Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling

Beginning

Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) began promoting its first shows in May 1996 under the ownership of veteran wrestler/promoter "Gorgeous" Michelle Starr, with assistance from Terry Joe Silverspoon. The promotion initially operated solely on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, running shows in towns such as Port Alberni, Nanaimo, and Campbell River. The first ECCW Heavyweight champion was The Bodyguard. The title changed hands to "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka and John Rambo, before settling for longer periods of time with Michelle Starr and Mike Roselli.

In September 1996, ECCW moved its home base to New Westminster, British Columbia in order to more directly compete with rival International Championship Wrestling (based in Cloverdale, British Columbia). The promotion held its main house shows at the Eagles Hall (the former Columbia Theatre, now the Burr Theatre). In late 1996, full control of ECCW was given to Silverspoon, who continued to operate out of New Westminster until Michelle Starr returned to Canada approximately six months later.

Joining the NWA

In late 1997, Dave Republic assumed controlling interest of the promotion and announced that it had become a member of the National Wrestling Alliance, operating under the NWA Pacific Northwest banner. This change resulted in a separation of the talent, with half the roster aligning itself with Republic and the NWA, and the other half with Starr, thumbing their collective noses at the more traditional wrestling mindset the NWA adopted at the time.

It was during this time that the company adopted a rigorous touring schedule, often running up to 15 shows a month across British Columbia. Playing in towns of all sizes in the province, many of these touring shows were fundraisers for various schools or charities. A collection of one of these tours, The Northern Hell Tour, was made available as a multiple volume set of VHS video cassettes. The company also began running an annual summertime event at the North Surrey Rec Centre in Surrey, British Columbia, the first of which saw then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dan Severn defeat "Ironman" Mike Roselli in the main event. During this period of the company's history, they heavily relied on rabid fans and a blend of hardcore-style veterans such as Billy Two Eagles and "Maniac" Matt Borne, young up-and-comers such as Tony Kozina, El Antorcha, Strife, and Chance Beckett, and wrestling purists such as "Rocket" Randy Tyler and Doby Gillis. Other talent used during this period included Louie Spicolli, Tommy Rogers, and Dan Severn as touring NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Owing to the promotion's very name, which was a means to ride on the success Extreme Championship Wrestling was having across the Northeastern United States, it was not rare to see chairs, tables, and barbed wire at ECCW events.

In 2000, with their main building having been sold to the Raymond Burr Society, ECCW relocated its main monthly shows to Surrey, BC's Bridgeview Hall. To this day, it splits its main shows between Surrey and the Russian Community Centre in Vancouver, BC. During this period, ECCW brought in such outside stars as Christopher Daniels, Nova, Steve Corino, Sabu, and Tommy Dreamer. They also expanded into Washington State, occasionally running simultaneous shows in the U.S. and Canada with separate crews of wrestlers. It was around this time that ECCW entered into a working relationship with the IWA Japan organization, exchanging talent. IWA wrestlers Leatherface, Freddie Kruger and Jason the Terrible would often appear for ECCW, as well as IWA freelancer Asian Cougar, while Michelle Starr, Juggernaut, Disco Fury, and Buffy appeared in Japan for IWA.

Expansion

On December 8, 2005, ECCW announced that they had purchased independent group Top Ranked Wrestling (TRW), which had a program on KVOS (Channel 23 in Vancouver) on Saturday afternoons. ECCW's take over of the Top Ranked Wrestling program (renamed NWA Top Ranked Wrestling or NWA-TRW following the purchase) took effect on January 7, 2006, in time for the promotion's tenth anniversary celebrations. However, the first TV tapings under ECCW ownership took place at its "Season's Beatings" event on December 23, 2005. TRW star Vid Vain, who was the promotion's heavyweight champion at the time of the ECCW purchase, then joined ECCW, and his title was renamed by the company as the TRW Television Championship; that title was rarely defended on NWA-TRW, however, and the belt was shelved after a brief run. Also during the run of NWA-TRW, ECCW's top two championships, the NWA/ECCW Pacific Northwest Heavyweight and Tag Team titles, began to be referred to on the TV program as the NWA Top Ranked Heavyweight and NWA Top Ranked Tag Team Championships, respectively, although the titles otherwise retained their official names in promotional material.

