Mikey Whipwreck

For other people named John Watson, see John Watson (disambiguation).
Mikey Whipwreck

Mikey Whipwreck in 2010.
Birth name John Watson[1]
Born (1973-06-04) June 4, 1973
Long Island, New York, United States
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Mikey Whipwreck
Billed height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[2]
Billed weight 187 lb (85 kg)[2]
Billed from Buffalo, New York
Trained by Mick Foley[2]
Debut 1994[1]
Retired 2015[1]

John Watson[1] (born June 4, 1973) is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Mikey Whipwreck. He is best known for his career with Extreme Championship Wrestling,[2] where he became the third ECW Triple Crown Champion.

Professional wrestling career

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1993–1998)

Before becoming a professional wrestler, Whipwreck joined Extreme Championship Wrestling and was part of their ring crew, who would usually work for free as long as they could have fun in the ring themselves before and after shows had finished. Booker Paul Heyman asked Mikey to wrestle competitively in ECW after he watched Whipwreck practice a variety of aerial maneuvers before a live show began (Joey Styles states on an episode of The History of ECW it was he who suggested that Heyman check Whipwreck out). The short, lightly built Whipwreck was made a natural underdog who would absorb a great deal of damage in the course of his matches, without ever landing an offensive manuveur. While in ECW, he received further training from fellow ECW wrestlers Taz, Perry Saturn, Tommy Dreamer and Mick Foley among others. On May 15, 1994, Whipwreck defeated Pitbull #1 for the World Television Championship, his first title in ECW. He would hold the title until August 13 of that year.

Only two weeks after losing the World Television Title, Whipwreck's big break came on August 27, 1994. That night, Terry Funk was to team with Cactus Jack against the World Tag Team Champions, The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock). Funk, however, left the company shortly before the match was to take place and, as he later recounted in his first autobiography, Cactus and Paul Heyman realized they were in a tough spot because the fans had been looking forward to the match for some time. While bouncing names off each other, Cactus and Heyman agreed on Whipwreck and he scored the winning fall in the match. The unlikely duo held the titles for five weeks, losing them back to The Public Enemy.

Following the title loss, Whipwreck began to ascend the ranks, while also expanding his moveset in the meantime. On October 28, 1995, Whipwreck scored the biggest victory of his career by defeating The Sandman in a ladder match for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, becoming the youngest ECW Champion in history. During his reign as World Heavyweight Champion, Whipwreck defeated future WWF (World Heavyweight) Champion and Hall of Famer "The Extreme Superstar" Steve Austin with a sunset flip. On December 9, 1995, Whipwreck re-lost the title to Sandman in a three way dance also involving Austin.

On December 29, 1995 in Rego Park, New York at Holiday Hell, Whipwreck faced 2 Cold Scorpio in a "winner take all" match for Scorpio's World Television Championship and the Tag Team Championship Scorpio held with The Sandman. Whipwreck won the match and the titles, and his former partner Cactus Jack would declare himself the other half of the Tag Team Champions immediately thereafter. However, circumstances were different with this reign as Cactus had turned his back on the fans some time earlier while Whipwreck continued to be popular with them. This made for an uneasy alliance.

On January 5, 1996 Scorpio regained the World Television Title and two months later, Whipwreck and Jack lost their titles to The Eliminators (Perry Saturn and John Kronus). Soon afterwards, Cactus Jack turned on Whipwreck, blaming him for their loss and starting a feud between the two. Around this time, word began to circulate that Cactus was leaving ECW for the World Wrestling Federation; as a result he fans began to heavily support Whipwreck during this feud. The feud came to its climax during a match between Cactus Jack and Shane Douglas, who was making his return to ECW after a somewhat uneventful run in the WWF. Whipwreck, despite Cactus begging for his help, assisted Douglas in beating down his former partner after the match and set up a singles match between the two for March in what would prove to be Cactus' farewell match in ECW. Whipwreck was defeated following several chair shots and a piledriver.

World Championship Wrestling (1998–1999)

Mikey Whipwreck was an important part of ECW for the next two years before leaving for World Championship Wrestling in late 1998. He made his WCW debut at Uncensored, unsuccessfully challenging Billy Kidman for the Cruiserweight Championship. He later left WCW after several months, disillusioned by his lack of a push. While in WCW, he generally wrestled in the cruiserweight division or competed against fellow ECW alumni, which made him have second thoughts about staying in WCW.

Return to ECW (1999–2001)

Along with The Sandman, Whipwreck returned to ECW in 1999. Aligning himself with The Sinister Minister, during in which, Whipwreck changed his gimmick from a lovable loser to a mad-pyromaniac. After going through a losing streak, Whipwreck won his third and final World Tag Team Championship with Yoshihiro Tajiri as his tag team partner, with both men forming The Unholy Alliance. Rather than competing for the World Heavyweight Championship, Whipwreck primarily fought against lighter, faster wrestlers, giving rise to some of the most well-received matches of his career. He and Tajiri eventually lost the titles to The Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke). Soon afterwards, ECW went bankrupt.

Independent circuit and retirement (2001–2015)

In early 2001, Whipwreck announced his intention to retire in May 2002 if he was not hired by the World Wrestling Federation or BRC in the interim, expressing an interest in pursuing a career in pyrotechnics. By June 11 he had decided to retire by September of that year, as his wrestling style had begun resulting in a number of nagging injuries, including two herniated discs, damaged knees, a damaged right shoulder and a jaw cracked to the point of not even being able to eat hard food. In tribute to Whipwreck, Border City Wrestling hosted "The Mikey Whipwreck Retirement Bash" on August 29, 2001 at the Cicciaro Club in Windsor, Ontario and featured a number of prominent ECW performers, such as Tommy Dreamer and Sabu. Whipwreck wrestled his American retirement match on October 20, 2001, defeating Little Guido.

