The WWF vs WCW Battle for the ECW Championship
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
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In the year 2000, the WWE, WCW and ECW managed to agree on an outcome of a match that pitted WWF contracted wrestler Tazz against WCW contracted wrestler Mike Awesome. This match was for Mike Awesome's ECW Championship, a title that he still held when he signed for WCW. In one of the most interesting stories from the Attitude Era, for one brief moment, the three biggest wrestling promotions in America were able to co-exist and come to a mutual agreement regarding a championship belt. It was an extraoridinary set of circumstances that led to this unprecedented moment occuring.
In this mini documentary from Wrestling Bios, we take a look at WCW's Mike Awesome taking on the WWF's Tazz in a match for Paul Heyman's ECW championship. Topics covered include:
01:13 - Mike Awesome becomes a 2 time ECW Champion
03:46 - Tazz makes his WWF debut
04:30 - Mike Awesome agrees to sign with WCW while holding the ECW title
07:43 - Mike Awesome shows up on Nitro as the ECW Champion
10:05 - Vince McMahon allows WWF Wrestler Taz to win the ECW Championship
12:01 - Triple H vs Tazz on WWF Smackdown
- Much More!
#WWE #Documentary #Wrestling
A WWF wrestler vs a WCW wrestler at an ECW event was such a huge deal.
Such an historic moment that doesn't nearly get the attention it deserves. Thank you Wrestling Bios for post this.
RIP Mike Awesome
Awesome was pretty koo
Tru
The equivalent would probably be AJ Styles vs Kenny Omega on Impact
Heyman screwed over so many wrestlers out of so much money, yet some how Mike Awesome is the only one who is really demonized for leaving the company for more money. I mean, Taz himself left ECW because he didn't get paid. I'll never understand why its some badge of honor to continue to work for ECW for no pay.
I guess because Awesome didn't drop the belt then left
Everyone else did the favors before the left, awesome boned them over.
Because he did it unexpectedly while world champion.
To be fair, ECW has been referred to as a cult, by more than a few people. Heyman really had his workers believing that they were a family (no Manson jokes, please). Anyone who walks out on a cult gets demonized, in one way, or another. The money was just the easiest thing to demonize him with.
@@Ai14106 Sure, I'd agree if he was actually getting paid he deserves to be demonized, but he wasn't. He was their champion and not getting paid and he was working without a contract. He still came to ECW to drop the belt , but if he wasn't stiffed too many times on pay, he wouldn't have up and signed with WCW while still champion. The blame should fall squarely on Heyman
Mike Awesome had the ability to show off his power and high-flying moves in ECW and WCW had a good big man wrestler on their own hands and WCW blew it.
TG5455 sad thing is outside of ecw American promoters didn’t know how to book mike awesome properly
@@chozahfearless7524that was the case with so many which is crazy Mike Awesome should have been pushed so hard.
Mike Awesome could and should have been a legend in the business. His ECW stuff and Japanese work is incredible. For a guy his size, his agility, speed, and poise were unbelievable. Instead, when he jumped to WCW, he got saddled with a horrific gimmick, and because of his refusal to politic, he lasted a few weeks in WWE. Such a tragedy how his story ended.
I love WCW so mutch i wish they where still around😥
WCW was good in it's prime but it was a sinking ship. Even though WCW was doomed to fail around 2000, they were still valuable to have because WCW brought out the best in the WWF. Now since the F has now become the WWE and no real competition is stacked against it, the product has grown stale and needs someone moving in their market to push it. Which is why I have a lot of hope with AEW and the NXT brand competition becoming a thing.
C Mon bro
I think wcw could have rebounded. Their ratings were still better than today's wwe product.
Mike Awesome was just that in ECW. R.I.P. Thanks for the memories
As far as I'm concerned awesome should have kept the belt the same way Flair did and had it in WCW like he did in WWF, I like hayman as a on TV personality but he was one of the dirtiest underhanded business men in the wrestling business that constantly screwed over his talent and other promoters for that reason he didn't want to pay them
Brandon Wilson Paul Heyman was great for building the wrestlers up and stories but was a horrible businessman I wished Heyman could have trusted someone with money
True he can definitely help you find your character and allow you to be be yourself as far as his story telling he was always more miss then hit
I mean Awesome did what he considered relevant for his life.
In 1998, WWE, WCW, & ECW all worked together on the Brian Pillman Memorial show. April 29, 1998.
Nick Dinsmore?!? Is that really you?
Eugene?