ECCW later announced that NWA-TRW had been picked up for a second season. ECCW constantly had a rating of around .3, which is high for an independent promotion, and given the time slot, it was one of the highest ranked wrestling shows outside of World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Originally a one-hour show, NWA-TRW was cut to a 30-minute program in the spring of 2006. Despite being picked up for a second season, NWA-TRW aired its last episode on November 4, 2006. It is unknown whether the show was canceled by KVOS or by ECCW. Mauro Ranallo, who got his start on-camera with All Star Wrestling's CHAN-TV program in the late-1980s, was the original host of the program (starting with the then-independent TRW), with heel commentary provided by The Count and later Ladies' Choice (and occasionally Vance Nevada); after Ranallo left, ECCW ring announcer Scotty Sweatervest became the new TV host and held that job until NWA-TRW ended its run.

Following the cancellation of NWA-TRW, former color commentator Ladies' Choice was named as the new General Manager of ECCW on December 16, 2006 in Vancouver. Not surprisingly, following the lead of previous heel authority figures in major promotions like World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, LC has shown blatant favoritism toward heel wrestlers and abused the power of his office, in particular actively attempting to protect the title reign of NWA/ECCW Champion Randy Tyler (who had held the title since January 27, 2006, when he was awarded the belt without wrestling for it, after tricking Sweet Daddy Devastation into signing a contract giving the championship to Tyler if SDD defeated then-champion Juggernaut) from the challenges of popular contenders like Aaron Idol by doing all in his power to prevent those contenders from receiving title shots. LC's luck in keeping the championship on Tyler finally ran out on June 22, 2007 when Idol defeated Tyler in a steel cage match in Surrey to win the title, thanks in part to the involvement of the returning Sweet Daddy Devastation, who slammed the cage door into the escaping Tyler as payback for Tyler's duplicity. Not long after Idol's title win, Ladies' Choice resigned as General Manager and left ECCW.

Change in ownership

In 2010, Republic decided to focus on outside interests and sold the company to Scotty Mac, Mary Diaz, and The Natural who formed the company ECCW Entertainment, Ltd.. From November 2010 till April 2012, Michael Sweetser took the role as owner in a storyline as part of "The Administration" with Scotty Mac, but he was not an actual owner of the company.

Renaming

On January 7, 2012, Scotty Mac and Michael Sweetser announced that ECCW had been renamed to Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling, and unveiled a new ECCW championship belt. The belt is similar in design to the vanity "Elite championship" used by the Elite faction in DOA Pro Wrestling in Portland in 2011, of which Sweetser was also a member. The new ECCW logo is a modified version of the Elite logo. The previously used NWA/ECCW heavyweight championship belt was symbolically dropped into a trashcan, signifying the end of the "Extreme" era.

International success

Many of Western Canada's brightest and best young talents have either started with ECCW, or used the promotion as a proving ground to build on their own skills and abilities.

Harry Smith (2006, 2014), Tyson Kidd, (2005, 2006), Natalya (2005, 2006), & Becky Lynch (2005-2006) spent time with ECCW before eventually signing on with the WWE, as did Tyler Breeze (as Mattias Wilde, 2009-2010) and Emma (Tenille Tayla, 2009-2011), with Natalya briefly holding the SuperGirls championship (now the ECCW Women's Championship) and Tayla holding the belt on two occasions.

Former NXT Women's Champion and Raw Women's Champion Bayley appeared in ECCW in 2012 as "Davina Rose", losing to then-ECCW Women's Champion KC Spinelli. Tayla and Rose appeared against each other in a 6-Woman tag on the April 4th, 2017 edition of WWE Raw, with Tayla returning from a hiatus and Rose the current WWE Raw Women's Champion.

Kyle O'Reilly appeared in the 2010 edition of the CHIKARA Young Lions Cup before signing a contract with Ring of Honor, where he is a 3-time Tag Team Champion (2013, 2014 w/ Bobby Fish), and former ROH World Champion (December 2, 2016). He and Fish also held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships in 2014 and 2015, and won the Super Jr. Tag Team Tournament in 2014. O'Reilly is a PWG Battle of Los Angeles Winner (2013), and former PWG World Champion (May 23, 2014). In 2016, Pro Wrestling Illustrated rated Kyle O'Reilly at #32 out of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500.

