10 Times Wrestling Opened The Forbidden Door
7. WWE Star Beats WCW Star For ECW Title At Height Of Wartime
There's a real cuteness to the booking that almost rivals the improbable real-world machinations.
At Anarchy Rulz 1999, Taz, Fed-bound and boy did everybody know it, dropped the ECW World Title to an unannounced Mike Awesome in a three-way dance also involving Masato Tanaka. Taz, the heavily protected badass, was eliminated within minutes. His farewell tour had begun. Because this company wasn't insane, he wasn't buried; he retreated up the ramp and gestured for the two men to fight. If he had to lose the title, that title had to be worth fighting for. He shook Awesome's hand at the end of the match, having done his bit for Heyman's revolution.
Awesome hadn't. At least, that was the belief internally. In reality, he was owed a lot of money. He didn't have to show loyalty to a cause that increasingly felt demented and untenable. And so he debuted for WCW while he reigned with the ECW World Title. But he wasn't under contract, and if anybody deservers higher remuneration, it's a pro wrestler. And if any pro wrestler deserved higher remuneration, it was Mike Awesome.
For the buzz and the humiliation of it all, Heyman reached out to Vince McMahon and struck a deal to get Taz, then working for WWE, to act as a transitional champion and get one over on the WCW guy.
Cute, and historic, but it always seemed like a bigger deal than it felt.