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52-572: 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 World Championship Wrestling in 1991, and was better known for his matches in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1993 to 1999. Bad Breed competed in ECW's tag team division in

104-714: A Taipei Deathmatch . Following his feud with Ian Rotten, it was announced on the July 4 episode of Hardcore TV that Axl would receive his very first opportunity for the World Heavyweight Championship against The Sandman at Heat Wave , where Rotten failed to win the title. Rotten then floundered in the mid-card, defeating J.T. Smith at November to Remember . Rotten lost to the debuting Rob Van Dam in RVD's first ECW match at House Party on January 5, 1996. Rotten would then team with El Puerto Riqueño in

156-556: A four-way dance for the tag team titles, where they were the last team eliminated by defending champions Full Blooded Italians. Mahoney and Rotten often teamed with the likes of New Jack and Spike Dudley to feud with Dudley Boyz and The Full Blooded Italians. Mahoney and Rotten were frequent contenders for the World Tag Team Championship but came up short in their bid for the titles. They received several title shots against Chris Candido and Lance Storm for

208-427: A tongue in cheek manner. Music videos from major musical acts were sometimes shown, interspersed with footage detailing the history of current feuds , as well as spectacular spots . Frequently, the ending of the show would feature a montage of several different promos, with Dick Dale's cover version of " Misirlou " as background music. These became known as " Pulp Fiction promos". The purpose of these promos

260-670: A " South Philadelphia Street Fight ". Rotten appeared in an uncredited, non-speaking role on the first episode of the show Homicide: Life on the Street , entitled " Gone for Goode ", seen being questioned in "The Box" while Lieutenant Al Giardello gives Det. Tim Bayliss his introductory tour of the Homicide Unit. Knighton was born in the Fell's Point neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland . He attended Southern High School , leaving in eleventh grade to pursue his ambition of becoming

312-498: A barbed wire baseball bat barbed wire chair match at Enter the Sandman , all of which Axl won. A reunion was teased between Bad Breed at Barbed Wire, Hoodies and Chokeslams on June 17, where they were supposed to take on Public Enemy for the World Tag Team Championship but Bill Alfonso overruled the decision due to Bad Breed being banned from competing as a team. Their feud finally ended at Hardcore Heaven , when Axl defeated Ian in

364-704: A cable only WB affiliate in Fort Myers, aired Hardcore TV in a primetime slot on Saturday Nights. The rest of Florida got Hardcore TV on regional sports network the Sunshine Network very late on Friday nights. WRBW invoked syndex , meaning ECW was blacked out in the Orlando market on Sunshine. Beginning on January 8, 1995, ECW Hardcore TV aired on the MSG Network in New York City and

416-544: A chair after the loss, playing off real-life ill feelings, a rivalry developed that Pro Wrestling Illustrated named Feud of the Year in 1995. The former partners traded wins at Double Tables and Return of the Funker . They faced one another in a variety of hardcore matches over the next few months, including a hair versus hair match at Three Way Dance , a barbed wire baseball bat match at Hostile City Showdown and

468-465: A few others, their real name. One notable exception was made for David Otunga because of his real marriage to singer Jennifer Hudson at the time, which gave WWE some mainstream exposure. Low Ki used the alias "Senshi" during his second TNA stint to reserve his primary ring name for other use. A similar example is the team known as The Dudley Boyz in ECW and WWE and Team 3D elsewhere. WWE trademarked

520-459: A losing effort. Rotten then formed a tag team with Meyers as they took on The Samoan Gangsta Party at Hardcore Heaven , which ended in a no contest due to interference by The Gangstas and The Eliminators . At Heat Wave , Rotten competed against Tarzan Goto in a losing effort. At The Doctor Is In , Rotten competed against D-Von Dudley in a match which ended in a no contest after interference by Dudley Brothers . Rotten left with D-Von after

572-444: A loss to The Headhunters at Big Apple Blizzard Blast . His failures in singles competition continued as he would lose against the likes of J.T. Smith , The Sandman and Shane Douglas in subsequent matches. Rotten began a rivalry with The Full Blooded Italians , defeating FBI member Little Guido at Hostile City Showdown . At A Matter of Respect , Rotten teamed with Hack Meyers against FBI members J.T. Smith and Little Guido in

