ECW FTW Heavyweight Championship
| ECW FTW Heavyweight Championship | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | |||||||||||||||
| Promotion | ECW | ||||||||||||||
| Date established | May 14, 1998 | ||||||||||||||
| Date retired | March 21, 1999 | ||||||||||||||
| Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||
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Brooklyn World Championship
FTW World Heavyweight Championship |
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| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| First champion(s) | Taz |
| Most reigns | Taz (2 reigns) |
| Longest reign | Taz (219 days) |
| Shortest reign | Taz (0 days) |
| Oldest winner | Sabu (35 years) |
| Youngest winner | Taz (31 years) |
The Extreme Championship Wrestling FTW (Fuck the World) Heavyweight Championship (also referred to as the Brooklyn World Championship) was an alternate professional wrestling championship in the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion. This was similar to the Million Dollar Championship in the World Wrestling Federation in that it was not an officially sanctioned championship.
The FTW Heavyweight Championship was created by ECW owner Paul Heyman to compensate for storylines that had to be dropped due to injuries. ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas had a serious sinus infection and an elbow injury. Taz and Al Snow also missed their matches at WrestlePalooza '98 due to health problems. He gave the title to Taz, as it suited his "bad-ass, no-nonsense" attitude."
Taz announced the creation of the FTW Heavyweight Championship on May 14, 1998 at It Ain't Seinfeld. In the storyline, he was frustrated by his inability to challenge for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship due to Champion Shane Douglas' injury and refusal to face him. Taz created and defended his own World title, billing himself as the "real" World champion. He states that fans appreciated the message conveyed by the belt, which represented contempt for bosses and society, and says that he believes it was more appreciated than the company's top title. The belt was billed as "unrecognized" by ECW.
Taz lost the title only once, in a singles match against Sabu. This was an intentional loss, when he pulled an unconscious Sabu over himself on December 19, 1998 (he was confident that he would defeat Shane Douglas in an upcoming title bout, and thus no longer needed the FTW Heavyweight Championship). Taz regained the title at Living Dangerously on March 21, 1999, where he unified the FTW Heavyweight Championship with the ECW World Heavyweight Championship (which he then held) by defeating Sabu in a title versus title match. Taz then began using only the ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt, being the sole World Heavyweight Champion in the promotion.
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