Jeff Jarrett's recent induction in the WWE Hall of Fame has got me thinking about his time in WCW. One of the coolest moments was the April 10th 2000 show where WCW hit the reset switch and suddenly all these ECW guys started emerging. You had guys like Lance Storm & Chris Candido come in, Shane Douglas returned after he failed to switch over to the WWF and Mike Awesome THE guy in ECW came in looking like the lead singer of Creed. How could he not be the biggest heel in all of Pro Wrestling?

In time WCW 2000 gets completely dismissed as this irredeemable clusterfuck of a company and while there's a lot of truth to it, a lot of details get lost in the shuffle. Mike Awesome's stint being one of them where it seems like the classic tale is that he debuted, attacked Nash, became that 70s guy, Liger bombed a member of the Insane Clown Posse off a bus and that was that. It seems like time has forgotten how hard Russo initially pushed Awesome and how quickly he became one of the biggest names in the company.

So Awesome was one of the big surprises of that crazy 10th of April 2000 show and there was a ton of controversy surrounding it. Originally he was supposed to appear with the ECW Championship, but Heyman was able to put the kibosh to it and they did the deal 4 days later in Indianapolis where a WWF guy beat a WCW guy for the ECW Championship. Of all the ways they could have debuted Awesome, going after Nash wasn't the best since Nash was recuperating from an injury and by the time he'd be ready to compete, both guys would be involved in other angles. Not to mention, there's the psychological component of debuting a big guy and putting him up against an even bigger guy, it hurts their illusion.

Still, WCW thought highly of Awesome and he made his in-ring debut at Spring Stampede 2000 working against Bam Bam Bigelow. This was an enjoyable hoss match which didn't over-stay it's welcome and Awesome got to pick up an impressive victory on debut. Unfortunately, it was apart of this US Championship Tournament they were conducting, so he had to take on Big Poppa Pump later on in the show. Awesome lost the match to Steiner who would go onto win the championship, but Awesome was protected as Nash exacted his revenge from the previous Nitro.

After his decent showing, Awesome was booked as the enforcer of the New Blood and would often assist Eric Bischoff in tormenting Hulk 'FUNB' Hogan & Diamond Dallas Page. Awesome would assist Billy Kidman in beating Hogan on consecutive occasions and would often find himself partnering with Page's estranged wife Kimberly during DDP's feud with the New Blood. Defending his best friend's honour, Kanyon challenged Awesome to a match at Slamboree. On paper Kanyon vs. Awesome sounds like the type of match that would have been really good in ECW, but in WCW it was a shmozz filled with blown spots and a non-ending where Kanyon was DQ'd after the Millionaire's Club laid out Awesome. Later on in the show, Awesome would get the last laugh over Kanyon, throwing him off the top of a cage, through the ramp-way in a crazy spot. Of course given what had happened nearly a year prior, most journalists focused on how tasteless it was to do a crazy bump like this in Kansas after Owen Hart passed away. While that's a fair point, in the case of Mike Awesome, it demonstrates how highly they thought of him. To make him the focus of an entire PPV is no small potatos and the future looked bright for Awesome.

Now dubbed the 'Career Killer' Mike Awesome became a renown for working the ambulance match where you would wheel somebody to the back of an ambulance and shut the doors. It was clearly WCW's way of trying to make Awesome stand out from the pack and while it led to a lot of rubbish wrestling, it saw him share ring-time with guys like Kevin Nash, Sting, Booker T, the Steiner Bros and other top tier talent. Around this time, Awesome openly mocked Kanyon's injury, which drew the ire of Diamond Dallas Page and set up a match between the two for the Great American Bash. It was a simple premise and could have been an excellent way to start a program between the two wrestlers. Of course WCW being what it was, they had Kanyon return and betray DDP making Awesome an after-thought in the process.

With his big personal feud all but over, Awesome set his sights for Scott Steiner and his US Championship. After being protected during his initial months, Awesome was beginning to show a lot of arse and was portrayed like a mid-carder. This all came to a head at Bash at the Beach 2000 where Awesome challenged Big Poppa Pump for the US Championship. Instead of having Steiner put over Awesome, they had Steiner use the 'banned' Steiner Recliner, getting himself DQ'd and the belt vacated in the process.

