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Posted By	Discussion Topic: Mike Awesome, Paul Heyman, and Tazz speak out on how Awesome left ECW
Hello! Hello! Diamond Dust! Hello!	posted on 07-01-2001 @ 2:08 PM
Psychopath Registered: Feb. 01	This is from WCW.com (looks alot like WWF.com, you'd think they were the SAME COMPANY or something). It's pretty interesting and yet suspicious as I don't know if everyone's just being nice to each other because they're in the same company, but whatever. He also talked about his mullet. This is located on the Mike Awesome profile on WCW.com, BTW. Just moments after winning the World Wrestling Federation Hardcore Championship at Madison Square Garden in his RAW IS WAR debut, WCW star Mike Awesome talked to WCW.com about the accolade. "Man, I’m stoked," Awesome said. "It’s a belt. It’s a title belt. It’s the World Wrestling Federation. It’s the biggest wrestling program on the face of the planet. The first day in, I’m grabbing a belt – come on, that’s great. This hardcore stuff is right up my alley. Now I just gotta look over my back, because the 24-7 rule is in effect." The 6-foot-4, 270-pound Awesome says he is thrilled to be a part of WCW. "Things are being run right here," he said. "This is the biggest wrestling promotion on the planet. This is where everyone wants to be. So it’s a dream come true." He says he was definitely nervous before his appearance on RAW. "Every single time right before I walk out, I have butterflies in my stomach," Awesome said. "Still. Always. I think when those butterflies go away, maybe I need to go away." As historic as Awesome’s Hardcore Championship win was, it was actually the second time that Awesome has been a part of WWF vs. WCW history. In April 2000, Awesome was the ECW Heavyweight Champion, when he appeared on the April 10 episode of WCW Nitro. Soon after, he returned to ECW for a how and dropped the title to Tazz, who was on loan to Heyman by Federation owner Vince McMahon. When Tazz won the ECW Title from Awesome, it marked the first-ever battle between WWF- and WCW-contracted superstars – and it all happened in an ECW ring! Awesome was immediately vilified for "doing business the wrong way" – in other words, jumping ship to WCW while still the ECW Champion. But Awesome defends what he did, saying the whole situation was blown out of proportion. "I loved ECW," Awesome said. "I loved working there. The belt wasn’t an issue; it wasn’t like I was grabbing the belt and jumping companies. I just happened to be champion at the time. It was nothing like that; they said, ‘We don’t care about that belt; all we want is you.’ Looking back on it, I wish I would have dropped the strap before I left." At the show where he dropped the title to Tazz, Awesome did not even dress in the same locker room as the other ECW stars; he entered the arena through the crowd shortly before his match, and left the arena immediately following his bout. "That’s the way ECW wanted it," Awesome said. "They didn’t want me back there in their dressing room because of the way I left. Anything could have happened. I really don’t think there was anybody there that had any animosity towards me, because they knew what was going on." Tazz recalled the night in question. "I never had anything personal against Mike," Tazz said. "I always liked Mike; I’ve known Mike a long time. I did disagree with the way he left ECW. It wasn’t my idea to go as a WWF Superstar to ECW to wrestle for an ECW title. But I did what I had to do – it’s my job, and I did it. What I said to Mike that day was we gotta do business, so let’s just do this." Making Awesome’s Federation appearance all-the-more intriguing is the fact that Heyman is now a Federation employee. But Heyman says that he won’t let past issues get in the way of Federation business. "ECW grudges are ECW grudges," Heyman said. "They died and were buried with ECW." Heyman and Awesome recount their first interaction since the incident last April. "I gave that a lot of thought, how that meeting was going to transpire," Awesome said. "I just happened to stand in this hallway, and Paul comes walking around the corner, and it was do or die. It was either shake his hand and be friends, or just tell each other to @#$% off. We shook hands, everything was polite and amicable, and I don’t think there’s any problems, to be honest with you. Paul knew what was going on. He knew the reason I left. It was just financial; it was nothing between me and Paul." Said Heyman: "I went up to him, shook his hand, and said, ‘Hi Mike, I’m looking forward to working with you again.’" Tazz – whose sense of loyalty to ECW and whose philosophies of "doing business the right way" are second to none – doesn’t think the incident will be an issue in the future. "I think he’s learned from it, I think he’s grown from it," Tazz said. "I think he had really good success in WCW, and I think he’s going to have really good success in WCW under the WWF banner. There won’t be any tension between me and Mike. There is no problem." After the ECW incident, Awesome began his career in WCW – although he wasn’t thrilled with the characters he was made to portray. "I totally disliked the 70’s Guy character," he said. "I disliked it 100 percent. I just felt that for my character, for what I had done in ECW and my 10 years in Japan, it was just totally going against the grain of what I do. And Fat Chick Thriller? What the hell is that? "It was a very eye-opening experience, to see how a business and a company should not be run. Even ECW with the problems they had as far as financially, you knew who the boss was, you knew who was over, you knew how things were. In WCW there were just so many little things going wrong that brought the company down." Awesome gained a great deal of attention not for his characters or interviews, but instead for his mullet, which he has since shaved. He even suggested ideas to the WCW bosses about working his character around the mullet. "I’ve often wondered what I could have done with the mullet," Awesome said. "Could I have been ‘The Mullet?’ We almost went that direction – I presented it to them. They had me go out there one time and say to a guy who didn’t even have a sign – ‘Hey you, with the sign that says I’m a mullet – I’m not a mullet!’ And everyone’s looking for the guy, but he didn’t even have a sign. Ridiculous. And that was it. Going in, I asked where the sign was going to be, and they said there was no sign, so pretend." After a year of uncertainty and confusion, Awesome is finally in a place where he can properly showcase his amazing ability. And Tazz, for one, is rooting for him. "I think Mike is a great talent," Tazz said. "He’s a big monster that raises hell in the ring. Hopefully he’ll be a big star." There are other profiles there of WCW stars who've appeared so far, too, and as expected Torrie Wilson's picture makes her look 85 different types of hot. HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLO!

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