7 Times Wrestling Promotions Turned Lemons Into Lemonade

During the Attitude Era, wrestlers from elsewhere changing their colours was far from unheard of, though not many did this whilst still holding a championship in another promotion. In April 2000 Mike Awesome shocked the world by doing just that, arriving on WCW Monday Nitro whilst still holding the ECW Championship.

Although Awesome's reasons for doing so were justifiable (he refused to sign a new contract with ECW as he had unpaid wages outstanding), the two sides were able to come to an agreement which would see Awesome drop the ECW title. His opponent? Taz, a member of the WWF roster.

This led to one of the strangest matches of all time: A WWF superstar facing off against a WCW wrestler for the ECW Championship on an ECW show. Although the match itself wasn't anything special, the historic significance cannot be denied.

There were two reasons for Taz being chosen to face Awesome as opposed to an ECW roster member, number one being to get eyes on ECW and the WWF. After Taz won the ECW Championship in quick fashion, he showed up with the newly won title on an episode of SmackDown where he faced off against then WWF Champion Triple H. ECW and the WWF were both able to benefit from this SmackDown appearance, and the cross branded match at the ECW show.