Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling

Elite Canadian Championship
Wrestling
Acronym ECCW
Founded 1996
Style American Wrestling
Headquarters Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Founder(s) Dave Republic
Owner(s) ECCW Entertainment, Ltd.
Formerly Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling
Merged with Top Ranked Wrestling

Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) (formerly known as NWA / Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling) is a Western Canadian-based professional wrestling promotion, operating as a member of the National Wrestling Alliance. It was the focus of the 2010 documentary This Wrestling Life, and was used as the scene for the independent movie Kayfabe.

History

Beginning

Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) began promoting its first shows in May 1996 under the ownership of veteran wrestler/promoter "Gorgeous" Michelle Starr, with assistance from Terry Joe Silverspoon. The promotion initially operated solely on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, running shows in towns such as Port Alberni, Nanaimo, and Campbell River. The first ECCW Heavyweight champion was The Bodyguard. The title changed hands to "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka and John Rambo, before settling for longer periods of time with Michelle Starr and Mike Roselli.

In September 1996, ECCW moved its home base to New Westminster, British Columbia in order to more directly compete with rival International Championship Wrestling (based in Cloverdale, British Columbia). The promotion held its main house shows at the Eagles Hall (the former Columbia Theatre, now the Burr Theatre). In late 1996, full control of ECCW was given to Silverspoon, who continued to operate out of New Westminster until Michelle Starr returned to Canada approximately six months later.

Joining the NWA

In late 1997, Dave Republic assumed controlling interest of the promotion and announced that it had become a member of the National Wrestling Alliance, operating under the NWA Pacific Northwest banner. This change resulted in a separation of the talent, with half the roster aligning itself with Republic and the NWA, and the other half with Starr, thumbing their collective noses at the more traditional wrestling mindset the NWA adopted at the time.

It was during this time that the company adopted a rigorous touring schedule, often running up to 15 shows a month across British Columbia. Playing in towns of all sizes in the province, many of these touring shows were fundraisers for various schools or charities. A collection of one of these tours, The Northern Hell Tour, was made available as a multiple volume set of VHS video cassettes. The company also began running an annual summertime event at the North Surrey Rec Centre in Surrey, British Columbia, the first of which saw then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dan Severn defeat "Ironman" Mike Roselli in the main event. During this period of the company's history, they heavily relied on rabid fans and a blend of hardcore-style veterans such as Billy Two Eagles and "Maniac" Matt Borne, young up-and-comers such as Tony Kozina, El Antorcha, Strife, and Chance Beckett, and wrestling purists such as "Rocket" Randy Tyler and Doby Gillis. Other talent used during this period included Louie Spicolli, Tommy Rogers, and Dan Severn as touring NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Owing to the promotion's very name, which was a means to ride on the success Extreme Championship Wrestling was having across the Northeastern United States, it was not rare to see chairs, tables, and barbed wire at ECCW events.

In 2000, with their main building having been sold to the Raymond Burr Society, ECCW relocated its main monthly shows to Surrey, BC's Bridgeview Hall. To this day, it splits its main shows between Surrey and the Russian Community Centre in Vancouver, BC. During this period, ECCW brought in such outside stars as Christopher Daniels, Nova, Steve Corino, Sabu, and Tommy Dreamer. They also expanded into Washington State, occasionally running simultaneous shows in the U.S. and Canada with separate crews of wrestlers. It was around this time that ECCW entered into a working relationship with the IWA Japan organization, exchanging talent. IWA wrestlers Leatherface, Freddie Kruger and Jason the Terrible would often appear for ECCW, as well as IWA freelancer Asian Cougar, while Michelle Starr, Juggernaut, Disco Fury, and Buffy appeared in Japan for IWA.

Expansion

On December 8, 2005, ECCW announced that they had purchased independent group Top Ranked Wrestling (TRW), which had a program on KVOS (Channel 23 in Vancouver) on Saturday afternoons. ECCW's take over of the Top Ranked Wrestling program (renamed NWA Top Ranked Wrestling or NWA-TRW following the purchase) took effect on January 7, 2006, in time for the promotion's tenth anniversary celebrations. However, the first TV tapings under ECCW ownership took place at its "Season's Beatings" event on December 23, 2005. TRW star Vid Vain, who was the promotion's heavyweight champion at the time of the ECCW purchase, then joined ECCW, and his title was renamed by the company as the TRW Television Championship; that title was rarely defended on NWA-TRW, however, and the belt was shelved after a brief run. Also during the run of NWA-TRW, ECCW's top two championships, the NWA/ECCW Pacific Northwest Heavyweight and Tag Team titles, began to be referred to on the TV program as the NWA Top Ranked Heavyweight and NWA Top Ranked Tag Team Championships, respectively, although the titles otherwise retained their official names in promotional material.

ECCW later announced that NWA-TRW had been picked up for a second season. ECCW constantly had a rating of around .3, which is high for an independent promotion, and given the time slot, it was one of the highest ranked wrestling shows outside of World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Originally a one-hour show, NWA-TRW was cut to a 30-minute program in the spring of 2006. Despite being picked up for a second season, NWA-TRW aired its last episode on November 4, 2006. It is unknown whether the show was canceled by KVOS or by ECCW. Mauro Ranallo, who got his start on-camera with All Star Wrestling's CHAN-TV program in the late-1980s, was the original host of the program (starting with the then-independent TRW), with heel commentary provided by The Count and later Ladies' Choice (and occasionally Vance Nevada); after Ranallo left, ECCW ring announcer Scotty Sweatervest became the new TV host and held that job until NWA-TRW ended its run.

