Johnny Flamingo
Hank Scorpio
Killing the business one post at a time
Posts: 6,506
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Post by Johnny Flamingo on May 2, 2018 23:06:28 GMT -5
It was touched upon earlier but I think the way he left ECW really hurt him. With many of the guys who left ECW for WCW/WWF while the hardcore fans were upset, they wanted them to succeed and usually would "pop" for them at live show.
With Mike Awesome it felt like many of the hardcore fans were hoping he would fail due to how he left ECW. Due to pay issues with ECW I can't blame him for leaving and I put majority of the on Paul Heyman for getting himself in that situation. Sadly, during that era, Paul Heyman had us drinking the kool-aid and naturally Mike Awesome came out looking much worse than he probably deserved.
Tremendous talent that definitely had the skills to do more than he did in the US wrestling scene. I loved his work in FMW. Definitely worth tracking down if you haven't seen it.
Also, really good article.
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Post by willywonka666 on May 3, 2018 13:21:26 GMT -5
He was never the same without the mullet
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2018 14:07:01 GMT -5
I was never a big Mike Awesome fan. He had some brutal matches with Tanaka, but outside of that I found him really dull. Terrible look(IMO), not much charisma, and not much of a promo. Hard pass for me,
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Ben Wyatt
Crow T. Robot
Are You Gonna Go My Way?
I don't get it. At all. It's kind of a small horse, I mean what am I missing? Am I crazy?
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Post by Ben Wyatt on May 3, 2018 14:33:34 GMT -5
Mike Awesome was like Tazz, he looked like a beast because Heyman was prepared to feed an endless string of guys to him to get him there, but without that he was quickly found out. In WCW, Awesome was surrounded by people just as big, just as athletic as he is, and nowhere near as banged up as they didn't spend years in FMW or ECW, working a dangerous style. If he were good on the mic, he would have found a niche, but he wasn't, he was okay at best so he ended up getting a Russo gimmick to avoid being lost in the shuffle. Bingo. Without Heyman's ability to hide weakness/play up strength, he never had a shot elsewhere. WCW never knew what to do with him because they had several guys on the roster that could do what he did, only much better
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Post by Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster on May 4, 2018 2:27:30 GMT -5
Outside of his stint in WCW and a few of his ECW matches I hadn't seen much of his work while he was alive.
But after his death I became checked out what he did in Japan and holy shit I'm amazed he never killed or crippled anyone.
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Post by Viking Hall on May 4, 2018 7:47:08 GMT -5
He actually did get a WWF tryout in '96 against Aldo Montoya. Awesome claimed they were interested but worried about a knee injury he was nursing at the time and since he was earning well in Japan he never followed up on it once it was fixed. Take from that what you will.
Personally I've always thought a slightly more 'sterilised' Awesome could have worked in a mainstream promotion just because even without the hardcore spots he had a unique enough in-ring style to stand out. Big guys like Bam Bam and Vader got over doing less than what Awesome did so I see no reason why Awesome couldn't either. He would have made a nice alternative to the lumbering big men of the mid-nineties that we did get.
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Post by thegame415 on May 4, 2018 11:31:07 GMT -5
He, like a lot of other guys, was great in ECW, but couldn't work in WCW/WWF. It's not a knock on him, it's just that some acts hit the ECW audience more.
It's just like how some movies don't reach a mass audience. There's Avengers, and there's smaller films.
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Post by carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) on May 4, 2018 11:40:15 GMT -5
I can trace the logic behind most wrestling gimmicks, even the weirdest ones. However, I am completely and utterly baffled by whatever thought process went into "The Fat Chick Thriller."
Was it an inside joke? Was it based on some twisted dream someone had? Why was this on TV?
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Post by chronocross on May 4, 2018 12:04:45 GMT -5
I remember when he injured Booker.T on WCW Thunder in 2000 with his running powerbomb and Stevie Ray confronted him backstage about it, I liked his series with Tanaka but outside of that he was just another big guy when he came to WCW.
