Mike Awesome - Reimagining His WCW Run
The year 2000 was a very strange one for many wrestling fans. The World Wrestling Federation was on top of the world and had clearly won the fabled ‘Monday Night War’ against their competitor World Championship Wrestling. At the time WCW was in a constant state of flux as Turner changed the reins of power from Eric Bischoff to Vince Russo to Kevin Sullivan and finally in April of 2000 decided to try and hedge their bets using a combination of Russo and Bischoff in an effort to retain their failing audience. At the same time, Extreme Championship Wrestling was in somewhat of a freefall of their own. Owner Paul Heyman had signed a television deal with TNN but quickly realized that the network had no real desire to help their product but was rather using ECW as a stepping stone to getting WWF on their network.
At this stage of the ‘War’ between the three companies, talent bouncing around was not uncommon. But in April a huge blow would be dealt to ECW when WCW signed away their current World Heavyweight Champion, the 6’6’’, 290-pound agile big man Mike Awesome. Many know of the story of ECW finding out about this deal and the attempts to ensure that he did not appear on WCW Monday Nitro holding the ECW World Heavyweight Championship so we will skip over that for now.
In ECW, Mike Awesome was an absolute monster. Incredibly agile for a man his size, he was known for putting on some of the hardest hitting, mind-blowing matches a wrestling fan could ever see. His matches with Masato Tanaka in both ECW and Japanese promotion FMW (Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling) are legendary and I cannot urge you enough to check them out as soon as possible. In September 1999 at the ECW Anarchy Rulz pay-per-view, a match between then-ECW Champion Taz and Masato Tanaka was transformed into a three-way-dance with Mike Awesome joining the fray, leading to the dominant Taz being the first eliminated. Mike Awesome would walk away as the ECW Champion and would continue his dominance for the next few months. Apart from a brief spell where he dropped the title to Tanaka before gaining it back within a week, Awesome was untouchable. He would even become a Tag Team Champion briefly alongside Raven while holding onto the title and having great matches with the likes of everyone from Tanaka and even guys like Spike Dudley and Kid Kash. To say those matches didn’t end well for the undersized opponents would be an understatement. Unfortunately for Awesome and the rest of the ECW roster at the time, Paul Heyman was having trouble keeping up with paying his talent which led to an exodus of many talent over the course of 1999 and 2000. Mike Awesome would be one of these in the spring of 2000, leading to his debut on the April 10th, 2000 edition of Nitro while still technically the ECW World Champion.
If that date seems familiar to you, it is because that was the Nitro “reboot” where Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff made the staggeringly awkward decision to strip all of the Champions of their titles to start over with the culmination of several tournaments at the coming Spring Stampede PPV. Mike Awesome would debut from the crowd, siding with the New Blood stable and attacking Kevin Nash. For this reimagining, we will leave this exactly as it happened as it was a great moment. We will also still go with Mike Awesome dropping the ECW World Championship to Tazz at an ECW house show on April 14th (you can read more about that here) and pick up our reimagining at that weekend’s Spring Stampede show.
In reality, Mike Awesome competed in the tournament for the United States but was knocked out in the second round to eventual winner Scott Steiner. In our new reality, Steiner would be rightfully in the World Title tournament, leaving our boy Awesome to low through the competition into the finals against Sting, where a shocking interference from Curt Hennig allows Awesome to hit an Awesome Bomb for the pinfall victory, anointing him as the new United States Champion.
The following night on Nitro we find out that it was Hennig who orchestrated bringing Mike Awesome to WCW, with the initial attack on Nash being set up as payback for when Hennig himself had been beaten down and booted out of the NWO a year prior. Hennig announces that he is playing the long game and putting together his own group, one that will be taken seriously unlike his time in the West Texas Rednecks. He says that Mike Awesome will be the future and will receive the best tutelage he can offer, alongside the other new member of the group, which turns out to be Barry Windham.
As in reality, Mike Awesome battles Chris Kanyon at the following months Slamboree PPV, successfully retaining the title with no interference whatsoever from Hennig or Windham, showing his dominance. As the build to New Blood Rising (the PPV replacing the much-panned Road Wild in Sturgis), the new faction begins leaning even more into the heel side of things, with Awesome’s interference helping Hennig & Windham to win the Tag Team Championships from Kronik on an episode of Thunder. Mike Awesome then begins inserting himself into the World Title picture between Booker T and Jeff Jarrett at the behest of Hennig. The group begins to become henchmen of a sort for Jarrett leading into the PPV.
At New Blood Rising, Hennig & Windham successfully defend the Tag Team Championships against Mark Jindrak & Sean O’Haire as well as The Filthy Animals of Rey Mysterio & Juventud Guerrera. Mike Awesome goes onto defend the United States Championship against Sting in a brutal match that ends with an Awesome Bomb through a table, writing Sting off for some time. During the main event, World Championship match Awesome interferes costing Booker T the title and making Jeff Jarrett the new World Heavyweight Champion. Jarrett celebrates with his new henchmen as the show goes off the air, but Awesome is suspiciously focused on the Big Gold belt.
The following month sees the new stable running roughshod over the competition, forcing a new opposition stable to come together to face off in a War Games match at Fall Brawl. The War Games consists of Jeff Jarrett, Mike Awesome, Curt Hennig & Barry Windham facing off against Booker T, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner and a mystery opponent who is the returning Sting. While the heels come out victorious, there is continued friction between Jarrett and Awesome which almost costs them the match.
The following night on Nitro, Mike Awesome loses the United States Championship to Scott Steiner following a botched interference attempt by Jarrett and Hennig. Later in the night, Awesome interferes in Jarrett’s World Title defense against Sting, helping him retain the Championship. However, after the match Awesome breaks free on his own and powerbombs Jarrett through a table at ringside before dispatching Hennig & Windham, standing tall above everyone.
On that week’s Thunder, it is announced that at Halloween Havoc Jarrett will face Awesome for the World Championship, and segments are shown of Hennig trying to get back in Awesome’s good books. Awesome seems hesitant but Hennig assures him they are aligned against Jarrett.
At Halloween Havoc, Hennig turns against Awesome as expected, leading to Jarrett retaining the title. At the following month’s Mayhem PPV there is a four-corners World Heavyweight Championship match featuring Jarrett defending against Mike Awesome, Kevin Nash and Sting. During the match Jarrett is taken out by an Awesome Bomb from the ring through a table on the floor, leading to Awesome winning the title by pinning Kevin Nash.
As Starrcade 2000 approaches, Awesome once again becomes embroiled in a feud with the first man he faced in WCW, the Icon Sting. The two clash continuously leading into WCW’s landmark PPV, battling in the main event for the Big Gold Belt.
From here we will leave it, with personal preference determining whether Mike Awesome or Sting walks away with the belt into the final months of WCW’s existence. Where would you take things from here?