10 Best Matches In ECW History

5. Mike Awesome Vs. Masato Tanaka - Heatwave 1998

Tajiri Super Crazy
WWE.com

Much like Super Crazy and Tajiri, ECW had this strange knack of putting matches on between two random guys who would go on to be indelibly linked to one another in the company, whose matches would stand out over time and stand up strongly today. If Crazy and Tajiri did it in the cruisers, it was Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka who did it with the big boys.

The brawls these two put on were intense to say the least, but they were always underpinned with sense and logic. Mike Awesome certainly sits in the underrated box, as agile a big man as you wanted to find at the time, and the quiet proficiency of Tanaka brought out the best in him

Their battle at Heatwave 1998 may be their best, one that was won by Tanaka after a Tornado DDT onto two chairs. One highlight of the match sees Awesome springboarding from the ring all the way to the crowd, an impressive spot for a small guy but unreal for a man of Awesome's size.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.