Early career (1989–1990) Alfonso was trained to wrestle by
Steve Keirn, debuting on February 26, 1989, at the
Eddie Graham Sports Complex in
Orlando, Florida. Alfonso trained for about one year alongside
Dennis Knight and
"Big" Al Green before making his debut.
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Initial years (1990–1992) Alfonso moved on to
Japan, joining
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in September 1990 and using the
name The Gladiator. He was recruited by FMW as the replacement for
Al Green, who was originally scheduled to compete as Gladiator but moved to WCW. Alfonso debuted in FMW as a monster
villain on September 20 in a
street fight with
Mr. Pogo against
Atsushi Onita and
Jimmy Backlund, which Alfonso's team won. Gladiator was Pogo's ally who feuded with Onita and competed with Pogo against Onita and his partners. He lost to Onita in a
Chain Deathmatch on October 1, after which Alfonso returned to United States. Onita was impressed by Gladiator and called him back for more tours with FMW. He returned to the company as Mr. Pogo's partner in a
tag team tournament on January 6, 1991, where the duo lost their first match in the tournament against Onita and Sambo Asako. Pogo and Gladiator made to the semi-final, where they beat
Grigory Verichev and Boris Gogichashivili and then defeated Onita and Asako in the final on January 15 to win the tournament. The success of the tournament led Alfonso to work full-time with FMW. In the summer of 1991, Gladiator would form a villainous alliance with
Tarzan Goto,
Big Titan and
Horace Boulder after Mr. Pogo's departure from FMW and resumed the feud with Atsushi Onita. On August 17, Gladiator participated in the
Barbed Wire Deathmatch Tournament, in which he defeated Horace Boulder in the quarter-final and lost to Sambo Asako in the semi-final. During this time, Gladiator was inspired by
Damian's
lucha libre videos on travels, which led him to adopt a high-flying style despite his big size. The following month, Gladiator and Big Titan defeated Sambo Asako and
Ricky Fuji in a street fight
stretcher match at the
2nd Anniversary Show. This partnership led the two to form a tag team which lasted nearly three years. In the fall of the year, Gladiator and Titan participated in the
World's Strongest Tag Team Tournament to determine the inaugural
WWA World Martial Arts Tag Team Champions, but were eliminated from the round robin stage with total six points. Gladiator and his allies would join
The Sheik and
Sabu to resume the feud with Onita and his allies throughout 1992. At
3rd Anniversary Show, Big Titan, The Gladiator and Horace Boulder defeated Sambo Asako, Ricky Fuji and The Great Punk in a street fight stretcher match. Later that year, Gladiator and Boulder participated in the
Street Fight Tag Team Tournament, where they qualified for the semi-final against Tarzan Goto and Big Titan, which they lost.
Team Canada and W*ING Alliance (1993–1995) In 1993, Gladiator formed the first villainous
faction in FMW called Team Canada with Ricky Fuji, Big Titan, Horace Boulder,
Dr. Luther and Dr. Hannibal after The Sheik and Sabu
turned
fan favorites and formed an alliance with Atsushi Onita. At
4th Anniversary Show, the team of Gladiator, Ricky Fuji and Big Titan defeated
Katsuji Ueda, The Great Punk and Tarzan Goto in a
Captain's Fall Losing Captain Leaves Town No Rope Barbed Wire Tornado Street Fight Deathmatch, which Team Canada won. The group strengthened its dominance after Mr. Pogo returned to FMW in the summer of 1993 and took over as the leader of the group. Gladiator and Titan were defeated by Sambo Asako and
Mr. Gannosuke at
Summer Spectacular. The team of Gladiator, Titan and Fuji gained more success by defeating Asako, Katsuji Ueda and
Grigory Verichev in a street fight at
Year End Spectacular. The following year, Gladiator and Titan participated in a
double-elimination tournament for the newly created
Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship, in which they defeated
Hideki Hosaka and
Hisakatsu Oya in the quarter-final,
Jinsei Shinzaki and Masaru Toi in the semi-final and Mr. Gannosuke and Tarzan Goto in the final to succeed in their block and then defeated Atsushi Onita and Katsutoshi Niiyama in the tournament final on January 18, 1994, to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship, marking Alfonso's first
title in FMW. They successfully defended the title against Atsushi Onita and Sambo Asako in a street fight on March 29 and then lost the title to Mr. Pogo and Hisakatsu Oya in their second title defense on April 21. The title loss created dissension between Titan and Gladiator. At
5th Anniversary Show, Gladiator, Titan and Fuji took on
