When people think of ECW, they think of a lot of things, but usually this 
isn't one of them. ECW never gets the mainstream credit they deserve for 
being the true innovators of modern pro wrestling. Back in 1993, Eastern 
Championship Wrestling became Extreme Championship Wrestling and a legend was 
born, back then Paul must have had no idea what he was getting into. He was 
just staying involved in what he loved more than anything else in the world: 
wrestling. I doubt Paul envisioned bi-monthly PPVs, a national TV show, and a 
cult following that would make David Koresh green with envy.

That small upstart I mentioned before you know ECW? Well, they were 
gaining steam, they were offering a product VERY different from anything else 
in the good ol' US of A. In this company the draw was not the goofy 
characters and zany storylines it was wrestling. The spotlight was on the 
athletes and what they did best, Paul demanded MUCH more out of his 
performers. Being charismatic wasn't enough in ECW, you had to be able to go 
out there and put on a 15 minute match and make it a GOOD ONE, too. Pushing 
wrestlers based on their wrestling ability… what a keen idea. Well, it turns 
out it was more than keen, it was a pretty damn good one. Fans were swarming 
to see smaller, more talented guys like "The Crippler" Chris Benoit and "The 
Shooter" Dean Malenko put on wrestling clinics. In ECW, the old saying still 
stood true. "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the 
fight in the dog." Malenko, Benoit, and Eddy Gurrerro were wowing audiences 
with incredible work rates, unseen in the US before. Here we were used to 
5-minute mini-matches where the high spot was a suplex. But fans started 
taking notice of this ECW thing and their 20 minute matches with little guys 
bouncing all over the place, diving off the ropes, over them, wrestling on 
the outside and those moves oh the moves! This Benoit guy uses more 
different moves in the first 5 minutes of his matches than Hogan used in his 
whole career!!!

But come on get to the juicy stuff, work rates are only a small portion of 
what ECW offered let's get to what made ECW famous!

So, every time you turn on WWF Raw Is War every time you see the WWF 
Attitude logo every time you see Stone Cold chug a beer every time you see 
The Dudley's put someone through a table every time you see Chris Benoit 
wrestle in a true classic every time you see a non-PPV match go longer that 
5 minutes, remember. Remember ECW, that little independent promotion based in 
Philadelphia, PA that changed the world of professional wrestling forever. 
With his new role in the WWF, people often ask if Paul Heyman influences the 
WWF's storylines. The answer? Hell yes he's been doing it for 8 years.