In 1997, Bret Hart and Mick Foley (as Mankind) worked a Terry Funk tribute show.
Career of Tajiri or The Great Muta!
Great work, good sir!
Grant Wiley Esq. the great muta I been asking for it
Ive been asking for great muta also and jushin thunder liger......good call on tajari.....also ultimo dragon would be awesome and taka michinoku
Yes to both! And to the ones James recommend
Great Muta please
Its funny how some days you just think of a person who has died out of nowhere. I was just thinking about Mike Awesome the other day and what an impressive talent he was. His matches with Masato Tanaka are so good. I was just checking them out after all this time.. WCW wasted him.
"The fat chick thrilla"
Really?
Mike Awesome should've had more of a push. The guy was huge! Athletic and had charisma. If he had the Goldberg push then he could've been equally as popular
I’m glad mike awesome didn’t throw the ECW heavyweight championship in the trash
Tazz wrestled on Heat....television version of the trash 😂😂😂😂
U & me both
Taz wound up stoppin him
@@ashleynewman3360 didn't start off that way, some really good matches happened on Heat originally
@@ComicBookGuy420 to be honest I'm joking. For a long time in the UK Heat was all I had without Sky TV. Great stuff. Raven's 7 deadly sins. Malenko as champ. Random tryouts of my favourite indie guys....It was certainly better than the trash they put out now.
During Styles burial of Awesome, Awesome did a suicide dive during the match and Styles said something to the effect of 'Suicide Dive by Awesome, shame he didnt die'...Quite a shocking line when you consider how Awesome actually died...By hanging himself
It was surreal watching this whole situation unfold when it first happened. I respect Paul for what he did for the industry, but he had no ground to stand on threatening Mike. None. Taz was predictably made to look weak, but he was only doing a favor for ECW in name only. The promotion was dead long before he left. Vince obviously had nothing to lose here in any part of this scenario.
I LOVED ECW back in the day, but at the end of the day, looking back on it now, in each of their phases, there were only 6 major guys carrying the co. ( except for the last 2 yrs ), the rest of the roster would never be hired by the major promotions. Joey Styles- he's had his moments. He unfairly buried the Franchise on tv when he left. Wrestling for free as an independent contractor for any promotion would be stupid.
I’m on the side of Mike Awesome take care of your family take care of yourself, if the company is not paying you. That’s my mentality.
2:27 THANK you for that. I was as DIE HARD as they came for original ECW and we loved every performer. Proud of them when they made big money. The only time we were usually salty is if it was someone like Sandman going to WCW because we knew they wouldn't be used right but we would still be happy for Hak because he was obviously well paid.
We "were" blood thirsty but we were also grateful for every performer that worked their ass off for us in the crowds. I went to so many ECW shows from 98 to 00 and it was some of the best times ever. E C DUB!!!
Over 4,000 views in the first 2 hours of uploading. That is a clear sign on just how popular this channel is and where it is heading..... Great content.
And the stay in place order
you called it
I just loved Taz, always good in front of the mic......thanks for the Big John Studd vid
There needs to be a GREAT MUTA and ULTIMO DRAGON video in the future please
I wouldn’t say that Tazz was fed to HHH. It took a distraction from Stephanie while HHH was in the tazzmission, a low blow, a pedigree, and inadvertent chair shot to take him down. He was protected. And it brought more interest to Ecw
I saw this a few years ago. I believe I was only 12 years old when I first saw this match, so it's been 4 years pretty much. It's insane that this happened because of not only the people that were fighting for it, but they were fighting for the ECW Championship. I would love to see you cover Mike Awesome in a future video...
But a great video as always man... 🤘
Masasto Tanaka vs Mike Awesome, great ECW match if you can find it
@@ComicBookGuy420 I've seen their matches. Probably some of the most brutal matches that ECW ever had...
Can you "sell out" if you're not being paid in the first place??
Boy I totally slept on this. I now remember Taz having the belt and being confused, but that was it. I didn't keep up with anything but WWF, so I totally missed the significance. I wonder did ECW pay Taz and Awesome for the match? Maybe the match went down this way because Heyman needed help paying the wrestlers? Maybe this isn't plausible at all, the thought just occurred to me.
Love this channel. Keep up the good work!!!
This reminds me, please do the story of Justin Credible's ECW title reign. He defeated Tommy Dreamer and held the title for a good amount of time with great feuds, matches, storylines and title defenses.
Mike was Awesome. Underrated worker.
