Mike Awesome

Michael Lee Alfonso (January 24, 1965 – February 17, 2007) was an American professional wrestler.

He was best known for his appearances with the American professional wrestling promotions Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E) under the ring name Mike Awesome and for his appearances in Japan with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling as The Gladiator.

Alfonso achieved the biggest success of his career in FMW as The Gladiator, where he became a three-time world champion, with two reigns as Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and one reign as Independent Heavyweight Champion.

Alfonso was trained to wrestle by Steve Keirn, debuting on February 26, 1989, at the Eddie Graham Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.

Alfonso trained for about one year along with former professional wrestlers, Dennis Knight (Mideon, Phineas Godwin) and "Big" Al Green before making his debut.

Alfonso competed in Florida Championship Wrestling, USWA, NWA and World Championship Wrestling, before making his way to FMW in Japan.

Alfonso moved on to Japan, joining Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in September 1990 and using the name The Gladiator.

He was recruited by FMW as the replacement for Al Green, who was originally scheduled to compete as Gladiator but moved to WCW.

Alfonso debuted in FMW as a monster villain on September 20 in a street fight with Mr. Pogo against Atsushi Onita and Jimmy Backlund, which Alfonso's team won.

Gladiator was Pogo's ally who feuded with Onita and competed with Pogo against Onita and his partners.

He lost to Onita in a Chain Deathmatch on October 1, after which Alfonso returned to United States.

Onita was impressed by Gladiator and called him back for more tours with FMW.

He returned to the company as Mr. Pogo's partner in a tag team tournament on January 6, 1991, where the duo lost their first match in the tournament against Onita and Sambo Asako.

Pogo and Gladiator made to the semi-final, where they beat Grigory Verichev and Boris Gogichashivili and then defeated Onita and Asako in the final on January 15 to win the tournament.

The success of the tournament led Alfonso to work full-time with FMW.

In the summer of 1991, Gladiator would form a villainous alliance with Tarzan Goto, Big Titan and Horace Boulder after Mr. Pogo's departure from FMW and resumed the feud with Atsushi Onita.

On August 17, Gladiator participated in the Barbed Wire Deathmatch Tournament, in which he defeated Horace Boulder in the quarter-final and lost to Sambo Asako in the semi-final.

During this time, Gladiator was inspired by Damian's lucha libre videos on travels, which led him to adopt a high-flying style despite his big size.

The following month, Gladiator and Big Titan defeated Sambo Asako and Ricky Fuji in a street fight stretcher match at the 2nd Anniversary Show.

This partnership led the two to form a tag team which lasted nearly three years.

In the fall of the year, Gladiator and Titan participated in the World's Strongest Tag Team Tournament to determine the inaugural WWA World Martial Arts Tag Team Champions, but were eliminated from the round robin stage with total six points.

Gladiator and his allies would join The Sheik and Sabu to resume the feud with Onita and his allies throughout 1992.

At 3rd Anniversary Show, Big Titan, The Gladiator and Horace Boulder defeated Sambo Asako, Ricky Fuji and The Great Punk in a street fight stretcher match.

Later that year, Gladiator and Boulder participated in the Street Fight Tag Team Tournament, where they qualified for the semi-final against Tarzan Goto and Big Titan, which they lost.

In 1993, Gladiator formed the first villainous faction in FMW called Team Canada with Ricky Fuji, Big Titan, Horace Boulder, Dr. Luther and Dr. Hannibal after The Sheik and Sabu turned fan favorites and formed an alliance with Atsushi Onita.

At 4th Anniversary Show, the team of Gladiator, Ricky Fuji and Big Titan defeated Katsuji Ueda, The Great Punk and Tarzan Goto in a Captain's Fall Losing Captain Leaves Town No Rope Barbed Wire Tornado Street Fight Deathmatch, which Team Canada won.

The group strengthened its dominance after Mr. Pogo returned to FMW in the summer of 1993 and took over as the leader of the group.

Gladiator and Titan were defeated by Sambo Asako and Mr. Gannosuke at Summer Spectacular.

The team of Gladiator, Titan and Fuji gained more success by defeating Asako, Katsuji Ueda and Grigory Verichev in a street fight at Year End Spectacular.

The following year, Gladiator and Titan participated in a double-elimination tournament for the newly created Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship, in which they defeated Hideki Hosaka and Hisakatsu Oya in the quarter-final, Jinsei Shinzaki and Masaru Toi in the semi-final and Mr. Gannosuke and Tarzan Goto in the final to succeed in their block and then defeated Atsushi Onita and Katsutoshi Niiyama in the tournament final on January 18, 1994, to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship, marking Alfonso's first title in FMW.

They successfully defended the title against Atsushi Onita and Sambo Asako in a street fight on March 29 and then lost the title to Mr. Pogo and Hisakatsu Oya in their second title defense on April 21.

The title loss created dissension between Titan and Gladiator.

At 5th Anniversary Show, Gladiator, Titan and Fuji took on Fuyuki-Gun in a match, where Gladiator and Titan had a miscommunication with each other but fortunately still managed to win their match.

However, Gladiator abandoned his partners after the match to quietly join Team Canada.

As a result, Gladiator began feuding with Titan and defeated him in their first singles match against each other on July 31.

Gladiator won a rematch at Summer Spectacular, before finally losing to Titan on September 7 to end the rivalry.

His second Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship reign from 1996–1997 was the longest reign in the title's history, lasting for 489 days.

During this reign, he defeated W*ING Kanemura to unify the title with the Independent Heavyweight Championship at the 1996 Year End Spectacular.

He would then tour with ECW, where he became a two-time World Heavyweight Champion.

He was a member of two separate stables Team Canada in both FMW and WCW.