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624-600: A professional wrestler. Knighton experienced a spine injury in his final years that forced him out of the ring and required the use of a wheelchair. He was living in Anchorage Rehab Center in Salisbury, Maryland . Knighton was found dead by police in a McDonald's bathroom next to the hotel he was staying at in Linthicum, Maryland , on February 4, 2016. An autopsy showed that Knighton's cause of death

676-734: A run with the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF) in Texas, being featured on their daily ESPN show. While in GWF, Axl succeeded in winning both the GWF Commonwealth title and the GWF Tag Team Championship, with Ian Rotten. In 1991, Rotten had a short stint with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he feuded with P. N. News . During his time with WCW, Rotten befriended Paul E. Dangerously ,

728-531: A tag team with newcomer Balls Mahoney called The Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks, thus turning into a fan favorite again. The team began pursuing the World Tag Team Championship and feuded with teams such as Dudley Boyz, The Full Blooded Italians and The Gangstanators for the title. Rotten made his pay-per-view debut at November to Remember , where Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks competed against Gangstanators, FBI and Dudley Boyz in

780-570: A three-on-four handicap match , which they lost to Baldies. On the December 19 episode of ECW on TNN , Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks defeated Baldies members P. N. News and Vito LoGrasso in a falls count anywhere match , in which the loser of the fall would be forced to leave ECW , thus forcing Vito out of ECW. Rotten wrestled his last ECW match on December 9, in which he and New Jack defeated Tony DeVito and P.N. News. Rotten eventually left ECW in 1999 and appeared with Xtreme Pro Wrestling and

832-754: A variation of it, sometimes modifying the spelling to better fit their gimmick , such as Dave Bautista becoming Batista (later reverting to his real name for his Hollywood acting career), Patricia Stratigeas becoming Trish Stratus , Jonathan Good becoming Jon Moxley , Bryan Danielson becoming Daniel Bryan (when he wrestled in WWE), Richard Fliehr becoming Ric Flair and Randall Poffo becoming Randy Savage . Others simply use part of their name, such as Bill Goldberg using Goldberg , Nicole Garcia-Colace using Nikki Bella , Mike Mizanin using The Miz , Cody Runnels using Cody Rhodes , and Michael Wardlow using Wardlow . Many female wrestlers go solely by their first name such as. It

884-646: Is a highly respected tradition in Mexican lucha libre for performers to hide their true identities, usually wrestling under masks, and revealing a luchador's identity without their permission is considered a serious offence with real-life consequences. Professional wrestlers are often referred to by their contemporaries by their ring name. In interviews, Bret Hart regularly referred to Mark Calaway, Curt Hennig, and Kevin Nash by their ring names ( The Undertaker , Mr. Perfect , and Diesel ). Ring names are often trademarked by

936-448: Is also common for wrestlers of all genders to use a nickname in addition to their real name for marketability and other reasons. Ricky Steamboat is an atypical instance of a wrestler adopting a ring name to sound less intimidating, as his legal name of Richard Blood was considered unfitting for his babyface persona. Some (mostly independent ) wrestlers still go to great lengths to ensure that their real names are not publicly known. It

988-511: Is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by the Philadelphia based promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) composed of footage from live shows and recorded interviews. It ran in syndication from April 6, 1993 to December 31, 2000. Even after ECW gained a nationally-available television program on The Nashville Network (TNN) , Hardcore TV was considered ECW's flagship program. The rights to

1040-1486: Is often seen as the spiritual successor to ECW. Shows were aired on KJLA in Los Angeles on Saturday nights, WUNI in Worcester - Boston very late on Friday nights, WBVC TV-61 in Traverse City, Michigan late Friday Nights, WUCT TV-52 in Dayton, Ohio , The Cat in Cleveland and Akron , Ohio late Friday nights, WPEN in Hampton Roads , Virginia on Saturday evenings, and WGMB Fox 44 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Saturday afternoons and late night. It also aired very late on Friday nights on KTSF TV-26 in San Francisco, California , on Fridays at 11 on KGMC 43 in Fresno, California , KCNG-TV and UPN25 in Las Vegas, Nevada at 1pm on Saturdays, and on SportSouth in Georgia , Alabama , Mississippi , Tennessee , Kentucky , North Carolina , and South Carolina . Episodes were at one time available for download on