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Post by tankisfreemason on May 4, 2018 13:06:42 GMT -5
Mike Awesome in ECW worked because there really weren’t too many, of any at all, big men the size of him that was had legitimate main event level look. Put him in the worlds of WCW and WWE, where he wasn’t the biggest or had the most main event level loom. Basically, he stood out in ECW, as opposed to the others. What I was always curious about was did he straight up take Sid’s place in ECW? Like was Sid originally going to win the title in that triple threat?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2018 14:17:56 GMT -5
I can trace the logic behind most wrestling gimmicks, even the weirdest ones. However, I am completely and utterly baffled by whatever thought process went into "The Fat Chick Thriller." Was it an inside joke? Was it based on some twisted dream someone had? Why was this on TV? It was Vince Russo who thought that he was a vanilla midget and needed a compelling character, plus the idea of people beating up fat women was entertaining in his mind. Seriously, Awesome, Mark Madden, and that hefty woman made an unbearable tandem during an awesome Booker T vs. Lance Storm match.
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Post by carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) on May 4, 2018 21:48:13 GMT -5
I can trace the logic behind most wrestling gimmicks, even the weirdest ones. However, I am completely and utterly baffled by whatever thought process went into "The Fat Chick Thriller." Was it an inside joke? Was it based on some twisted dream someone had? Why was this on TV? It was Vince Russo who thought that he was a vanilla midget and needed a compelling character, plus the idea of people beating up fat women was entertaining in his mind. Seriously, Awesome, Mark Madden, and that hefty woman made an unbearable tandem during an awesome Booker T vs. Lance Storm match. No, I get that Russo wanted to give people gimmicks. I even get the 70s throwback character! I just can see absolutely no way in which any human being finds The Fat Chick Thriller entertaining. I can't imagine any way it could be MEANT to be entertaining.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2018 22:21:45 GMT -5
It was Vince Russo who thought that he was a vanilla midget and needed a compelling character, plus the idea of people beating up fat women was entertaining in his mind. Seriously, Awesome, Mark Madden, and that hefty woman made an unbearable tandem during an awesome Booker T vs. Lance Storm match. No, I get that Russo wanted to give people gimmicks. I even get the 70s throwback character! I just can see absolutely no way in which any human being finds The Fat Chick Thriller entertaining. I can't imagine any way it could be MEANT to be entertaining. Like I said, Fat Chick Thriller was something that Russo thought was funny. And that's why it happened.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on May 4, 2018 23:06:37 GMT -5
No, I get that Russo wanted to give people gimmicks. I even get the 70s throwback character! I just can see absolutely no way in which any human being finds The Fat Chick Thriller entertaining. I can't imagine any way it could be MEANT to be entertaining. Like I said, Fat Chick Thriller was something that Russo thought was funny. And that's why it happened. Pretty much. Russo didn't care if a gimmick didn't make sense or could translate into the ring or could make anyone ever possibly pay a dollar to see it. He thought the idea was funny and with no one to tell him no in WCW it went to air. Like I say when people mention Russo always gave the midcarders gimmicks! they ignore that more than half of them were things like this or Shane Douglas has ED that are career killers
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Post by BME on May 5, 2018 3:16:50 GMT -5
Pretty sure RVD ending Awesome's title reign would have gotten the biggest pop in ECW history if the latter didn't jump to WCW.
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Post by Tea & Crumpets on May 5, 2018 4:11:43 GMT -5
He actually did get a WWF tryout in '96 against Aldo Montoya. Awesome claimed they were interested but worried about a knee injury he was nursing at the time and since he was earning well in Japan he never followed up on it once it was fixed. Take from that what you will. Personally I've always thought a slightly more 'sterilised' Awesome could have worked in a mainstream promotion just because even without the hardcore spots he had a unique enough in-ring style to stand out. Big guys like Bam Bam and Vader got over doing less than what Awesome did so I see no reason why Awesome couldn't either. He would have made a nice alternative to the lumbering big men of the mid-nineties that we did get. Agreed. Tone down on the sloppy "throw them and hope for the best" powerbombs, focus more on his insane athleticism (this is a dude who was doing springboard planchas into the crowd and stuff) and he gets over as this freakshow athlete who is quick and strong. Just needs a mouthpiece and you have a 90s Brock Lesnar. He was stiff and unsafe in his style, but he could definitely have worked other styles due to his athletic ability. But nobody really capitalised.
