At the end of 1998, ECW veteran and former triple crown champion Mikey Whipwreck left that company and wound up signing with WCW, where he became the most ill-fitting wrestler in a particular company that I think I’d ever seen to that point.1
Mikey was a good wrestler and I really enjoyed watching him, but Mikey was uniquely good and his whole thing — look, gear, vibe, aura, the way he wrestled — just did not look right on big-time TV wrestling. It was bizarre.
It also didn’t last very long. Whipwreck made his WCW debut as a surprise opponent for dominant cruiserweight champ Kidman at Uncensored ‘99 in March, and was back in ECW by October, working the last of his 13 matches for WCW in August.
WCW Mikey Whipwreck is something I think about again every so often, because to this day it just feels so weird even in my mind. Even Sabu felt more like he belonged in WCW for that very short stint in ‘95. Even Sandman, changed to Hak, felt more like he belonged in WCW. Something about Mikey, even more than Sabu or Sandman — two of the biggest ECW stars ever — felt purely ECW to me. He belonged at the ECW Arena and Elks Lodge #878.
Whipwreck was booked on zero house shows during his time with WCW, but worked four pay-per-views and often was called in for Nitro, Thunder, and the weekend tapings. (He had matches on three Nitros, three Thunders, two Saturday Nights, and a Worldwide.)
“You’d see in the locker room, there’d be fuckin’ people everywhere, and 80 percent of them weren’t doing anything,” Whipwreck said in an interview a few years ago. “They were just fuckin’ there! I can’t tell you how many times they booked me last-minute and they’d overnight me my plane tickets. They’d pay $2500, $3000 for my plane tickets, and then they wouldn’t do anything. I would just sit there.”
Mikey added that he did see his bank account go up and up during his time with WCW, as he had a guaranteed deal and was paid whether he was working or not.
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