10 Most Criminally Underrated Wrestlers In History
5. Mike Awesome
Mike Awesome, broadly, is that mullet-wearing madman who traded lunatic chair shots to the head with honourable mention Masato Tanaka in ECW before being subjected to endless embarrassment in Vince Russo's WCW.
When he arrived in the WWF, he wasn't permitted to unleash his gory and frighteningly acrobatic style. He never fit into the mainstream, even though, with his epic proportions, he looked custom built for it. Awesome wasn't naturally charismatic, but his intensity compensated enough to position him as a valuable player on the both ends of the wrestling spectrum; Awesome as The Gladiator was a hit in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, fleshing out its primary garbage suspense mode with an elevated level of athleticism.
Exhibit A: Awesome was known and is remembered as a spot guy, primarily, and his detractors felt he was incapable of structuring a storied match to resonate beyond the bloodthirsty fringe - but his unbelievably good main event with the scrawny Spike Dudley, at ECW Guilty As Charged 2000, puts paid to that.
Awesome's selling - something the Tanaka matches lacked by design - was evident here; towards the final stretch, it was so gradual (and thus credible) that it looked like Spike was going to achieve the impossible.