Michael Lee Alfonso (January 24, 1965 - February 17, 2007) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with the American professional wrestling promotions Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Mike Awesome and for his appearances in Japan for with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling as The Gladiator. Alfonso achieved the biggest success of his career in FMW as The Gladiator, where he became a three-time world champion, with two reigns as Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and one reign as Independent Heavyweight Champion. His second Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship reign from 1996-1997 was the longest reign in the title's history, lasting for 489 days.

After the March 2001 purchase of WCW by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), Awesome became part of The Invasion storyline in the WWF. His WWF debut came on the June 25, 2001 episode of Raw is War during a match which saw Test defending his 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. Awesome's hardcore reign came to an end a few weeks later on the July 12 edition of SmackDown! when he was pinned by Jeff Hardy, thanks to distraction from Edge. Awesome pinned Edge on the July 16, 2001 edition of WWF Monday Night Raw. Awesome also pinned Crash Holly on the September 18, 2001 edition of WWF Sunday Night Heat.  Awesome and Lance Storm were defeated by Edge and Christian at WWF Invasion, Awesome's first WWF pay-per-view match. From here Awesome's push slowly declined after that and he began appearing mostly on WWF's B-shows. He was left off the majority of the Invasion storyline pay-per-views and was eventually 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 SmackDown's B-Show, Velocity for the next 2 months jobbing to wrestlers such as Faarooq, Bull Buchanan, Mark Henry and Funaki.  He was eventually released on September 27, 2002 along with Shawn Stasiak and his own cousin, Horace Hogan. Awesome quoted saying "Being in the WWE (formerly the WWF) sucked. I hated it. You had to kiss everybody's ass... You had to be on your political toes all the time. You would not believe the backstage politics. You were getting stabbed in the back constantly. I was so happy when I was told I was gone [fired]".  Awesome made an appearance at WWE's 2005 ECW One Night Stand reunion pay-per-view, again facing Masato Tanaka. Throughout the match, Joey Styles (who was doing commentary) frequently made references to the way Awesome left ECW in 2000, calling him a "Judas" and making somewhat disparaging comments about him, including his dismay that Awesome didn't kill himself on a suicide dive to the outside. The crowd greeted Awesome with jeers at the beginning of the match, but by the end--which Awesome won after Awesome Bombing Tanaka to the outside of the ring and through a table and following that up with a slingshot splash--were chanting "This match rules!" and gave both men a standing ovation. Answer this question using a quote from the following article:

What did Mike debut as?
Awesome became part of The Invasion storyline in the WWF.