Mike Awesome

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"The Gladiator" redirects here. For other uses see Gladiator (disambiguation)

Mike Alfonso
Statistics
Ring name(s) The Pro
The Gladiator
Mike Awesome
That 70's Guy
Fat Chick Thrilla
Billed height 6 ft 6 in (198 cm)
Billed weight 290 lb (132 kg)
Born January 24, 1965
Tampa, Florida
Trained by Steve Keirn
Debut 1989
Retired 2006

Michael Alfonso (born January 24, 1965), better known by his ring name Mike Awesome, is a retired American professional wrestler best known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Contents

[edit] Career

Alfonso received training from Steve Keirn's training camp out of the Pro Wrestling Federation (PWF). After wrestling for the PWF in 1989, teaming occasionally with Brett Sawyer, Alfonso moved around, appearing in various promotions including a brief stint in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) under the tutelage of Nate The Rat, a manager there. In that same year he made his first TV appearance as a World Championship Wrestling (WCW) masked jobber named The Pro from San Juan. Alfonso then moved on to Japan, joining up with Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW) in late 1990, gaining the name The Gladiator.

In 1993 Alfonso worked in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) for a short period (as "Awesome" Mike Awesome) before returning to FMW. In 1994, the Gladiator finally struck gold, teaming with Big Titan to defeat Atushi Onita & Katsutoshi Niyama in the finals of the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag-Team Title Tournament. In October 1994, he teamed with Mr. Pogo to win the belts again.

As The Gladiator, he faced and defeated Hayabusa for his first major singles title, FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Title. In May 1996 he won the title for a second time and also unified it with the FMW Independent World Title. In August 1997, teaming with Hisakatsu Ooya & Mr. Gannosuke he won the vacated FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag-Team Titles, holding all three belts at once. But a month later, everything began falling apart, as the Gladiator lost all of the titles in September, due to an epic feud with Masato Tanaka.

In August 1998, he again appeared in ECW as Mike Awesome, to continue his feud with Masato Tanaka.

During a match with Super Leather, Alfonso seriously injured his knee, taking him out of wrestling for nearly a year. When he returned, as The Gladiator, he wrestled for a brief period in All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Alfonso would go on to return to the United States to work full time in ECW as "Awesome" Mike Awesome, winning the ECW World Heavyweight Championship twice in the company. Awesome continued to be a major factor in ECW early in 2000, including teaming with Raven in to beat Tanaka & Tommy Dreamer for the ECW Tag-Team Titles. Awesome was often managed by Judge Jeff Jones in his ECW tenure.

In April 2000, Mike Awesome appeared in WCW, aiding the New Blood by attacking Kevin Nash. This presented a problem for ECW, because Awesome still held the ECW World Title, and it was only the threat of an ECW lawsuit that prevented WCW from having Awesome appear on WCW television with the belt. In one of the more bizarre moments in pro wrestling, Awesome- now under contract with WCW - returned to ECW for one night to drop the title to Tazz, who was under contract with the World Wrestling Federation, in an ECW ring at an ECW event.

Awesome continued to be a major factor with the New Blood for the next month, teaming with Billy Kidman occasionally, to help Kidman against Hulk Hogan. Awesome also continued his on-and-off feud with Kevin Nash, while feuding with Kanyon.

During 2000, Awesome began changing his gimmick slightly, coming out as That 70s Guy. He dressed in various throwback outfits, hosted his own "Lava Lamp Lounge" show, and even drove a painted bus around to arenas. He also began to become infatuated with "heavyset" women.

Awesome had feuds with Jeff Jarrett and a minor one with Vampiro, which created many brawls between Awesome & Vampiro's allies in the Insane Clown Posse. At one point, Awesome battled Shaggy 2 Dope & Violent J in a Handicap match, which led to Awesome Powerbombing Shaggy 2 Dope on top of his van (Shaggy 2 Dope then slid off, injuring himself).

In November 2000, Awesome renewed an earlier feud with Bam Bam Bigelow,

Going into 2001, Awesome dropped the 1970s gimmick joined with Lance Storm & Elix Skipper in Team Canada after assaulting "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. Team Canada's feud with the Filthy Animals led to Awesome challenging Billy Kidman to a Hair-vs-Hair match. Before the bout could take place, Team Canada took out Kidman in the back. However, Konnan (with no hair) took his place, and got the win. The Filthy Animals then cut off Awesome's long-time mullet haircut.