On the following Nitro, Awesome would unsuccessfuly challenge Booker T in Booker's first title defence and it's around that time Awesome developed a taste for big beautiful women.

I'll pick it up later on, but I'm curious to know what everybody's thoughts were on Awesome's arrival in WCW. Should he have been a contender?

Mike Awesome is one of the best first impression wrestlers of all time. Despite the mullet, he had a great look. He had the big man movez, he had small man movez as a big man, and he could break out the best top rope powerbomb of all time anytime he wanted. The problem was what you saw on Mike Awesome's first night would be everything you would ever see from him. Even in ECW, Awesome was best served his first two runs where he came, he whipped some asses, he went back to FMW. The ECW World Title run, like all things Awesome, started out fun, but then he was a full time performer for the first time, and by the beginning of 2000 was very stale.

Awesome obviously could have been in better hands in WCW, but I just think his destiny would always be the same there. Great start, after six months you're not sure what to do with him anymore. Maybe nowadays you could harken back to "an attraction" like WWE does with Brock, but 2000 was the Monday Night Wars, man. You got to show up (at least) twice a week for TV.

I love the idea of Awesome getting a better push in WCW, and WCW would have been better short term, for sure, but I'm not sure how it all works long term. Even if he's beating Big Poppa Pump instead of losing to him, what's next? He can't cut promos. Do you give him a mouthpiece? Who in 2000? Do you Goldberg him and have him beat everybody? They did that with Sid the previous year, and of course, Goldberg the year before that. I just don't know how to book Awesome on top of a major promotion in 2000.

Interesting topic, great post in the op Big Pete read that today on my lunch break.

For me it was part of a trend that WCW and WWF would do whenever they would pick up an ECW act, they would always miss one of the big pieces, hiring the Dudley Boys but not Joel Gertner, hiring Lance Storm and not Dawn Marie, hiring Mike Awesome and not Masato Tanaka, half the fucking act. They should have brought that whole thing to WCW, Masato Tanaka vs Mike Awesome.

Feb 27, 2018 23:55:32 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Interesting topic, great post in the op Big Pete read that today on my lunch break.

For me it was part of a trend that WCW and WWF would do whenever they would pick up an ECW act, they would always miss one of the big pieces, hiring the Dudley Boys but not Joel Gertner, hiring Lance Storm and not Dawn Marie, hiring Mike Awesome and not Masato Tanaka, half the fucking act. They should have brought that whole thing to WCW, Masato Tanaka vs Mike Awesome.

What if Awesome and Tanaka made the WCW Hardcore Championship feel like a real title as Awesome emerges as the Ace of the division? You would only need Tanaka for eight weeks, so he could go back to FMW. Awesome then looks unstoppable powerbombing motherfuckers through tables and can be built a specialty match sensation. He could be a victim for a World Championship defense with the narrative being, "Awesome would win in a Hardcore match!"

He'd still need a mouthpiece, though. 

I had a plan in my WCW rebook that I think would only work on paper and not reality, but it was a Goldberg heel turn in 2000 with Bobby Heenan as basically the Paul E. for Brock. Heenan would rebuild The Family around Goldy and Awesome would be the Enforcer. Heenan would have never agreed to manage again in real life, but I just had fun picturing him introducing "DA MAN" as he talked shit about how much Goldberg was about to seriously hurt somebody. 

EDIT: I had a photoshop called "Heenan Family 2000" in a "Rebook" folder.

SPOILER: Click to show

Feb 28, 2018 0:17:48 GMT Kilgore said:

Feb 27, 2018 23:55:32 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Interesting topic, great post in the op Big Pete read that today on my lunch break.

For me it was part of a trend that WCW and WWF would do whenever they would pick up an ECW act, they would always miss one of the big pieces, hiring the Dudley Boys but not Joel Gertner, hiring Lance Storm and not Dawn Marie, hiring Mike Awesome and not Masato Tanaka, half the fucking act. They should have brought that whole thing to WCW, Masato Tanaka vs Mike Awesome.

What if Awesome and Tanaka made the WCW Hardcore Championship feel like a real title as Awesome emerges as the Ace of the division? You would only need Tanaka for eight weeks, so he could go back to FMW. Awesome then looks unstoppable powerbombing motherfuckers through tables and can be built a specialty match sensation. He could be a victim for a World Championship defense with the narrative being, "Awesome would win in a Hardcore match!"

