NWA World Title Tournament

Douglas' speech presaged the emergence of ECW – renamed Extreme Championship Wrestling shortly after the event – as a nationally recognized promotion and the continued decline in the power and profile of the NWA.

Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman – the owner and booker of the NWA affiliate Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) – wrote to the board of directors proposing that ECW host the tournament given that it had more television exposure than any other NWA affiliate.

Ostensibly unbeknownst to the board of directors, Gordon and Heyman – who had previously had disagreements with Coralluzzo – planned to use the tournament to publicly break away from the NWA and springboard ECW to prominence.

The tournament began with Dean Malenko defeating the Japanese wrestler Osamu Nishimura by submission using a standing figure-four leglock, followed by 911 squashing the surprise wild card entrant, Doink the Clown, with a series of chokeslams.

In between the semi finals and the finals, there was a scheduled tag team bout for the ECW Tag Team Championship between champions the Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock) and challengers Cactus Jack and Terry Funk.

Cactus Jack and Whipwreck went on to score an upset victory over the Public Enemy, with Whipwreck pinning Rock after Cactus Jack jostled him while he was on the top rope, causing him to fall and hit his groin on the ring rope.

Tonight, before God and my father as witness, I declare myself, the Franchise, as the new ECW Heavyweight Champion of the world.

[9] On the August 29, 1994, episode of ECW Hardcore TV, Tod Gordon delivered a promo stating that Eastern Championship Wrestling had withdrawn from the NWA, and had renamed the company Extreme Championship Wrestling, and would recognise Shane Douglas as its world heavyweight champion.

In its place will be ECW – Extreme Championship Wrestling – and we recognize the Franchise, Shane Douglas, as our World Heavyweight Champion.

The NWA World Heavyweight Championship remained vacant until November 19, 1994, when Chris Candido won a tournament in Cherry Hill, New Jersey hosted by Smoky Mountain Wrestling, defeating Tracy Smothers[13] in the finals.