In the early 90's, Eastern Championship Wrestling, an independant wrestling federation run by Paul Heyman, seperated itself from the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) and declared itself Extreme Championship Wrestling, debuting on television as "ECW Hardcore TV." The weekly show featured excessively long and violent wrestling matches, and made stars out of such wrestlers as Taz, Rob Van Dam, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Francine, Justin Credible, The Dudley Boyz, The Sandman, Balls Mahoney and Rhino. Financial issues caused the federation and the TV show to go under in 2001.