Whipwreck broke his retirement before long, returning in 2003. He wrestled in several different promotions, such as Ring of Honor, where he would often team with or against some of the wrestlers he has trained. He also made a one-time appearance in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he teamed with The Sandman at one of TNA's weekly pay-per-views against The Gathering (CM Punk and Julio Dinero) in a losing effort. He later appeared at Hardcore Homecoming, ECW reunion tour organized by fellow ECW alum Shane Douglas, in mid-2005. On the Extreme Reunion portion of the tour, he teamed with Chris Chetti to defeat Simon Diamond and C.W. Anderson on June 10. Two days later at the first-ever ECW One Night Stand, Whipwreck, Yoshihiro Tajiri and The Sinister Minister reunited for one night only as Whipwreck and The Minister stood in Tajiri's corner during his three way dance against Little Guido and Super Crazy.

During April 2006, Whipwreck worked as an agent for Liberty States Wrestling. At the second ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view on June 11, 2006, Whipwreck was seen on camera celebrating with other ECW wrestlers after Rob Van Dam won the WWE Championship.

On February 21, 2008, in his final New England wrestling appearance, Whipwreck was set to team with The Blue Meanie to challenge for the NECW Tag Team Championship at New England Championship Wrestling's Genesis 8 event in Quincy, Massachusetts, but due to car troubles Whipwreck was unable to attend the event, causing The Blue Meanie to pick a replacement in Nick Westgate.

In 2010, Whipwreck declined any involvement in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's ECW reunion show, Hardcore Justice.[3]

On September 11, 2010, Whipwreck and Syther defeated Big Time Rush (Tony Burma and Ryan Rush) to win the New York Wrestling Connection Tag Team Championship.[4]

On May 24, 2012, Whipwreck made his debut for Tajiri's new Wrestling New Classic (WNC) promotion in Tokyo, teaming with Tajiri in a tag team hardcore match, where they defeated Gedo and Jado.[5] Two days later, Whipwreck and Tajiri defeated Yo-Hey and Yusuke Kodama in another tag team hardcore match in Osaka.[6] Whipwreck's tour of WNC concluded on May 27, when he, Tajiri and Kana were defeated in a six-person main event by Akira, Dave Finlay and Syuri.[7] Whipwreck returned to WNC on August 30, when he, Kana and Tajiri were defeated in a Barbed Wire Board Deathmatch by Akira, StarBuck and Syuri, with Akira pinning Whipwreck for the win.[8][9] Whipwreck, Kana and Tajiri were also defeated in a rematch the following day in Osaka.[10] On September 1, in the third and final Barbed Wire Board Deathmatch between the two teams, Whipwreck pinned StarBuck to win the match for his team.[11]

On March 12, 2015, Watson announced he will "let Mikey Whipwreck fade into the past.".[12]

On September 14, 2015 it was announced that Mikey Whipwreck will be a playable character in the WWE 2K16 video game made by 2K Sports to be released on October 27, 2015 as a part of the 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin Showcase mode.[13]

In wrestling

Finishing moves

Signature moves

Managers

Entrance themes

Notable wrestlers trained by Whipwreck

Championships and accomplishments

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Watson, John; (formerly) Whipwreck, Mikey. "Saying Goodbye to Mikey Whipwreck". pwinsider.com. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Mikey Whipwreck profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
  3. ↑ Paglino, Nick (29 July 2010). "Several Wrestlers Turn Down TNA's Hardcore Justice Invite". WrestleZone.
  4. 1 2 Lippe, Kenny (2010-09-12). "9/11 NYWC results in New York: Bryan Danielson works second show on Saturday, newly-signed TNA wrestler wrestle". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
  5. ↑ "Wrestling New Classic「旗揚げ戦」". Sports Navi (in Japanese). Yahoo!. 2012-05-24. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
  6. ↑ 5・26大阪大会　試合結果. Wrestling New Classic (in Japanese). 2012-05-27. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
  7. ↑ 5・27広島大会 試合結果. Wrestling New Classic (in Japanese). 2012-05-27. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  8. ↑ 8・30後楽園ホール大会 全試合結果. Wrestling New Classic (in Japanese). 2012-08-30. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  9. ↑ 有刺鉄線ボードデスマッチ3連戦、まずは反体制が本隊に勝利！野崎は真琴に圧勝！大原は2人の師匠に暴挙！. Battle News (in Japanese). 2012-08-30. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  10. ↑ 8・31大阪ムーブ・オンアリーナ大会 全試合結果. Wrestling New Classic (in Japanese). 2012-08-31. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
  11. ↑ "WNC軍、一矢報いる！ 9・1豊橋 名豊ビル大会 全試合結果". Wrestling New Classic (in Japanese). 2012-09-01. Retrieved 2012-09-01.
  12. ↑ http://www.pwinsider.com/article/92246/saying-goodbye-to-mikey-whipwreck.html?p=1
  13. ↑ "IGN'S Weekly WWE 2K16 Roster Reveal". IGN.com. 31 August 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 World Championship Wrestling (1999-04-26). "Fatal Four Way Hardcore Hatch; Hak vs Whipwreck vs Horace vs Knobbs". WCW Monday Nitro.
  15. ↑ World Championship Wrestling (1999-06-13). "Mikey Whipwreck vs Van Hammer". WCW Great American Bash.
  16. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=26&nr=164
  17. ↑ "New York Wrestling Connection". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  18. ↑ http://www.nywcwrestling.com/#!nywc-hall-of-fame-2016/ctuq
  19. ↑ "Independent Wrestling Results - August 2003". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-07-05.

References

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