Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Stevie Richards
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
- For similar names see the disambiguation page Stephen Richards
Michael Manna  |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Steve Richards Stevie Richards Big Stevie Cool Steven Richards |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) |
| Weight | 190 lbs (86 kg) |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) |
| Billed weight | 220 lbs (107 kg) |
| Born | October 9, 1971 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Resides | Navarre, Florida |
| Billed from | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Trained by | Mike Sharpe Jimmy Jannetty Glen Osbourne |
| Debut | February 25, 1992 |
Michael Manna[citation needed] (born October 9, 1971)[citation needed] is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. Best known by his ring name, Stevie Richards, Manna has previously worked for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and, briefly, World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He has held the WWE Hardcore Championship 22 times. He is also a two time ECW Tag Team Champion.
Contents |
Career
Stevie Richards was trained at Iron Mike Sharpe's wrestling school in Brick Township, New Jersey after being discovered by Dan Haney of the World Wide Wrestling Alliance based out of Colmar/Hatfield PA[1].
Extreme Championship Wrestling
On February 25, 1992, Steven Richards had the honor of being one of the participants in the first ever ECW match, in a 20-minute time limit draw with Jimmy Jannetty.
Before the arrival of Raven in ECW, "Dancin'" Stevie Richards had a 'meta gimmick' of mockingly adopting the persona of other wrestlers.
ECW announcer/color commentator Joey Styles frequently described the Richards character as a "clueless putz".
When it was announced that Scott Levy, then known by relatively lightweight gimmicks (ie, Scotty 'the Body' Anthony, Scotty Flamingo, and Johnny Polo), was coming to ECW, Richards began adopting and mocking those gimmicks. One of the first things Levy did in ECW in his new gimmick as Raven was thrash "Stevie Flamingo" soundly.
From that point on, Steven Richards acted as a flunkie for Raven in ECW, calling him "Boss".
While teaming with Raven, Richards won the ECW Tag Team Championship on two occasions.
After a dog collar match against The Pitbulls, which Richards lost, Stevie was thought of as a major superstar. Raven was in the locker room for most of that match.
Richards was also part of the bWo, a parody of the nWo. At one point, he hinted that he was bringing the band KISS [2] to perform. It ended up being the bWo in KISS regalia, lip-synching. This was quickly 'cleaned up' by The Sandman.
The highlight of his ECW career was perhaps participating in the main event of the first ECW pay-per-view, Barely Legal. He wrestled Terry Funk and The Sandman in a Three Way Dance to determine the number one contender to the ECW World Championship.
Richards would also do a telephone line for ECW under the name, Lloyd Van Buren. However, he would not wrestle under that name.
World Championship Wrestling
In May of 1997, Stevie suffered a neck injury so severe that he announced his retirement, before recovering and signing with WCW. Many people, especially Paul Heyman, debate the legitimacy of the injury to this day. Stevie wrestled briefly as a member of Raven's Flock but failed his physical exams and left WCW in October of the same year. Stevie commented on The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD that Raven had told him that he was only there to be his "bitch lackey", and that he would get him fired if he pushed for more of a larger role, knowing both would suffer for demanding more than what was above their current status.
World Wrestling Entertainment
Stevie Richards, with the bWo, was one of the first ECW performers to perform on WWF programming, during a cross-promotional appearance.
In 1999, Richards went to the WWF in a full-time capacity. He would make his WWF debut on the August 15, 1999 episode of Sunday Night HEAT. After briefly using the Dude Love persona (he asked Mick Foley if he could use it and Foley agreed), being associated with the Dudley Boyz, bringing back the mocking gimmick, and teaming up with his old partner Blue Meanie, Richards got a haircut and formed a heel stable called Right to Censor (based on the WWF's then problems with the Parents Television Council organization). He changed his name to Steven Richards and became a manager for the many wrestlers that he recruited. When Chyna was featured in Playboy magazine, Richards demanded a match between Chyna's associate Eddie Guerrero and Val Venis. After Chyna had depantsed Richards leaving him in his white socks and blue briefs, costing Venis the match, Richards and his stable feuded against her.
Soon after the Right to Censor stable broke up, Richards joined The Alliance as the manager of KroniK briefly before Kronik was released. Richards remained on the brand's "B" shows until Team Alliance lost at Survivor Series 2001. Richards was fired along with the rest of the alliance roster by Vince McMahon until Ric Flair was able to save his job and get him drafted over to the RAW brand. There, Steven Richards began using the gimmick of a psychotic jobber and became a 22-time Hardcore Champion trading it several times with Bubba Ray Dudley, Booker T, Crash Holly, Shawn Stasiak, Justin Credible, Bradshaw, Terri, and Tommy Dreamer.
Richards eventually formed an alliance with Victoria in late 2002 as a psychotic couple helping each other win their matches. Richards also helped Victoria retain her WWE Women's Championship.
As Victoria started to make her latest face turn, the duo quietly separated. In August of 2004, Richards began dressing in drag and helping Victoria win matches. He was finally unmasked at Unforgiven when saving Victoria from then heel, Trish Stratus, and Tyson Tomko, but ended up losing an impromptu match to Tomko. Richards made a name for himself as one of the mainstays of Sunday Night HEAT and became the self-proclaimed "General Manager" of "Stevie Night HEAT". After the death of Richard's friend Crash Holly, Richards would wear tights with a similar design to the ones worn by Crash, as a tribute.
