ECW Championship

The Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) Championship is a professional wrestling world championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. It was originally the highest ranked title of the Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion. Currently, it is the only championship on the ECW brand.

History
The ECW Championship was originally known as the Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) Heavyweight Championship of the National Wrestling Alliance. Following the title's introduction in 1992, Jimmy Snuka became the inaugural champion on April 25. In 1994, ECW Heavyweight Champion, Shane Douglas, participated in a tournament for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship and defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in the finals on August 27 to win the title. However, he immediately relinquished it and instead proclaimed himself the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion. Following this, Eastern Championship Wrestling left the NWA and was renamed Extreme Championship Wrestling while the title became known as the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) World Heavyweight Championship. The title remained active until April 11 2001 when ECW shut down and World Wrestling Entertainment subsequently purchased its assets.

In June 2006, WWE revived ECW as a third brand and reactivated the championship to be the ECW brand's primary title. On June 13, Paul Heyman awarded the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to Rob Van Dam as a result of winning the WWE Championship at One Night Stand 2006. Heyman had originally stated that the WWE Championship would "become" the ECW World Heavyweight Championship if Rob Van Dam became the WWE Champion at the event. However, Rob Van Dam later declared that he would hold both titles simultaneously instead. Soon after, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt was replaced with an updated design. The title later became known as the ECW World Championship in July 2006. In August 2007, the title began to be referred to as the ECW Championship.

Current champion
The current champion is Kane, who is in his first reign. He defeated Chavo Guerrero at WrestleMania XXIV on March 30 2008 in Orlando, Florida, having earned the title shot by winning a 24 man battle royal earlier in the night.