Awesome later faded into the background for a time, helping to aid Storm in his battles against Ernest "The Cat" Miller. With Awesome & Skipper's aid, Storm defeated Miller at one point to become the WCW Commissioner, allowing Team Canada to run with a lot of power for a few weeks. However, at Superbrawl, Storm lost to Miller, who regained his Commissionership.

Mike Awesome became part of The Invasion storyline in the WWF. He ended up making his WWF debut on the June 25, 2001 episode of Raw is War during a match which saw Rhyno defending his WWF Hardcore Title against Test. Rhyno gored Test against the wall and made the pin to become the new champion but while Rhyno was celebrating, Mike Awesome came out of nowhere and attacked Rhyno in the head with a metal pipe. He then powerbombed Rhyno onto a steel ladder and made the pin, and, due to the 24/7 Hardcore Title rule, the ref made the count, giving Awesome his first WWF victory and, shockingly, the WWF Hardcore Title. Awesome became the first Invader to gain gold in the WWF, stealing away with the Hardcore belt before any WWF wrestlers could catch him. It struck a blow against the WWF, as well as giving Awesome his first gold in more than a year.

Awesomes' hardcore reign came to an end a few weeks later on the July 12, 2001 edition of Smackdown! when he was pinned by Jeff Hardy, he never got a rematch. Awesome's push slowly declined as he would appear mostly on WWF's Sister Shows (WWF Jakked and WWF HEAT. He was left off the majority of the Pay-per-view's (PPVs) involved in the WWF/Alliance storyline, and was eventually sidelined with an injury in November 2001.

After The Alliance storyline ended, Mike Awesome was not used much in the storylines or matches, and after a WWE Draft Lottery, Mike was drafted to SmackDown!, but was rarely seen on TV and was used as a jobber on WWE Velocity, losing to Sho Funaki among others until his release from the WWE in September, 2002.

Mike Awesome has since made a few appearances at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), but has mainly wrestled in the independent circuit in the United States and Japan.

At ECW One Night Stand 2005, Awesome faced Tanaka once again inside an ECW ring. Awesome won the match after Awesome Bombing Tanaka to the outside of the ring, and through a table and a slingshot Awesome Splash onto Tanaka. After the match Mike Awesome powerbombed referee Jim Molleneux. Throughout the match, both ECW fans and Joey Styles, who was announcing the match, made note of the fact they had not forgiven Awesome for betraying ECW five years previously.

During February, Awesome announced his retirement from wrestling so that he could concentrate on spending time with his family and selling real estate. Awesome added that he would only wrestle "if the money was right," and added that he felt that he was underpaid for his performance at ECW One Night Stand 2005, due to the fact that Awesome felt that his match with Masato Tanaka stole the show. Additionally, Awesome had blown out his knee during the match.

[edit] Trivia

  • He is the cousin of Horace Hogan. Awesome grew up with Horace, and the two entered wrestling at the same time, due to the Hulkster's influence. While Horace trained in the Malenko camp, Awesome got his skill from Steve Keirn's training camp out of the PWF.
  • He was part of many stables, such as the Puerto Rican Army, Shiek's Army, Team Canada, Lethal Weapon, Funk Masters of Wrestling, and the WCW/ECW Alliance.
  • When he was in Extreme Championship Wrestling, his entrance music was "TNT" by AC/DC, then "The Zoo" by Bruce Dickenson and later the ECW original theme "Awesome Bomb" performed by Reckless Fortune and prodeced by ECW's Harry Slash of Harry Slash & The Slashtones.
  • Though Awesome held the ECW World Title when he signed with WCW, and was part of the WCW "Invasion" stable when he won the WWF Hardcore Title, Awesome never won any WCW championships.

[edit] Wrestling facts

Awesome using the Awesome bomb to put Tommy Dreamer through a table.
Enlarge
Awesome using the Awesome bomb to put Tommy Dreamer through a table.
  • Finishing and signature moves
  • Catchphrase
  • "I'm the BEST!"
  • "Awesome Bomb BABY!"
  • Managers

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

  • 2-Time FMW World Brass Knuckles Champion
  • 2-Time FMW World Brass Knuckles Tag-Team Champion, with Big Titan and Mr. Pogo
  • 1-Time FMW Independent World Heavyweight Champion
  • 1-Time FMW Street Fight 6-Man Tag-Team Champion, with Horace Boulder & Hisakatsu Oya
  • Jersey All Pro Wrestling
  • 1-Time JAPW Champion

[edit] References

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