10 Greatest ECW Champions

Unless you’re Joey Styles, it’s hard to deny that Mike Awesome brought the goods during his tenure. The FMW veteran grabbed the brass ring twice in 1999 under the management of Judge Jeff Jones.

The first of these title runs left fans in shock as Awesome made a surprise return at Anarchy Rulz after more than a year away. His victory came at the expense of then champ Taz and Awesome’s long running nemesis, Masato Tanaka.

Indeed, Awesome seemed to make it his mission to scramble the brains of Tanaka every time they set foot in a ring. This ridiculously unhealthy ritual remained alive and well all the way up to ECW’s One Night Stand reunion show in 2005 where the two tore the house down in a reckless, neck compressing war.

A major player and big man for ECW as the new millennium arrived, Awesome’s high intensity title runs have become overshadowed by his arrival in WCW in 2000. Still the ECW champ, Awesome jumped ship in protest of overdue payments and ultimately returned briefly to drop the title to newly signed WWF star Taz. A bizarre chain of events for ECW’s main prize but leading up to that, Awesome was one of the best stars they had going.