On this date in ECW history: Rest in peace, Mike Awesome

His matches with Spike Dudley looked like child abuse.

If Joey Styles could redo his commentary for that match, would he still mention hoping Awesome killed himself on the suicide dive?

All his battles in ECW with Tanaka were classics. The WCW run was horrific. Horrific.

But that Guilty as Charged match with Spike was ridiculous. It was great how Spike would get those shots in, then Mike would just destroy him. The Acid Drop to the outside where Aweome shot put him through the table, and Spike was only half on it? I laughed so damn hard. Then the guy stands on the top rope from a sitting position with Spike on ONE shoulder and powerbombs him through a table standing. Loved it.

I remember seeing him for the first time when they showed a video of him against Tanaka on ECW on TNN to hype Tanaka returning. I was like, “Wow, they should bring Mike Awesome back.” And then they did. He had a good run that ended poorly, and then it was downhill when he got to WCW and the WWF.

I heard Steve Corino say recently that he was kind of hard to work with in MLW. I forget why.

I heard that it was likely that his suicide was related to post-concussion stress syndrome, similar to how a couple football players ended up killing themselves.Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was shortly after his suicide that Tanaka stopped doing the hardcore stuff and changed his style (and body shape). That’s good, at least.

No way Joey Styles could’ve foreseen the future, but Ouch.

RIP. Him and the late, lamented Bam Bam are among my favourite heavyweights to watch. Matches like the one from One Night Stand are harder to see if they helped to mess up his head, though.

By the way, go to 10.00 and see how close the superplex comes to spearing Tanaka on that metal edge. It’s brutal.

Mike Awesome was a hell of a lot of fun to watch in the ring. I’ve seen some of those top-rope Awesome bombs through the tables in person, and holy hell, what a visual.

I was really amped up for his impending feud with RVD around Feb/March 2000, but unfortunately RVD broke his leg and Awesome left to WCW shortly thereafter.

One of the other reasons that Awesome stood out to me at the time is that he wasn’t much of a promo guy yet he was still given a huge push. ECW was running a never-ending ECW vs TNN angle that was lackluster and repetitive at times, so watching Awesome do his thing was usually the highlight of the shows for me.

He was one of the guys who made the Millionare’s Club v The New Blood somewhat watchable

Awesome was a very interesting talent. Tremendous agility for a big man. I just don’t think he was ever marketed properly. Did he ever really have a gimmick aside from being “Awesome” and rocking a mullet that put most 80’s Rock Bassist’s to shame?

“Awesome” Mike Awesome may be the laziest nickname in the history of wrestling.

The “Career Killer” phase when he was in New Blood was probably best suited for him. Certainly not the “Fat Chick Thrilla” or “That 70’s Guy”. He always seemed like a guy that most promoters didn’t know what to do with. However if you put him in the ring that’s where he did his talking.

The sight of JBL up there in the balcony with that smug look on his face turns my stomach

since the original ECW never aired in our part of the shores.

What I basically don’t get is why him (and to an extent, Tanaka) were so insistent on doing these hardcore spots when it’s obvious that they’re technically sound enough to wrestle in a one-on-one standard match. Considering what happened to him at the end of his life, it makes me hate myself that I even consider myself being “hardcore” when I was younger.

Mike clearly overestimated his worth. His arrival at WCW had fail written all over it.