10 ECW Originals that were underutilized in WWE

#3 Mike Awesome

Even That 70's Guy had a better run

Mike Awesome was another talented performer who didn't rely on ECW's typical hardcore rules to put on some excellent performances.

After some sporadic appearances in the mid 90's, Mike officially joined ECW in 1999 and was immediately given a strong push. Mike had a memorable feud with Masato Tanaka and was a two-time ECW World Champion and an ECW Tag Team Champion.

He also became the most controversial wrestler in the world in 2000 when he secretly joined WCW in 2000 and debuted on Nitro while he was still Champion and being acknowledged as such. As previously mentioned, Mike dropped the title a few days later to WWE star Tazz.

After a terrible run in WCW as 'That 70's Guy' and "The Fat Chick Thriller", Mike was picked up by WWE in 2001 when WCW went out of business. WWE apparently had big plans for him and even had him as the first Alliance member to make an impact during the angle when he, as an invader, defeated Rhyno for the Hardcore title.

Things went down from there. The story goes that The Undertaker was critical of Mike as a performer and WWE decided to stop pushing him due to Taker's scathing reviews of him. He was released in 2002 after months of inactivity.

The most memorable moment of Mike's WWE career came during a one time only return at the ECW One Night Stand in 2005 where he and old rival Masato Tanaka had one of the best matches of 2005. Sadly, Mike committed suicide by hanging himself in February 2007. He was 42.