John Weiss (born February 19, 1963) is an American retired

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

, better known by his

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projectin ...

Johnny Hotbody. In

Eastern Championship Wrestling HHG Corporation, doing business as Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), was a professional wrestling promotion and media company that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as National Wres ...

, he won the ECW Championship, ECW Tag Team Championship, and ECW Television Championship.

Professional wrestling career

Early career

Johnny Hotbody broke into professional wrestling in the late 1980s after completing his training at The Monster Factory, operated by Larry Sharpe. He made a name for himself in several

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

- based independent promotions before signing with Philadelphia's

Tri-State Wrestling Alliance HHG Corporation, doing business as Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), was a professional wrestling promotion and media company that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as National Wrest ...

(TWA) in 1990. Hotbody had a long-running feud with

Tony Stetson Anthony Matteo (born March 21, 1959) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Hitman" Tony Stetson. He is best known for his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) during the 1990s. Stetson was one of ECW's ini ...

. The TWA closed its doors suddenly in 1991, but was soon replaced by

(later Extreme Championship Wrestling), run by

Tod Gordon Tod Gordon (born June 19, 1955, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American businessman. Gordon is the president of Carver W. Reed Co. Inc, a Philadelphia jewelry store and loan office that was established in 1860. He is also the founder of defu ...

Eastern Championship Wrestling (1992-1993)

On April 26, 1992, Hotbody won the ECW Heavyweight Championship by defeating

Jimmy Snuka James Reiher Snuka (born James Wiley Smith; May 18, 1943 – January 15, 2017) was a Fijian American professional wrestler. He is better known by the ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Snuka wrestled for several promotions from the 1970s to 201 ...

. He held the title for nearly three months, before losing it back to Snuka on July 14. Later that year, on August 12, he became the first ever ECW Television Champion by defeating

Larry Winters Larry Winters (April 14, 1956 – January 27, 2015) was an American professional wrestler and trainer who competed in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and East Coast independent circuit during the 1980s and 90s. He has wrestled in the American Wrestlin ...

. He was later forced to relinquish the title on September 12, 1992, after sustaining a legitimate broken ankle. Upon his return, he formed The Suicide Blondes with

Chris Candido Christopher Barrett Candito (March 21, 1972 – April 28, 2005) was an American professional wrestler. Candito is best remembered for his tenures with promotions such as World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, New Japan Pro- ...

, and, for most of 1993, he competed in tag team competition. He won his first

ECW Tag Team Championship The ECW World Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling world tag team championship in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). It was introduced in National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) affiliate and ECW precursor, Eastern Championship Wrestlin ...

with Candido on April 3, 1993, when they defeated

and Larry Winters.

Chris Michaels William Pierce (born July 13, 1961) is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Chris Michaels. He is best known for his appearances with the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based professional wrestling promotion Eastern Champion ...

was later introduced as the third member of The Suicide Blondes, which resulted in The Suicide Blondes defending the Tag Team Championships under the

Freebird Rule The Fabulous Freebirds were a professional wrestling tag team who attained fame in the 1980s, performing into the 1990s. The team usually consisted of three wrestlers, although in different situations and points in its history, just two performed ...

, which meant that any combination of the three were allowed to defend the championship. He also began a feud with

Tommy Cairo Thomas Cairo (born February 19, 1958) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Eastern Championship Wrestling from 1992 to 1994, in particular his feud with The Sandman. He is the former co-owner of t ...

, attacking him after matches. The Suicide Blondes defeated Cairo and J.T. Smith in a tag team match, and for the next few weeks Hotbody competed against Cairo in matches, losing a standard singles match to him, but winning a

Lumberjack match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

. They lost the Tag Team Championship to

The Super Destroyers The Super Destroyers is a professional wrestling Tag team consisting of Doug Stahl and A. J. Petrucci. They both currently perform on Independent circuit and they are best known for their stint in NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling where they ...

(

A. J. Petrucci Anthony J. Petrucci (born 1951) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation from 1984 to 1986 as A. J. Petruzzi and for his appearances with Eastern Championship Wrestling from 19 ...

and Doug Stahl) on May 15, but the combination of Hotbody and Michaels regained it that same day. Later that year, on October 1, Hotbody, along with his former adversary Stetson, was awarded the Tag Team Championship, after the previous champions, The Dark Patriot and Eddie Gilbert, left the

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

, resulting in the titles being vacated. They had successful title defenses against Badd Company (

Paul Diamond Thomas Boric (born May 11, 1961) is a Croatian retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name Paul Diamond. He is best known for being one half of the tag team Badd Company with Pat Tanaka and for his time in the World Wrestling ...

and

Pat Tanaka Patrick Tanaka (born August 5, 1963) is an American professional wrestler best known for his work in the American Wrestling Association as one half of Badd Company and the World Wrestling Federation as one half of The Orient Express. He is the ...

), The Sandman and J.T. Smith, and Ian and

Axl Rotten Brian Knighton (April 21, 1971 – February 4, 2016), better known by the ring name Axl Rotten, was an American professional wrestler. In the early 1990s, he was a part of the tag team The Bad Breed with Ian Rotten. He had a short stint with Wo ...

over the next month. They dropped the championship to

Tommy Dreamer Thomas James Laughlin (born February 13, 1971), is an American professional wrestler and promoter better known by the ring name Tommy Dreamer. He is signed to Impact Wrestling and is the owner and promoter of the House of Hardcore (HOH) pro ...

and Johnny Gunn, however, in a nine-second match, on November 13.

Retirement

Hotbody later competed for the NWA New Jersey, where he was awarded the New Jersey version of the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship on September 25, 1998. He lost it to Rik Ratchett that same day. After successful tours in several Philadelphia-area independent promotions, Hotbody retired from active competition in 2001.

Championships and accomplishments

** ECW Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time)¹ **

( 3 times) - with

and Chris Michaels (2), and Tony Stetson (1) ** ECW Television Championship ( 1 time) * NWA New Jersey ** NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion ''(New Jersey version)'' ( 1 time) *

**TWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Larry Winters *

World Wrestling Association The World Wrestling Association (WWA) (Asociación Mundial de Lucha Libre in Spanish) is a lucha libre promotion based in the Tijuana-area of Mexico. It was founded in 1986 by Benjamin Mora Jr.. It featured some of Mexico's best ''luchadores'' a ...

**WWA Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times) *Other titles **NAWA United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time) ¹Johnny Hotbody's reign occurred while the promotion was an

NWA NWA or Nwa most commonly refers to: * N.W.A ("Niggaz Wit Attitudes"), a hip hop group from Compton, California, US * National Wrestling Alliance, a professional wrestling organization NWA or Nwa may refer to: Music * New Weird America, a subgen ...

affiliate named

, and was prior to the promotion becoming Extreme Championship Wrestling and the title being declared a world title by ECW.

References

External links

Online World of Wrestling profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hotbody, Johnny 1963 births American male professional wrestlers ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions Living people ECW World Television Champions ECW World Tag Team Champions 20th-century professional wrestlers