Mike Awesome

After the March 2001 purchase of WCW by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), Awesome became part of The Invasion storyline in the WWF. His WWF debut came on the June 25, 2001 episode of Raw is War during a match which saw Test defending his Hardcore Championship against Rhyno. After Rhyno Gored Test against a wall and pinned him he stood celebrating his new title only to be attacked by Awesome wielding a metal pipe. He then powerbombed Rhyno onto a ladder and pinned him, becoming champion himself due to the 24/7 rule. Awesome was the first "Invader" to gain gold in the WWF, stealing away with the Hardcore belt before any WWF wrestlers could catch him. Awesome's hardcore reign came to an end a few weeks later on the July 12 edition of SmackDown! when he was pinned by Jeff Hardy.
Awesome and Lance Storm were defeated by Edge and Christian at WWF Invasion, Awesome's first WWF Pay-per-view match. From here Awesome's push slowly declined after that and he began appearing mostly on WWF's B-shows. He was left off the majority of the Invasion storyline pay-per-views and was eventually sidelined with an injury in November 2001.
Awesome returned to the SmackDown! brand on the July 27, 2002 edition of Velocity where he was defeated by Tajiri. Awesome was a mainstay on SmackDown's B-Show, Velocity for the next 2 months jobbing to wrestlers such as Faarooq, Bull Buchanan, Mark Henry and Funaki.
He was eventually released on September 27th, 2002 along with Shawn Stasiak and Horace Hogan.
Category:Alumni