Every "Extreme" ECW World Champion, Ranked Worst To Best

Modern-day wrestling companies focus on the wrestling or entertainment portion of their names. Companies like WWE and AEW have their specific niche and focus their attention on what makes them special. If there is one thing that made Extreme Championship Wrestling different, it was their focus on how dangerous, counter-culture and extreme they were in comparison to their counterparts, and that is what made them special.

The extreme part of ECW came from each aspect of their operation - from their in-ring action to how crazed some of the members of their roster were, everything about ECW was extreme. Only a few wrestlers that held the ECW World Heavyweight Championship can be considered among the most extreme, as some that held it - particularly in the WWE era - cannot be considered extreme at all.

10 Mikey Whipwreck

When looking at the history of ECW, few fans remember how important Mikey Whipwreck was to the fabric of the promotion. Despite being undersized compared to others on the roster, Whipwreck's heart and determination led him to become only one of three wrestlers to win a Triple Crown in the company.

However, while Whipwreck's resolve was impressive, his character was meant to be an underdog which means his wins were either by fluke or by luck. His ability to harm his opponents was limited and he got little in the way of extreme offence during his time as ECW World Champion in 1995.

9 The Sandman

Fans of ECW know just how integral The Sandman was to the aura and feeling of the promotion, and his character helped define what "extreme" meant. However, despite his achievements in the company and his importance, very few fans would accuse him of being a good performer in the ring.

At his best, Sandman was still out of shape and struggled to perform basic wrestling maneuvers, even if he knew how to swing a chair or a cane. With much left to be desired as a wrestling performer, Sandman will go down in history for his antics and not necessarily for his contributions inside of the ring.

8 Masato Tanaka

After taking one look at Masato Tanaka, there is no denying that his wrestling career has been full of extreme moments. With scars all over his arms and body, he has lived an extreme career that his body has suffered for, which continued on long past his stint in ECW.

However, as far as ECW Championship reigns go, Tanaka's was among the shortest. With less than a week in between when he lost and won the championship, Tanaka was not able to prove much while he was champion, despite having all the skills to go along with it.

7 Tommy Dreamer

Calling Tommy Dreamer the heart and soul of ECW would be entirely accurate, as he was one of the few wrestlers to stick around with the promotion from its inception all the way until the end of 2001. Fans started out not liking Tommy, but then they grew to love and respect him until he became a legend.

Tommy Dreamer's initial ECW Championship run may have only lasted a few minutes, but he redeemed himself by being the only wrestler to win the title in both the original ECW and WWE's reincarnation. Extreme runs through Tommy's veins, and he was rewarded for it with a great run in the company.

6 Justin Credible

If wrestling fans only got to see Justin Credible during his WWE run, they missed out on a great champion in ECW. While WWE chose to showcase him on the lower end of the card, Credible was a respected performer in ECW and one of the last great champions.

Due to Credible's performances in ECW, he was once considered by the PWI 500 to be one of the top wrestlers in 2000, which is a strong feat considering the talent in the business at the time. As champion, Credible was not afraid to use his extreme side and flourished in ECW's dying days.

5 Mike Awesome

Before defecting to WCW in 2000 while holding the ECW Championship, Mike Awesome was poised to become one of the most dominant ECW Champions of all time. With the size, strength and surprising agility of anyone on the roster, Awesome held the title for over two hundred days during his two reigns and dominated through each of them.

Known for using many tables during his matches and or his blood feud against Masato Tanaka, Awesome earned his place as one of ECW's most extreme champions. Had he chosen to stick with the promotion, he may have avoided the humiliation he experienced after moving to WCW.

4 Rhino

As ECW's last great attraction, Rhino gored his way to becoming the final ECW World Champion under Paul Heyman. A wrestler who flourished in brutality and violence, Rhino was right at home in ECW and relished in inflicting pain on anyone who he came across.

If ECW had not closed its doors, Rhino would have only grown higher up the card and reached his full potential. With the company closing, Rhino became another wrestler lost in the shuffle during The Invasion and never reached that level of superstardom again despite showing so much promise as an extreme superstar.

3 Sabu

If there was one who wrestler who personified extreme before ECW even existed, it is Sabu. With scars all over his body and an innovator in the world of hardcore wrestling, Sabu looks like someone who would thrive in the land of extreme.

As a two-time ECW Champion, Sabu wrestled in every extreme environment imaginable. From ladders to tables and through barbed wire, Sabu was as extreme as it gets in ECW and helped showcase exactly what the company was all about.

2 Terry Funk

Before extreme became mainstream, Terry Funk was working the extreme style during his NWA days reaching back to the 1980s. With many fans calling his I Quit Match with Ric Flair one of the first extreme matches in North American history, Funk earned his place as a wrestling legend before even reaching ECW.

As a living legend in wrestling, Funk joined the upstart ECW to help put it on the map, and he did so in a big way. By bringing legitimacy to the promotion, Funk helped establish ECW, and he was rewarded as holding the ECW World Championship at the end of their first pay-per-view event in 1997.

1 Raven

Starting from his extreme look all the way to the dangerous and disturbing things he would do in the ring, there was no one who personified extreme more than Raven. As a dark and diabolical villain, Raven knew how to psychologically torture his opponents before he even got his hands on them.

With two long reigns as ECW Champion during important times in the company's growth period, Raven established what an extreme heel could look like and went through any measures necessary to win. From strapping his opponents to symbols and even extremely torturing their minds, Raven was as extreme as it gets in all ways.