He'd still need a mouthpiece, though. 

I had a plan in my WCW rebook that I think would only work on paper and not reality, but it was a Goldberg heel turn in 2000 with Bobby Heenan as basically the Paul E. for Brock. Heenan would rebuild The Family around Goldy and Awesome would be the Enforcer. Heenan would have never agreed to manage again in real life, but I just had fun picturing him introducing "DA MAN" as he talked shit about how much Goldberg was about to seriously hurt somebody. 

EDIT: I had a photoshop called "Heenan Family 2000" in a "Rebook" folder.

SPOILER: Click to show

Fucking. LOVE.

Feb 28, 2018 0:17:48 GMT Kilgore said:

Feb 27, 2018 23:55:32 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Interesting topic, great post in the op Big Pete read that today on my lunch break.

For me it was part of a trend that WCW and WWF would do whenever they would pick up an ECW act, they would always miss one of the big pieces, hiring the Dudley Boys but not Joel Gertner, hiring Lance Storm and not Dawn Marie, hiring Mike Awesome and not Masato Tanaka, half the fucking act. They should have brought that whole thing to WCW, Masato Tanaka vs Mike Awesome.

What if Awesome and Tanaka made the WCW Hardcore Championship feel like a real title as Awesome emerges as the Ace of the division? You would only need Tanaka for eight weeks, so he could go back to FMW. Awesome then looks unstoppable powerbombing motherfuckers through tables and can be built a specialty match sensation. He could be a victim for a World Championship defense with the narrative being, "Awesome would win in a Hardcore match!"

He'd still need a mouthpiece, though. 

I had a plan in my WCW rebook that I think would only work on paper and not reality, but it was a Goldberg heel turn in 2000 with Bobby Heenan as basically the Paul E. for Brock. Heenan would rebuild The Family around Goldy and Awesome would be the Enforcer. Heenan would have never agreed to manage again in real life, but I just had fun picturing him introducing "DA MAN" as he talked shit about how much Goldberg was about to seriously hurt somebody. 

EDIT: I had a photoshop called "Heenan Family 2000" in a "Rebook" folder.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

Feb 27, 2018 19:16:19 GMT Kilgore said:

Mike Awesome is one of the best first impression wrestlers of all time. Despite the mullet, he had a great look. He had the big man movez, he had small man movez as a big man, and he could break out the best top rope powerbomb of all time anytime he wanted. The problem was what you saw on Mike Awesome's first night would be everything you would ever see from him. Even in ECW, Awesome was best served his first two runs where he came, he whipped some asses, he went back to FMW. The ECW World Title run, like all things Awesome, started out fun, but then he was a full time performer for the first time, and by the beginning of 2000 was very stale.

Can confirm. I only caught the latter half of Heatwave 98 at my cousin's when it initially aired so my first Awesome experience was Anarchy Rulz 99. In fact, I'm fairly certain I ordered Heatwave 98 days (hours?) after Anarchy Rulz mainly for the semi-mythical Awesome/Tanaka match. Anyway, I was sold on the new ECW Champ. No small feat considering Awesome is replacing TAZ! Only a Herculean* performance could have won me over and, well, Awesome delivered a Herculean performance.

*Referring of course to the mythical Hercules. Not 80s & 90s WWF midcarder Hercules, who peaked at merely "alright." 

By the October '99 ECW Arena show (vs. a returning Mikey) I was already decidedly meh on Awesome. By the November '99 ECW show (vs. Credible, ugh) I desperately wanted a new long term ECW champ (RVD! or at least Sabu). It was barely two months since his big breakout match at Anarchy Rulz.

To add to what Kilgore said, his lack of personality killed him for me far more than his one dimensional wrestling style. I mean it's 1999. Cool moves are still cool moves. But what was Awesome's deal? He was a big shouty guy with dumb hair....who had the entire locker room come out to watch him battle Tanaka.....and kicked ass to big pops like Goldberg or babyface Sid....yet also hung around with a dorky Judge whose greatest claim to fame was making me think maybe Harvey Whipplelman wasn't THAT bad after all? Awesome's whole booking/presentation sucked. I was never sure whether he was supposed to be a good guy or a bad guy. I'm not even trying to be sarcastic or deliberately obtuse. For months I was legitimately confused by his alignment.

