The Heavenly Bodies is a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establis ...

famous for having worked in

Smoky Mountain Wrestling Smoky Mountain Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that held events in the Appalachian area of the United States from October 1991 to December 1995, when it was run by Jim Cornette. The promotion was based in Knoxville, Tennessee, wit ...

, the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

, and various

independent promotions In professional wrestling, the independent circuit (often shortened to the indie circuit or the indies) is the collective name of independently owned promotions which are deemed to be smaller and more regionalized than major national promotions. ...

. Over the years, there have been multiple variations of the team, which has at different times included "Doctor" Tom Prichard, "Sweet" Stan Lane, "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton, and "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray, and was led by

heel The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone, behind the articulation of the bones of the lower leg. Structure To distribute the compressive forces exerted ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

James E. Cornette James Mark Cornette (born September 17, 1961) is an American author, sports historian, and podcaster who previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, photographer, promoter, traine ...

History

Prichard and Rose

In 1985,

Tom Prichard Thomas Prichard (born August 18, 1959) is an American retired professional wrestling, professional wrestler and author better known by the ring name Dr. Tom Prichard. He is the older brother of Bruce Prichard. Professional wrestling career ...

and

Pat Rose Pat Rose (born May 23, 1960) is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Pat Rose who worked in Southern promotions, Continental Wrestling Association and World Championship Wrestling. Professional wrestling car ...

briefly used the name the Heavenly Bodies while working in the Memphis territory. The team was managed by

Sherri Martel Sherry Lynn Schrull (née Russell; February 8, 1958 – June 15, 2007) was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by her ring names, Sherri Martel and Sensational Sherri. Martel began her professional wrestling career in t ...

Prichard and Lane

In 1992, Prichard reformed the Heavenly Bodies in Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) with

Stan Lane Wallace Stanfield Lane (born August 5, 1953) is an American former professional wrestler and color commentator. He is best known for his appearances with the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), Jim Crockett Promotions and World Championship ...

. Managed by

Jim Cornette James Mark Cornette (born September 17, 1961) is an American author, sports historian, and podcaster who previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, photographer, promoter, tra ...

, Prichard and Lane became the first SMW Tag Team Champions. Following his departure from

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National W ...

(WCW),

Bobby Eaton Bobby Lee Eaton (August 14, 1958 – August 4, 2021) was an American professional wrestler best known as "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton. He was most famous for his work in tag teams, especially as one-half of The Midnight Express. Under the manageme ...

was added to the team. Manager Jim Cornette explained that any two of the three men could defend the belts at any given time, as he had registered the Heavenly Bodies with SMW as a 'corporation'. During their tenure in SMW, the Heavenly Bodies had long running

feuds A feud , also known in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, private war, or mob war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because ...

with the likes of The New Fantastics (

Bobby Fulton James Hines (born October 4, 1960) is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Bobby Fulton. He was one-half of the tag team the Fantastics with Tommy Rogers. Professional wrestling career James Hines started wr ...

and

Jackie Fulton George Hines (born June 1, 1963) is an American retired professional wrestler, best known by his ringname Jackie Fulton, who competed in regional and independent promotions including the American Wrestling Association, East Coast Championship Wre ...

) and

The Rock 'n' Roll Express The Rock 'n' Roll Express is a professional wrestling tag team consisting of professional wrestlers Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton. The duo began teaming together in Memphis in the early 1980s, followed by Mid-South Wrestling (later to be known a ...

(

Ricky Morton Richard Wendell Morton (born September 21, 1956) is an American professional wrestler, currently performing on the independent circuit. For most of his career, Morton has performed with Robert Gibson (wrestler), Robert Gibson as the Rock 'n' Roll ...

and Robert Gibson). Their feuds were often highlighted with hardcore matches and numerous title changes. An agreement between SMW and WCW allowed the bodies to face the Rock 'n' Roll Express at the

SuperBrawl III SuperBrawl III was the third SuperBrawl professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). It took place on February 21, 1993 from the Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, North Carolina in the Unite ...

pay-per-view on February 21, 1993. The Heavenly Bodies lost this match. For a brief time in 1993, Eaton held Smoky Mountain's television championship (the promotion's secondary title) while the Heavenly Bodies were the tag team champions.

Prichard and Del Ray

In May 1993, Lane left the team after losing a loser-of-the-fall leaves town match. The team continued with Lane replaced by Pritchard's "cousin" "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray. Over the next few years, the new duo competed not only in SMW but also in the

(WWF),

Extreme Championship Wrestling Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was an American professional wrestling promotion that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and operated by its parent company HHG Corporation. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as Nationa ...

(ECW), and the

United States Wrestling Association The United States Wrestling Association (USWA) was a professional wrestling promotion based in Memphis, Tennessee. The company was founded when the Memphis-based Continental Wrestling Association merged with the Dallas-based World Class Champions ...

(USWA). They continued their feud with The Rock 'n' Roll Express in these promotions and began new rivalries with the

Steiner Brothers The Steiner Brothers are an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of brothers Rick Steiner (real name Robert Rechsteiner) and Scott Steiner (real name Scott Rechsteiner). The brothers wrestled as amateurs at the University of Michi ...