Nicole Matthews is a former SHIMMER Champion, and faced then-NXT Women's Champion Asuka in the opening match of the November 30th 2016 edition of NXT.

The Bollywood Boyz defeated Reno Scum in the finals of the GFW Tag Team Championship tournament on October 23, 2015, held in Las Vegas, to become the first GFW Tag Team Champions On June 13, 2016, Gurv and Harv were announced as participants in WWE's upcoming Cruiserweight Classic tournament. On June 23, both Sihras were eliminated from the tournament in their first round matches with Gurv losing to Noam Dar and Harv losing to Drew Gulak. The Bollywood Boyz debuted in the WWE developmental territory NXT at the September 15 tapings. They took part in the second annual Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic; however, they were eliminated by The Authors of Pain in the first round. On the premiere episode of 205 Live, The Bollywood Boyz debuted and defeated Tony Nese and Drew Gulak in a tag team match. They were repackaged as The Singh Brothers, joining Jinder Mahal as he entered his first WWE title run. They made their first WWE PPV appearance at Backlash on May 21, 2017.

KC Spinelli and Tayla were featured on the wrestling-based World of Hurt television show's first season, with KC Spinelli, Bishop, Nick Price, "Ravenous" Randy Myers, and Sammy Hall being featured in the second season with WWE Hall of Famer "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Hall has credited her nickname "Bambi" coming from her time with Piper. Taya Valkyrie also appeared on both seasons. Valkyrie left for Mexico in 2012, eventually debuting with AAA in November 2012. Valkyrie debuted in Lucha Underground on February 24, 2016 as Taya.

KC Spinelli and Veronika Vice appeared on the Wipeout Canada game show.

Throughout 2014-2015, Nick Price, The American Gunz, Kenny Lush, and referee Scooter Q. Hanson all appeared on West Coast Wrestling Connection (Portland) and their television show that aired statewide, and Paragon Pro Wrestling in Las Vegas airing internationally across the United States and Canada.

In 2015, Scotty Mac, KC Spinelli, Drexl, and Jason Sullivan were regarded as some of the founding members and stars of the first season of Luchando, filmed and aired in Paraguay.

Kenny Lush competed for Irish Whip Wrestling in Dublin, Ireland, as well as Ring of Honor.

Cat Power defended (and eventually lost) her ECCW Women's Championship in Japan to Syuri, which she regained in February 2016.

Chelsea Greene competed in WWE Tough Enough in 2015, finishing in 7th place. Later that year she signed with Impact Wrestling (Laurel Von Ness).

El Phantasmo debuted in Revolution Pro Wrestling in the United Kingdom on June 6, 2017.

Defunct

Male wrestlers

Women wrestlers

• Nicole Matthews
• Bambi Hall
• Cat Power
• Christina Von Eerie

Tag Teams

• Amerikan Gunz (Mike Santiago and Ethan HD)
• Beauty And The Builds (Christina Von Eerie & Scotty Mac)
• Bishy Wishy (Bishop and Fergie)
• The Bowlers (Kingpin and Lucky Strike)
• The Cunninghams (Jack Cunningham and Carl Cunningham)
• Kings of the Galaxy (King Khash and Xavier Galaxy)
• Re-Loaded (Shareef Morrow & Jacky Lee)
• The Vörös Twins (Chris and Patrick Vörös)
• The West Coast Express (Alex Plexis and Nelson Creed)
• The Wisemen (Tony Baroni and Travis Williams)

Stables

Referees

• Mitch N. Impossible
• Jeff the Ref
• Inactive
  • Robert Mitchell
  • Bill Taylor
  • "Insane" Bill Coltrane
  • Beautiful Bruce
  • Steven Smirfitt
  • Tyler Terrance
  • X
  • Scooter Q. Hanson

Ring announcers

• Scotty Sweatervest
• Inactive
  • Tyler Terrance
  • Mr. Xavier
  • Patrick McClorey

Additional personnel

• Vince Havok
• Archie Henderson
• Paige O'Connell

Male wrestlers

SuperGirls/Women

Other

• Lindsay Hart^{[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]}