The Pitbulls and Television Champion (1992–1994)

The Pitbulls debuted in Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) at a live event on April 25, 1992, where Pitbull Spike participated in a battle royal with the winner earning an ECW Heavyweight Championship match. Later that night, Pitbulls defeated Jeff Royal and Johnny Hotbody in the main event of the show. The Pitbulls then engaged in a brief rivalry with The Super Destroyers before departing the company.^[4]

Gary Wolf returned to ECW, making his debut as a singles competitor at Holiday Hell on December 26, 1993 under the ring name The Pitbull, where he lost to Chad Austin in his debut match. However, Pitbull attacked Austin and The Sandman, with the assistance of Jason, thus forming an alliance with Jason and established himself as a villain in the process.^[5] He aligned himself with Rockin' Rebel and the two faced Sandman and Tommy Cairo in a dog collar match in a losing effort at The Night the Line Was Crossed on February 5, 1994.^[6] On the April 19 episode of Hardcore TV, Pitbull defeated J.T. Smith to capture the ECW Television Championship when Smith was attacked by The Public Enemy before the match.^[7] Pitbull began a rivalry with The Tazmaniac after Tazmaniac was named the number one contender to his newly won Television Championship. On the May 17 episode of Hardcore TV, Pitbull lost the title to Mikey Whipwreck after a distraction by Tazmaniac.^[8] This led to a lengthy rivalry between Pitbull and Tazmaniac, beginning at When Worlds Collide, where Pitbull defeated Tazmaniac in their first match.^[9]

The Pitbulls reunion (1994–1997)

On the June 7 episode of Hardcore TV, it was announced that Pitbull would face Tazmaniac in a dog collar match at Hostile City Showdown,^[10] which Tazmaniac won. After the match, Pitbull #2 made his ECW debut and joined Pitbull in attacking Tazmaniac and thus formed The Pitbulls for the first time on ECW television.^[11] Pitbulls competed as a team for the first time in ECW at Heat Wave, where they lost to Tazmaniac and Sabu.^[12] On the July 26 episode of Hardcore TV, Pitbulls attacked their tag team partner Jimmy Snuka after they lost a match to Tommy Dreamer, Terry Funk and Dory Funk, Jr. This led to Tazmaniac making the save, leading to a match between Pitbulls and the team of Snuka and Tazmaniac at Hardcore Heaven, which Pitbulls lost, thus ending the feud.^[13][14] Pitbulls defeated The Bad Breed (Axl Rotten and Ian Rotten) in a match at November to Remember and lost a handicap match to 911 at Holiday Hell.^[15][16]

Pitbulls defeated Tony Stetson and Johnny Hotbody at Three Way Dance on April 8, 1995, which stipulated that Stetson and Hotbody would be fired by Raven's Nest.^[17] As a result of winning, Pitbulls joined Raven's Nest. Pitbulls began pursuing the World Tag Team Championship, challenging The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock) for the titles at Hostile City Showdown but failed to win the titles.^[18] They received another title shot in a double dog collar match at Enter the Sandman, where they lost again.^[19] Dissension began between Pitbulls and Raven's Nest when Raven cost them matches against Taz and 2 Cold Scorpio and The Dudleys (Snot Dudley and Dudley Dudley) by abandoning them to solve the issue between Stevie Richards, Francine and Beulah McGillicutty.^[20] This led to Pitbulls refusing to follow Raven and Richards' orders of superbombing Luna Vachon and attacked their leaders, thus turning fan favorites at Hardcore Heaven.^[21] As a result, Pitbulls aligned with Raven's Nest rival Tommy Dreamer and began feuding with Raven and Stevie Richards, defeating them in a two out of three falls dog collar match to win the World Tag Team Championship, thanks to interference by Francine at Gangstas Paradise.^[22] They lost the title back to Raven and Richards on October 7 at South Philly Jam.^[23]

Francine would become the manager of Pitbulls. Pitbulls began feuding with Jason's next tag team The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) after Jason confronted Francine.^[24] The two teams traded wins with each other at November to Remember and December to Dismember.^[25][26] At the 1996 CyberSlam event, Francine and the Pitbulls defeated Stevie Richards and Eliminators in a dog collar match. After the match, Eliminators attacked Pitbulls.^[27] Pitbulls challenged Eliminators for the World Tag Team Championship at Big Ass Extreme Bash on March 8, but failed to win the titles, thus ending the feud.^[28]

At Heat Wave, Shane Douglas broke Wolfe's neck by hitting him with a DDT on the ECW World Television Championship. Later in the match, Francine turned on Pitbulls and helped Douglas in winning the ECW World Television Championship.^[29] This resulted in a lengthy feud between Douglas and Gary Wolfe's partner, Anthony Durante, while Wolfe recovered from his injury. Gary Wolfe can be seen on Forever Hardcore, where he talked about how he broke his neck. Wolfe was sidelined for the rest of the year, recovering from his injuries. A tribute show in support of Wolfe, Requiem for a Pitbull, was held in August 1996. Pitbull #1 returned to in-ring competition at the House Party in January 1997, where he challenged Douglas for the World Television Championship but Douglas retained the title via count-out.^[30] He received another title shot against Douglas in an "I Quit" match at Hostile City Showdown on March 15, where Douglas retained, thanks to interference by Francine.^[31] Pitbulls would lose the feud against The Triple Threat (Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow and Chris Candido) and then took a hiatus in July.

Pitbulls returned to ECW at As Good as it Gets, where they turned villains by aligning themselves with Lance Wright and confronting Taz, who attacked Pitbulls.^[32] Pitbull #1 would take a managerial role for Pitbull #2, who feuded with Taz over the World Television Championship but failed to win the title at November to Remember. Pitbulls made their last televised appearance in ECW on the December 20 episode of Hardcore TV, after which they left ECW.^[33]