Mike Awesome isn't here because he was a bad wrestler. He was actually pretty good and got people excited about ECW because he was a big man that could really go. The reason he's here is because of how he left the company. He was the ECW Champ for about a half a year from his first run in September 1999, then it was interrupted by six days without the title and then he held it for another four months. While he was still under contract to ECW, he signed with WCW while he was the ECW Champion. His reasoning was that ECW wasn't paying him as they should have, so he had to go somewhere where he would get paid. That made sense, but there's a right way and a wrong way to go about doing that. He did it the wrong way. The way he lost the ECW Title was historic because it happened in April 2000 when he dropped it to a WWE wrestler Tazz, who was an ECW legend. It was the only time a WCW wrestler took on a WWE wrestler in an ECW ring with the ECW Title on the line. Tazz won and Awesome left through the crowd because he was legitimately considered for his safety among his ECW peers.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
