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Balistik Blabber: Mike Awesome!

This is the 15th “Balistik Blabber” article and in case you just joined the bandwagon, I’m your host Wrestling game, bringing wonderful and sometimes awful memories of ex-WWE stars back into the spotlight! To my regular readers, thanks again for all the support! Your suggestions for this article are always appreciated!

I promised you something “awesome” for this week’s article… and after researching the history of this guy, I am elated to say he is more than just “awesome”; he could very well be EPIC. I bring you one of the most agile heavyweights to grace the ring.

MIKE AWESOME!!

Nowadays we see a lot of “power” wrestlers doing lots of “power” moves like chokeslams, sidewalk slams and powerbombs. Unfortunately, most of them stick to just those moves causing critics to label them Joe-“5-moves”-Wrestler or something like that. Then we have Michael Lee Alfonso~

The cousin and childhood buddy of Horace Hogan, Michael and Horace were impressed at the success of Horace’s uncle Hulk Hogan during the 1980s. Before I continue, I just want to point out people don’t seem to think this 2nd degree connection makes Mike and Hulk Hogan related but oh well, you decide~ After training under Steve “Doink 2” Keirn, he started wrestling for Steve in Pro Wrestling Federation (PFW) in 1989. After that he wrestled for the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) for awhile and suddenly got a big break appearing in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) for the first time as…

A LUCHADOR!!!

As “The Pro”, he basically jobbed but that is irrelevant. The following year (1990 to those not doing their math), Mike was on his way to Japan to work for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW)!!! He used the name “The Gladiator” and began wearing face paint as part of the gimmick.

Standing 6 feet 7 inches, this guy was a sight to behold in Japan! Even more surprising, he was fast! He could run, he could jump, he would even do planchas and top rope maneuvers! It was in this fashion he made an impact in the company! It was here he would begin his monstrous feud with Japan’s rock-headed Masato Tanaka and carry it over to Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW)! Working between FMW and ECW from 1990 to 2000, he got his first major title victories. These include the “FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship” together with Rick “Big Titan” Bogner in 1993 and then the “FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship” against none other than the company’s top performer HAYABUSA in 1995!!! After the match the two warriors embraced and showed respect for one another, truly a classic match… and it is now YOUR assignment to find and watch this match on YouTube! It’ll be worth your while trust me~

Mike was forced to vacate the title due to an injury but later recaptured it in 1996. In a grand victory over W*NG Kanemura later that year he unified it with “FMW Independent Heavyweight Championship” making him a double-belt champion! The guy was ON FIRE as he added the “FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag-Team Titles” to his record the following year and thus making him a triple-belt champion!!!

Just a random story during his stay in Japan: he got in trouble with the Yakuza! To those who don’t know, the “Yakuza” is Japan’s version of the “Sicilian Mafia” or the “Chinese Triad”. It happened in one FMW show where some Yakuza were beating the crap out of his friend Sabu (!) and he made the save. This forced Mike and the rest of the foreign talent of FMW to hide out in their lockers because the other members of the Yakuza were waiting to do evil things to them in the hallway! Thankfully, FMW veteran Atsushi Onita was able to grant them safe passage out of the arena and into safety!

Soon after the fall of FMW, Mike returned to ECW (1998) for his second run, along with Masato Tanaka to continue their hellacious feud. With each man picking up the victory after every other match they had, it seemed neither man would be the clear cut winner… until that year’s “August Heat Wave” PPV where Tanaka got the win at the end of Mike’s second ECW run. It would be on his 3rd time with ECW would he earn its top prize in a slobber knocker of a 3-way dance. Fighting against Taz and Tanaka, Mike would end the bout with his signature “AWESOME BOMB” on Tanaka to become the “ECW Heavyweight Champion” in 1999! The gold keeps on pouring with the attainment of the ECW World Tag Team Titles with Raven in 2000!! It seemed like everything was going Mike’s way until that faithful April of 2000… Mike jumped ship to WCW while still the ECW champ, causing mayhem between the 2 companies! Before things got ugly with legal mumbo jumbo, a compromise was reached and Mike Awesome relinquished his title to Taz and continued on with WCW which would lead to one of his most embarrassing gimmicks ever… “The Fat Chick Thriller” and then later… “That 70’s Guy”… I’d like to skip the details but that wouldn’t make this a “fair” look into his career so instead, I’ll summarize: both these gimmicks were “so-so” compared to his “neutral character”. Thankfully, being the great wrestler he is, he still managed to put up impressive matches with these gimmicks. These matches include a grudge with Vampiro and the Insane Clown Posse. Other highlights of this time would be when he Awesome Bombed Hulk Hogan through a table (seriously, not a lot of people got to do that) and also when he threw Chris Kanyon off the first level of a three-level steel cage. Oh yeah, did I mention that “That 70’s Guy” got a talk show segment called the “Lava Lamp Lounge”? Check this one out; he looks like a certain “Shame".

After nearly a WHOLE YEAR of having these gimmicks, he finally dropped them and became “The Career Killer”. Surely you get the point just by reading those three words? It got changed to “The Canadian Career Killer” when he joined “Team Canada” with Lance Storm and Elix Skipper (I miss these guys…). Together they did great, except one time when Mike lost to Konnan in a “Hair VS Hair” match, costing him his mullet~ In 2001, WCW was finally purchased by the World Wrestling Federation (GASP! THE WORD THAT MUST NOT BE SPOKEN!!!) thus officially tying him to the biggest wrestling company of the country. He was put into the “Invasion” storyline and even got his first title, “The WWF Hardcore Title” (how befitting) when he attacked Rhyno who had just beaten Test for said belt. This was the only decent push he had until he lost the title to Jeff Hardy. Not happy with how the WWF runs things and completely livid at the intense backstage politics, he was extremely (no pun intended) overjoyed when he was fired. After the release, Mike went back to the indies, even appearing on Total Nonstop Action (TNA), and then for “Major League Wrestling” (MLW) in 2003. Here, he became MLW champion for 10 minutes after beating All Japan Pro Wrestling’s (AJPW) Satoshi Kojima. It wouldn’t be until 2 years later we would see him again facing his long-time rival Tanaka on the 1st “One Night Stand” PPV. Although Joey Styles and some of the fans seemed to hate him for his past actions, the crowd still cheered both men and gave a standing ovation to its finish: Awesome Bombing Tanaka to a table outside the ring, followed by a slingshot plancha and the pin.

In the following year of 2006, Michael Alfonso announced his retirement from professional wrestling. He wanted to be with his family and said that the only thing that would bring him back to the ring was a “decent pay”, something he claims he rarely gets. It seemed like a pretty good end to a high-octane wrestling career…

Sadly on February 17, 2007, Michael was found lifeless in his Tampa, Florida home. He was 42 years old and survived by his wife and two children. Why it had to end like this we may never know but wherever he is, I can assure you he’s still as awesome as he was when he was in the ring giving us great wrestling entertainment!

Thank you Mike… rest in peace!

Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you all on the next issue of “Balistik Blabber” to see which ex-WWE talent will be remembered!

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