Match of the Day - The final Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka encounter

Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka - ECW One Night Stand (2005)

It's my birthday, so here's one of my favorite matches.

The Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka match from ECW's One Night Stand show in 2005 is not the two's first outing together. These two had been fighting each other for the sake of fighting since the early/mid 90's from ECW to FMW in Japan with little to no remorse for each others well being. What makes this particular encounter so special is really pretty much random other than the fact that the crowd was red hot for them and the atmosphere that night was incredible. The two just go out to the ring and continue where they left off from their last match like it was still Heat Wave 1998. There's unprotected chair shots, a brutal Awesome bomb from the apron to a slanted table, an almost 300 pound man continually diving to the outside like this was a PWG All-Star Weekend, and, of course, Joey Styles' nonstop bad-mouthing of Mike Awesome on commentary.

This match might be remembered most for Joey Styles "shoot" on Awesome for being a terrible human being business-wise and the line after Awesome completed his first suicide dive to the outside, "...and it's unfortunate he did not succeed in taking his own life"; a foreshadowing of Awesome's demise as he would actually take his life 2 years later. That's not what makes this match special to me, but it is something that always gets brought up.

Regardless of all Joey Styles stuff, this match and the whole Awesome/Tanaka feud is really a sight to see from their days in FMW to this final battle at One Night Stand. These two put on simple yet brutal matches together that required little to no explanation. Destroying each other was just what they did.

Match of the Day - Insane Clown Posse challenge Mike Awesome and his bus to a hardcore match... and lose

Hardcore Wednesday:

Insane Clown Posse vs. That 70's Guy Mike Awesome - Hardcore handicap match - Monday Night Nitro (2000)

While I'm on the subject of shitty handicap matches...

It's 2000, my mark meter is off the charts, I didn't miss a Hardy Boyz match, and I'm pro-WWF through and through, but for some reason one Monday night I decide to switch the channel over to the competition -  WCW and their Monday night wrestling product, Nitro. I'm not sure why I did it, probably curiosity or some shit like that, but I did it. And guess what I just so happened to stumble upon? Ding ding! This very match...

Now to be fair, before getting into WWF and The Hardyz, I actually watched quite a bit of WCW. But when I tuned into Nitro again for the first time in some time, it didn't look like I remembered it... No, this time, there were two clowns, a guy dressed like the 70's, and the Partridge Family bus. No ring, no NWO, no nothing.

Then it happened, Mike Awesome 'Awesome Bombed' Shaggy 2 Dope on top of the bus and 2 Dope slides off and takes a nasty splat onto the ground. Thanks to this unforgettable match, I believed for some time that handicap matches were matches where someone ends up handicap like that stupid-looking clown on Nitro in 2000.

Theme Results

Non-ring: Mike Awesome's "That 70's" bus.

Match of the Day - Hulk Hogan wrestles as himself to take on younger wrestlers trying to get over

Hulk Hogan as Terry Bollea vs. Mike Awesome - WCW Nitro (2000)

Would you like the long version or the short version?

Short version it is.

In 2000, WCW had a big brain idea to pit young up-and-comers with seasoned vets and well past-their-primers. Though the intention was to get the new guys over, WCW management made the god awful decision of putting the two biggest wrestling personality heels, Eric Bishoff and Vince Russo, in charge of the young talent. Combine that with the fact that the veterans were known as The Millionaire's Club and led by Hulk Hogan, a man who supposedly passed the torch on in 1990 but still needed the spotlight every year he wasn't making terrible movies in Hollywood (sound familiar), made the chances of the young guys getting over a lot harder. Like WCW hard.

I understand that sometimes a company already has solid top guys and don't need green competitors getting a push, but this was WCW 2000; the top guys of the past were gone and it was time for the top guys to carry the weight of the company.

So, in the mist of the New Blood (the young guys looking for a break) versus the Millionaire's Club (the guys who needed to step down from their pedestals , Hulk Hogan decided that he needed to take matters into his own hands and fight as himself, Terry Bollea, to take on Mike Awesome, an up-and-comer with high potential to keep the power of WCW to the old guys.

Hulk Hogan also had a running feud with Billy Kidman, a kid who was never big enough to be a main eventer, as well as his own nephew, Horace Hogan, who was always just destined to be in a B-list NWO. Soon after he would feud with Jeff Jarrett before leaving the company after the Vince Russo shoot/work incident at Bash at the Beach. A story for another day.

As for Awesome, he was never given the main event status push he really deserved and was repackaged numerous times starting with the "Career Killer" gimmick, then the "Fat Chick Thrilla" gimmick, then "That 70's Guy" gimmick, and then finally the "Canadian Career Killer" gimmick after joining Team Canada in the dying days of WCW. It should also be noted that his gimmick as the Career Killer was because he could kill careers but in an ironic turn of events is what killed his career.

Theme Results:

Jeans: Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea