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    Episode #1 | ECW’s Road to Pay Per View

    Episode #1 | ECW’s Road to Pay Per View

    FromFranchise University with Shane Douglas

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    Episode #1 | ECW’s Road to Pay Per View

    FromFranchise University with Shane Douglas

    ratings:
    Length:
    85 minutes
    Released:
    Aug 29, 2023
    Format:
    Podcast episode

    Description

    A hearty FU to you all, and welcome to the first episode of Franchise University with Shane Douglas.

    In the first episode of this brand new podcast, "The Franchise" Shane Douglas and co-host James Romero (of WSI | Wrestling Shoot Interviews and Story time with Dutch Mantell) take the opportunity to sit down and take a deep dive into ECW's long and winding road to pay per view. In episode one of Franchise University, Shane Douglas discusses what stopped Paul Heyman from getting onto PPV in 1996, excess blood in pro wrestling, Tod Gordon's issues with Paul Heyman in 1997, how the Mass Transit Incident almost ruined ECW's chances of growing into a national company, the paralysing of Chuck Austin in the WWF, issues with the dirt sheets, how badly he was paid in the WWF in 1995, Paul Heyman's weird relationship with Vince McMahon in the 1990s, Beyond the Mat filming Beyond the Mat at the ECW Arena and so much more!

    Franchise University with Shane Douglas is part of the WSI Network
    https://twitter.com/WSI_YouTube
    Released:
    Aug 29, 2023
    Format:
    Podcast episode

    Titles in the series (25)

    FU to you all! ECW Legend ”The Franchise” Shane Douglas once again dons his Dean mortarboard and breaks out the trusty ”Board of Education” to beat some wrestling sense into you... verbally speaking... every Tuesday, Shane Douglas will take a deep dive into a different subject, event or performer with his trademark intelligence, expert insight and take-no-prisoners, spin-no-bullsh*t attitude. Without Shane Douglas, there would have been no ECW World Heavyweight Championship. It was Douglas who, on Aug. 27, 1994, won a tournament to become the new NWA Heavyweight Champion, and then threw the title down and proclaimed the death of the National Wrestling Alliance and the birth of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. No other competitor on the ECW roster could have pulled off such a flagrant act of defiance with the poise of the man who declared himself ”The Franchise.” Indeed, it was Douglas’ unflappable confidence, poison tongue and hair-trigger temper that made him both a captivating personality and a sports-entertainment outlier better suited for the uncensored world of Extreme Championship Wrestling. The Franchise did not start out this way, however. Trained alongside Mick Foley by Dominic DeNucci, Douglas skateboarded into WCW as one-half of the fun-loving Dynamic Dudes alongside John ”Johnny Ace” Laurinaitis in 1989. Looking like Zack Morris with his bleached blond mullet and neon high-tops, the upstart popped over to WWE in the early ’90s and then back to WCW where he developed rapidly during a championship partnership with Ricky ”The Dragon” Steamboat. Douglas’ breakout as a singles star came in 1993 when he abandoned his white bread good guy act as ECW’s newest villain. Dispatching his hardcore opponents with a rough, technical style — Douglas always favored belly-to-belly suplexes over barbwire bats — the Pittsburgh native became the first champion of the rebranded Extreme Championship Wrestling, and the leader of The Triple Threat. An obvious challenge to his nemesis Ric Flair and his Four Horsemen, the group’s rotating cast of characters included Bam Bam Bigelow, Chris Candido and “Primetime” Brian Lee at different times. A brief trip to WWE in 1995 became the career lowlight for Douglas as the Dean Douglas persona (based on the fact that he was formerly a school teacher) forced upon him failed to catch on with WWE fans who saw it as a retread of The Genius. When he returned to ECW, he had an even bigger chip on his shoulder. Now with his “head cheerleader” Francine by his side, The Franchise captured both the ECW Television and ECW World Heavyweight Titles while besting Chris Jericho, Bam Bam Bigelow, Sabu and many more. After losing the ECW World Heavyweight Title to Tazz at the Guilty as Charged pay-per-view in 1999, Douglas returned to WCW for a strong two-year run as The Franchise. He won both the United States Title and the WCW Tag Team Titles (alongside Buff Bagwell) and captained competitors like Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn in an impressive faction known as Revolution. With extra stops in TNA as a manager and wrestler, Extreme Revolution and a mainstay of the independent scene to this day, Shane Douglas has been involved with pro wrestling at every level for 40 years.