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Taylor Matheny
Taylor Ann Kendrick (née Matheny; born November 23, 1979) is an American retired professional wrestler who competed in North American independent promotions including Ohio Valley Wrestling, a developmental territory of World Wrestling Entertainment. She is best known, however, as a contestant on MTV's '' Tough Enough'' in 2001, making it to the finals before losing out to Nidia Guenard. Professional wrestling career Growing up in Maple Valley, Washington, she became interested in professional wrestling during the late 1990s and, seeing a commercial for ''WWE Tough Enough'' during ''Monday Night Raw'', auditioned for the reality television series. Originally one of thirteen contestants, she eventually reached the finals with Chris Nowinski, Maven Huffman, Josh Mathews and Nidia Guenard. In November 2001, soon after the finale of the show, Matheny made her professional wrestling debut in New England's World Wrestling Alliance in November 2001. Within a short time, she appeared o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Kendrick
Brian David Kendrick (born May 29, 1979) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE. Kendrick is also known for his appearances with Ring of Honor (ROH), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). Kendrick began his career in 1999. During the early years on his career, Kendrick wrestled as Leonardo Spanky or simply Spanky for several small American promotions like ROH and TNA and for Japanese promotions like Zero1, where he won the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship and Zero-One United States Openweight Championship. In the early 2000s, he also had two stints with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later World Wrestling Entertainment), one as a developmental wrestler and a second stint where he appeared as part of the main roster before departing. He would make his return to WWE in 2005, where he was paired with Paul London. During his time as a tag team, they woul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Wrestling Alliance (Massachusetts)
The World Wrestling Alliance (WWA, formerly known as World Wrestling Stars and WWA New England) was a New England-based American independent professional wrestling promotion located in Massachusetts, founded by former WWF referee Fred Sparta and his brother Mike in 1996. Fred retired in the year 2000 and the company was taken over by Focal Point Consulting. In October 2010, Mike Sparta inherited the company due to his longtime "partner" Bob Ambrose's death. The company briefly changed its name to World Wrestling Stars in 2009, and then WWA New England a year later. The promotion has been a part of the New England " indy scene" for over 15 years. It has regularly featured " Attitude Era" stars from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as well as the local talents of the New England wrestling scene. In April 1998, WWE came to the WWS (then the WWA) looking for a place where the next generation of WWE stars could compete, and the WWS began serving as WWF's official developmental terri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Smiley
Norman Anthony Smiley (born February 28, 1965) is an English-American retired professional wrestler and vocalist specializing in Gregorian Chants. He is best known for his appearances with the Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre from 1991 to 1995 and with the American promotion World Championship Wrestling from 1997 to 2001. He currently works for WWE as a trainer for NXT. Championships held by Smiley over the course of his career include the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship and the WCW Hardcore Championship. Early life Smiley was born in Northampton, England in the United Kingdom. In the early 1970s, his parents divorced and Smiley and his mother emigrated to Miami, Florida in the United States. Smiley attended Miami Beach Senior High School, where he took part in amateur wrestling and powerlifting. He graduated in 1984. Professional wrestling career Early career (1985–1991) Norman Smiley trained under Boris Malenko and Dean Malenko before making his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disco Inferno (wrestler)
Glenn Gilbertti (born November 12, 1967) is an American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Disco Inferno (briefly changed to Disqo) from 1995 to 2001. During his six-year tenure with WCW, Gilbertti became a one-time Cruiserweight Champion, a two-time Television Champion and a one-time Tag Team Champion with Alex Wright. He is considered one of the more novel mid-card WCW wrestlers of the late 1990s. After WCW, he worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and World Wrestling All-Stars. Professional wrestling career Early career (1991–1995) Gilbertti started wrestling in 1991 wrestling his first match on November 20, 1991. He wrestled on the Georgia independent circuit, where he was best known for his time with Great Championship Wrestling (GCW) where he won several titles. He also had a short stint with the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) in 1993. World Championship Wrestling (1995–2001) Mid-c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Road Dogg
Brian Girard James (born May 20, 1969) is an American professional wrestler currently signed with the WWE where he serves as the Senior Vice President of Live Events. James was best known for his initial tenure with World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) as The Roadie from 1994 to 1995 and as "Road Dogg" Jesse James from 1996 to 2001. He is also known for his appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as B.G. James from 2002 to 2009, and has also made appearances for several other promotions such as Smoky Mountain Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, the United States Wrestling Association, the Catch Wrestling Association, and World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA). James has held numerous championships in a career spanning more than three decades. In the WWF/E, he achieved mainstream notoriety as half of The New Age Outlaws (who became part of D-Generation X): he and partner Billy Gunn won the WWF World Tag Team Championship five times, and later held the WW ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rena Takase
is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Leon. Trained by Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion, Takase made her debut for the promotion in March 2000, working under her real name. After a change in management, Arsion was renamed Major Girl's Fighting AtoZ in 2003, and Takase received a new ring name, . After quitting AtoZ in 2005, Takase became a freelancer, now working under a mask and the new ring name . After two years of working for several independent promotions, including JDStar, M's Style and Oz Academy, Takase made JWP Joshi Puroresu her new home promotion in January 2007. In January 2010, Takase's ring name was shortened to just Leon and the following year, she won JWP's top title, the JWP Openweight Championship, while also becoming the leader of the Shishi no Ana Glossary of professional wrestling terms#Stable, stable. Takase remained with JWP until the promotion's folding in April 2017. Professional wrestling career Arsion and AtoZ (1999–2005) I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kaori Yoneyama
