Denver, Colorado, April the 10, 2000.

Hang on this.

That is Mike Awesome.

He's the heavyweight champion of ECW. That moment from 20 years ago set off a chain reaction in professional wrestling.

The last time we saw him he had that building what he'd do it here.

A chain reaction that would bring the top three wrestling promotions together in the most unprecedented manner.

Mike, awesome, the ECW World Heavy-rate Champion just wiped out Kevin Nax.

To understand the significance of this moment, we need to wind the clock back to September 19th

1999.

Hello everyone and welcome to the audience right outside of Chicago, Illinois.

In a company that has no rules in a promotion

with no law and order where chaos is the norm tonight Chicago. Andrarchy Rules.

Extreme Championship Wrestling presented anarchy rules in 99 from the Odeum Expo Center in V Villa Park, Illinois.

The man at the top of the tree in ECW was the human-supplex machine, Taz.

And he'd been a top of that tree for eight months now as ECW champion.

On this night, Taz was primed to defend. for eight months now as ECW champion.

On this night Taz was primed to defend his title

against Masato Tanaka

and it was expected to be a hard-hitting masterclass.

Moments before the bell sounded on the championship showdown,

Taz would change the mood when he spotted a familiar face in the crowd. Let him go. Come on, you big son of the bitch, you want something.

Come on.

...