Fuyuki-Gun in a match, where Gladiator and Titan had a miscommunication with each other but still managed to win their match. However, Gladiator abandoned his partners after the match to quietly join Team Canada. As a result, Gladiator began feuding with Titan and defeated him in their first
singles match against each other on July 31. Gladiator won a rematch at
Summer Spectacular, before finally losing to Titan on September 7 to end the rivalry. In October, Gladiator joined the new
W*ING Alliance with Mr. Pogo,
Mitsuhiro Matsunaga,
Yukihiro Kanemura, Goro Tsurumi, Horace Boulder, Hideki Hosaka and Hisakatsu Oya. The group mostly consisted of wrestlers from the former
W*ING promotion, who held Atsushi Onita and FMW responsible for ending the promotion and had formed the alliance to bring the demise of FMW just like W*ING suffered its demise. On October 28, Gladiator and Pogo defeated Atsushi Onita and Mr. Gannosuke to win the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. They lost the tag titles to Onita and Gannosuke in a rematch on February 24, 1995. At
6th Anniversary Show, Gladiator and Horace Boulder lost to Katsutoshi Niiyama and
Masato Tanaka. Later at the event, Mr. Pogo turned on W*ING Alliance by blowing a
fireball on Yukihiro Kanemura after Pogo and Kanemura lost their match, which led Gladiator, Boulder and Hisakatsu Oya to follow Pogo and join Lethal Weapon.
Longest reigning world champion (1995–1997) The retirement of Atsushi Onita led FMW to change its direction from
deathmatch wrestling to technical wrestling style and Gladiator received a strong
push as the archrival of the company's new top star
Hayabusa. He was
booked to win the
Grand Slam Tournament in September, in which he defeated Hayabusa in the tournament final on September 26 to win the company's top title, the vacant
Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and cemented his place as the company's top villain. Gladiator made his first successful title defense against
Horace Boulder on October 25. He suffered a knee injury in the fall of 1995, which forced him to vacate the title on January 5, 1996. Gladiator returned from injury to challenge
Super Leather for the title on March 15, but was defeated by Leather. During this time,
Víctor Quiñones' group Puerto Rican Army overturned W*ING and Lethal Weapon to become the top villainous group in FMW and Quinones was luring away members of both factions into his Puerto Rican Army, which led Gladiator to
turn fan favorite for the first time in his career. At
7th Anniversary Show, Hisakatsu Oya, Horace Boulder and The Gladiator lost to Super Leather and
The Headhunters in a match for the inaugural
World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. On May 27, Gladiator defeated Super Leather to win his second Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship. Gladiator successfully defended the title against Leather in a rematch on September 1. On September 15, Gladiator and Horace Boulder turned on Ricky Fuji during a match against
Hideki Hosaka,
Hido and
Taka Michinoku. The entire Lethal Weapon attacked Fuji and turned on him to join
Terry Funk's new group Funk Masters of Wrestling, which led Gladiator to turn into a villain again. On October 12, Gladiator attacked
W*ING Kanemura after Kanemura successfully defended the
Independent Heavyweight Championship against Hisakatsu Oya and Gladiator challenged Kanemura to a
title unification match for both Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and the Independent Heavyweight Championship at
Year End Spectacular, which Gladiator won and
unified both titles to become the first-ever FMW Double Champion. Gladiator successfully defended his Double Championship against Masato Tanaka on February 18, 1997. Gladiator would then resume his feud with the returning Atsushi Onita as the team of Gladiator, Terry Funk and
Cactus Jack was defeated by Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka and W*ING Kanemura at
8th Anniversary Show on April 29. The following day, on April 30, Gladiator surpassed Atsushi Onita's fourth reign of 337 days to become the longest reigning Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion by having reigned for 338 days at that point. On August 5, Hisakatsu Oya,
Mr. Gannosuke and The Gladiator defeated
Fuyuki-Gun at a Fuyuki Army show to win the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to the team of Hayabusa,
Koji Nakagawa and Masato Tanaka on August 31. At
Kawasaki Legend: Fall Spectacular, Gladiator lost the Double Championship to Masato Tanaka, thus ending his Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship reign at 489 days and his Independent Heavyweight Championship reign at 291 days, making him the longest reigning Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and the longest reigning Independent Heavyweight Champion.
