The saddest part about a suicide death without explanation is it leaves the family and friends an eternity of asking why.
In the case of Mike Alfonso, better known as Mike Awesome and The Gladiator, it will be an unresolved question.
Sure, everything wasn’t perfect in his life. He was in the midst of a divorce from wife Delisa, who he met in high school and been married to for 16 years. He had moved from the family home to a condo in Tampa. His marriage had survived the rigors of not only pro wrestling, but the bulk of his career saw him overseas for weeks at a time as one of the most popular foreign stars in Japan. His health wasn’t the best, as he had to make several major lifestyle changes when it came to food, drinking and training over the past year due to suffering from sugar diabetes. He was no longer near 300 pounds, but was still training more for cardiovascular fitness and was around 230. His wrestling career was over, both for health reasons, but he also told friends, it was also by choice.
Michael Alfonso, best known as Mike Awesome and in Japan as The Gladiator, a two-time ECW champion who was probably the most spectacular flier of his size in wrestling, was found dead by friends on 2/17, presumably form a suicide as he was hanging at his home. He was 42.
According to police reports, Alfonso, who lived in Tampa, was going to go out with friends on Saturday night. When they came to get him at about 10:30 p.m., he didn’t answer the door. However, one of them saw him hanging through the window and called police but he was already dead. There is no information regarding any suicide note or depression, but his friends in Japan were saying he had a bad last few days before his apparent suicide. His health had started to take a turn for the worst in 2006 as well.
Alfonso, who was a relative of Hulk Hogan’s, grew up with Hulk’s nephew Mike Bollea, who wrestled most of his career as Horace Hogan. Alfonso’s father’s sister married Hulk Hogan’s oldest brother. The couple’s oldest son was Mike Bollea. Alfonso and Mike Bollea grew up together, decided to be wrestlers together, broke in together, and were a tag team in Japan for years.
MLW World Champion Steve Corino defeated Mike Awesome in a long-awaited rematch.
One half of the MLW tag champions CW Anderson was in action against “Dr. Death” Steve Williams.
In tag team action, Ekmo Fatu (aka Umaga) debuted as the newest member of the Samoan Island Tribe.
Show Review:
The show opened with Corino backstage cutting a promo on Awesome. He said the last time they met, Awesome walked in the champion and tonight, he is walking in the challenger. Corino also announced this is Awesome’s last shot at the title.
“Dr. Death” Steve Williams defeated CW Anderson (4:15 televised)
Anderson jumped Williams at the bell, but it didn’t take long for Williams to shake it off and knock Anderson out of the ring after a series of jabs. Williams, who was getting on in his career at this point, still hit a dive to the outside onto Anderson. They brawled around ringside and Anderson got tossed over a table and then into the crowd going into a commercial break.
Back in the ring, Anderson stopped Williams in his tracks with a superkick, but Williams kicked out. He fought back and had the match won after his running powerslam but the referee got knocked down in the process.
Anderson’s partner Simon Diamond interfered and superkicked Williams and it looked as though Anderson was going to backdoor his way out of this one. But, Williams kicked out at the last second. The Sandman chased Diamond away and Williams fought back, hitting his backdrop driver to pick up the win.
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– Da Hit Squad (Mafia and Monsta Mack) were backstage and said they were proud to be in MLW. They wanted to see who the toughest and baddest were and that it was time for the fresh blood to take over in MLW…and time for the Samoans to step aside.
– CM Punk was behind a bar and welcomed us to Hybrid Happy Hour, offering Raven a toast to his recent loss to Punk. He then tossed a shot over his shoulder and said Raven will need to play under his rules — straight edge rules — and that he will find out why being straight edge means Punk is better than him.
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Da Hit Squad defeated The Samoan Island Tribe by disqualification (5:12)
Ekmo Fatu (aka Umaga) appeared as a surprise replacement for Mana in the SIT and went straight to work on Da Hit Squad as all four brawled around ringside from the get-go. Fatu missed a big crossbody on the outside and ended up going through a table, but was quickly back in and superkicked both Squad members to save Samu from a double team splash in the corner.
