, the first
ECW Representative in the ring in 2006 In early-to-mid-2002, then World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) underwent a process they called the "
brand extension". The WWF divided itself into two
de facto wrestling promotions with separate rosters, storylines and
authority figures. The enormous popularity of
The Rise and Fall of ECW and other ECW merchandise prompted WWE to organize
One Night Stand, an ECW reunion pay-per-view in 2005. On May 29, the WWE held their
2006 brand extension draft. The
draft featured ECW founder
Paul Heyman receiving two total draft picks from the existing Raw and SmackDown! rosters for the newly created ECW brand. During the draft,
Rob Van Dam was drafted from Raw and
Kurt Angle from SmackDown! as the marquee signings. The ECW brand was initially produced differently from WWE's other brands. For televised events, the main ring-facing cameras were placed on a different location in the arena while the
wrestling ring itself featured an ECW logo on the mat and blank turnbuckle covers. The male performers were referred to "Extremists" instead of "
Superstars" while female performers were called "Vixens" rather than
Divas. However, the brand steadily began being produced following the same format of the other brands and as opposed to the original promotion match rules, such as
count outs and
disqualifications, were now standard. Matches featuring the rule set of the original promotion were then classified as being contested under "
Extreme Rules" and were only fought when specified. (the final ECW General Manager) on
Raw in November 2008 Former ECW owner
Paul Heyman served as the on-air ECW Representative until
December to Dismember, when Heyman was relieved from both his on and off-air duties with WWE. After Heyman left in late 2006, there was no
ECW authority figure until August 14, 2007, when
Armando Estrada was announced as the General Manager. On June 3, 2008, Estrada was replaced by
Theodore Long. On the April 7, 2009 edition of
ECW, it was announced that Long was returning to SmackDown to fulfill the role of General Manager. From this point, the Interim General Manager was named as
Tiffany, who took over as full-time General Manager on the June 30 episode. On October 16, 2007, a "talent exchange" was started between the SmackDown! and ECW brands, allowing their respective talent to appear on either brand. On the September 8, 2008 episode of
Raw, it was announced a "talent exchange" was started also for the Raw brand with ECW, allowing their respective talent to appear on either brand whenever they feel like. Following the
2009 WWE draft, both of these talent exchanges were quietly dropped. On February 2, 2010, WWE Chairman
Vince McMahon announced that
ECW would be going off the air and would air its final episode on February 16. The final match on the show was an
extreme rules match where
Ezekiel Jackson defeated
ECW Champion Christian. With the ECW brand permanently disbanded, the ECW roster were assigned to other brands. The
ECW show was replaced by the reality series
NXT, == Championships ==