The way Vince did Taz shoulda been ah eye opener for the future stars who wanted more money the taz wuz da genesis of burying rival talent
Al Snow was an ECW guy too
Let’s be real. Taz was way out of his league when he came to WWF. His promos were never great, he’s 5’6 and his wrestling is average. He didn’t have a chance
@David Beachem Booker T the World Champion?
@guyverjay Chris, being the exception in the end, was still handled poorly... His undisputed reign was overshadowed by HHH/Steph. His wins against Rock and Austin weren't clean (if I remember right). And finally, HHH was given a fancy new belt as undisputed champion, overshadowing the prestige Chris had. The fact they let Chris "beat" HHH on Raw that time to keep him here should have been an eye opener, given the pop he got. But they failed to push him
@guyverjay well me saying 'in the end' meant the rest of his career and shoulda been me saying 'at first' lol. There's no question what he accomplished after that and even with his debut. Undoubtedly one of the best that company has ever seen
Russo ruined awesome with 70s guy gimmick awesome had so much talent
Who Cares
Wasn't he related to hulk hogan ?
Russo is such an idiot
Name something that Russo didn't ruin.
The fat chick thrilla gimmick that followed in WCW was worse "if you weigh a ton Mikes the one"
This is a great wrestling channel.
The way Mike left the match against Tazz always made me laugh.
RIP Mike Awesome
that's crazy Horace is related to Mike Awesome. That explains y he went to WCW
only someone like vince russo could take a talent like mike awesome and turn him into That 70s Guy, mike was a beast
Thanks for these videos! Helps a lot during this coronavirus time
Triple H buring someone. Nahhhhh say it ain't so
Almost like Cena burying someone, never happens
@@ComicBookGuy420 Well I got 2 words for you: Vince McMahon
@@lancethefilmguy9392 Vince has buried more people than the Corona Virus, but Cena and HHH make him look like an amateur
HHH burying somebody happened more than a CoD game.
@@ComicBookGuy420 Vince literally had Cena in those positions so pretty sure they count as Vince burials. Triple H however, is a different story. It's obvious HHH has pull just because of the woman he married and the family he married into.
In Cena's case, it was just him in the wrong place at the wrong time. People just like to blame Cena for burying people when all he is doing is following orders from Vince and the creative writers.
When I saw ECW for the first time I was hooked. The first PPV that I had seen was LIVING DANGEROUSLY.
Taz also faced Triple H as ECW Champion vs WWE Champion on Smackdown.
Mike was dangerous and didn't mind to hurt you to get himself over. I've loved wrestling all my life I just never understood what people saw in mike
I’m confused. If ECW’s checks were bouncing so Awesome had to leave, why should he drop the belt? It’s not like ECW was doing him any favors. They broke contract, so he jumped ship.
I remember all this on TV, good times.
Thank you for covering this, it’s one of my favorite bizarre stories from the later days of the “Big 3” era.
Your intros are always the best. The remixes of theme songs are great
I remember watching all 3 promotions at this time. Seeing Awesome appear on Nitro knowing he was ECW champ had me confused lol. Then seeing Taz with the belt on WWF programming was just surreal. Then the fallout on ECW with all this happening was just amazing.
Of course HHH defeated Taz. No way Vince would let an ECW star pin one of his golden boys. History is written by the winners. And Vince loves to win.
But geez can we get a schmozz finish at least. Lol, of course not.
@@knuke9596 Isn't that saying from losers?
Thorough and fair reporting and research here, well done! This truly was bizarre and incredible, I remember this fondly.
In 97 ECW helped WWE in the fight against WCW
In 2000 WWE returned the favor
Great work as always
That was a good one, no complaints there
Mike Awesome was so fun to watch. In fact, I’m gonna go watch him vs Tanaka tonight.
Triple H buries Taz, Tommy Dreamer, CM Punk, Daniel Bryant, Cactus Jack, Sting.....Pretty impressive list for a guy who could never draw on his name alone....He always needed a dance partner!!!
ALL great wrestlers need a dance partner.
Awesome videos bro. Keep em coming
Tazz should have gone over Triple H on Smackdown. It would have made him a beast in the Federation.
As the story goes, Vince already wanted to bury Taz because of a suplex he gave to Angle in his first match (as the story goes he told Angle not to help with any suplexes, but Angle jumped on one and landed on his melon)
I loved the Awesome vs Tanaka in ECW One Night Stand Awesome was freaking brutal
Mike Awesome looks ALOT like Roddy Piper
I remember watching this when it happened good times and great memories
Mike Awesome is the biggest underrated and underused wrestlers of all time. Had everything and could have been a multi time WWF champ
Utterly foolish that WCW went along with this and essentially buried an INCREDIBLE wrestler in Mike Awesome.