Richards's role as a jobber has been at times physically tasking and he was legitimately injured during the RAW debut match of Chris Masters in February 2005. After returning from injury, Richards faced Masters in a rematch but lost to Masters for a second time.
Richards made an appearance at the ECW reunion event ECW One Night Stand 2005, reuniting with his bWo comrades and proclaiming "We have only three words for you. We're – taking – over!"
SmackDown!
Richards was traded to SmackDown! on June 30, 2005 and reprised the bWo group with Nova and The Blue Meanie. At the Great American Bash, the bWo lost to The Mexicools (Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis, and Super Crazy) in a six-man tag team match.
Richards went on to become the main eventer of WWE Velocity (much like his time on HEAT) and began slowly dropping the bWo gimmick as he jobbed to the likes of Hardcore Holly, Vito, and Booker T. After a while Steven Richards would not be used on WWE SmackDown! or even WWE Velocity, disappearing for over half a year. Richards made his return to the ring during an 18-Man pre-show Battle Royal before WrestleMania 22.
ECW
Shortly after the introduction of the ECW brand in 2006, Richards left the SmackDown! brand to join the ECW brand, starting with the WWE vs. ECW Head to Head show on June 7, 2006. Richards went on to appear on ECW's weekly show under his old ring name of Stevie Richards, though his Titantron video and the on-screen display would still refer to him as Steven.
Richards soon returned to his heel persona, selling out the other ECW Originals and siding with the newer stars. He picked up his first win on ECW's weekly show on September 5, 2006, against Balls Mahoney, after interference from Kevin Thorn, who was feuding with Mahoney at the time.
Richards was part of the new ECW brand's first pay-per-view, December to Dismember, defeating Rene Dupree in a pre-PPV dark match. At WWE One Night Stand 2007, he served as a lumberjack in the Kane vs. Mark Henry match.
Richards wrestled CM Punk six times from February to July 2007, losing each time.
In mid-2007, Richards turned face again due to fan reaction, and teamed with Tommy Dreamer against the New Breed on house shows, replacing Sandman (who was drafted to RAW) in the ECW Originals.
On July 24, 2007, Richards defeated Kevin Thorn in an upset after reversing a crucifix powerbomb into a backslide pin. This was Richards' first victory on WWE television since September 2006. A week later a re-match took place throughout which Stevie was dominated, however he defeated Thorn once again via roll-up. On August 7, he got ambushed by Kevin Thorn while giving an interview backstage.
He would once again defeat Kevin Thorn on August 14 in a Singles Match on ECW by DQ after the referee declared a disqualification when Thorn continued to massively "destroy" Stevie Richards after Thorn had already won. He would then get revenge by ambushing Thorn while giving an interview the next week. Their feud would continue with Richards teaming up with Tommy Dreamer and CM Punk on different occasions against Thorn and Elijah Burke with Richards losing and winning a match. Richards was eliminated from the elimination tournament for the ECW Championship on the September 18 edition of ECW. He has been absent from WWE programming since.
In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
-
- Stevie Kick / Morality Check (Superkick)
- Stevie-T (Double underhook DDT)
- Stevie Bomb (Sheer drop release powerbomb) - as Big Stevie Cool
- Koji clutch
- Full nelson camel clutch
- Sidewalk slam
- Double knee facebreaker
- Snake eyes
- Sitout facebuster
- Single arm DDT
- Hand raise appeal followed by a suplex
- Repeated Irish whips with knee lifts into the opponent and then followed by a suplex
- Various stiff kicks to the head and back
- Managers
-
- Chastity
- Francine
- Raven
- Victoria
- Alexis Laree
- Elisabeth Rouaffer
- Cassidy Riley
- Nicknames
-
- Dancin' Stevie Richards
- Stevie Night Heat
- Parody characters
-
- Baron Von Stevie (parody of Baron Von Raschke)
- Big Stevie Cool (parody of "Big Daddy Cool" Kevin Nash)
- Chief of Staff Blue-Wheat (parody of "Chief of Staff" Orlando Jordan)
- "Flyboy" Stevie Rock (parody of "Flyboy" Rocco Rock)
- Lord Stevie Regal (parody of Lord Steven Regal)
- Stevie Alexander Bagwell (parody of Marcus Alexander Bagwell)
- Stevie Blackman (parody of Steve Blackman)
- Stevie Flamingo (parody of Scotty Flamingo)
- Stevie Venis (parody of Val Venis)
- "Superstar" Stevie Richards (parody of "Superstar" Steve Austin)
- Wrestlers managed
Outside of Wrestling
As well as being a professional wrestler, Stevie runs a website that reviews electronics, named T4Show.com
Championships and accomplishments
- Allied Powers Wrestling Federation
-
- APWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
-
- ECW World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Raven
- Liberty All-Star Wrestling
-
- LAW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
-
- MCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Earl the Pearl
- Mid Eastern Wrestling Federation
-
- MEWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
-
- NWA 2000 Heavyweight Championship
- Steel City Wrestling
-
- SCW Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Frank Stalletto (1), and The Blue Meanie (1)
- Ultimate Championship Wrestling
-
- UCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
-
- WWWA Intercontinental Championship (1 time)
References
External links
Categories: Articles lacking sources from January 2007 | All articles lacking sources | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since December 2007 | 1971 births | American bloggers | American professional wrestlers | World Championship Wrestling alumni | Extreme Championship Wrestling alumni | Living people | People from Philadelphia | Italian-Americans | The Attitude Era