Mike Awesome Made The Wrong Choice

[TUFFY54]

I was watching some old Mike Awesome matches the other day, and was just amazed to how talented he was. It's been 12 years since he made his debut in America, and I can't think of another big man that was able to do what he did. Unfortunately, Awesome is more remember for his awful gimmicks in WCW than his outstanding abilities.

For those of you who don't know, Awesome was the hottest topic in wrestling in 2000 when he signed with WCW while still the ECW champion. I don't want to get into that story, but the the basis is that Awesome claimed Heyman wasn't paying him. He made a huge impact when he attacked Kevin Nash on Nitro, and then got lost in the New Blood shuffle. He was also related to Hulk Hogan. Russo hated Hogan, but new he didn't have the power to do anything to him. Therefor, Mike Awesome took the abuse and became that 70's guy and the fat chick thriller. For those of you who don't remember, imagine if someone like Brock Lesnar had to wear bell bottoms and dance with fat girls. That should give you an idea of the way they wasted Awesome's talent in WCW.

I think Mike Awesome would have had a huge career in America if he had signed with the WWE.


By 2000 ECW was basically a farm league for the WWE. Heyman was on Vince's payrole, and the two companies traded stars when needed. If Awesome had gone to the WWE, the animosity of his "jumping ship" wouldn't have existed, and both companies could have benifited. You also have to look at what has going on with WCW and WWE at the time. WCW was attempting a "hail marry" to save itself. In addition to main event guys like Hogan, Flair, Sting, DDP, Luger, Nash, and Goldberg, it was also trying to push Jarrett, Steiner, Booker T, Vampiro, Kanyon, and Shane Douglas into the main event scene. They also brought in about 20 new guys from the power plant and pushed them all as the new faces of the company. Awesome was completely lost in this sea of talent. Regardless of his skill, their was simply no way he was going to be a major player with all of that going on. Add in the resentment that Russo held for him, and he was doomed from the start.

On the other hand, the WWE could have certainly used a guy like Awesome in 2000. While they were winning the war, they were lacking main event talent in 2000. For the better part of 2000, the WWE was without Austin and The Undertaker. Mick Foley also retired at Wrestlemania that year. They were without three of their top five or six guys. Angle, Jericho, Benoit, and Guerrero had joined the company, but they were solidly in the midcard. Awesome could have made a much larger impact in the WWE than he did in WCW.

He had the look and talent in spades. Also, he wouldn't have had to deal with the crap of having a booker that hated him like he did with Russo. I also don't think Vince would have help him back because he "wasn't a WWE creation". The fact that he was an ECW guy almost made him WWE by proxy. He also had history with the WWE. Awesome was supposed to be Kane. He tried out for the part in 97 and was offered a deal. However, he needed double knee surgery and had lots of dates he had to fill in Japan.

Had Awesome gone to the WWE instead of WCW I think he would have immediatly been pushed to the main event. Vince loves big guys, and had never had one in the company that could fly around the ring like Awesome. We would have gotten to see him in great feuds with the likes of Taker, Rock, Triple H, Angle, and Jericho. I also believe he would have gotten the world title. I think it would have been like what we saw with Lesnar, but two years sooner.

Mike Awesome did eventually make it to the WWE and was a total bust. He came in with 30 other midcarders as part of the Invasion. He got hurt a month after joining and wasn't seen on American TV again until he stole the show at One Night Stand. He claimed he hated his time in the WWE, but I think it was probably just the circumstances of the bad angle. His biggest problem was that all his credibility was destroyed in WCW. He wasn't a monster anymore, he was a guy in bell bottoms that made out with fat chicks. It really is amazing what one horrible year can do to a career.

I'll always believe that Awesome would have had an amazing career in the WWE if he had come in as a hot free agent instead of one of two dozen midcarders from a dead company. Before he passed away, he said in a shoot that the went to WCW in 2000 because they offered him a huge amount of money. Sadly, that huge paycheck cost him his American career, as well as most of his legacy. I think the story of Mike Awesome would have been very different, and much better, if he had gone to the WWE.

 

[wrestler36]

You may be right, but you may be wrong too. Maybe WWE didn't give him an offer at the time. I think he was ridiculous being a big guy that could do springboard planchas as good as a cruiserweight, but in ECW he was always booked as the monster. Compared to Taker, Kane, Big Show, Rock; he was somewhere in between. He wasn't quite the monster when you compare him with the WWE guys. I liked Awesome, but at the time, WWE had Godfather, Val, Y2J, Taker and a bunch of 'characters.' Who knows if Awesome would have fit in. He may have been relegated to the hardcore division. Personally, I could have seen him in midcard feuds with Test, Albert and some of the other guys, but not much more.

 

[rvdangelhhh]

I have to go with you. I never even saw him before he joined WCW, but he was incredibly bad ass there at first, then evil bitch Russo got ahold of him. And you are correct in that he did steal the show at One Night Stand. The dude could have been great in WWE.

 

[DeathClutch]

WCW's problem was in mid to late 2000 they tried to push EVERYONE.

I loved WCW even in it's dying days and from October 2000 to March 2001 I thought WCW's tv shows were better than WWE's, thou WWE's PPV's out classed WCW's in terms of quality but WCW's had some hidden gem matches here and there.

Awesome thou didn't have that fit, he started off good, then turned into the 70s guy who loves big chicks... come on, career killer!
At least he was saved and joined Storm in Team Canada, but Awesome was doomed to be mid-card at best, and WWE his only impact was winning the Hardcore title at MSG (Pretty big deal, if you enjoyed the Hardcore division and MSG is WWE's home arena) and invasion ppv tagging with Storm to put over the breaking up team of Christian and Edge.

