 | |
| Acronym | WEW |
|---|---|
| Founded | February 2002 |
| Defunct | 2008 |
| Style | Women's professional wrestling |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2002-2008) |
| Founder(s) | Dan Kowal, Greg Bagarozy, Steve Karel |
| Formerly | Women's Erotic Wrestling |
| Website | WExtremeW.com |
Women's Extreme Wrestling (WEW), also known as Women's Erotic Wrestling, was an all-woman professional wrestling promotion. WEW was founded and created by Dan Kowal, a former Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promoter. WEW was based in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with offices in New York City, New York. They were notable because their storylines usually were filled with erotic and sexual themes. Due to the shows having adult sexual content, many of those that attend WEW's live shows had to be at least 21 years old.
A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within the convention of the show, the company is a sports governing body which sanctions wrestling matches and gives authority to the championships and is responsible for determining the divisions, rankings, etc. of wrestlers. In truth, the company serves as a touring theatre troupe, as well as event promotion body for its own events.
HHG Corporation, d/b/a Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) is a defunct professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon. In 1993, Scarsdale, New York native and businessman Paul Heyman took over the creative end of the promotion from Eddie Gilbert and rechristened the promotion from Eastern Championship Wrestling to "Extreme" Championship Wrestling, kicking off a worldwide craze of companies using the tagline "Extreme" for their products. Heyman's creative direction created new stars, and established the "third" big brand in the United States, competing with the billionaire-backed World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling promotions. HHG closed ECW in 2001 when it was unable to secure a new national television contract, and World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. purchased the assets of the company from bankruptcy in January 2003. The promotion showcased various international styles of professional wrestling, ranging from lucha libre to puroresu and hardcore wrestling.
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WEW hosted its shows on pay-per-view at The Arena, the former home of Extreme Championship Wrestling. Former arenas that used to host the show are The Electric Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and at The Centerstage in Atlanta, Georgia. The promotion usually did three shows a year, one in the spring, one in the fall and one in the winter. On some rare occasions, they had shows in the summer, like in 2007. These events were taped for pay-per-view, in which usually they taped two pay-per-views or on some occasions three pay-per-views at an event.
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television service by which a viewer can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it.
WEW made attempts to secure female wrestlers from all around the world. In addition to this, WEW attracted a large number of adult performers such as Fujiko Kano, Taylor St. Claire, and many others. Notable alumni included WWE Divas Mickie James (under the ring name Alexis Laree), Jazz, Shelly Martinez, Jackie Gayda, and TNA Knockouts Velvet Sky (under the ring name Talia Madison) and Traci Brooks.
Taylor St. Claire is the stage name of an American pornographic film producer, director and retired actress. She was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2014.
Mickie Laree James-Aldis is an American professional wrestler and country singer. As a wrestler, she is currently signed to WWE, where she competes on the Smackdown brand.
Carlene Denise Moore-Begnaud is an American professional wrestler, better known by her ring name Jazz. She is best known for her tenure in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where she was a two-time WWE Women's Champion. Recently she was best known for competing for the National Wrestling Alliance, where she held the NWA World Women's Championship for over 900 days.
The promotion was also known for being one of America's few hardcore all-female wrestling companies. WEW offered matches usually performed by male wrestlers, including flaming tables matches, strap matches and TLC matches, and also introduced numerous sexual elements to matches, such as the WEW's "Adult Entertainer Oil Rumble Battle Royal Elimination Match", "Stripper Pole Dance Off Contest" and the "Winner Gets The Ho" Match (usually involves a wrestler with 'ho' in their name).
Hardcore wrestling is a form of professional wrestling where disqualifications, count-outs, and all other different rules do not apply. Taking place in usual or unusual environments, hardcore wrestling matches allow the use of numerous items, including ladders, tables, chairs, thumbtacks, barbed wire, light tubes, shovels, baseball bats, golf clubs, hammers, axes, chains, crowbars, wrenches, tongs, and other improvised weapons used as foreign objects. Although hardcore wrestling is a staple of most wrestling promotions, where they are often used at the climaxes of feuds, some promotions specialize in hardcore wrestling, with many matches performed in this manner.
In 2008, the promotion went defunct, after original founder Dan Kowal retired from WEW and the wrestling industry, it still offers taped matches on DVD and digital download. [1] In a 2011 article listing the 25 worst wrestling promotions, the Bleacher Report ranked WEW #12. [2]
Bleacher Report is a website that focuses on sport and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London.
