Kevin Sullivan (wrestler)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
Kevin Sullivan Flag of the United States
Statistics
Ring name(s) Johnny West
Kevin Caldwell
Kevin Sullivan
Masked Lucifer
Merlin the Wizard
The Taskmaster
Billed height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Billed weight 252 lb (115 kg)
Born October 26, 1949 (1949-10-26) (age 58)
Boston, Massachusetts Flag of Massachusetts
Debut October 1970

Kevin Francis Sullivan (born October 26, 1949), is an American professional wrestler and booker (professional wrestling). He is perhaps best known for his feuds with the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and Mike Graham in the NWA's Florida Championship Wrestling, and against Hulk Hogan and the Four Horsemen (specifically Chris Benoit) in World Championship Wrestling.

Contents

Sullivan started wrestling in October 1970 in Georgia. Since 1972 he was a face and teamed with Mike Graham in Championship Wrestling from Florida.

In 1976, he wrestled briefly for the World Wrestling Federation.

In 1981, he turned on Graham and started a feud, wrestling as a heel in Championship Wrestling From Florida and Southwest Championship Wrestling.

He became the leader of a cult which worshiped a god called "Abudadeen". He had a stable of wrestlers and valets to help him with his nefarious doing among them his wife Nancy, then known as Fallen Angel, who combined an evil attitude with model-quality looks. His stable included "Maniac" Mark Lewin (a.k.a. The Purple Haze), "Maniac" Mike Davis (who was put under a "spell" to act like Dusty Rhodes), Jake Roberts, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Buzz Sawyer (whom he led to the ring on a chain), Maha Singh, Karma, The Lock (a.k.a. Winona Littleheart) and Luna Vachon. Oliver Humperdink managed them. They feuded with Dusty Rhodes, Bugsy McGraw, Blackjack Mulligan, Barry Windham and Mike Graham.

This group broke up by 1986, and Sullivan feuded with Bad News Allen and Mike Rotunda. Sullivan spent from September to December in 1986 feuding with Brad and Steve Armstrong in Alabama's NWA Southeastern Championship Wrestling.

He was back in Florida in 1987 and feuding with Lex Luger and Scott Hall. After a brief face run in which he feuded with Dory Funk, Jr. and Sir Oliver Humperdink, he left NWA Florida for the main NWA circuit in December 1987.

Sullivan formed The Varsity Club upon arrival in the NWA with Mike Rotunda and Rick Steiner. They immediately started feuding with Jimmy Garvin because Sullivan wanted his wife Precious for himself. This feud lasted a while with Sullivan "breaking" Garvin's leg at one point.

Steiner left the group and was replaced by "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Dan Spivey. They feuded with Dusty Rhodes, the Road Warriors, Rick Steiner and Eddie Gilbert. Sullivan even attacked Gilbert's wife Missy Hyatt. By late 1989, the Varsity Club was gone, and Sullivan formed Slaughterhouse with Cactus Jack and Buzz Sawyer to feud with Rotunda.[1]

Sullivan took time off in late 1990 and returned in early 1991 as the manager of One Man Gang, Black Blood, and the Angel of Death. They cut El Gigante's hair and had a brief feud. Sullivan also was the masked Merlin the Wizard briefly to manage Oz.

In 1992, Sullivan went to Smoky Mountain Wrestling and reunited with his wife Nancy, now called Devil Angel. He feuded with Brian Lee and managed the Nightstalker.

In early 1993 Sullivan and Nancy, now known as Woman went to Extreme Championship Wrestling, where he teamed with Tasmaniac. The two won the Tag Team Titles and feuded with The Public Enemy. Sullivan also had a bloody feud with Abdullah The Butcher. Sullivan left Woman behind and headed to World Championship Wrestling in spring 1994.

He formed a tag team with his "brother" Dave Sullivan, a dyslexic character who referred to himself as "Evad" who was being picked on by The Nasty Boys (Jerry Sags and Brian Knobbs). He enlisted Cactus Jack's help and beat them for the Tag Team Titles. Dave was injured and out of action for a while and Sullivan split with Cactus after losing the titles and he defeated Cactus in a Loser Leaves WCW Match at Fall Brawl on September 18, 1994.

Dave came back and dressed like his idol, Hulk Hogan. This infuriated Sullivan, who hated Hogan, and they started feuding. Sullivan brought in Hogan's best friend, Ed Leslie, as The Butcher to feud with him. He also brought in Avalanche and called the trio the 3 Faces of Fear. They feuded with Hogan, Randy Savage and Sting.