ZEN and departure (1997–1998) Following
Terry Funk's departure from FMW, Funk Masters (FMW) of Wrestling began to cripple as Atsushi Onita denounced himself as a FMW wrestler and formed
ZEN on September 30, 1997, to feud with FMW. On October 21,
Super Leather and The Gladiator lost a match to their former teammates
Hisakatsu Oya and
Mr. Gannosuke, after which Gladiator attacked Leather and officially ended Funk Masters of Wrestling. Later that night, Gladiator attacked
Hayabusa after ZEN members defeated Hayabusa's team in the main event and then Gladiator raised the flag of ZEN and joined ZEN, which marked the first time in his career that he had become Atsushi Onita's ally after having feuded with him for the past seven years. Gladiator had lost his significance as a main event competitor after losing the Double Championship despite being the longest reigning champion and became a mid-card member of ZEN. The group turned fan favorites in the fall of 1997 when three of its members Mr. Gannosuke,
Yukihiro Kanemura and
Hido turned on Atsushi Onita and left the group and they would form
Team No Respect in 1998. In March, Gladiator participated in a
tournament to determine the #1 contender for the Double Championship at
9th Anniversary Show. He defeated Hisakatsu Oya in the quarter-final and Yukihiro Kanemura in the semi-final to become the runner-up of the tournament as he lost to Hayabusa in the final. At FMW's first
pay-per-view event
FMW 9th Anniversary Show, Gladiator teamed with ZEN teammate
Tetsuhiro Kuroda to take on TNR members Super Leather and Horace Boulder in a losing effort. Later at the event, Atsushi Onita lost a match to TNR member
Kodo Fuyuki, which forced Onita to end ZEN. Gladiator became a
free agent after ZEN's dissolution on May 5. Gladiator's last pay-per-view appearance in FMW was at the
Welcome to the Darkside pay-per-view on August 22, where he defeated Naohiko Yamazaki,
Yoshinori Sasaki and Mr. Pogo #2 in a
gauntlet match. On August 26, Gladiator wrestled his last FMW match, in which he defeated longtime rival Super Leather. Alfonso injured his knee during the match and went on a hiatus, during which he returned to United States and toured with
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) for the rest of the year. He left the company due to disagreement over Kodo Fuyuki's style of
booking.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (1998–1999) Alfonso wrestled as The Gladiator for a brief period in
All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1998 and 1999. On February 5, 1994, at ECW's event,
The Night the Line Was Crossed, Awesome nearly injured wrestler,
J.T. Smith when he performed a high-risk dive to the outside of the ring. Smith's back was folded backwards against the guard rail during the impact. This spot appeared in many ECW highlight reels including the intro to a variety of their television programs for years to come (according to ECW announcer
Joey Styles his own reaction to the spot inspired his "Oh my God" catchphrase). Awesome returned to ECW in January 1997 at
House Party, defeating
Balls Mahoney. At
Crossing the Line Again the following month, he lost to
Louie Spicolli, departing ECW once more thereafter. In July 1998, Awesome began appearing for ECW again and continued his feud with
Masato Tanaka in the United States. Awesome began in ECW by losing to Tanaka on an episode ECW's weekly
Hardcore TV. However, following the match, he delivered an
Awesome Bomb to Tanaka over the top rope through a table set up on the outside. Awesome lost to Tanaka again at the August
Heat Wave pay-per-view event. In September 1998 at
UltraClash, Awesome tore his
anterior cruciate ligament in a bout with
Balls Mahoney; he did not wrestle again until September 1999. Almost immediately upon arriving in ECW for his third stint in September 1999, he shocked the wrestling world by winning the
ECW World Heavyweight Championship at
Anarchy Rulz by defeating the reigning champion
Taz and nemesis Masato Tanaka in a
three-way dance, which was signed on the spot. Awesome continued to be a major factor in ECW early in 2000, including teaming with
Raven to beat Tanaka and
Tommy Dreamer for the
ECW World Tag Team Championship. Awesome's friend
Lance Storm has said that he had refused to sign a new contract with ECW until
Paul Heyman paid him overdue wages. Due to concerns over legal issues, WCW refrained from having Awesome appear on their television shows with the ECW belt. Eventually, a compromise was reached. Awesome (a WCW employee and ECW champion) appeared a few days later at an ECW event in Indianapolis, Indiana, accompanied by WCW's head of security, where he lost the title to Tazz (a
World Wrestling Federation employee), who lost it a week later to Tommy Dreamer (a full-time ECW wrestler) (who incidentally lost it approximately 20 minutes later to Justin Credible). In a
shoot interview released by Highspots in 2005, Awesome expressed that he would have rather faced off with his former ECW and WWE colleague
Rhyno and suggested that they could have put on a more entertaining match regardless of the circumstances and the manner in which he had left ECW. Now with WCW, Awesome continued to be a major factor with the New Blood for the next month, teaming with
Billy Kidman occasionally to aid him in his feud with
Hulk Hogan. Awesome also engaged in an on-and-off feud with Kevin Nash, as well as feuding with
Diamond Dallas Page and
Kanyon. In May 2000, Awesome threw Kanyon off the top of the first level of a
triple cage onto the entrance ramp, which started his "Career Killer" gimmick.
