ECW Founder Tod Gordon's Upcoming Memoir Garners Advanced Praise

While the classic east coast hardcore wrestling promotion ECW is most commonly associated with Paul Heyman, it was actually a man named Tod Gordon who first founded the company before later selling it to Heyman. Before it was known as Extreme Championship Wrestling, ECW stood for Eastern Championship Wrestling and was part of the NWA. In a new memoir releasing later this month, titled "Tod is God," Gordon is set to tell his side of the hardcore promotion's origin story. A few weeks ahead of its release, the book is receiving some early compliments from figures within wrestling media.

"The true, raw and unvarnished journey of an extreme influencer who changed the entire trajectory of the professional wrestling industry," Mike Johnson of PWInsider said. "The letters ECW never cease to fascinate fans and Tod Gordon finally reveals all the inner workings and machinations that came with the creation, rise and fall of the most influential wrestling company of the 1990s."

Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated called the book "a must-read story detailing the colorful history of ECW." Alfred Boima Konuwa III of Forbes and Dave Scherer of PWInsider also praised the memoir, with Scherer crediting Gordon as being responsible for WWF's "attitude era" in the late 1990s.

"Tod is God: The Authorized Story of How I Created Extreme Championship Wrestling" comes out on July 25, and will be available either as a hardcover or an e-book. Sean Oliver is credited as a co-author, and the book features a forward from ECW veteran Terry Funk.