Former ECW Champion Mike Awesome Dead at 42

News

Former ECW Champion Mike Awesome (real name Mike Alfonso), who also wrestled for WCW and was a former WWE hardcore champion, was found dead in his apartment Saturday night, according to WrestlingObserver.com. Cause of death is of apparent suicide (by hanging) pending autopsy.

Awesome was not actively wrestling at the time of his passing, working as a realtor for Coldwell Banker, but had worked for WWE, WCW, ECW and All Japan in this decade.

Thanks to Pulse Wrestling reader James Lacerenza for sending this along:

DOIWrestling.com is reporting that, “according to a friend of Awesome, Awesome was suffering from diabetes and had lost alot of weight. While this is all speculation now, it looks like the disease caused depression, hence Mike taking his own life.”

Inside Pulse sends its condolences to the Alfonso family. We’ll have more information on this as it is available. You can read the WWE.com story here, and for the SLAM! Wrestling story, click here. This weekend marked 14 years since Kerry Von Erich’s suicide death, and 12 years since Eddie Gilbert passed away.

Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs