MOTD: Mike Awesome [c] vs. Tazz (ECW)

Today’s Match of the Day features the only match that ever took place where a WCW contracted wrestler (Mike Awesome) wrestled a WWE contracted wrestler (Tazz) on a bloody ECW show for the ECW title!

To my knowledge, this is the only time that the three companies, when they were existing, all were players in one match. Awesome had defected to WCW on the previous Monday’s Nitro and Paul Heyman was livid, threatening legal action.

In fact, Awesome’s WCW defection indirectly led to Lance Storm‘s signing with WCW. In an interview, Storm said that after Awesome showed up on Nitro, Heyman demanded that everyone sign a contract with ECW – some workers were wrestling without contracts. Storm, who was under a verbal contract, didn’t like the terms of a multi-year deal that was being offered, so he signed a 30-day deal. The written contract override the verbal contract and he was free to negotiate with WCW after 30 days.

For now, it’s Tazz vs. Mike Awesome, for the ECW Championship: