d-d-d-dAz Posted January 12, 2025 Posted January 12, 2025 My abiding memory of Mike Awesome is an interview he gave to Powerslam magazine, where over the course of what I think was 3 or 4 pages he spoke mostly about his love of... erm... 'bigger' women. It was such a strange interview.
Paid Members Statto Posted January 12, 2025 Paid Members Posted January 12, 2025 That was one of the gimmicks he blasted through in his roughly 12 months on WCW TV. Career Killer > Fat Chick Thriller > That 70s Guy > Team Canada, all in under a year. I said it a few months ago (possibly even in this thread as it happens) when people were (rightly) bigging up Test, but my CAW of myself on the video games of the early 2000s was always a hybrid of Test & Mike Awesome, with a smattering of Samoa Joe, which I think it a good representation of how fond I was of him.
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted January 12, 2025 Awards Moderator Posted January 12, 2025 (edited) Is it right that it was Undertaker did for him in WWE? They brought him in quite early during the Invasion and had him win the Hardcore belt, then I think he might have got injured, but never made it past C-show level after that. Fighting Spirit magazine always claimed it was Taker’s doing but no idea of the truth of that. Edited January 12, 2025 by HarmonicGenerator I liked the big bike-riding blue lives matter idiot at the time as well
Paid Members air_raid Posted January 12, 2025 Paid Members Posted January 12, 2025 26 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said: Is it right that it was Undertaker did for him in WWE? They brought him in quite early during the Invasion and had him win the Hardcore belt, then I think he might have got injured, but never made it past C-show level after that. Fighting Spirit magazine always claimed it was Taker’s doing but no idea of the truth of that. The rumour was for ages that Taker told everyone he couldn’t work after wrestling him on house shows, and there’s some truth in there somewhere ; Taker & Kane at least worked Awesome & DDP a couple of times on the road in mid July 2001 and after him and Lance lost at Invasion it went downhill fairly conspicuously quickly. Though when they asked JR why Awesome went nowhere in the WWF on his podcast he blamed Mike having no charisma and not connecting with their audience ; long escaped from the WWE bubble I’m inclined to believe Jim would just admit Taker pulled the trigger if it had happened, he’s not held back on FAR more contentious issues after all.
The King Of Swing Posted January 12, 2025 Posted January 12, 2025 From memory Awesome was a pretty naff promo, so I could see the no chsrisma story being true. Don't know how many times I watched the Awesome/Spike Dudley PPV match. Just an absolutely fucking insane car crash of a match.
Merzbow Posted January 12, 2025 Posted January 12, 2025 Stevie Richards recently went on a huge rant about an old ECW Awesome Vs Masato match with the "no psychology" argument which it funny coming from a jobber that peaked as a lackey to Raven with next to no memorable matches. I kid a bit there but this ECW original has so many "old man yells at clouds" moments recently after joining WSI, has a proper hate on for AEW too. Sad that he's becoming another rent-a-gob like your Cornys and Bischoffs.
The King Of Swing Posted January 12, 2025 Posted January 12, 2025 5 minutes ago, Merzbow said: Sad that he's becoming another rent-a-gob like your Cornys and Bischoffs. Sadly that seems to be where the clicks are, these days. Negativity sells and not just concerning wrestling. Lately I'm more than happy to just watch the Wrestle Me guys, having a laugh about 90's wrestling and mostly block out anything modern.
