Mike Awesome makes his return to the Northeast independents on April 24 when he represents Monsta Mack and challenges "The Assassin" Dan Maff for the Jersey All-Pro Wrestling (JAPW) Title.

One of the most celebrated wrestlers in Japan, and one of the most underrated big men in the United States, Mike Awesome became committed in making professional wrestling his choice of vocation in 1988 when he met up with Steve Keirn, formerly Skinner in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). For someone that was cut from his high school football team, Awesome improved his physique and decided to enter the wrestling world.

Awesome's cousin is he nephew of Hulk Hogan, Horace Boulder. Although they are cousins, Awesome is NOT related to Hogan. After advice from the legend, both men decided to pursue a career in wrestling. Boulder decided to enroll in another school, while Awesome checked out Keirn’s school in Florida. It was there that Awesome learned the basics of the mat wars.

On February 26, 1989, Awesome was ready for his first match. He teamed with Bart Sawyer and jobbed to the team called The Star Riders in Orlando, FL in the Pro Wrestling Federation (PWF). Awesome moved around the Southeastern independents before Keirn made the call to Jerry Jarrett, who ran the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) and now runs the National Wrestling Alliance: Total Nonstop Action (NWA:TNA), and Jarrett brought Awesome in. Awesome's stint in the territory was brief, but he did managed did wrestle USAW champion Jerry "The King" Lawler several times for the title while being managed by Nate the Rat.

Once there was nothing more for him to do in the USWA, Awesome ventured by to the Florida independents. He did catch the eye of several World Championship Wrestling (WCW) scouts and was brought in to work some television squash matches. He was even involved in a TV match against The Steiner Bros. in 1990 at the Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, GA.

Awesome was contacted to work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in Japan in late 1990, which was run by Atsushi Onita. Awesome competed as The Gladiator, which was supposed to be the name for Al Greene, who has competed as in WCW as Blade of the Master Blasters with Kevin Nash. But Greene opted to compete for WCW, so Awesome got the gimmick. He traveled with Horace Boulder and Jim Backlund, who would later go on to compete as Heavenly Body Jimmy Del Ray, for shows between September 20 to October 1, 1990.

Awesome was slowly becoming a man that was destroying competition left and right, and at the same time becoming an impressive high-flyer. In a little known fact, Chris Jericho and Lance Storm toured FMW in their first visit to Japan in from October 10 to 24, 1991. On that tour, the duo upset the team of Gladiator and Boulder when Jericho rolled up Gladiator for the upset victory on October 24 at the Yoshikawa Town Gym in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

The Gladiator made a brief return to the United States in 1993 for Eastern Championship Wrestling, which would later be renamed to Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). The Gladiator was known again as Mike Awesome. Awesome's first stint in ECW had one highlight, where he "damn near broke the back of JT Smith" at the ECW Arena at The Night the Line Was Crossed. After this, Awesome returned to FMW as The Gladiator in late 1993.

He finally struck gold in 1994 when he teamed with Big Titan, who was the fake Razor Ramon in WWE in 1996, to defeat Atushi Onita & Katsutoshi Niyama in the finals of the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Title Tournament. The reign lasted three months and they dropped the belts to Mr. Pogo & Hisakatsu Ooya.

Awesome had a second taste of the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles when he teamed with his former nemesis Mr. Pogo to defeat the team of Atsushi Onita & Mr. Gannosuke. This reign lasted longer than three months for Gladiator, and the duo would lose the belts in February 1995.

In September 1995, The Gladiator finally won his first major singles title. He defeated Hayabusa for the vacant FMW World Brass Knuckles title. Gladiator's reign lasted five months when he suffered several injuries and was forced to vacate. He returned with a vengeance soon after and defeated Super Leather in May 1996 to regain the FMW World Brass Knuckles title. His second reign would last well over a year.

The Gladiator had the Midas touch and wanted to add more gold to his collection. In December 1996, The Gladiator defeated W*ING Kanemura for the FMW Independent World Title. For a brief time in August 1997, Awesome added a third title to his collection when he teamed with Hisakatsu Ooya & Mr. Gannosuke to win the vacated FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Titles over Hiromichi Fuyuki, Gedo & Jado in the finals of a tournament. The Gladiator ended up losing ALL his titles in his epic feud with his most hated rival Masato Tanaka in September 1997.

For another brief time in 1997, Awesome ventured back to ECW for just a few shows. Awesome has always been a favorite of ECW owner Paul Heyman, and Heyman wanted Awesome on his roster. This time, Awesome was brought in as an enforcer for Shane Douglas and The Triple Threat. In one TV appearance, Awesome was on the receiving end of the late "Ravishing" Rick Rude's "Rude Awakening."

In an effort to put over ECW newcomer Masato Tanaka, Heyman for a third time enlisted the services of Awesome. They brought their intense rivalry to the United States, and the matches made for some great television. Awesome was initially brought in for just a few matches, but Heyman kept him a little while longer, and even booked them to face off against each other in their United States pay-per-view debut at Heat Wave 1998.

Once Awesome put over Tanaka, he went back to FMW. Shortly thereafter, The Gladiator suffered a major setback in his career as he tore his ACL in a match against Super Leather. After spending a year on the sidelines recovering from major reconstructive surgery, Awesome wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling, but found himself with no push. He quickly left All Japan.