The Fat Chick Thriller / That '70s Guy (2000) After
Bash at the Beach in July 2000, his gimmick was tweaked, with him becoming infatuated with
heavyset women and calling himself "The Fat Chick Thriller" and feuded with
Scott Steiner and
Lance Storm for the
WCW United States Championship. During this time, he had a feud with
Vampiro, which resulted in brawls between Awesome and Vampiro's allies, the rap duo
Insane Clown Posse (
Violent J and
Shaggy 2 Dope). Awesome battled both ICP members in a handicap match on an episode of
Nitro, during which he hit Shaggy with a powerbomb on the roof of the bus that caused Shaggy to fall to the concrete floor below.
Team Canada (2001) On the January 3, 2001, edition of Thunder, Awesome dropped the 1970s gimmick in favor of a "Canadian Career Killer" gimmick and joined WCW's
Team Canada stable with Lance Storm and
Elix Skipper. A feud with
The Filthy Animals led to Awesome challenging Billy Kidman to a
Hair-vs-Hair match, on January 15, however before the bout could take place, Team Canada attacked Kidman backstage, leaving him unable to compete. Kidman's bald stablemate
Konnan replaced him and got the win, giving the Animals the right to cut off Awesome's longtime
mullet.
World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment (1996, 2001–2002) Awesome first made an appearance in WWF as a jobber on December 12, 1996, losing to
Aldo Montoya in a
dark match for
WWF Superstars of Wrestling. After the March 2001 purchase of WCW by the
World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later renamed WWE), Awesome became part of
The Invasion storyline in the WWF. His WWF debut came on the June 25, 2001, episode of
Raw during a match which saw
Test defending his
WWF 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. The feud continued when Edge introduced his tag team partner
Christian into the rivalry. Awesome and Lance Storm were defeated by
Edge and Christian at
Invasion on July 22, Awesome's first WWF pay-per-view match. From here Awesome's
push diminished and he began appearing mostly on WWF's
b-shows, before being 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
Velocity, SmackDown!'s tertiary show, for the next few months
jobbing to wrestlers such as
Faarooq,
Bull Buchanan,
Mark Henry and
Funaki.
Later career (2002–2006) From 2002 to 2006, Awesome competed on the
independent circuit in the United States and Japan where he returned to
All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) as "The Gladiator" once again. On the independent circuit, he had a short stint with
Major League Wrestling (MLW) where he won the
MLW World Heavyweight Championship from
Satoshi Kojima, only to lose it ten minutes later to
Steve Corino He worked for
Pro Wrestling Noah from 2004 to 2005. In February 2006, after 17 years in the ring, Awesome announced his retirement from wrestling, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family and adding that he felt underpaid for his work at the One Night Stand event and that he would only return to the ring "if the money was right".
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003) In April 2003, Awesome debuted in
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He wrestled several matches for the promotion before leaving in May 2003. The crowd greeted Awesome with jeers at the beginning of the match, and commentator
Joey Styles made frequent references to Awesome's leaving of ECW for WCW and during the match, after Awesome performed a
suicide dive, Styles infamously said, "And it's a shame he didn't succeed in taking his own life", but by the end the crowd were chanting "This match rules!" and gave both men a
standing ovation. ==Other media==