text: 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.
  Awesome was released from the WWE on September 27, 2002, along with Shawn Stasiak and Horace Hogan. Awesome was 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".
  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 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 (Kojima's employers, AJPW would not allow him to drop the title to an employee of a rival company Zero-1).
  He worked for Pro Wrestling Noah from 2004 to 2005.