If I explained to the average wrestling fan that a contracted WWF wrestler once defeated a WCW wrestler under the ECW banner for their World Championship, you would think that it’s some twisted pro wrestling Abbott and Costello routine, but this exact scenario transpired over 20 years ago.

On April 10, 2000, Mike Awesome jumped the guardrail on WCW Monday Nitro and immediately made an impact by jumping Kevin Nash from behind. There was just one problem, Awesome was the current reigning ECW World Champion. But was Mike Awesome still under contract with ECW? 

Eric Bischoff offered his perspective on 83 Weeks that Paul Heyman’s claim of Awesome being under an ECW contract was inaccurate. This also provided insight as to why he left. 

He didn’t have a contract. First of all, Mike Awesome came to us. We didn’t go to Mike Awesome. Mike Awesome came to us like so many people did from ECW because he had issues of getting paid, and honesty and transparency surrounding that issue. And couldn’t take it anymore. Whether or not he had a verbal agreement with Paul, or Paul had signed the agreement but Mike Lawson hadn’t, there was a lot of back-and-forth over that. I wasn’t directly involved in it. That would have been a [WCW EVP] Nick Lambros kind of situation or whoever, maybe Diana Myers situation. I think Diana Myers at the time was taking over a lot of that stuff. So there was confusion as there often is with contractual issues. There’s no doubt about that. I did try to work with Paul to try and find a solution other than a legal one. So there was some confusion, there was some dialogue. I think it’s been blown way out of proportion. I think anybody that’s ever worked with Paul Heyman in ECW is going to be really honest with you. They’ve all had those types of problems in the past. The check was always in the mail, the contract was always gonna be sent next week. But there wasn’t a contract. We didn’t go to Mike, Mike came to us.

Years earlier, Lance Storm echoed much of Eric Bischoff’s perspective on Awesome’s decision to abruptly leave the Philadelphia-based promotion and noted that any heat was unjustified.

“Mike got a lot of heat for the way he left ECW, but a lot of that was unjustified. The true story is that Mike was owed a significant amount of money from ECW and he refused to sign his contract until he received all money due him. After repeatedly not receiving money promised him Mike accepted an offer from WCW that offered his family financial security. I’m not sure there is anyone in the business that would have done differently.”

Justin Credible noted during a video series for Kayfabe Commentaries that Mike Awesome “probably lost around $50,000 in unpaid money.”

Mike Awesome personally confirmed during a shoot interview that the decision to jump was made solely based on the sporadic paydays as he regretted leaving Japan for it. Mike feared not being able to make his mortgage payments on a recently purchased home and claimed it was cousin Horace Hogan along with Hulk Hogan who advised he should turn around and leave.

Mike didn’t care about the belt and more about providing for his family.

A Turner contact with WCW offered Mike Awesome financial security along with a sizeable signing bonus. According to disclosed figures, his contract was worth $279,578. 

With Mike Awesome receiving a hefty contract from WCW, what about the ECW World Heavyweight Championship? 

Paul Heyman made a request to Vince McMahon asking if former ECW wrestler and current WWF wrestler Tazz could return for one night to face Mike Awesome. Vince agreed.

During an appearance on Bill Apter’s podcast, Taz shared how he was approached about the situation.

It was awesome, it was a lot of fun, but I didn’t want to. I remember coming back from the road and I get a call on the phone from WWE, and Vince [McMahon] is one of the guys on the other phone, I was at the mall with my wife pushing my kid in a stroller. They’re like ‘Hey, uh, Paul Heyman needs a little help’, and I’m like ‘What do you mean?’ Vince was like ‘Hey look pal, they got a guy there who is holding the title hostage and I need you to go in there and help Paul and take the title from this Mike Awesome guy.'

It was now up to WCW to agree to this scenario, which Eric Bischoff ultimately allowed. 

It was just something that we worked out with Paul. I didn’t really care, and I know that sounds strange to people, again it sounds like I’m taking a shot at ECW and I don’t mean it to sound this way. By this time they were on what eventually became the Paramount Network and previous to that was the Spike Network. And previous to that was The Nashville Network. But their footprint, the size of their audience was still relatively small. I didn’t feel like in the long run, it was really going to matter all that much. And it was just something that we worked out with Paul, so we could not be going back and forth and spending time with attorneys. There was a lot of time spent with Turner attorneys trying to figure this situation out. And quite honestly, I was tired of it. It didn’t have a long-term implication to me. It was weird as f**k, no doubt about it. It didn’t matter to me whether he lost to a WWE guy, or an ECW guy, or anybody. He was going there to perform, we were going to wrap this thing up with a bow on it and get out of this mess, and move on. And that’s kind of the way I looked at it, and none of it really mattered to me.

On April 14, 2000, Mike Awesome returned to ECW to defend his Championship during a house show in Indiana, Mike Awesome came to ring and was showered by “you sold out chants.” Moments later, Taz made his illustrious return to the ECW promotion and was greeted by a hero’s welcome.

The match only lasted mere minutes and was dominated by the Human Suplex Machine who eventually forced Mike Awesome to tap out in the Tazmission to capture the ECW Championship.

During this short tenure as champion, Tazz would appear back in WWF to challenge WWF champion Triple H on SmackDown! Triple H would defeat him soundly, which wasn’t a particularly unexpected outcome, but still disappointing as it completely devalued the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.

On April 22, 2000, Taz would return to ECW and drop the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to Tommy Dreamer. Minutes later, Justin Credible showed up to interrupt Dreamer’s celebration to not only challenge him on the spot but defeat Dreamer to become the new ECW World Champion.

This was the first and last occasion of a contracted WWF employee defeating a contracted WCW under the ECW banner.

Sometimes, the reality is stranger than fiction.