An ‘Awesome’ Departure Left Heyman in a Bind or Credible tries to be a Creditable Champion

Despite being under contract to ECW, Mike Awesome secretly negotiated a deal with rival World Championship Wrestling. Paul Heyman had recently aired an angle between Awesome and Tommy Dreamer to set up an ECW title match at the promotion’s next pay-per-view, Hardcore Heaven.

Heyman settled for a reported six-figure settlement with WCW to release Awesome. The ECW boss contacted Vince McMahon to receive permission to use Tazz against Awesome in his final ECW match. The transition to Tazz as ECW champion gave Heyman’s title exposure on WWF television, but it did not evaluate its value.

The ECW title on WWF television was treated as a minor league championship won by a Federation mid-carder on his "day off." On the very night Tazz defeated Mike Awesome for the ECW title, the thirteen year mat veteran was shown on "Smackdown" winning the WWF Hardcore title from Saturn, only to drop it to Crash Holly moments later.

As agreed upon between Heyman and McMahon, Tazz dropped the title to Tommy Dreamer, as expected. Moments later, Heyman had one final twist - Justin Credible defeated Dreamer for the ECW title to conclude a double switch at "Cyberslam."

Another problem facing the ECW owner was Lance Storm’s obligation to the company. One half of the ECW World tag team champions remained without a written contract at a time WCW made inquires to several wrestlers on Heyman’s roster.

Wanting to avoid having another ECW title holder defect, Heyman had Credible throw down the tag team title belts - a method of removing the title from Storm before he could leave the promotion.

The creative Heyman had done an excellent job of establishing Awesome as a major heel, which would have led to Rob Van Dam’s chase of him and the ECW title. With Awesome out of the picture, Heyman opted to put the title on twenty-six year old Justin Credible - whom has a long-term contract with the company.

In my humble opinion, it was a good choice to put the title on the seven and a half-year veteran, yet time will tell if Credible is perceived as a creditable ECW champion. Francine, a manager of champions, will serve as Credible’s new valet. If done properly, a Credible-Van Dam program would be good for business.

The next long-term hurdle for the Philadelphia based promotion is potential move from the USA Network by the WWF to CBS, which would land "Raw" on TNN. If the WWF moves its programs from the USA Network, there are no guarantees the cable channel would opt to pick up ECW - which would leave the promotion without a cable television home.

Sources indicate that Paul Heyman has told friends and associates that he believe that despite the potential legal battle involving the move of WWF programming, he is confident that “Raw” will end up on The Nashville Network.

Reports also indicate that tension is building between Heyman and TNN. The network recently approached ECW’s executive producer about moving "ECW on TNN" to Tuesday nights. Heyman balked at the suggestion. To date, ECW’s cable program is averaging a 1.06 rating for the year. The April 28th WWF “Greatest Hits” show on UPN recorded a dismal 2.0 rating, indicating a move to another night may actually benefit ECW, at least on a short term basis.

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