#FiftyMatches: ECW's Last Stand

Mike Awesome v. Tazz

ECW World Heavyweight Championship

ECW on TNN
April 14, 2000

"Tazz is here to stand up for ECW!”

- Joey Styles

It's sad that it came to this for Extreme Championship Wrestling. Hemorrhaging talent at an impossible rate, the company found itself in a terrible situation. Its champion, Mike Awesome, had signed a contract with World Championship Wrestling. His departure suddenly left ECW searching for a new champion, and Paul Heyman mustn't have liked the options he saw inside the company he'd built into the third largest professional wrestling promotion in the United States.


Perhaps the most popular performer from ECW's past would come to its rescue. Tazz had left for the World Wrestling Federation months earlier. He had appeared at his first WrestleMania less than two weeks before this match. He was the choice to keep the ECW World Heavyweight Championship in ECW before Mike Awesome had a chance to take it with him to WCW.  This strange intersection of agendas - A WCW contracted wrestler versus a WWF contracted wrestler for the top title in ECW - was the best option on such short notice.

Tazz' unexpected return and quick victory was thrilling at the time. Today, it's bittersweet at best. If this moment doesn't mark the end of the road for ECW, it must be somewhere in the vicinity. The veil of ECW's business relationship with the hated WWF had been lifted. And incredibly, after everything ECW had been through, the most heartbreaking moment was still to come. 

Just days after rescuing the ECW World Heavyweight Championship from Mike Awesome and preserving the title's lineage, Tazz returned to work for the WWF and was defeated by the WWF Champion, Triple H. It happened in Philadelphia, where ECW was born and thrived. It's a match Vince McMahon seemed to regret when he was interviewed years later for the WWE-produced DVD "The Rise And Fall of ECW".

"History's difficult. It really is when you look back on things and you say 'Well, that doesn't speak too well of me trying to help that brand, does it?' And it doesn't speak too well. And I can't tell you what my frame of mind was at that time. All I can tell you is, I'm sure I thought it was the right thing to do at the time."

A few days after his loss to Triple H on Smackdown!, Tazz lost the ECW Title to Tommy Dreamer. The options for championship contenders inside ECW had not improved much over the week or so of turmoil. The title was now in the hands of the most loyal employee ECW had left, but the damage was done and the company faded into its eventual oblivion.


On this list of 50 Matches That Defined The Decade, there are many that leave me with conflicted emotions today. When I recently watched Mike Awesome vs. Tazz, I was surprised how empty I was left feeling. Like the many fans who were lucky enough to experience ECW in its prime, I can't help but long for the glory days of Tazz kicking ass and suplexing everything that moves, or Sabu taking ridiculous and unnecessary risks for our entertainment.

By the time Tazz and Mike Awesome met in Indianapolis, Indiana, the ECW I grew to love was long gone. Their match is historic for its strange circumstances, but it's not what ECW was about. It is, however, a clear example of what it became - A company with passionate fans and loyal workers that was doomed to collapse under the weight of its own success.