10 Times Wrestlers Held Championship Belts Hostage
6. Mike Awesome - ECW Heavyweight Championship
It can't have been easy for ECW wrestlers to get by on months of bounced cheques during the promotion's protracted dying days, and at 35-years-old, Mike Awesome had more than just financial gain to consider when World Championship Wrestling came calling.
WCW was getting pounded in the weekly television ratings war by mid-2000, to the point where it no longer felt like a fair fight. And yet, the millions that still tuned in to Nitro reflected proper opportunity and exposure for a high calibre performer entering their prime years. Awesome was all that and sh*tloads more, including, troublingly, ECW Champion.
Cast as the villain of the piece at the time, Awesome was viewed unfavourably for daring to leave for Atlanta whilst carrying the belt, but things never hit Alundra Blayze levels beyond one note of him being the titleholder when he debuted with a surprise attack on Kevin Nash. The problem of getting the finally gold home fostered a unique solution - WCW wrestler Awesome dropped it WWE wrestler (and one-night ECW returnee) Tazz, who lost it to Tommy Dreamer days later.