Heyman, ever the opportunist, called Awesome back for another run in ECW. This time, Awesome wasn't going to be used as Tanaka's whipping boy. As a last second entrant into the ECW Title match, Awesome defeated ECW champion Taz and Masato Tanaka for the ECW Title on September 19, 1999 at Anarchy Rulz. The era of Awesomeness had begun in ECW.

Awesome feuded with Tanaka over the title for the next several months. In another impromptu match, Awesome lost the title to Tanaka on December 17, 1999 in Nashville, TN. Awesome regained it on December 23 in ECW's only show in White Plains, NY, the backyard of Heyman. Awesome brought his Midas touch to ECW and teamed with Raven to defeat Tanaka and Tommy Dreamer for the ECW Tag Team titles in March 2000. They lost the tag titles a week later to The Impact Players, Lance Storm & Justin Credible, in a 3 Way Dance, which also included Tanaka and Dreamer.

Awesome remained ECW champion, but that didn't stop him from looking for work elsewhere. In a huge coup, Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff were able to sign away the ECW champion to bring him back to WCW. On the first Nitro of the Russo & Bischoff Regime, Awesome debuted, as the ECW champion, laying out Kevin Nash. Heyman filed a court order for Awesome to return for one more night in ECW so he could lose the belt. The contracted WCW wrestler would lose the ECW Title to WWE contracted wrestler Tazz on April 13, 2000 in Indianapolis, ID in a historic match.

Awesome was running through the WCW competition, representing The New Blood. In one of his first WCW pay-per-view appearances at Slamboree 2000, Awesome threw Kanyon off the top of the triple cage at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo, the site of Owen Hart's death. I guess it was WCW's way to shock audiences.

Because he throw his friend off the cage and hospitalized him, Diamond Dallas Page sought revenge. He had a brief feud with DDP before being shoved to the side for a DDP/Kanyon feud.

The WCW brain trust felt Awesome needed to change his gimmick. They felt it was time to embarrass the "Career Killer." "That 70s Show" is one of the more popular shows on the Fox network. So WCW saddled Awesome with that gimmick and he was now known as "That 70s Guy" Mike Awesome. He wore throwback leisure suits, had his own talk show segment called "The Lava Lamp Lounge," and even drove a bus that resembled the one driven by The Partridge Family. If that wasn't enough, he had an infatuation, for lack of a better term, of larger women.

This gimmick resulted in a feud with Jeff Jarrett, who wasn't thrilled with "The Fat Chick Thriller." The two battled it out at Fall Brawl 2000. Awesome was accompanied to the ring that night by none other than Gary Coleman, who was Arnold Jackson on "Diff'rent Strokes" and would-be Governor of California. Awesome scored the victory when Coleman took a guitar shot and several members of The Buffalo Bills distracted Jarrett.

After this lame gimmick ran its course, Awesome became a killer again in 2001. He turned heel and joined Lance Storm's Team Canada faction, which also had Elix Skipper. Team Canada feuded with The Filthy Animals, which resulted in a Hair vs. Hair match against Billy Kidman, but due to getting jumped earlier in the evening, he was replaced by the bald Konnan. The match still took place, and Konnan won. The result: Awesome's mullet was extinct.

In March of 2001, WWE bought out WCW, as well as the contracts of 24 wrestlers. Awesome was one of them. During the WCW invasion, which took place in June 2001, Awesome became the first "contracted" WCW wrestler to enter Madison Square Garden and he defeated Rhyno for the WWE Hardcore Title. War had been declared, and Awesome fired the first shot.

Awesome was involved in another twist in the WCW invasion. The following week, Awesome teamed with Lance Storm to face Kane and Chris Jericho. Tommy Dreamer and Rob Van Dam made their debuts attacking Kane and Jericho. A number of WWE wrestlers ran in to make the save, only to turn on Kane and Jericho as it was a swerve to resurrect ECW. ECW was now a part of the invasion.

Soon after the invasion, Awesome was lost in the shuffle. He suffered another knee injury and creative had nothing for him, so he was released. Awesome went back to Japan to work some tours there, and found himself working for World Wrestling Council (WWC) in Puerto Rico. He even made several appearances for NWA:TNA, but didn't last long there either.

Awesome began working for the upstart Major League Wrestling (MLW) and defeated Jerry Lynn on December 20, 2002 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL in his MLW debut. He even renewed his rivalry with Masato Tanaka in MLW and defeated him on May 9, 2003 in a #1 Contenders Match. Awesome added more gold to his resume on June 20 when he defeated Satoshi Kojima for the MLW Title in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The reign lasted just minutes as he accepted the challenge of Steve Corino and lost to him after two super kicks. He received a rematch the next month, and jobbed again.

Awesome goes for more gold on April 24. Dan Maff has a huge test ahead of him. Awesome has been a veteran of the mat wars for 15 years. He brings experience and a world of knowledge to the match against Maff, who has not encountered a match of this magnitude in his short tenure as a singles star. For more information on this huge match, as well as information on the rest of the show, check out http://www.japw.net/

John Gjoni
johnftw7533@aol.com

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