U could stay they buried an AWESOME Wrestler
@@XxrandomexexX You could, indeed, say that.
The WWF technically did the same to Taz. In the war between the two biggest promotions at the time, ECW was always treated as the third wheel in that equation. Hell the WWE/F have a documented history of burying wrestlers that were once household names in their former promotions. Only Jericho, Benoit (Before the Double Murder-Suicide), Eddie Guerrero, Booker T, Mick Foley and in a lesser extent, Rob Van Dam are notable exceptions.
@@TheyCallMeSledge Yeah, you're definitely right. At least Taz was permitted some offense though. Tragic thing with Awesome is that, along with Booker T and perhaps Jarrett, he was their top heavyweight worker. But after the squash to Taz, he got nothing but goofball gimmicks, in spite of putting on great matches.
@@TheyCallMeSledge ecw was the third wheel lmao dont act differently either I actually lived through that era and the only way you knew about ecw was if you came across it while flipping channels I wish you guys would quit trying to rewrite history
When I saw Mike Awesome stand on the ropes (not the turnbuckle) and dive into the crowd i lost my mind. The dude was huge, but so agile and fast.
I loved ECW, but I always saw them as the minor league when compared to WWF and WCW.
WWF and WCW were what I watched to tide me over until ECW was on again.
VpY22 they were. Although both WCW and WWE ripped of ECW. Hence, the Attitude Era, and the NWO.
d p kinda, NWO was more ripping off Japanese rebel stables.
Ty ...there was zero competition between Japanese and American wrestling at the time. ECW was making a strong climb during those years. They would cut promos directly to the audience, they were also ‘extreme!’... Then low and behold Hogan, Nash and Hall come out with an identical approach. A year later DX. Attitude era and so on. Everyone inspires each other, and ECW certainly borrowed also. I just feel that in the states they really led the charge, WCW and WWF copied, and had more money to take effect. It’s a shame it was ran so poorly, well...both ECW and WCW.
Would have been exciting to see where ECW could have gone.
@@toddsleezer3580 for sure. There were some nights I thought ECW had the better show of the three too.
Need to do a video on what happen to all the money in ECW at this point!
Still can't believe WCW took Awesome, a 6ft6 badass character, and turned him into the "70's Guy" and then "The Fat Chick Thrilla"
It's tazz!
People who think Taz should have gone over HHH in that match are morons and I am not even a HHH fan. How does it benefit the company to put over a midcard guy who was near the end of his career anyway over your current top heel and one of the biggest stars of the company? It makes no sense from a business perspective.
WWF v WCW v ECW Extreme WrestleMania. It would have been something if the WCW & ECW invasion of WWF would have been a PPV event. All titles from each company would very on the line and inter company mix matches on each others TV shows.
Eric madsen shout out to you man for making that great idea
From 97 The ECW faithful(the fans in south PHILLY and NYC) celebrated when a ECW wrestler went to WWF because we new after 96 that Vince secretly helped Heyman keep ECW going. But just like Bios said no matter what the reason was if a wrestler went to WCW the fans nearly rioted when in leaked out. Look back at when Raven left and the Public Enemy left the sold chats were so loud your ears rang. They had WWF invade that night to give Raven's leaving a more of a celebration feel because it was a huge moment since it was the first time in almost 3 years Dreamer finally beat Raven. Shane Douglas in 95 was a good example of this because at that time we hated both WWF and WCW but as time went on we looked at WWF as the less of two evils. We found out a week before the screw job that Bret was leaving for WCW from the dirt sheets they handed out it created a real somber mood in the arena because we thought for sure WCW would win the war. Even at the first One Night Stand, Joey Styles even talked up Rey Meysterio Jr up on commentary but the fans booed him out the building because back then Him, Eddie and Benoît even and few other guys during that time all went to WCW first. Beniot and Eddie got a pass years later because of the way they left WCW as the radicals. Sandman was one of our most beloved wrestlers even got booed on the way out and was taken out by the impact players until he returned from WCW then all forgiven. Great Video and what a great era I kinda wish WWF never won the war because wrestling today really is no were as good as those days and I doubt we will ever get a era like this again.
I feel this historic situation barely gets mentioned when it comes to special moments in WWE/F history.
I love that the photos changed with the beat of Tazzs theme
I remember back in '97-'98...