He was on the receiving end of a double suplex and then a big top rope frog splash from Mack, but Samu pulled the referee out as he made the cover. Fatu then hit a swinging uranage and both Samoans hit the Rikishi-style running hip attack into the corners. Samu then let the viewers know why he had been shouting “teabag” at the end of his recent promos by hitting a bronco buster on Mack.
During the melee, the Samoans had thrown the referee out of the ring, leading more officials to stop the action and award the match to the Squad via DQ. The action broke down again as officials struggled to keep order. After the next break, we heard that a no DQ match had been signed for the next set of tapings.
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– Awesome told Corino it will be “two for two at Taboo” because the last time he was at this building, he knocked out Masato Tanaka by power bombing him out of the ring through a table, adding “history will repeat itself tonight.”
– Before their upcoming CMLL Tag Team Title shot at the next tapings, Jose and Joel (Los Maximos) said to expect the unexpected.
– Sabu and Bill Alfonso warned Christopher Daniels that Sabu is going to spike him in the eye again when they meet at the next tapings. We did not see the first attack, but Joey Styles caught us up. Apparently, it was retaliation for Sabu being jumped in the parking lot recently.
– Mikey Whipwreck and Sinister Minister had some words for Sabu. Minister said Daniels hasn’t forgotten about Sabu’s first spike to the eye, and retaliation is coming for him. As Whipwreck was messing around in the background, he found a spike that Sabu had hidden. Minister warned Sabu that mind games won’t work with him and his Army of Darkness.
MLW World Heavyweight champion Steve Corino defeated Mike Awesome (10:54)
Corino was taking his time with his entrance, so Awesome jumped him the minute he came through the ropes. Awesome hit a German suplex and clotheslined Corino to the outside. Awesome was backdropped into the crowd by Corino who then ran Awesome into the ring post. As Corino was again taking his time getting back into the ring, Awesome floored him with his slingshot shoulderblock from the apron.
Corino ducked a clothesline and floored Awesome with a low dropkick to take advantage. Corino rocked Awesome with two chair shots to the head (one unprotected) and one to the back.
Awesome caught Corino on the top rope and superplexed him across the ring for a close two count. It was then Awesome’s turn to duck a clothesline and rock Corino with three chair shots to the head this time. He then went to the top and hit a top rope chair shot onto a helpless Corino. A sit out Awesome bomb and top rope big splash followed, but somehow Corino kicked out.
Awesome called for the table and set two up in opposing corners of the ring as Styles reminded us he knocked out Masato Tanaka in this building by putting him through a table. The referee got knocked down and Corino superkicked Awesome, but Awesome responded with two running powerbombs through the two corner tables.
He covered Corino as the referee was coming around, but Corino kicked out after a labored count from the referee.
As both were getting to their feet, Corino hit Awesome with what looked like a roll of quarters. Diamond and Anderson ran in and held Awesome for Corino to hit him with a chair, but Terry Funk ran in and took everyone out with a trashcan. He swung a chair, Corino ducked, and it clocked Awesome right in the face. Corino then covered Awesome for the three count as the Extreme Horsemen held Funk down.
The Horsemen continued their beatdown on Funk and wrapped their wrist tape around Funk’s neck, hanging him from the ring. As Underground went off the air, Sandman and Williams made the save to even the odds.
Next Week:
The Sandman faces Simon Diamond with a shot at the Extreme Horsemen’s MLW tag titles on the line.
At press time, exactly what is going on between WCW and ECW regarding current ECW heavyweight champion Mike Awesome is apparently up in the air.
In a strange series of circumstances, it appeared that Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, in their attempt to re-create the debuting impact of Nitro in 1995 with Lex Luger’s surprising walking on the set, combined with the incident where Madusa threw the WWF womens title belt in the garbage can, since they were unable to secure any WWF talent, made a huge pitch to garner ECW’s heavyweight champion.
Awesome, who apparently had more than two years remaining on a deal through the late summer of 2002 with ECW, started the weekend by no-showing matches on 4/6 in Cleveland and 4/7 in Warren, OH. There had been some rumors the previous weekend regarding Awesome jumping, with Paul Heyman claiming it would be impossible because of their existing contract.
