first of it doent realy matter what channel does wot. whatever suits you.
check everything is working. take the ESC out of the equastion for now. plug in a receiver battery to receiver. use a servo and check that each channel is working. plug it into 1, then 2,3,4,5,6,. that proves the tranny and receiver are working. the obvious set up for the ESC is to have them on the up and down channels, (forward/back). now, welcome to the world of ESC. use one ESC, pluged into ch2. check it works. plug it into ch3, check it works. if all ok, take it out and plug in the other ESC, same procedure. Let us know if this dont work and i'm sure the collective wisdom will help you out.
the secret is to be methodical and try to eliminate the obvious, which never is, and/or find what does work and where.
incidentally, have you checked all the batteries are charged?
the other thing is though you are using 2 ESC, only one of them needs to have the red wire connected to the receiver, i never cut it. you wont be able to change it. i always remove it from the plug. lever up the tag gently and pull the red wire out. then you can always put it back.
good luck
colin