Taz was built up as such a badass...
You can argue he was as dominant at Goldberg was. I remember fantasy booking back in the day...
I remember having Austin vs Goldberg vs Taz as the World Title
It just so happens i was watching the rise & fall of ecw last night and seen taz talk about this
this whole thing was so mind-boggling to me as a kid. I was heavily watching all three promotions so when I saw Taz walk out on WWE television with the ECW World title I just couldn't believe it.. first off how was Taz able to beat Mike awesome LOL second... When did i miss it! ( they didn't are Mike Awesome losing the ECW title to Taz on ECW television until after shortly Taz appeared on WWE TV with the belt)
Yes Yes Yes I been so ready for this one to come out thank you 🙏🤘😎
A very good piece of history. It was a very interesting piece since the Big 3 WWE, WCW, and ECW worked together to help keep the ECW title to ECW. I feel yes Awesome shouldve done the right to wrap up things for ECW before signing. But not get paid to feed your family is different. Taz left for the same reason but he did right. I feel yes Heyman and Styles shouldnt have completely "buried" Awesome like he did knowing what would happen to Awesome which i commend to you sir, for not putting that piece in there about his suicide. I love the history of wrestling. Thank u so much for all the hard work for editing such tremendous pieces. Now i have a interesting question for you? Something i thought about in the past and Ive asked my coworker "who was a indy wrestler as well as myself in a past life." But would you thing if giving the chance to wrestle for the ECW title to a contracted ECW guy, what would have been the pros and cons about that?
I want to correct on one thing. There was no such thing as the big 3, there was only WWF and WCW, ECW was so small with such minute TV time and funding that it could never compete with the huge companies that were Dubya Cee Dubya and WWF
This is a excellent video always was a big fan of Mike awesome.
Mike Awesome is the most underrated wrestler of all time in my opinion. I was so fortunate to get to watch this on TNN as is unfolded. Hate how WCW ruined the Awesome character & WWE didn't give him the chance he deserved.
One of the greatest weeks of the era. I remember marking out. This is close to what AEW & Impact are doing now. AEW has Mox & Kenny who hold AAA and New Japan titles
Always love classic original Ecw content . Thanks
Nobody:
Wrestling Bios: "On his 83 weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff said..."
Amazing video!
steph was looking good
As a die hard ECW fan it sucked the way Mike left but from a business standpoint it was the right thing for him to do. In a more thought out situation Mike should've dropped the belt before showing up on Nitro but as a wrestling fan it was cool seeing this title change go down the way it did. This was a huge deal and definitely an "anything can happen in wrestling" moment.
I really loved the Tazz WWE theme when i was younger. I even bought the WWE music Vol. 3 CD only to have this track.
This is very reminiscent of when Ric Flair took the WCW title and jumped to WWF with the belt
Mike Awesome and Tazz are underrated veterans especially Awesome he’s absolutely jacked great athleticism but unfortunately not a great promo but should’ve got more
Sherry I’d have loved WCW to have put Shane Douglas with Mike Awesome as his manager as Shane Douglas was a great promo, could have been a Lesnar/Heyman style combination for WCW.
Brother your bio videos are awesome. Keep up the great work😄🇮🇪
That intro song slaps!
Mike awesome has got to be one of the most athletically gifted guys to ever step foot in the ring he could literally do everything high fly power technicall hardcore he could do them all and do them as good as anybody
I had totally forgotten about this.
Thanks for the reminder and another great video!
The WWF guy is always going over.
This was a great video. I had no idea! Thank you for acknowledging what a unique event it was.
Thanks for sticking up for Mike Awesome.
I wasn't into wreslting and I think I hardly say I am at the time but I really eat up everything this channels puts out. Quality and quantity always.
Can we take time and appreciate that fierce mullet Mike Awesome was rocking.
Keith Lee isn't the only big dude who moves like a cruiserweight... Mike awesome was the innovator of this hybrid style.
We lost him too soon
Mike Awesome in his prime was one of the best big men in the business.
I always go back and watch Awesome's debut in WCW and WWE. Him and Taz started with a spark then got thrown away like jobbers. I was glad he escaped WCW and had another shot under Vince but it didn't work out. The third shot Style shitted on him as he was having a dope match.
At Anarchy Rulz 1999 the fans chanted "You sold out" at Taz
When he came out.
Great Job as always ! Thank you for the vid .
and to this day Heyman still has not paid off the old ecw legends. Sabu confirms this.
No pay, no stay!
You touched on FMW. Thanks!