Athletes - Mike Awesome

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	Athletes - Mike Awesome

Mike Alfonso, better known by his ring name Mike Awesome, is an American professional wrestler currently retired.

Career

Alfonso received training from Steve Keirn's training camp out of the Pro Wrestling Federation (PFW). 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 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.

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.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Mike Awesome ]

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Athletes - Mike Awesome

Career

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