Throughout the history of professional wrestling, what a performer can do on the mic is often just as important as what they do in the ring. Each afternoon, Smark Attack will highlight a wrestling promo that shows off the best, and sometimes the worst, in pro wrestling microphone work.

And we're not just looking for classic promos. If you're a local wrestler or if you've always wanted to be a pro wrestler and want to show off your mic skills send your best promo: 45 seconds or less to [email protected]. If we end up running it on the blog, we'll give you a City Paper t-shirt.

Born in New Brighton, Beaver County, Shane Douglas learned his craft alongside Mick Foley out on the Butler County Farm of local wrestling legend Dominic Denucci. Douglas began performing in the WWF (now WWE) in the early-to-mid-1980s and wove his way through the circuit of the biggest professional companies. Douglas had success, but when he joined Philadelphia-based ECW in 1993, his career entered an orbit that would take him to the top of that promotion and cement his legacy as one of the founding fathers of extreme wrestling, a style that at least in part, can be seen in companies today.

Douglas changed the face of wrestling on Aug. 27, 1994. At the time the ECW was a promotion that was part of the NWA, an organization that stretched throughout several territories and was led by the NWA World Champion. On this night, Douglas won the NWA title and then used it to usher in the era of the ECW as a top-level promotion.

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