10 Wrestlers Lumbered With Dead On Arrival Gimmicks
3. "That 70s Guy" Mike Awesome
This was peak Vince Russo.
Mike Awesome's April 2000 jump from ECW to WCW was controversial. Awesome no-showed several ECW shows - when he was the company's World Champion - having been seduced by a very lucrative, high six-figure contract. On top of that, WCW paid an additional six figure sum to procure Awesome's release from his typically murky ECW contract. This legal kerfuffle dissuaded WCW from running with the original plan of booking Awesome, like Madusa before him, to literally trash a belt belonging to the competition.
You'd think, then, that after going to all that trouble, Russo would position Awesome in a favourable light. It would have been a complete waste of money to portray Awesome - an electric and dangerous performer, framed in the right context - in a fringe comedy role.
This was peak Vince Russo.
Awesome, just a couple of months later, was the recipient of Russo's ADD and repackaged as the Fat Chick Thrilla. Perhaps worse than that - at least his fat fetish might have warranted a rivalry with Buff Bagwell - was his September re-repackage as That 70s Guy.
What happened was thus: Russo was aware that That 70s Show was a popular network sitcom and attempted to capitalise on its popularity. They spun a feud with Vampiro out of it because the demonic creature of the night took a disliking to Awesome's shaggin' wagon.
WCW folded within a year, funnily enough.