To get back to Pete's original topic (kind of ), to say I haven't seen much of Awesome's WCW run would be an understatement, but when he came to WWF during the Invasion I was amazed at how....not big he seemed. He was basically Billy Gunn sized. Didn't stand out at all in the land of the giants. Did he have this problem in 2000 WCW? I imagine he would. And while we mock the mullet, at least it gave him a hook. Short-haired, average sized WWE Awesome was destined for failure. He stood out in ECW because he was 6 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than everyone. And those little guys were booked to die for him. That was his whole thing. Without that luxury, he didn't have much else to fall back on. I guess the best case scenario would have been for WCW to establish Awesome by booking him as a cruiserweight killer for 2-3 months and go from there.

Mar 1, 2018 1:34:41 GMT Baker said:

To get back to Pete's original topic (kind of ), to say I haven't seen much of Awesome's WCW run would be an understatement, but when he came to WWF during the Invasion I was amazed at how....not big he seemed. He was basically Billy Gunn sized. Didn't stand out at all in the land of the giants. Did he have this problem in 2000 WCW? I imagine he would.

This was a bit of a problem. His first program was against Nash, who obviously dwarfed him. Nash has actually in the past brought this up in Mike's defense of the terrible booking he got. Essentially, "You begin by putting a 'Big Guy' against an even bigger guy and he's never really seen as big."

It seemed like Russo forgot Nash was 6'10 and saw him as an injured superstar. Nash had suffered an ankle injury in the interim so the heat was that Awesome had blindsided a former World Champion while he was on crutches.

One of the most intriguing discovers I came across was that Nash-Awesome never really had an official program. Nash got his revenge against Awesome at the PPV, costing him the match against Steiner. Outside of a match on Nitro where Nash nearly killed Awesome with a Jacknife from the ramp to the floor, they were never in an official program together. Instead they put him with DDP, which could have been a great angle, but only served as the catalyst behind the Kanyon/DDP program which was money.

It was the 'out of nowhere' meme 15 years before it blew up on the internet. Unfortunately for Awesome, it meant he had to find a new dance partner.

Picking this right back up.

So one detail I forgot to mention is that heel comissioner Ernest Miller had awarded Mike Awesome the US Championship after what went down at Bash at the Beach. Awesome turned Miller down, saying he wanted to earn it which turned out to be his babyface turn. So the following week on Nitro they hosted an eight man tournament which saw Awesome defeat Kanyon & the Great Muta only to lose to Lance Storm in a good TV match. From that point on, Awesome is constantly looking out for Booker T and hanging out with his large lady friend Heidi in lieu of his US Championship rematch at New Blood Rising. Of course Heidi turned heel on Awesome, but what was strange was that they couldn't even wait until the PPV. On the go-home edition of Thunder, the Cat ordered a preview of things to come by having Lance Storm face off against Mike Awesome in a flag match, which Heidi helped Lance win.

I suppose that was because the PPV match itself had enough smoke and mirrors as it was. It was Lance Storm vs. Mike Awesome with Jacques Rougeau as special guest referee. So Awesome won clean on several occassions, but Rougeau would move the goal-posts and declare that in Canada you had to win in a specific way. In the end, I believe it turned out to be a Texas Death match rules, which Rougeau helped Lance retain. In a round-a-bout way, this was another way to protect Awesome on PPV and get Lance's Canadian heel shtick over. On the other Awesome had been punked out on all but one of the PPV shows.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and we've got this new heel stable consisting of Nash, Big Poppa Pump and Jeff Jarrett. The heels are calling all the babyfaces out with Nash wanting a piece of Booker, BPP wanting Goldberg and Double J wants Awesome in an FMW dream match. By this point Awesome has completely dropped the Fat Chick Thriller gimmick and is plain ol' Mike Awesome before they decide to give him his own Talk Show: the Lava Lamp Lounge. The show debuted on the September 6th 2000 episode of Thunder and was fine. Awesome was interviewing Pamela Pamshock when Jarrett disrupted the segment and blasted Pamela with the guitar. This was the beginning of his 'That 70s Guy' run which seemed to be inspired by his mullet. The Lava Lamp Lounge would end up becoming this weekly Thunder segment where Awesome would invite a woman out and something would happen which would see the set get destroyed. Awesome would then be thankful that something from the set survived.

