ECW Champion Shane Douglas puts over the company and says that he has survived in ECW over the last eighteen months because he has evolved. In a segment that lasts more than twenty-five minutes, he calls out Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan as old and that they no longer compare to “the Franchise” of ECW. Douglas recaps his career in ECW, with video showing his feud with Terry Funk, his first ECW title win, and his decision to refuse the NWA World Championship. He complains about Flair holding him down in WCW and how he is having to save professional wrestling by himself. Douglas warns Tully Blanchard that he will beat some respect into him. And then he suddenly pivots at the end to warn Marty Jannetty that he is not going to win the ECW title at this Saturday’s ECW Arena show. There is nothing wrong with a promotion trying to play up its champion, but this was not a good way to make the audience stick around for the rest of the broadcast. It was a meandering promo that went back-and-forth between Douglas’ personal grudges and his career and then went into hyping a random ECW Arena bout.
What the World Was Watching: ECW Hardcore TV – February 21, 1995