In early 1995, after not being able to end Hogan's career, Avalanche left the group and Sullivan turned on Butcher. Sullivan immediately started putting together a new group with the help of his mentor, The Master. They called it the Dungeon of Doom, which included Kamala, The Barbarian, Meng, Manager Jimmy Hart, Shark (formerly Avalanche), Zodiac (formerly Butcher, formerly Brutus Beefcake), Yeti, Hugh Morrus, One Man Gang and for a very short time, Vader and Big Bubba Rogers.

Managed by Sullivan's new gimmick, The Taskmaster, four Dungeon of Doom members would lose to The Hulkamaniacs in a WarGames match at September's Fall Brawl. As a result of Hogan's win over Zodiac, he got to spend five minutes alone with The Taskmaster. The Dungeon then feuded with the Four Horsemen, and Sullivan acquired a certain disliking for Brian Pillman (this was during the infamous worked shoot angle—see Pillman's article for details).

Once Sullivan sent Pillman packing, the Dungeon and the Horsemen rejoined forces to get rid of Hulk Hogan and his friends. They brought in The Giant, Maxx Muscle and Big Bubba Rogers to help. They even formed the Alliance To End Hulkamania with the Horsemen in a failed attempt to do so. When they couldn't get the job done, Sullivan and Chris Benoit of the Horsemen picked up where Pillman left off and started a feud. This was a brutal feud and lasted over a year, with Benoit "stealing" Woman from Sullivan in the course of the feud. Sullivan brought in Jacquelyn to help him and also added Konnan to the Dungeon.

Sullivan lost a retirement match to Benoit at Bash at the Beach on July 13, 1997. He was already the booker so it gave him more time to do that job. Sullivan stayed on as the booker or a member of the WCW booking committee and made a brief onscreen appearance with the reformed Varsity Club of Rotunda and Rick Steiner with their cheerleader, Leia Meow. After a couple of months, he was back off TV.

Sullivan is among those blamed for the 2000 departure of Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn from WCW, though by no direct action of his own. After the departure of Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, the resulting chaos led to Sullivan's promotion to head booker. This move infuriated a number of WCW wrestlers, given Sullivan's history of professional rivalries (notably Benoit) and poor decisions. Sullivan booked Benoit to win the WCW title at Souled Out 2000 in a desperate attempt to quell the uprising, but Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero and Saturn would quit the night after, immediately signing with the WWF. Sullivan would be fired before WCW's sale in 2001.

In 2003, Sullivan made one surprise appearance in Total Nonstop Action wrestling, as the officiator in the first Clockwork Orange House of Fun match. As the match was largely rules-free, and had little need of a referee, he said he was there primarily to facilitate the violence between the two contestants.

Sullivan still makes occasional appearances on the independent circuit, mainly in Florida.

1Though Sullivan and Taz won the title twice, only their first reign is recognized officially by World Wrestling Entertainment. The reign also occurred prior to ECW's withdrawal from the NWA and prior to ECW declaring their tag title a "World" title.

During the mid-1990s, Sullivan, the then World Championship Wrestling booker, scripted a storyline in which Nancy Daus (his wife) would leave him in favor of his on-screen rival, Chris Benoit. During the execution of the storyline, Daus legitimately left Sullivan in favour of Benoit, divorcing Sullivan in 1997 and marrying Benoit in 2000. [2]

Between June 22 and June 25, 2007, Benoit murdered Daus and their son, Daniel, before committing suicide. Following the incident, Sullivan expressed shock at Benoit's actions, stating "I'm in the dark...I wrestled with him a lot. I thought he was a great performer...it was shocking, just shocking." [2] [3]

Kevin and his current wife Linda own a gym in the Florida Quays called Froggy's Fitness. Kevin Sullivan is one of the main focuses in the upcoming independent documentary Card Subject To Change, directed by Tim Disbrow.

  1. ^ Foley, M. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.167)
  2. ^ a b Schramm, C. (June 25, 2007). Looking back on the career of "Woman". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved on June 27, 2007.
  3. ^ Goodman, B. (June 27, 2007). Wrestler Killed Wife and Son, Then Himself. New York Times. Retrieved on June 27, 2007.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Sullivan_%28wrestler%29"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.