I know why Mike walked out on ECW and I totally agree if he was owed A LOT of money but doing it the way he did sucked for the company and him and the stigma stuck with him into WCW and WWE and in the latter he wasn't given much of a chance.

 

[klunderbunker]

If Vince knows how to do one thing, it's how to market a guy that looks like Mike Awesome. A guy with that kind of size and power could easily have been in there with someone like Rock who had the size and athleticism to hang with Awesome. He was a guy that was a once in a generation talent and WCW made him into a character based on That 70s Show. Vince would have realized that Awesome was at least good enough to just be a bodyguard or a monster or ANYTHING BUT THAT 70s GUY! Imagine Awesome against someone like Benoit, Jericho, Rock, a motivated Undertaker etc. It could have been something very interesting but he picked WCW and started wearing polyester instead.

 

[TUFFY54]

If Vince knows how to do one thing, it's how to market a guy that looks like Mike Awesome. A guy with that kind of size and power could easily have been in there with someone like Rock who had the size and athleticism to hang with Awesome. He was a guy that was a once in a generation talent and WCW made him into a character based on That 70s Show. Vince would have realized that Awesome was at least good enough to just be a bodyguard or a monster or ANYTHING BUT THAT 70s GUY! Imagine Awesome against someone like Benoit, Jericho, Rock, a motivated Undertaker etc. It could have been something very interesting but he picked WCW and started wearing polyester instead.

Of all the bad gimmicks that are discussed on these boards, Awesome's is the one that upsets me the most. The man was simply amazing, and had is career flushed down the drain by Vince Russo. I honestly believe that Awesome is the biggest "what if" in the last 20 years.

 

[stmarks2002]

I had no idea that Awesome was originally scheduled to be Kane. He really missed out on that one due to his knee surgeries and Japan dates. The previously mentioned bouts that he could have been would have been a real sight to see. I enjoyed his matches with Masato Tanaka in ECW. The matches with Spike Dudley don't count in my opinion because Spike was never gonna be ECW champ. When he first came to WCW, he was kind of a monster and had the whole ambulance thing working then he came a gimmicked guy who clearly was in Creative's dog house. When he got to the then WWF, he came in similarly to how he did in WCW but was hurt and that was the end for him. I remember his one night stand match which was "awesome" and looked forward to seeing him in the future. He however did the unthinkable and hung himself....

 

[aman7525]

the thing that i remember most about mike awesome was that he would power bomb anyone through anything. he would power bomb his own mother through a table if given the opportunity. his matches with tanaka were so amazing, he even made spike dudley look credible. the fat chick thriller and that 70's guy were literally the reason i stopped watch wcw

 

[obamartins]

The fact remains that WWE still had Mike Awesome under contract in 2001 & they WASTED HIS TALENTS.

Based on the dirtsheet reports i have from that time period here is what happened (if i recall correctly because i can't be bothered to read through a load of newsletters from that period).....Undertaker buried Mike Awesome by saying that Awesome didn't know how to work when they worked on a house show together - he also did this to Diamond Dallas Page because heel DDP would not feed Undertaker & take flat back bumps however DDP only did this because of his age to prolong his career & he was very accustomed to doing this during his years in WCW.

It doesn't suprise me in the slightest that Mike Awesome's ring style which was amazing for a big man would not have been welcomed by WWE officals back then. No doubt alot of politics would have taken place so that Awesome didn't have chance to get over & threaten any of the top guys positions. The business has changed a hell of alot since 2001 because back then it was still a case like it had been of 50 years prior of holding on to your spot at any cost for a long as possible unlike nowadays because of the lack of talent & places for them to learn their craft the top tier talent are more then happy to help new talent get over so they actually is a business in the future.

Just for the record The Undertaker was HATED by the IWC in 2000/2001 for being fat, looking like crap & burying people.

 

[xxxdaniel_ariesxxx]

Maybe the reason that Awesome wasn't used to his full potential when he came in was, besides being just another face in the wave of talent that flooded into WWE following the closing of both WCW and ECW, he showed that he couldn't be trusted to do good business with how he left ECW.

I understand that he wasn't being paid, but there are other ways of doing business, like informing the company you work for that you are leaving and offering to drop the belt before you show up on another show. It would have been easy, "Hey, Paul, I haven't been getting paid and was offered a pretty good contract with WCW, so tonights going to be my last night, who do you need me to drop the belt to?" Also, from all the reports, he had the ECW World Championship with him at Nitro and was going to throw it in a garbage can on TV like they did with Alundra Blaze/Madusa and the WWE Womens Championship, and the only thing that stopped him from doing that was a court order and the cops showing up to retrieve the belt. Those kinds of actions probably left a bad taste in Vince McMahon's mouth after the whole Alundra Blaze/Madusa situation, as well as the Bret Hart fiasco. So I'd say the "wrong choice" that Mike Awesome made was how he left ECW, because it made him look like a person who would screw over an entire company if it benefited him, and if there is ANYTHING the McMahon respects more, that is company loyalty.

 

[dman1373]

Fact is that when he went to the wcw he was the top guy in ecw. And the perception of him by the fans wasn't helped by him having to lose the ecw championship to an wwf guy so he didn't leave with it. Fact is that he dug himself a grave when he left to wcw. That wasn't helped by his dumb gimmick. I mean that 70's guy. Well when he got to the wwe, it was hard for him to get over, because their were 40 other guys that were trying to get their chance on wwf tv forthe first time. And he didn't have the fans that rvd had, even though rvd was lower than him on the card, because he lost alot of them when he wen to wcw. And again in 2005 when he had a great match at ecw ons again he got booed. He probably would have got a contract with the wwe for wwecw if he didn't leave to wcw from ecw. Soit all stems back from that.