Chili Posted January 12, 2025 Posted January 12, 2025 (edited) While we're at it, that WSI has some interviews with people I wouldn't have expected to watch a full two hours of and really enjoyed them. The Barbarian interview is great because he seems like the nicest fella who also happens to be terrifying. There's one with Mikey Whipwreck too that was great for a cool Curt Hennig story and my surprise and delight that Whipwreck and Bobby Heenan hit it off as mates in WCW. Edited January 12, 2025 by Chili
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 12, 2025 Paid Members Posted January 12, 2025 While we’re on the subject of “psychology”, I always used to laugh when I’d be watching an old shoot interview and there’d be some wrestler from the 80s/90s moaning about whatever the current guys at the time were doing. You could pretty much set your watch to it that Feinstein would chime in with a “it’s horrible today, it’s all high spots, no psychology”. Obviously this is far from the worst thing he’s said and done but the hypocrisy of him of all people saying that, when he’d probably filmed the interview the very same day as a ROH show which he’d booked to heavily feature the SAT or Jack Evans or whoever.
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 12, 2025 Paid Members Posted January 12, 2025 3 hours ago, air_raid said: The rumour was for ages that Taker told everyone he couldn’t work after wrestling him on house shows, and there’s some truth in there somewhere ; Taker & Kane at least worked Awesome & DDP a couple of times on the road in mid July 2001 and after him and Lance lost at Invasion it went downhill fairly conspicuously quickly. Though when they asked JR why Awesome went nowhere in the WWF on his podcast he blamed Mike having no charisma and not connecting with their audience ; long escaped from the WWE bubble I’m inclined to believe Jim would just admit Taker pulled the trigger if it had happened, he’s not held back on FAR more contentious issues after all. Shane McMahon apparently didn't like his work either, and there was a general sense that Awesome wasn't working to his size, so they stripped him of a lot of the stuff that worked for him - he wasn't allowed to do dives, they didn't like him coming off the top rope, they didn't like the Awesome Bomb. Throw all that together with the stigma of being a "WCW guy" in the Invasion, of being a big guy everywhere else but looking average in the Land of The Giants, of coming along when the top end of the roster was as bloated as if it's ever been, and of not being a great talker at a time when the WWF wasn't really giving people managers to talk for them, and it was just too much working against him. I imagine that Heyman still had it out for him too, but if they had let Mike Awesome be Mike Awesome, with someone like Heyman as his mouthpiece, that could have been a great run. I know he basically just worked in Japan after the WWF, but I'm amazed that there never seemed to be any interest from TNA.
wordsfromlee Posted January 12, 2025 Posted January 12, 2025 37 minutes ago, BomberPat said: I know he basically just worked in Japan after the WWF, but I'm amazed that there never seemed to be any interest from TNA. Didn't he have a brief stint in TNA in the middle of his post-WWF Japan run?
Chili Posted January 12, 2025 Posted January 12, 2025 14 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said: Didn't he have a brief stint in TNA in the middle of his post-WWF Japan run? He did a few shots for them. Nothing more, very TNA.
Dai Posted January 12, 2025 Posted January 12, 2025 Surely no one buried Awesome in WWE, and that all the damage was done in his disastrous WCW run. When he's entering WWE his stock is already the same as a Hugh Morris or Lance Storm, and there was never a chance of him being anywhere near the upper mid card, let alone main event. To bury someone I think there has to be the possibility of the person being considered for a top position, but it's clear from the start that he was never thought of as that guy, despite his ECW run.
NeverYield Posted January 12, 2025 Posted January 12, 2025 I personally love Mike Awesome, he was an absolute machine who had bundles going for him in the ring. Completely get why he didn't make it to the top in the big leagues, but nevertheless I think he was quality.
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted January 12, 2025 Paid Members Posted January 12, 2025 3 hours ago, Chili said: While we're at it, that WSI has some interviews with people I wouldn't have expected to watch a full two hours of and really enjoyed them. The Barbarian interview is great because he seems like the nicest fella who also happens to be terrifying. There's one with Mikey Whipwreck too that was great for a cool Curt Hennig story and my surprise and delight that Whipwreck and Bobby Heenan hit it off as mates in WCW. I find those WSI interviews unwatchable mainly because that James guy is such a bland interviewer. He has some good and interesting guests but it never feels like he gets the best out of any of them. He has no chemistry at all with Stevie Richards especially.
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