April 17, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Mike Awesome jumps ship to WCW, Russo/Bischoff era of Nitro begins, more
At press time, exactly what is going on between WCW and ECW regarding current ECW heavyweight champion Mike Awesome is apparently up in the air.
In a strange series of circumstances, it appeared that Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, in their attempt to re-create the debuting impact of Nitro in 1995 with Lex Luger’s surprising walking on the set, combined with the incident where Madusa threw the WWF womens title belt in the garbage can, since they were unable to secure any WWF talent, made a huge pitch to garner ECW’s heavyweight champion.
Awesome, who apparently had more than two years remaining on a deal through the late summer of 2002 with ECW, started the weekend by no-showing matches on 4/6 in Cleveland and 4/7 in Warren, OH. There had been some rumors the previous weekend regarding Awesome jumping, with Paul Heyman claiming it would be impossible because of their existing contract.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.