's when ECW really took it to the extreme.

And from there on ECW just went up. If there's one wrestler who really helped the late ECW, it was Tazz the human suplex machine. Tazz had evolved, and he was mad at not being given the opportunities he deserved. So he made his own belt known as the FTW title which helped Tazz get ready for the world title. So he made his challenge to the world champion, which was Shane Douglas. Tazz won and he was non-stop kicking a** from then on.

ECW had it all - great wrestlers, people getting slammed through tables, hit with barbed wire. And they finally reached the holy grail by getting a network deal and the good times would keep rolling. Things could only be going up, but they were sadly mistaken as within two weeks they had lost the ECW tag team champs (Dudley Boyz) and the ECW World champ (Tazz). And from there on their top guys were leaving for WWE or WCW and they couldn't do the stuff that put them on the map, so they had nothing when finally on January 7th 2001 it was their final show and ECW was closed forever.

Or so we thought. Last year they had their One Night Stand pay-per view. We saw flaming tables, chair shots and Mike Awesome versus Masato Tanaka which stole the show. We even saw Tazz choke Kurt Angle out so that really made it perfect.

This year it's another One Night Stand and ECW is being brought back full time with the likes of RVD (future WWE champion) and Kurt Angle. ECW is surely going to be more Extreme than ever.

by Tyler Durden