is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working as a freelancer on the Japanese independent circuit. Yoneyama started her career in 1999, working with the JWP Joshi Puroresu promotion. During the following years, she became a one-time JWP Openweight Champion, a one-time JWP Junior Champion, a five-time JWP Tag Team Champion, a one-time Pure-J Openweight Champion and a three-time Daily Sports Women's Tag Team Champion. Notable titles she has held outside of JWP include All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling's AJW Championship and AJW Tag Team Championship, Ice Ribbon's International Ribbon Tag Team Championship and NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling's High Speed Championship. In July 2011, Yoneyama announced that she would be ending her twelve-year career the following December. After a retirement tour, which took Yoneyama not only across the Japanese independent circuit, but also to the United States, she announced during her retirement ceremony that she had changed her mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mariko Yoshida
is a Japanese professional wrestler better known by the ring name . She is best known for her work with the ARSION professional wrestling promotion, where she was also head trainer. Professional wrestling career Yoshida debuted for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW or ''Zenjo'') on October 10, 1988 at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall in a match against Keiko Waki. Before her neck injury in late 1992, which would cause her to miss two years of ring time, Yoshida was easily one of the best young stars in AJW, often showcasing Lucha Libre inspired aerial maneuvers to go along with her matwork skills. In 1997, she left AJW to join Aja Kong's Arsion promotion, becoming their head trainer. There she was repackaged as a technical wrestling master, and was pushed as a major star. She has been nicknamed ''ARSION no Shinjutsu'', or "Arsion True Heart". Forgoing the high-flying techniques of her run in Zenjo, her style in Arsion was centered on mat wrestling and submission holds derived from sho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheerleader Melissa
Melissa Anderson (born August 17, 1982) is an American professional wrestler, better known by her ring name Cheerleader Melissa. She is best known for her work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where she worked as Alissa Flash and Raisha Saeed. She is currently performing on the independent circuit for promotions such as Shimmer Women Athletes, where she is a former two-time Shimmer Champion. In 2013, Anderson was ranked number 1 in '' Pro Wrestling Illustrated''s annual Top 50 Females list. Early life Anderson's father wrestled professionally in the early 1980s. Growing up she became a fan of her father's work and began showing an aptitude for sports, particularly soccer, as well as joining Palmdale High School's athletics and amateur wrestling team as one of only four girls. When only 15, she had already become involved in the wrestling business, traveling to San Bernardino frequently to train in and work for the wrestling school of Billy Anderson, her father's former ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ARSION
Arsion (full official name Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion; frequently styled as ARSION) was a ''joshi puroresu'' (women's professional wrestling) promotion established in 1997 by Aja Kong. The first event took place on February 18, 1998 and was called "Virgin". History In its initial conception, the major key figures in the company were founder Aja Kong, president, ex- AJW businessman Hiroshi "Rossy" Ogawa, manager Sakie Hasegawa and trainer Mariko Yoshida. Arsion's first event, entitled ''Virgin'', took place in front of a sell-out crowd in Tokyo on February 18, 1998. Arsion's wrestlers were trained at the promotion's dojo daily and attended Pancrase and Battlarts dojo events weekly, learning the styles of professional wrestling, ''lucha libre'' and shoot wrestling. The following year, in an attempt to boost audience numbers, Arsion put wrestlers Ai Fujita, AKINO, Ayako Hamada and Candy Okutsu together to form a pop group called Cazai. The act was an attempt to recreate the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jersey All Pro Wrestling
Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) was an independent wrestling promotion based in New Jersey, United States. History 1997 Jersey All Pro Wrestling was an independent wrestling promotion that was founded by "Fat" Frank Iadeavia and Angel Surita on April 19, 1997. This promotion was born out of a dream of "Fat" Frank and Angel. They wanted to take the promotion in a different direction than others. "Fat" Frank and Angel took a group of misfit wrestlers who were not used in other promotion for various reasons and booked them in a show on that night under the promotion name. During 1997, only two shows were run, Northern States Wrestling Alliance a precursor to JAPW, the wrestlers were friends who were not getting booked in other wrestling shows due to the politics in the New Jersey wrestling scene at that time. Also featured wrestlers like A-Train, and Alexander the Great who are better known as D-Von Dudley and Big Dick Dudley respectively. Other wrestlers like Rockin' Rebel an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lincoln Steen
Ryan Mader (born March 18, 1982), better known by his ring name Lincoln Steen, is a Canadian professional wrestler, who has competed in Canadian independent promotions since October 27, 2000. He has featured as a prominent character in The Fight Network's '' Wrestling Reality'' and appeared in Rush HD's ''The Kardinal Sinners''. Professional wrestling career 2000–2004 Steen grew up in Enfield, Nova Scotia as a wrestling fan. He eventually met Devin Chittick and Scott Savage through various local wrestling events and began his training with the pair in Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia in June 2000. The following October, at the inaugural event for MainStream Wrestling (MSW), he squared off for the first time against Savage. In 2001, Vance Nevada arrived in Nova Scotia and assisted in securing new booking opportunities for Steen, who had recently become the first ever MainStream Wrestling Champion on July 21. Steen lost the title to Jeremiah Delinquent (Scott Savage) on November 30, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
