a rival company, Maryland Championship Wrestling, over creative control and salary disagreements. Most of the roster jumped to the newly formed promotion, leaving few of the originals remaining. Axl Rotten, MEWF's longtime booker, was among those who had departed the company, which meant MCW was not receiving ECW's talent. Burke was forced to use Brain Buster students to make up the loss while mainstays such as Bob Starr and Morgus The Maniac were tasked with carrying the promotion during 1998–99. Burke brought in World Wrestling Federation legends including The Honky Tonk Man and George "The Animal" Steele as well as developed new stars through its training facility such as Ruckus and Tonya Stevens. Stevens, one of the few female referees in pro wrestling, was initially trained as a wrestler and later agreed to referee for the promotion. On April 29, 2000, after Patch was stripped of the MEWF Heavyweight Championship, a match was held between Burke and Max Thrasher for the vacant title in Middle River, Maryland, which Burke won. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan was the special guest referee. During his third championship reign, he defeated Dino Casanova, Ruckus, and Mad Dog O' Malley. O'Malley would become one Burke's major rivals for the title. Though defeating O'Malley in a cage match several months earlier, he was confronted by the 450-pound Irish brawler at a June 24 MEWF house show in Dundalk, Maryland while conducting an in-ring interview. O'Malley had taken issue with Burke's announcement to the crowd that he would be defending the championship against the "younger and newer competition in the MEWF". After a brief argument between the two, Burke was blindsided by O'Malley and left lying in the ring. Burke ended up getting the better of O'Malley, decisively defeating him in their match at the main event. Burke voluntarily forfeited the title on August 9, 2000, at a special memorial show for fellow MEWF wrestler DOA, "DOA: A Night to Remember", in Martinsburg, West Virginia so DOA could be posthumously awarded the title for one night only. He was defeated for the title by Buzz Stryker in Middle River three days later. He and Bob Starr reunited to defeat The Tokyo Terrors (Keushiro and Watsumi) for the MEWF Tag Team Championship a month later. They remained champions for over a year, defending the titles against teams such as The Freak Show and Tommy Hawk & Jimmy Jannetty, before losing