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 projecting ...
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 Wrest ...
, 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, ...
and
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
- 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
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 Wrest ...
(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
The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship originally used in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and later, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the original world title of the ECW ...
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 2010 ...
.
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
The ECW World Television Championship was a professional wrestling television championship in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). It was introduced in 1992 as part of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) affiliate and ECW precursor, Eastern Champio ...
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-W ...
, 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
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 ...
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 Champi ...
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 wrestling, professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Eastern Championship Wrestling from 1992 to 1994, in particular his Feud (professional wrestling) ...
, 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 and
Doug Stahl
Douglas E. Stahl (born February 25, 1963) is an American professional wrestler who currently works in the Independent circuit as one half of the masked Tag team known as The Super Destroyers. The two are best known for their time in Eastern Cham ...
) 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
Badd Company was a professional wrestling tag team in the American Wrestling Association in the late 1980s, which later went by the name the Orient Express. They used the song "Bad Company", by the band of the same name as their theme song.
His ...
(
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 F ...
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 so ...
),
The Sandman
The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes.
Representation in traditional folklore
The Sandman is a traditional charact ...
and J.T. Smith, and
Ian
Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponding to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. It is a popular name in Sc ...
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 Worl ...
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) promo ...
and
Johnny Gunn
Thomas Brandi (born July 9, 1966) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation from 1996 to 1998 under the ring name Salvatore Sincere. Brandi is also known for his appearances with ...
, however, in a nine-second match, on November 13.
Retirement
Hotbody later competed for the
NWA New Jersey
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 ...
, 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
*
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 Wrest ...
**
ECW Heavyweight Championship
The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship originally used in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and later, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the original world title of the ECW ...
(
1 time)
1
**
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 ...
(
3 times) - 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-W ...
and Chris Michaels (2), and Tony Stetson (1)
**
ECW Television Championship
The ECW World Television Championship was a professional wrestling television championship in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). It was introduced in 1992 as part of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) affiliate and ECW precursor, Eastern Champio ...
(
1 time)
*
NWA New Jersey
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 ...
**
NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion ''(New Jersey version)'' (
1 time)
*
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 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 subgenr ...
affiliate named
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 Wrest ...
, 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