Following the cancellation of NWA-TRW, former color commentator Ladies' Choice was named as the new General Manager of ECCW on December 16, 2006 in Vancouver. Not surprisingly, following the lead of previous heel authority figures in major promotions like World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, LC has shown blatant favoritism toward heel wrestlers and abused the power of his office, in particular actively attempting to protect the title reign of NWA/ECCW Champion Randy Tyler (who had held the title since January 27, 2006, when he was awarded the belt without wrestling for it, after tricking Sweet Daddy Devastation into signing a contract giving the championship to Tyler if SDD defeated then-champion Juggernaut) from the challenges of popular contenders like Aaron Idol by doing all in his power to prevent those contenders from receiving title shots. LC's luck in keeping the championship on Tyler finally ran out on June 22, 2007 when Idol defeated Tyler in a steel cage match in Surrey to win the title, thanks in part to the involvement of the returning Sweet Daddy Devastation, who slammed the cage door into the escaping Tyler as payback for Tyler's duplicity. Not long after Idol's title win, Ladies' Choice resigned as General Manager and left ECCW.

Change in ownership

In 2010, Republic decided to focus on outside interests and sold the company to Scotty Mac, Mary Diaz, and The Natural who formed the company ECCW Entertainment, Ltd.. From November 2010 till April 2012, Michael Sweetser took the role as owner in a storyline as part of "The Administration" with Scotty Mac, but he was not an actual owner of the company.

Renaming

On January 7, 2012, Scotty Mac and Michael Sweetser announced that ECCW had been renamed to Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling, and unveiled a new ECCW championship belt. The belt is similar in design to the vanity "Elite championship" used by the Elite faction in DOA Pro Wrestling in Portland in 2011, of which Sweetser was also a member. The new ECCW logo is a modified version of the Elite logo. The previously used NWA/ECCW heavyweight championship belt was symbolically dropped into a trashcan, signifying the end of the "Extreme" era.

International Success

Many of Western Canada's brightest and best young talents have either started with ECCW, or used the promotion as a proving ground to build on their own skills and abilities. Harry Smith (2006, 2014), TJ Wilson (2005, 2006) and Natalya (2005, 2006), spent time with ECCW before signing on with the WWE, as did Mattias Wilde (2009-2010) and Tenille Tayla (2009-2011), with Natalya briefly holding the SuperGirls championship (now the ECCW Women's Championship) and Tayla holding the belt on two occasions. NXT Womens Champion Bayley appeared in ECCW in 2012 as "Davina Rose", losing to then-ECCW Womens Champion KC Spinelli. Nicole Matthews is a former SHIMMER Champion, and is regarded as a rising star on the North American independent wrestling scene. Tenille Tayla and KC Spinelli were featured on the wrestling-based World of Hurt television show's first season, with KC Spinelli, Bishop, Nick Price, "Ravenous" Randy Myers, and Sammy Hall being featured in the second season. KC Spinelli and Veronika Vice appeared on the Wipeout Canada game show. Throughout 2014-2015, Nick Price, The American Gunz, Kenny Lush, and referee Scooter Q. Hanson all appeared on West Coast Wrestling Connection television airing in Oregon, and Paragon Pro Wrestling airing nationally across the United States and Canada. Kyle O'Reilly appeared in the 2010 edition of the CHIKARA Young Lions Cup before signing a contract with Ring of Honor. He now wrestles exclusively for New Japan Pro Wrestling and ROH. In 2015, Scotty Mac, KC Spinelli, Drexl, and Jason Sullivan were regarded as some of the founding members and stars of the first season of Luchando, filmed and aired in Paraguay. Also in 2015, Kenny Lush competed for Irish Whip Wrestling in Dublin, Ireland, while ECCW Womens Champion Cat Power defended (and eventually lost) her championship in Japan to Syuri.

Championships

Current

Canadian championships

Championship Champion Previous Held since Location
NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship Ethan HD Artmeis Spencer April 9, 2016 Vancouver, British Columbia

NWA/ECCW championships

Championship Champion Previous Held since Location
ECCW Championship El Phantasmo Scotty Mac January 16, 2016 Vancouver, British Columbia
Pacific Cup Champion Ethan HD Alex Plexis March 12, 2016 Vancouver, British Columbia
ECCW Tag Team Championship Nelson Creed & Alex Plexis The Bollywood Boyz November 7, 2015 Vancouver, British Columbia
ECCW Women's Championship Cat Power Syuri February 28, 2016 Tokyo, Japan

Defunct

Championship Final champion
NWA Top Ranked Television Championship Vid Vain
NWA Canadian Junior Heavyweight Championship Nick Price
NWA Pacific Northwest Junior Heavyweight Championship Harv Sihra
ECCW Jobber Championship Danni Deeds
ECCW "Classic Tag Team Championships" The Greedfather & Red Dinero

Roster

Male wrestlers

  • Alex Plexis
  • Andy "the Dreadful" Bird
  • Artemis Spencer
  • Bishop
  • Daniel Adonis
  • "Dastardly" Danni Deeds
  • El Phantasmo
  • Ethan HD
  • Gurv Sihra
  • Harv Sihra
  • Hellion
  • Jamie Diaz
  • Jordie Taylor
  • J_SIN Sullivan
  • Kenny Lush
  • King of the Yukon
  • Ladies Choice
  • Mike Santiago
  • MR2
  • Nelson Creed
  • Pete Powers
  • "Ravenous" Randy Myers
  • Ray Brooks
  • Scotty Mac
  • Sid Sylum
  • Tony Baroni

SuperGirls

Tag Teams

Stables

House Of Hell

DTA

The Amerikan Gunz

G.O.D.S

The RIOT

Referees

((Inactive))

Ring announcers

((Inactive))

Additional personnel

((Alumuni))

Alumni

Male wrestlers

SuperGirls

See also

References

    External links

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