Lately it seems as if the phone call is coming more often. When I say the phone call, I mean the one you get when you find out that another one of your former co-workers has passed. Well the phone call I received Monday morning wasn't just about a co-worker it was about someone I considered a friend for life, Michael Alfonso aka MIKE AWESOME.  Mike was now the third person to pass in less than a month with a connection to ECW and the second ECW World Champion to pass away far to soon.

I had met Mike a few times while hanging out in the ECW lockerroom with Axl Rotten before I got hired as a referee, but it wasn't until February 1 ^st, 1997 that we became friends.  On that night Mike was booked to wrestle Louie Spicolli (another friend who left way to soon) and was booked to put him over clean with a death valley driver in the middle.  Now Mike was a top guy in FMW and there was Japanese press there so he changed the finish to Louie beating him with a small package. My job at the time as a referee was to count to three and if someone didn't kick out then they lost. When Louie hooked Mike for the small package which I knew was not the finish, I counted 1, 2, 2 ½, 2 ¾, 3. The first thought that went through my mind was I blew the finish and was going to have heat. Mike immediately jumped up got in my face screaming and backing me into a corner.  I apologized and he "we changed it, I'll take the heat. Do you have anymore matches to work?"  I told him "yes" and he said "not anymore" and proceeded to pick me up over his and gave me the running Awesome Bomb.  I won't lie, I was scared shitless as I had never taken it before but I had no time to argue.  When we got to the back I thanked Louie and Mike came over to check on me to make sure I was ok and said "f**k it, I make my money in Japan, I am pretty sure Paul is going to fire me, but thank you."

Well Paul indeed did fire Mike and in fact the match never even made it to ECW home video, which I wish it would have.

Fast forward a year and half to the summer of 1998. Masato Tanaka had just come to ECW and was having great matches with Balls Mahoney.  Paul took a chance and brought Awesome back to ECW as he and Tanaka were having, pardon the pun AWESOME matches in FMW and Paul always wanted to give the ECW fans the best possible match or storyline. Once again Mike and I crossed paths and picked up where we left off like not a day had passed since we last talked.  At Heat Wave "98" Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka had what I consider the best match on the show and I don't mean that everything else was bad because Heat Wave "98" was ECW's best pay per view ever from top to bottom there wasn't a bad match on the card. After finishing   up his program with Tanaka, Mike took on Balls at the ECW and torn his ACL and / or Patella Tendon putting him out of action for the next year.

Again fast forward to May 1999 and ECW was touring Florida. I had just started managing Sid and as quickly as he came to ECW he left even quicker. Paul told me not to worry he had someone in mind to replace Sid.  As we were talking, Mike walked into the building we were running in Kissimmee and talked to Paul for a while and hung out.

A few months later not only did I have a new monster to manage, but he was also the ECW World Champion. During my time managing Mike it was a honor to be at ringside and watch some of ECW's greatest World Title defenses as he took on guys like New Jack, Johnny Smith, 2 Cold Scorpio, Kid Kash, Rhino, Tajiri, Tanaka and the list goes on.  April of 2000 Mike jumped to WCW but that didn't end our friendship.  Anytime he was in my hometown we made sure that we got together for lunch or dinner just to catch up and we continued that up until now.

On Monday, I got the call around 8:30 am from a close friend who works for the "new" ECW. It seems the night before ECW.com had gotten a hold of a rumor that Mike Awesome died on Saturday night and I was called to see if I could confirm it.  Now in my mind I thought that this just wasn't possible, I had just talked to Mike no less then a month ago. I kinda dismissed it since WWE's crack staff in recent months had killed Corporal Kirschner and the One Man Gang and both are very alive.  After hanging up the phone I immediately called Mike got his voicemail and left this message "hey man, it's Jeff I just heard the most ridiculous thing, give me a call when you wake up." I even called his real estate office and they told me he would be in later in the day. I figured if they didn't know then it had to be false.

Through out the day I kept getting more and more calls about Mike. I told everyone who called what I knew but I started doubting what I thought to be the truth. There is no way the guy I had just talked to in one of normal monthly calls was gone. The last time we had talked Mike was working out putting weight back on to make one more run with whatever company would have him. He had talked about wanting to have one more match with Tanaka in Japan so he could have a proper retirement.

Mike had talked so fondly of his kids and we made plans to go to Busch Gardens for when I was supposed to go down to Florida in April.

Finally the call came that it was indeed true, that Mike was no longer with us. I don't want to talk about how he died, but the fact Mike was a friend that none of us will get the chance to talk again.

I want to send my deepest sympathies to his friends, his fans and most of all his family.