It was a silly gimmick, but things got crazy at Fall Brawl 2000 when Awesome revealed he had a special guest: Gary Coleman. Coleman proved to be a difference maker in his match against Jarrett, helping Awesome out to beat Double J. As impressive as the win should have been for Mike, the ridiculousness of having Gary Coleman out there as well as Sting's interference did absolutely nothing for him.

Leading up to Halloween Havoc, Awesome finds himself in the middle of two different angles. He has his own personal beef with the Dark Carnival (Vampiro & ICP) who keep messing with his bus, and he's also formed a solid tag team with Crowbar. The Dark Carnival feud is infamous for one spot where Awesome nailed Shaggy 2 Dope with an Awesomebomb on his bus, which caused Shaggy to slide off the roof all the way to the pavement. It was a nasty spot and they really could have capitilised on it, instead they put Crowbar/Awesome together and let them work together. Then strangely enough at the PPV, they return to Vampiro/Awesome and the two have another enjoyable hardcore match.

Awesome has another brief fling in the main event, challenging Big Poppa Pump & Booker T to television main event matches but falls short. Then WCW hosts a Lethal Lottery tournament for the sake of it and have Awesome team with Bam Bam. Awesome loses to Big Poppa Pump again, which causes Bam Bam to turn on his partner leading to a program at Mayhem. Unfortunately Awesome suffered a shoulder injury in the lead up to the match and he's written off the show by having Bam Bam lay him out backstage.

Awesome returns a couple of weeks later, challenges Bam Bam to an Ambulance match at Starrcade where he promises to bring back the career killer. The match itself was nothing special, but Awesome got another clean victory on PPV. Instead of going with it, Awesome loses to Jarrett on Nitro and ends up turning heel and joining Team Canada. They enter a feud with The Filthy Animals & Hacksaw Jim Duggan which leads to this convuluted tag match at WCW Sin 2001, where Hacksaw is in a penalty box and there's all sorts of nonsense going on. Team Canada wins, and Awesome is off to decent start.

Then on the following Nitro they make the odd decision to have a hair vs. hair match and have Awesome lose the mullet on TV. I guess they wanted people to actually see it given the PPVs weren't selling. On paper it's odd to see Konnan take on Awesome given Konnan is a cueball, but it was Kidman's hair that was on the line, so it wasn't some Teddy Long nonsense.

Then Awesome just becomes caught up in whatever Lance Storm is doing. Storm had a running battle with the Cat during that time, so Awesome would challenge and beat the comissioner. Or another time they'd face off against the Natural Born Thrillers and Awesome would take the pin. There wasn't a lot going on near the death of WCW and it was telling at Superbrawl 2001 when Awesome wasn't even on the card. He did actually appear on the show though in a nice swerve where he dressed up as an injured Bryan Clarke and interfered in the Bryan Adams vs. Totally Buff match. It was kind of random, but I guess it marked Awesome's transition into the tag team scene.

From that point forward, Awesome & Storm teamed a lot. They went over Hugh Morrus/Konnan on the final PPV and got a non-title win over the Natural Born Thrillers before Vince bought the company. Judging by his last few months, the new booking committee didn't know what to do with him, so they just threw him in with another ECW guy and into a division nobody really cares about. While the Russo stuff was out there, you could make the argument he was the #2 babyface with Russo in charge, usually supporting the champion in a pinch.

So that's a lot of reading right there, we basically went through an entire year in two posts. However, since WCW 2000 was such a tumalteous time with so much happening and so many reasons not to watch it, I thought it was important to remember what was happening. Honestly, I had completely forgotten portions of his career including his rivalry with Jarrett, the run with DDP, the return feud with Bam Bam and the talk show. While the latter may have been a dud, I could understand what Vince was trying to do. By giving him all these crazy gimmicks, he was trying to give him more traits for the fans to connect with. Even though they didn't work, it wasn't the end of the world and if anything gave the character more longevity. You can easily just make him Mike Awesome, have him win a bunch of matches, but there's always cute quirks or past history there you can always play off of. Awesome went through four different gimmicks through out his run, so that's a lot of development for a 2-D hoss guy.

When he first showed up I was excited because of watching his run in WCW. But after awhile I was disappointed because I felt they could've did more with him.