Jump to content

Mike Awesome Dead


ReturnOfTheMack

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 139
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Paid Members

Didn't he try and take the ECW Title onto nitro but a federal injuction stopped him?

The full story from F4W.

One of the most surreal moments of the boom period war took place on April 13, 2000 in Indianapolis, IN when Awesome, who had signed with WCW, lost the ECW Title to WWE wrestler Tazz on a show promoted by ECW. For years, ECW fans harbored great resentment towards Awesome for the situation, but it wasn't as clear cut as a lot of people thought.When Awesome was running roughshod through the promotion in early 2000, his bank account was also being run roughshod on. ECW was sinking fast, checks were bouncing, and he was owed tens of thousands of dollars. WCW, knowing the situation, offered him a mid-six-figure deal to jump ship, with a major signing bonus if he took the title with him. Hulk Hogan, whose nephew Horace Hogan was Awesome's cousin, pushed hard for him to come in, saying he was good enough to make it in the "major leagues". Awesome, whose children were very small at the time, felt he had no other choice and went through with it. When ECW found out, they filed an injunction. Awesome, who had been under a three-year contract (or so Paul Heyman claimed, Awesome always insisted otherwise), felt that he'd be fine to sign with WCW because ECW had clearly breached his deal by not paying him. A settlement was reached that required WCW to allow Awesome to come on Nitro (without the ECW belt), shoot an angle with Nash and cut a promo, and WCW in turn would plug the ECW house show in Indianapolis where he was going to drop the title. Lead Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone went into business for himself, however, and never mentioned the date (WCW also axed the promo segment, so it wasn't all Tony's fault), and in the end WCW ended up having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to ECW, which helped keep the company afloat a bit longer. In total, they spent nearly a million dollars to acquire Mike Awesome, and in the end all they did was push him as That 70s Guy and The Fat Chick Thrilla, guaranteeing they made no return on their investment.The Indianapolis match was also a disaster. Heyman had rallied the troops before the show, convincing them that Awesome was the anti-Christ and was intent on killing the company, and as such Awesome didn't even enter the dressing room (to this day, though maybe not so much now that he's died, many ex-ECW stars still believed that Awesome had gone out of his way to try to kill the company and was a rotten human being, not taking into consideration that nearly every single one of them would have done the exact same thing under the circumstances (and in fact, had they not, they could arguably have been considered more rotten for not taking advantage of an opportunity to better provide for their families at a time when many of them were in debt)). They kept him outside in a car, and when it was time for the match they called on a cell phone, he entered the building through the crowd, got in the ring, did a horrible two minute match and dropped the belt, left through the crowd, and drove off. Worse, WWE, knowing Tazz was going to get the belt, jobbed him out on TV and at house shows leading up to the event and afterwards (I believe Hunter, then WWE Champion, pinned him on TV when he was ECW Champion). Tazz dropped the belt a week later to Tommy Dreamer, who then lost it that very same evening to Justin Credible. As much as people have blamed Awesome for killing the title, the reality is that a lot of hardcore ECW fans, and I believe Dreamer himself, always felt that Dreamer was the one guy who never should have won the title, and that, combined with the immediate switch and the Awesome switch just a week prior (three changes in seven days), was what pretty much killed the drawing power of the belt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...