Former type Private Parent 5 Guys Wrestling, Inc. Founded 2011 | Products Tickets and DVDs Headquarters Philadelphia Defunct 2014 | |
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Industry Professional Wrestling
Hardcore wrestling
Lucha Libre Key people Shane Douglas
Corky Robinson
Danny Shay
Shawn Mooney Website ExtremeRising.com
Twitter | ||
Extreme Rising (formerly Extreme Reunion) was an American independent wrestling promotion founded in 2012 by wrestling personalities Shane Douglas & Cody Michael, brothers Steve & Mike O'Neill, & producer Kevin Kleinrock (the "5 guys" of 5 Guys Wrestling, Inc.). The promotion closed on April 22, 2014, after O'Neil cancelled all the shows.
Contents
Meant to fill the void of hardcore wrestling left behind by the defunct-Extreme Championship Wrestling, Extreme Rising assembled a roster of ECW alumni, such as Raven, The Sandman, Stevie Richards, Jerry Lynn, The Mongolian Butcher among others. The first show was held on April 28, 2012, at the National Guard Armory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which served as a stand-in for the ECW Arena (which was undergoing renovations at the time).
Extreme rising unfinished business replay
History
On January 14, 2012, Douglas announced there would be an 'Extreme Reunion' at Philadelphia's National Guard Armory on April 28. In a video that aired during CZW's Excellent Adventure, held at the ECW Arena, Douglas addressed the fans and announced a "second revolution" was about to begin, to keep extreme wrestling alive in Philadelphia. Douglas cited his dissatisfaction with the state of the Professional Wrestling industry as his inspiration to create the new organization. To drum up interest for the inaugural show on April 28, Douglas undertook a guerrilla marketing campaign, which included attending the March 19, 2012 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw, with business Partner Steve O'Neill and producer Kevin Consolo. Douglas bought a ticket and gained entry while concealed in a lucha libre mask. Douglas unmasked while in the audience and began an "ECW" chant, but was escorted out of the arena. Consolo had Douglas cut a promo video to hype the upcoming show Extreme Reunion on April 28, 2012. The Extreme Reunion event was panned by both fans and critics. The fans in attendance voiced their annoyance at the event by shouting negative chants at Shane Douglas who had booked himself in the main event. Former ECW Champions Sabu and Justin Credible were removed from the card on the night of Extreme Reunion for medical reasons.
Douglas released a video days later, apologizing for the quality of the show, and promised changes going forward. Among the changes were altering the company name from Extreme Reunion to Extreme Rising, and bringing in younger talents, such as Matt Hardy, Homicide, Jay Bradley and Luke Hawx, to bolster the roster.
On December 29, 2012, at the "Card Subject to Change" iPPV, Stevie Richards become Extreme Rising's first World Champion by winning a tournament final over Rhino. Earlier in the evening, Richards defeated Luke Hawx, while Rhino defeated Devon Storm. Richards would make his first title defense of the Extreme Rising Championship at DWA's "Wrestling Legends Tour 2013" in Germany, defeating DWA Cruiserweight Champion Tarkan Aslan to officially make it a World title.
Extreme Rising had planned to offer three shows in the WrestleMania 29 weekend, but the shows were cancelled due to poor sales.
After a hiatus, Extreme Rising reorganized and announced that they would resume running live shows on December 28, 2013. Extreme Rising was the first promotion to run the former ECW Arena when the venue re-opened. On April 22, 2014 Extreme Rising cancelled all upcoming events and closed all social media accounts used by the promotion.
Extreme Rising World Championship
In 2012, the fledgling Extreme Rising promotion announced an 8-man tournament to crown their first world champion, set to include former World Champions such as Sabu, Homicide and Rhino as well as other promotion mainstays like Stevie Richards, Luke Hawx, Devon Storm, Perry Saturn and 'The Greek God' Papadon. The two night tournament took place at the "Remember November" iPPV on November 17, 2012 and the "Card Subject To Change" iPPV on December 29, 2012 and concluded when Stevie Richards won the vacant title by defeating Rhino in the finals.
The tournament brackets were:
In 2013, Stevie Richards announced via Twitter that he wanted to defend the title against Danny Doring in a video game. Doring, who was one-half the last ECW World Tag Team Champions, and still possessed the physical belt, also put his title on the line in a "defunct promotion vs defunct promotion match". After his declarations, the promotion asked Richards to return the title, for referring to Extreme Rising as a "defunct promotion". This issue was eventually dropped and Richards resumed defending the championship at indie shows and was booked by Extreme Rising for further title defenses.
In 2014, Richards was defeated by Luke Hawx at an ECWA show in Delaware following outside interference from Papadon, the match was announced on the night as being for the title. However, Extreme Rising sent a communicate to inform the match wasn't for the title and Richards was still the champion. However, Hawx would continue to proclaim himself champion while 'defending' the belt. On July 20, 2014, despite already having "thrown down" the Extreme Rising championship belt on previous occasions, Hawx defended the title against Matt Hardy at Maryland Championship Wrestling, while company owner Steve O'Neill issued a press release to say that it wasn't recognised as a title match. According to MCW Dan McDevitt, the match would be for the MCW Heavyweight Championship, but if Hardy or Hawx will bring other titles, it is their own business. Hardy successfully retained the MCW Championship and obtained the Extreme Rising championship belt - but is not officially recognized as champion.