Stevie Richards
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- For similar names see the disambiguation page Stephen Richards
| Stevie Richards | |
|---|---|
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| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Steve Richards Stevie Richards[1] Big Stevie Cool[2] Steven Richards[3] |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
| Weight | 190 lb (86 kg) |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 235 lb (107 kg)[1] |
| Born | October 9, 1971 [4] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[4] |
| Resides | Navarre, Florida |
| Billed from | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[1] |
| Trained by | Mike Sharpe Jimmy Jannetty Glen Osbourne |
| Debut | February 25, 1992[4] |
Michael Manna[4] (born October 9, 1971)[4] 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.[5]
Extreme Championship Wrestling
On February 25, 1992, Richards participated 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, 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[6] 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. It was during this match that Richards suffered a severe neck injury which has required numerous surgeries over the years to fix.
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 November 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 pantsed 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.[2] 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.[2] 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.[7]
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 The Sandman (who was drafted to RAW) in the ECW Originals.
On July 24, Richards defeated Thorn in an upset after reversing a crucifix powerbomb into a backslide pin.[8] This was Richards' first victory on WWE television since September 2006. A week later a re-match took place throughout which Richards was dominated, however he defeated Thorn once again via roll-up. On August 7, he got ambushed by Thorn while giving an interview backstage. He would once again defeat Thorn on August 14 by DQ after the referee declared a disqualification when Thorn continued to massively "destroy" 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 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 Chase for the ECW Championship on the September 18 edition of ECW. He was then absent from WWE programming due to having throat surgery.[9]
Almost 5 months later, Richards made his return to ECW on February 12, 2008, defeating a jobber with his signature Stevie-T.[10]
In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
- As Stevie Richards
- Stevie-T (Double underhook implant DDT)
- Stevie Kick[1] / Steven Kick[3] / Morality Check (Superkick)
- Koji Clutch
- Full nelson camel clutch
- Double knee facebreaker
- Sitout facebuster
- Single arm DDT
- Hand raise appeal accompanied by scream followed by a suplex
- Repeated Irish whips with knee lifts into the opponent and then followed by a suplex
- As Big Stevie Cool
- Stevie Bomb (Sheer drop release powerbomb) - Copied from Kevin Nash
- Sidewalk slam
- Snake eyes
- Managers
- Chastity
- Francine
- Victoria[2]
- 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
Stevie blogs and podcasts on reviews of electronic and technology products as Michael Manna on T4Show.com. He also contributes on The Tiny Political Show weekly on Thursday at 10 eastern.[citation needed]
Championships and accomplishments
- Allied Powers Wrestling Federation
- APWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Extreme Championship Wrestling
- ECW World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Raven
- Heartland Wrestling Association
- Liberty All-Star Wrestling
- LAW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Maryland Championship Wrestling
- MCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Earl "The Pearl" Joshi
- Mid Eastern Wrestling Federation
- MEWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA New Jersey
- NWA 2000
- NWA 2000 Heavyweight Championship
- Steel Championship Wrestling
- SCW Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Rahul Kay (1), The Blue Meanie (1) and Frank Stalletto (1)
- Ultimate Championship Wrestling
- UCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- World Wrestling Federation | World Wrestling Entertainment
- World Wide Wrestling Alliance
- WWWA Intercontinental Championship (1 time)
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Stevie Richards Bio. WWE. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- ^ a b c d Ian Hamilton. Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition (p.115)
- ^ a b Steven Richards Bio. WWE. Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
- ^ a b c d e Stevie Richards Profile. Online World Of Wrestling. Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
- ^ Profile at gerweck.net
- ^ bWo KISS from Daily Motion
- ^ Jen Hunt (September 5, 2006). D-Generation extreme. WWE. Retrieved on 2008-01-03.
- ^ Rote, Andrew (2007-07-24). The face of extreme. WWE. Retrieved on 2008-03-08.
- ^ Joey Styles (2007-12-28). Most Extreme Player for 12/28/07. WWE. Retrieved on 2008-01-05. “in October, Stevie endured the first of five surgeries that would continue through the remainder of 2007”
- ^ Rote, Andrew (2008-02-12). Finding the way into No Way Out. WWE. Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
References
- Ian Hamilton (2006). Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition. Lulu.com. ISBN 1411612108.