(

Rick Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

and

Scott Steiner Scott Rechsteiner (born July 29, 1962), better known by the ring name Scott Steiner, is an American professional wrestler. Steiner is perhaps best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and has also wrestled for Jim Crockett ...

), and

The Smoking Gunns The Smoking Gunns were a professional wrestling tag team of kayfabe brothers Billy Gunn (Monty Sopp) and Bart Gunn (Mike Polchlopek). They portrayed cowboys in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1993 to 1996, where they held the WWF T ...

(

Bart Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...

and

Billy Gunn Monty Kip Sopp (born November 1, 1963), better known by his ring name Billy Gunn, is an American professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is signed to the WWE under a Legends contract and All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he also perfo ...

). In July 1993, SMW's working agreement with the WWF allowed the Heavenly Bodies and The Rock 'n' Roll Express to wrestle on the organization's

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

shows. Prichard and Del Ray unsuccessfully challenged for the

WWF Tag Team Championship WWF may refer to: Computing and games *WWF (file format), a campaign for unprintable PDF documents *Windows Workflow Foundation, a software component of the .NET Framework *''Words with Friends'', a mobile computer game franchise Non-profit orga ...

at SummerSlam 1993 but captured the SMW Tag Team Championship against The Rock 'n' Roll Express three months later at Survivor Series 1993. During their time in the WWF, they wrestled a tour for

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Puroresu, Japanese professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on October 21, 1972, by Giant Baba after he left the Japanese Wrestling Association to create his own promotion. Ma ...

in May 1994, and returned to SMW in the summer of 1994 to feud with teams like The Rock 'n' Roll Express, The Thrillseekers (

Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by the ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-Canadian professional wrestler, rock musician, and actor. As a wrestler, he has been signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) , where he ...

and

Lance Storm Lance Timothy Evers (; born April 3, 1969), known professionally by his ring name Lance Storm, is a Canadians, Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he works as a producer. He is best known ...

) and

The Gangstas The Gangstas was a professional wrestling tag team and stable, consisting of New Jack and Mustafa Saed in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). The group originally started as a three-man group with D'Lo Brown in Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW), ...

(

New Jack Jerome Young (January 3, 1963 – May 14, 2021) was an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name New Jack. He was best known for his time with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), where he became notorious for his willingn ...

and

Mustafa Saed Jamal Mustafa (born Terrance Ladd Blalock; September 30, 1963), better known by his ring name Mustafa Saed, is an American professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Smoky Mountain Wrestling and Extre ...

). In 1995, The Bodies defeated

PG-13 The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion picture ...

(

J. C. Ice James Dundee (né Cruickshanks; born 5 July 1971) is an Australian-American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the United States Wrestling Association (USWA), the WWE, World Wrestling Federati ...

and

Wolfie D Kelly Warren Wolfe (born December 7, 1973) is an American retired professional wrestler. Wolfe is perhaps best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) under the ring name Wolfi ...

) to capture the USWA Tag Team Championship. Later in the year, Prichard and Del Ray also competed in ECW, aligning themselves with

Raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

(see

Raven's Nest Raven's Nest was a professional wrestling stable led by Raven that was present in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) between 1995 and 1997. Later, Raven created other incarnations of the group in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) such as The ...

) to face off against

The Public Enemy ''The Public Enemy'' (''Enemies of the Public'' in the UK) is a 1931 American pre-Code gangster film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The film was directed by William A. Wellman, and starring James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods ...

(

Rocco Rock Theodore James Petty (September 1, 1953 – September 21, 2002) was an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name "Flyboy" Rocco Rock. Rock is best known for his appearances in Eastern Championship Wrestling / Extreme Championsh ...

and

Johnny Grunge Michael Lynn Durham (July 10, 1965 – February 16, 2006) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Johnny Grunge. He is known for his appearances with Eastern/Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestli ...

). Following the November 1995 closure of SMW, the Heavenly Bodies disbanded. Their last match as a team occurred in ECW on December 9, 1995, losing to The Public Enemy. Prichard joined the WWF as Zip of

The Bodydonnas The Bodydonnas were a professional wrestling tag team in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the mid-1990s, consisting of Chris Candido as Skip, Candido's real-life girlfriend Tammy Lynn Sytch as Sunny, and Tom Prichard as Skip's kayfabe cousi ...

while Del Ray competed on the

independent circuit In professional wrestling, the independent circuit (often shortened to the indie circuit or the indies) is the collective name of independently owned promotions which are deemed to be smaller and more regionalized than major national promotions. ...

and in WCW as "Jimmy Graffti". Del Ray died of a heart attack on December 6, 2014.

