Ever since Extreme Championship Wrestling folded back in February 2001, people have been looking for that “next ECW.” A lot of people were putting over Ring of Honor as the next ECW, but considering ROH is and was completely different than ECW, it never happened. Some people assumed that CZW would take the reigns as the next ECW, but CZW was at the time more about blood and gore than interesting characters and storytelling. I could mention XPW, but who the hell wants to remember that?
One promotion that had that ECW feel, the one promotion that made you think extreme wrestling was alive and never going to truly die was Major League Wrestling (MLW). The promotion was ran by Court Bauer, a former WWE writer and based mainly out of Florida, though they had two shows in Philadelphia and New York in the beginning. Since the promotion was around from June 2002 until January 2004, it’s not known to a mainstream audience. Recently, MLW has resurfaced with a podcast.