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Post by David-Arquette was in WCW 2000 on May 5, 2018 7:34:37 GMT -5
He actually did get a WWF tryout in '96 against Aldo Montoya. Awesome claimed they were interested but worried about a knee injury he was nursing at the time and since he was earning well in Japan he never followed up on it once it was fixed. Take from that what you will. Personally I've always thought a slightly more 'sterilised' Awesome could have worked in a mainstream promotion just because even without the hardcore spots he had a unique enough in-ring style to stand out. Big guys like Bam Bam and Vader got over doing less than what Awesome did so I see no reason why Awesome couldn't either. He would have made a nice alternative to the lumbering big men of the mid-nineties that we did get. Agreed. Tone down on the sloppy "throw them and hope for the best" powerbombs, focus more on his insane athleticism (this is a dude who was doing springboard planchas into the crowd and stuff) and he gets over as this freakshow athlete who is quick and strong. Just needs a mouthpiece and you have a 90s Brock Lesnar. He was stiff and unsafe in his style, but he could definitely have worked other styles due to his athletic ability. But nobody really capitalised. Watching some of his WWE matches, he was definitely safer but was working more of the 'WWE style' and so a lot of what made him notable in Japan and ECW was lost.
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Post by Viking Hall on May 5, 2018 8:06:09 GMT -5
Agreed. Tone down on the sloppy "throw them and hope for the best" powerbombs, focus more on his insane athleticism (this is a dude who was doing springboard planchas into the crowd and stuff) and he gets over as this freakshow athlete who is quick and strong. Just needs a mouthpiece and you have a 90s Brock Lesnar. He was stiff and unsafe in his style, but he could definitely have worked other styles due to his athletic ability. But nobody really capitalised. Watching some of his WWE matches, he was definitely safer but was working more of the 'WWE style' and so a lot of what made him notable in Japan and ECW was lost. You've got to consider that by then though WCW had rubbed off virtually all of his lustre and he was also coming towards the end of his career, not to mention the fact that wrestling was already evolving a lot in terms of athletism. In 95/96 I can't think of anyone in a mainstream promotion that comes close to being able to do what he can do, especially when you consider that audiences hadn't even had a lot of exposure to Cruiserweights then either.
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Post by Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite on May 7, 2018 7:11:56 GMT -5
One of my favorite wrestlers ever but unfortunately one of the least safe wrestlers to work with. He always injured people. That's why he could only work in Japan during the early years of his career. The best redemption moment in wrestling's history is when everyone even Joey Styles hated him during one night stand 05 but the match was so perfect that everyone at the ballroom shut the f*** up and respected his greatness. Awesome winning Styles over during the course of the match is part of what makes that my favorite PPV.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on May 9, 2018 7:05:43 GMT -5
Caveats: Mike Awesome is a wrestler that I file under 'I can still watch his stuff, albeit sometimes uncomfortably' which is easy because he's not still active. If he was still around and still as dangerous as he was when he was alive, I'm not sure I could watch anything past 2007 following Benoit. But I can't unring the bell of having seen that shit and enjoyed it before. He was sloppy, unsafe and when not pushed to his strengths (of which there were more than just killing people with stiff moves, the man could fly very well for someone of his size) pretty much useless.
That said, I am an enormous Mike Awesome mark. My favourite move in wrestling is the powerbomb and like 50% of his moveset is powerbombs. If he's having a match with someone who I know he had a good working relationship with at least (Tanaka, for example) then I can really enjoy his matches because there's an element of mutually assured destruction to it. Despite it being immensely unsafe, the One Night Stand 2005 match is still one of the best hardcore matches I have ever seen, one of my ten favourite matches ever.
Safen up his moveset a little and put more emphasis on his agility for someone of his size, give him a mouthpiece and think Mike Awesome could have been a legit main event player.
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