Eric Bischoff On Mike Awesome's Failure In WCW

Simply put, Mike Awesome was aptly named. His mix of strength and speed was unmatched, but the former ECW Champion never seemed to truly break through in his tenures in both WCW and WWE. 

While his WWE run remains a mystery, former WCW President Eric Bischoff had a very simple explanation for why Awesome wasn't a bigger star in WCW. "Timing," Bischoff said on the latest "83 Weeks" podcast. 

The Hall of Famer said that at the time Awesome joined WCW, the company was not in a position to make anyone a star. 

"Take Tom Brady and throw him into the Detroit Lions roster," Bischoff explained. "It doesn't matter how great of an athlete or how big of a star Tom Brady would be, when you're surrounded by a team that is not functional, that is not playing up to par, that doesn't have momentum, it doesn't matter." 

Bischoff noted that while Awesome wasn't necessarily the "Tom Brady" of professional wrestling,  he certainly had the acumen for more success than he found. 

"He had the right look," Bischoff said. "His head was squarely on its shoulders from a wrestling perspective. He was smart. He was good. But he wasn't smart enough and good enough to rise above the lack of momentum and the dysfunction that was WCW in the year 2000."

Awesome stayed with WCW until the company closed in March of 2001, then joined WWE as part of the WCW/ECW Alliance. Awesome soon left WWE and worked in various independent promotions, as well as TNA Wrestling (now Impact Wrestling), before his untimely death at the age of 42 in 2007.