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I'm sorry to report the passing of former ECW World champion Mike Awesome. We don't have much in the way of details yet but Awesome, real name Michael Alfonso, was 42 at the time of his passing.
A Florida native, Awesome was trained by Steve Keirn and was a tremendously agile performer. Standing well over 6 feet, Awesome looked like any other monster performer at first glance, but was well beyond your average muscle-bound bruiser, gifted with tremendous agility. It was nothing for Awesome to hit topes and dives like a Cruiserweight before powerbombing his hapless opponents through tables en route to victory.
Like many wrestlers during that era, Awesome broke in making some appearances in Memphis, TN for the USWA and did some independent work in Florida as well as enhancement work. He truly began making his name when he began working as the facepainted Gladiator for Atsushi Onita's Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling in the early 1990s. The forerunner to ECW and the hottest promotion among tape traders at the time, Awesome teamed with Horace Boulder and often worked with or against Sabu, Onita, Hisakatsu Ooya, Mr. Pogo and Mr. Gannosuke among others. The styles was physical with crazy bumps, barbed wire, and lots of explosion matches.
While he was well known overseas, at the time Awesome was only known to the most hardcore fans in the United States. He made sporadic appearances in the early days of NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling, including an early 1994 match in ECW where he decimated JT Smith before losing to him at the Night the Line Was Crossed).
Within the United States, Awesome was best known for his storied feud with Masato Tanaka, which began in FMW in Japan and later moved to the United States in ECW, including a memorable match at the promotion's Heatwave '98 PPV in Dayton, Ohio.
After suffering a knee injury, Awesome sat out for a year following surgery. He didn't return to FMW, instead doing a tour of All Japan Pro Wrestling when he returned. In September 1999, Awesome joined ECW full-time as a surprise, immediately winning a Three-Way Dance to capture the promotion's World championship from Tazz at the Anarchy Rulz '99 PPV in Chicago. The storyline was that Awesome had crashed the match, upset that ECW was using footage of Tanaka defeating him to build up Tanaka as a challenger. Tazz offered him the chance to enter the match, and was pinned within a minute, shocking everyone. Although it was well known Tazz was on his way out of the company, no one could have predicted a one minute loss for ECW's monster badass champion.
Awesome defeated Tanaka as well in the process, so their feud was once again off to the races. During his reign as champion Awesome defeneded the title against New Jack, Tanaka, Spike Dudley, Kid Kash, and Tommy Dreamer, among others. Managed by Jeff Jones, Awesome also briefly held the ECW World Tag Team championship with Raven as well. Tanaka and Awesome traded the ECW title back with a win for Tanaka in Nashville, TN and Awesome regaining it in White Plains, NY. The ECW on TNN episodes featuring the changes were among the highest rated for the series, falling on Christmas eve and New Year's Eve for that year.
The plan at the time was to build to ECW's top babyface at the time, Rob Van Dam chasing Awesome for the belt. Just after an angle was shot to begin the chase, Van Dam broke his ankle working a house show and would be out for several months. During that timeframe, Awesome (who had claimed publicly to have been under an ECW contract), signed a deal to jump to World Championship Wrestling without dropping the ECW World title belt.
Rightfully fearful of Awesome (who had possession of the title belt) would debut on Monday Nitro and desecrate it, ECW's legal team went into overdrive. Awesome was immediately vilified by those loyal to Extreme Championship Wrestling, although the bottom line was he had a chance to make a great deal of money for his family in one shot and took the chance. ECW did gain an injunction against him appearing and negotiations were made that Awesome would appear, would not have the championship with him (but WCW would name him as champion, then plug a title defense in Indianapolis - which WCW didn't do), and appear in street clothes (to mask his physique and dilute his debut). When Awesome's title change wasn't plugged, the legal battled raged again briefly with ECW feeling they were doublecrossed, before all sides came to settlement terms.
In the end, an agreement was made for Awesome to return and drop the ECW title, which he did, losing it to then-WWF star Tazz in Indianapolis, Indiana in the historic first-ever WCW vs. WWF bout (taking place inside an ECW ring no less). ECW refused to allow Awesome into the locker room, so he waited at a nearby hotel, met with Tazz and Tommy Dreamer to go over the bout, then came through the crowd. After Awesome lost the belt, he left again through the crowd.
The match aired in edited form on TNN but if you've never seen the Fancam version and heard the crowd reaction to the Tazz return and title win, you've never truly experienced the moment. In many ways, the departure allowed for a "happy" final appearance in ECW for the Tazz character, who signed with WWE after losing the belt and never truly got a sendoff in the same vein that other ECW stars did.
Once signed by WCW, Awesome was yet another victim of WCW's political turmoil, ever-changing storylines, and poor creative direction during the Vince Russo regime, morphing from a monstrous table smashing killer to a comedic undercard character that was lost in the 1970s and traveled in a takeoff of the Patridge Family bus. He was later saddled with a gimmick where he was (seriously) a "Fat Chick Thriller" and was also a member of Team Canada alongside Elix Skipper and Lance Storm. He may have been making the biggest amount of money ever in his career, but artistically, Awesome had never been less of a player for any company and was never booked worse.
When World Wrestling Entertainment bought out WCW in early 2001, Awesome's contract was among the assets purchased. He became the first "WCW" wrestler to compete in the WWF and in Madison Square Garden, attacking WWF Hardcore champion Rhyno backstage and pinning him as part of the storyline where the now defunct championship could be defended anytime, anywhere. When WWF revived ECW as part of the Invasion storyline, Awesome become one of many faces lost in the crowd as a member of the Alliance, was considered to not be a strong performer by WWF veterans who buried him (and many others) politically and was later released in September 2002.
Awesome made several appearances for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling during their weekly PPV event run in Nashville, TN.
Awesome also competed for Court Bauer's Major League Wrestling in 2003, winning the MLW championship from Satoshi Kojima, only to lose it several minutes later to Steve Corino. Awesome would make several more appearances for the company against Masato Tanaka and Samoa Joe, among others. He did another brief run for Jersey All Pro Wrestling, tagging with Vader in a feud against Samoa Joe and Danny Maff in a main event feud.
Awesome quietly disappeared from the business before being booked for the 2005 Extreme Championship Wrestling One Night Stand PPV in New York City in 2005. The original plan was for Awesome to appear as a surprise alongside Eric Bischoff, playing off the WCW jump in 2000 but creative directions changed and Awesome was announced as facing long-time foe Tanaka. The PPV was among the most emotional and memorable of the year, with Tanaka vs. Awesome tearing apart the Hammerstein Ballroom for what was undoubtedly the best match on the show (and of the entire ECW rebirth to date). Awesome blew out his knee during the bout, which he won following an Awesomebomb to the floor through a table and a splash.
To the best of my knowledge, Awesome never wrestled again after the first ECW PPV. He was working in real estate at the time of his death.
On behalf of everyone involved with PWInsider.com, I'd like to express our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Mike Awesome.
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