19. Mike Awesome (January 24, 1965 - February 17, 2007)
Mike Awesome was a 6'6. 300 lbs. man who could fly around the ring like a cruiserweight. He should have been one of the biggest stars in wrestling but, thanks to a combination of bad business decisions and terrible booking, his career never took off like it should have. Awesome worked almost exclusively in Japan's FMW for nearly 10 years before entering Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1998 and beginning a famous feud with Masato Tanaka. Their matches were hard-hitting, brutal encounters that featured vicious chair shots and powerbombs from the ring to the arena floor. Awesome and Tanaka became the focal point of ECW and Paul Heyman wanted to make Awesome his main guy. However, WCW came calling and offered Awesome a huge contract to jump to their promotion while he was still ECW world champion. As a result of Heyman's legal wrangling, Awesome was forced to lose the ECW world title at a spot show against Tazz, who was employed by the WWF at the time. To recap: The ECW title was defended at an ECW show by a WCW wrestler against a WWF wrestler. Unfortunately for Awesome, WCW had no clue how to book him and he was saddled with the loser gimmick of "That 70's Guy" before becoming a Fat Chick Thrilla. For someone who went to war with Tanaka in some of the most memorable matches in ECW history, this was a massive disappointment. Awesome was the first WCW invader to appear on WWF television in 2001, winning the Hardcore title backstage and running away. However, he became quickly jaded by the politics in the WWF locker room and left the promotion, only returning for the One Night Stand pay-per-view in 2005. Awesome became a real estate agent after his retirement from pro wrestling but obviously his internal demons became too much for him. At the age of 42, Mike "Awesome" Alfonso hanged himself inside his Florida home in 2007.
