If you had to ask any wrestling historian what was the moment where ECW was truly born, this would be it. August 27, 1994, a night that was supposed to crown a brand new NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion became the night where Eastern Championship Wrestling spread its wings and flew from the NWA nest in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.

By the summer of 1994, Paul Heyman had turned ECW from an independent promotion that relied on the stars of the past to attract a crowd into the renegade member of the National Wrestling Alliance. Younger talent was highlighted, storylines became more dramatic and layered, and the violence level was ramping up every single week. Despite all of this, Heyman knew that in order for ECW to succeed, it needed to break away from the NWA, because while he respected the contributions of those who came before him, he also understood that the golden era for the NWA was dead, and so he came up with a plan.

ECW was going to hold the tournament to crown the new NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, a title that had been vacant since 1993 after WCW also withdrew from the NWA. The final would come down to the high-flying yet technically savvy Too Cold Scorpio, and “The Franchise” Shane Douglas. For a wrestling match that has so much on the line, it must be said that it isn’t the greatest in the world, and for many ECW fans they probably don’t remember anything that happened in the 12 minutes Scorpio and Douglas were in the ring. For what it’s worth, the match is fine, if a little unspectacular, and when you run an entire tournament in one night, the matches are always going to suffer in the heat department.

What makes this match historic however is what came afterwards. Shane Douglas was the new champion and listed off some of the greats that had held the “Ten Pounds of Gold” before him, but instead of being thrilled to be a part of such a historic group, Douglas told them all he could kiss his ass and threw the belt down to the mat. Instead, he declared himself as the ECW World Heavyweight Champion, and declared that the new era of wrestling had begun, and ECW was at the forefront.

In that moment, ECW had set itself apart from the aging NWA and took its first bold step into the future. NWA President Dennis Coralluzzo was disgusted and disappointed by what happened but it didn’t matter, and two days after the event, Tod Gordon officially folded Eastern Championship Wrestling and founded Extreme Championship Wrestling in its place, with Douglas being recognized as the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. It’s still up for debate as to who knew what when it came to Douglas throwing the belt down, but for as bland as Douglas vs. Scorpio was, ECW simply wouldn’t be the same without it.