What if #7: Shane Douglas doesn't "throw down" the NWA belt

08-14-2010, 11:26 AM

On August 27th 1994, Shane Douglas defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in the finals for the NWA belt in former Eastern Championship Wrestling and declares the belt the Extreme Championship Wrestling belt, ushering in a new era in professional wrestling, while breaking all ties from the NWA.
What transpired was the birth of an important era in professional wrestling, and brought ECW into a new era, and most argue, laid the foundation for the Attitude Era.
After the belt was thrown down, ECW gained prominence for it's hardcore style, and created a host of important characters and wrestlers in the attitude era such as Mankind/Mick Foley/ Cactus Jack, Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guererro, Dean Malenko, The Dudley Boys, RVD to name a few. With ECW's rise, it became a land of misfit toys, where disgarded wrestlers would be reformed and become a talent pool which the big two fished from, and gained ECW much popularity. Many of those mentioned would previously have been "too small" to be stars in WCW and especially the WWF.

What if Shane Douglas doesn't throw down the belt?
Does ECW become the phenomenon that it became?
Do wrestlers who may not have been known during that era flock to ECW to be noticed?
How would it effect the Attitude Era, or would that era have been delayed?
Do the previous stars mentioned get their break in another promotion?
One more question. I have always contended that ECW gave birth to the IWC, as it became a promotion where smarks gathered and became noticed as being fans on a known promotion. Ecw in my opinion was the first smark promotion.

Discuss.

08-14-2010, 11:26 AM	#1
Gertner Guest Posts: n/a	What if #7: Shane Douglas doesn't "throw down" the NWA belt On August 27th 1994, Shane Douglas defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in the finals for the NWA belt in former Eastern Championship Wrestling and declares the belt the Extreme Championship Wrestling belt, ushering in a new era in professional wrestling, while breaking all ties from the NWA. What transpired was the birth of an important era in professional wrestling, and brought ECW into a new era, and most argue, laid the foundation for the Attitude Era. After the belt was thrown down, ECW gained prominence for it's hardcore style, and created a host of important characters and wrestlers in the attitude era such as Mankind/Mick Foley/ Cactus Jack, Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guererro, Dean Malenko, The Dudley Boys, RVD to name a few. With ECW's rise, it became a land of misfit toys, where disgarded wrestlers would be reformed and become a talent pool which the big two fished from, and gained ECW much popularity. Many of those mentioned would previously have been "too small" to be stars in WCW and especially the WWF. What if Shane Douglas doesn't throw down the belt? Does ECW become the phenomenon that it became? Do wrestlers who may not have been known during that era flock to ECW to be noticed? How would it effect the Attitude Era, or would that era have been delayed? Do the previous stars mentioned get their break in another promotion? One more question. I have always contended that ECW gave birth to the IWC, as it became a promotion where smarks gathered and became noticed as being fans on a known promotion. Ecw in my opinion was the first smark promotion. Discuss.