In 1994, at the NWA World Title Tournament in Philadelphia, Shane Douglas beat 2 Cold Scorpio for the NWA World Championship and then threw the belt in the trash and said he was now representing ECW — Extreme Championship Wrestling. Three months later, ECW held its first pay-per-view with Barely Legal in April 1997.
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ECW burned brightly and created a lifetime cult of fans through the years, but it also burned out quickly, holding its final pay-per-view less than four years later with Guilty as Charged on Jan. 7, 2001. With a total of 21 pay-per-view events in its existence, here is a look at the wrestlers who worked in the most main event ECW PPV matches.
10 TERRY FUNK (2)
It seems almost hard to believe in an era of main event stars, but only nine men worked in more than two ECW PPV main event matches. Sitting at 10th place is a legend and a man who only appeared in two total ECW main events.
However, what makes Terry Funk so special is that he worked the first two ECW PPV main events in the company's history. He beat Raven for the world title at Barely Legal 1997 and then lost four months later at Hardcore Heaven in a three-way dance to Shane Douglas in an ECW World Title match.
9 TOMMY DREAMER (3)
Tommy Dreamer was the heart and soul of ECW. However, looking back at the PPV era of the show, he was only a main event wrestler when he was working with his sworn enemy, Raven. With that said, Dreamer and Raven never fought each other in a PPV main event. Dreamer was in three main event matches.
Dreamer's first two ECW pay-per-view main events were six-man matches. At Heat Wave 1998, he teamed with Sandman and Spike Dudley to take on The Dudley Boyz. At November to Remember 1999, he teamed with Raven and Sandman to battle Rhino and The Impact Players. His last ECW PPV main event was a world title match, where he lost to champion Justin Credible at Heat Wave 2000.
8 THE SANDMAN (3)
Sandman held more ECW world titles than anyone in history, with five world championship reigns. However, his time on top came before ECW started running pay-per-views, with only one title win coming after that. This is likely why his main event run was so limited on ECW PPVs. He worked three of them, two of them being six-man tag team matches. His final PPV main event was November to Remember 2000, a Double Jeopardy Match that Steve Corino won for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
7 SABU (3)
Sabu was an ECW superstar for many years, working with the company when it was Eastern Championship Wrestling under the NWA banner. He ended up as a world champion when the company went Extreme, but he only worked in three main event matches at ECW PPV events.
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At the second-ever ECW PPV, Hardcore Heaven, Sabu lost his world title in a Three-Way Dance to Shane Douglas in a match that also included Terry Funk. He was also in a six-man tag match at November to Remember 1998 and then lost to Taz at Living Dangerously 1999 to combine the ECW and FTW titles.
6 TAZ (4)
Taz was one of the top names in ECW for many years, including before the company went Extreme. He was a TV Champion, world champion, and even created his own title with the FTW Championship. He worked in four ECW main event matches, and the impressive thing is that it was four straight pay-per-views.
Taz worked at November to Remember 1998 in a six-man match. At Guilty as Charged 1999, Taz beat Shane Douglas for the world title and defended it in the main event at Living Dangerously and Hardcore Heaven.
5 ROB VAN DAM (4)
Despite not winning the top world championship while ECW was in existence, Rob Van Dam was also one of the biggest stars in the company. He did this as the TV Champion, World Tag Team Champion, and as one of the most exciting stars in the company. Despite never winning a singles world title, he worked the main event spot on ECW PPVs four times.
His first PPV main event was November to Remember 1998 in a six-man match. RVD's second PPV appearance happened in a tag team match at Heat Wave 1999. To show his popularity, the main event at Anarchy Rulz 1999 was the TV Championship match, which saw RVD beat Balls Mahoney. RVD was also in the final ECW PPV match in history, beating Jerry Lynn at Guilty as Charged 2001.
4 LANCE STORM (4)
Even more shocking than RVD is the case of Lance Storm. This Canadian superstar became the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. He also didn't have the charisma and fan draw as someone like Rob Van Dam. However, despite all those things weighing against him, Storm was in the same number of ECW PPV main event matches as RVD.
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At Living Dangerously 1998, the main event was inexplicably Al Snow and Lance Storm vs. Shane Douglas and Chris Candido, where Storm and Candido chose dream partners to work with. In 1999, he was in two tag team main event matches with Justin Credible as his partner, and then at Hardcore Heaven 2000, he fought against Credible for the ECW World Championship.
3 JERRY LYNN (5)
Jerry Lynn was in five total ECW PPV main event matches, including the last four PPV events in the company's history. It started at Heatwave 1999 with a tag team main event where he teamed with RVD. Then, at Anarchy Rulz in 2000, Lynn beat Justin Credible for the world title. He would lose it back a month later at the November to Remember PPV, fail to regain it at Massacre on 34th Street. Lynn then wrestled Rob Van Dam at Guilty As Charged 2001 in the last ECW PPV match ever .
2 SHANE DOUGLAS (6)
Shane Douglas is the man who started the buzz when he announced the formation of ECW as the company broke away from the NWA. He could have led this list if not for him leaving the company for a time. Douglas was in the main event of six of the first eight ECW PPV events, three of them in matches with the world title on the line. In 1999, he lost his world title at Guilty as Charged 1999 to Taz and was never in another ECW main event.
1 JUSTIN CREDIBLE (7)
In what has to be a surprise to non-hardcore ECW fans, the man who has worked the most ECW PPV main event matches was Justin Credible. It all started in 1999 at the Heat Wave PPV in a tag team match with the Impact Players vs. RVD and Jerry Lynn.
After this was a six-man tag team main event in November to Remember 1999 and by the time Hardcore Heaven 2000 rolled around, Credible was the world champion. He defended his title against Lance Storm and Tommy Dreamer at two straight PPVs and then lost it at Anarchy Rulz to Jerry Lynn. Credible was in two more main event matches at ECW PPVs after this for a total of seven.