DeNucci and Nelson

A new Heavenly Bodies team began to compete on the independent circuit around 2000. The New Heavenly Bodies, comprising "Vivacious" Vito DeNucci and "Casanova" Chris Nelson captured the

NWA World Tag Team Championship The NWA World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling World Tag Team Championship, world tag team championship created by the National Wrestling Alliance. From 1948 to 1982, the NWA allowed List of National Wrestling Alliance territories ...

three times, and on occasion, "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray served as their manager. DeNucci and Nelson were previously the longest reigning NWA World Tag Team champions, but have since been surpassed by

America's Most Wanted ''America's Most Wanted'' (often abbreviated as ''AMW'') is an American television program whose first run was produced by 20th Television, and second run is under the Fox Entertainment#Fox Alternative Entertainment, Fox Alternative Entertain ...

. The duo occasionally appear on various independent wrestling shows. The team also wrestled in IPW as Drunk and Disorderly; as well as holding the NWA World Tag Team Championships three times, they have also held the IPW Tag Team Championships among others. On April 3, 2010 the New Heavenly Bodies defeated the Dark City Fight Club ( Jon Davis and

Kory Chavis Kory Chavis is an American professional wrestler, also known by the ring name Rainman. He works for several independent promotions, including Dragon Gate USA, Full Impact Pro, and Evolve. Chavis wrestled with tag team partner Jon Davis as Th ...

) to win the

NWA Florida Tag Team Championship The NWA Florida Tag Team Championship is the primary tag team title in NWA Florida Underground Wrestling. It started out in 1968 as the main tag team title in Championship Wrestling from Florida Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) was ...

. On April 16 DeNucci and Nelson lost the titles back to the Dark City Fight Club.

Golden and Thunder

Eddie Golden Harold Edward Cox (born November 4, 1973), better known by the ring name Eddie Golden, is an American professional wrestler. A member of the Golden wrestling family, he is the father of Evan Golden and the nephew of Bunkhouse Buck. Golden was ...

and K. C. Thunder, former rivals in

Southern States Wrestling Southern States Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Kingsport, Tennessee. Founded by wrestler Beau James in early 1991, SSW (along with NWA Bluegrass) succeeded Smoky Mountain Wrestling as the top prom ...

, teamed together as the Heavenly Bodies throughout the Southeastern United States during 2008. They were occasionally accompanied by their valet Dawn Renea. Although short-lived compared to the prior incarnations, they won the tag team titles in the New Frontier Wrestling Association and challenged the tag champions in

NWA All-Star Wrestling NWA All Star Wrestling (sometimes referred to as NWA Vancouver) is a Canadian professional wrestling promotion, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. All-Star Wrestling folded in 1989. History Early history Although other wrestling promotions e ...

. In one of their last matches together, they wrestled Iron Cross and Stan Lee in a Texas Tornado death match at a middle school fundraiser in

Lebanon, Virginia Lebanon is a town in Russell County, Virginia, United States. The population was 3,424 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Russell County, Virginia, Russell County. History The town of Lebanon was founded in 1818 as per an effort to ...

. According to the pre-match stipulation, the Heavenly Bodies' valet Dawn Renae would have her head shaved if the team failed to win the belts.

Dustin and Justin Corino

In 2015, "Desirable Dustin" and "Gigolo Justin" began teaming as the Heavenly Bodies in the

Global Force Wrestling Global Force Wrestling was an American professional wrestling promotion founded in 2014 by Jeff Jarrett, the co-founder and former President of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and his wife Karen Jarrett. It was owned and operated via its parent ...

promotion. They also wrestled for New Jersey–based promotion, PWS (Pro Wrestling Syndicate), during which time they received permission from Tom Prichard to use the name the Heavenly Bodies. The PWS owners parted ways and Pat Buck, former co-owner of PWS, started WrestlePro. The Heavenly Bodies won the WrestlePro Tag Team titles on January 7, 2016.

Championship and Accomplishments

*Lane and Prichard **

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publishing Group. The maga ...

***PWI ranked them # 73 of the 100 best tag teams of the PWI Years in 2003. **

***

SMW Tag Team Championship The SMW Tag Team Championship was the tag team title in Smoky Mountain Wrestling Smoky Mountain Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that held events in the Appalachian area of the United States from October 1991 to December 1995, whe ...

( 5 times) *Prichard and Del Ray **

***PWI ranked them # 73 of the 100 best tag teams of the PWI Years in 2003. **Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling ***PCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) **

***

( 3 times) **

*** USWA Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) *DeNucci and Nelson **Coastal Championship Wrestling ***CCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) **

National Wrestling Alliance The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion and governing body owned by Billy Corgan and operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948, the NWA be ...

***

( 3 times) **Pro Wrestling Fusion ***

( 1 time) **Southern Championship Wrestling ***SCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) **Pro Wrestling Syndicate ***PWS Tag Team Championship (1 time) **WrestlePro ***WrestlePro Tag Team Championship (1 time) *Golden and Thunder **New Frontier Wrestling Association ***NFWA Tag Team Championship (1 time)

References

External links

The Heavenly Bodies at Online World of Wrestling

Vito DeNucci Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heavenly Bodies, The Extreme Championship Wrestling teams and stables Smoky Mountain Wrestling teams and stables United States Wrestling Association teams and stables World Championship Wrestling teams and stables WWE teams and stables