1092-633: The Extreme Reunion event on April 28, 2012, defeating Balls Mahoney. His last match was teaming with partner Ian Rotten defeating Peter B. Beautiful and Simon Seez in a Taipei Deathmatch at IWA Mid-South on June 14, 2013. On October 30, 2014 Rotten's back gave away, and was left agony on the floor. He was hospitalized making him retire form the sport. In June 2005, Rotten was temporarily hired by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for its ECW tribute pay-per-view , One Night Stand . He debuted in WWE on

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1144-518: The Japanese Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling promotion. Rotten then wrestled on the independent circuit throughout the early 2000s. Rotten performed at the ECW reunion event Hardcore Homecoming on June 10, 2005, reuniting with Ian Rotten in a loss to The Gangstanators . At the follow-up event, November Reign, on November 6, 2005, Rotten defeated Ian Rotten in a Taipei Death match . Rotten also wrestled at

1196-700: The Tag Team Championship at November to Remember . They were initially allied with Terry Funk until the team were sent to United States Wrestling Association (USWA) in 1994. Bad Breed returned to ECW on the June 21 episode of Hardcore TV , where they challenged The Public Enemy for the Tag Team Championship, which Public Enemy retained as the match ended in a no contest. Bad Breed defeated Hack Myers and Rockin' Rebel at Heat Wave , and then unsuccessfully challenged Public Enemy for

1248-485: The promotion that creates a character or gimmick for a performer. It is common to see one performer use a variety of ring names throughout their career, even if their overall persona remains similar. This is especially true in WWE , which has largely forced most wrestlers that have debuted since 2006 to use a WWE-owned ring name instead of a ring name that they used on the independent circuit or, such as with Daniel Bryan and

1300-737: The "Dudley Boyz" name, leading them to have to change their name when they went to TNA. The members' individual names were also trademarked by WWE, forcing them to have to change their names. WWE partially repealed the policy in 2015, allowing wrestlers who were well known in other promotions such as Samoa Joe , A.J. Styles , Shinsuke Nakamura , Austin Aries , Bobby Roode , and Eric Young to use their long-standing ring names (or, in Nakamura's and Roode's cases, their real names) as well as wrestlers who sign "Tier 2" NXT brand contracts such as Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa , who wrestle both on NXT and

1352-555: The December 10 episode of Hardcore TV and The Eliminators at House Party on January 11, 1997, but failed to win the titles. Rotten followed with a feud against Dudley Brothers member Spike Dudley , whom he defeated in matches at Winter Blowout and CyberSlam . D-Von Dudley went on to form a tag team with Buh Buh Ray Dudley called Dudley Boyz at Crossing the Line Again , which broke up Rotten's team with D-Von and Rotten moved on to singles competition. Shortly after, he formed

1404-550: The Dudley Boyz in an Ultimate Jeopardy match . At Anarchy Rulz , Rotten issued a challenge to Mike Awesome for the World Heavyweight Championship , right before the World Television Championship main event match but was confronted and attacked by Impact Players and Johnny Smith , who was the scheduled opponent for World Television Champion Rob Van Dam . Balls Mahoney and Spike Dudley made

1456-588: The ECW SportsChannel airings were upgraded to 6pm and 11pm on Tuesdays, with a late night Friday replay at 2am. After SportsChannel Philadelphia went off the air in 1997, the show moved to WPPX-TV 61 on Wednesdays at 9pm. It later moved to a former independent broadcast station, WGTW 48 in Philadelphia, on late Friday or Saturday night broadcasts. In the Chicago and Northwest Indiana market,

1508-493: The June 6, 2005, episode of Raw , storming the ring with several other ECW alumni. At One Night Stand on June 12, 2005, Rotten, Balls Mahoney and Kid Kash brawled with The Blue World Order prior to the main event. Rotten went to wrestle several dark matches for WWE in July 2005. Rotten made a one-night appearance with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on August 8, 2010, at the ECW tribute show Hardcore Justice . Rotten teamed with Kahoneys (Balls Mahoney), losing to Team 3D in

1560-615: The Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation. Axl later opened his own professional wrestling promotion in Maryland called Universal Independent Wrestling. The promotion featured wrestlers such as the Bad Breed, Bam Bam Bigelow and Scotty The Body . It had a television series that aired on Saturday nights on the local ABC channel. The promotion closed in the mid-1990s. From 1991 to 1993, Axl and Ian Rotten had

1612-500: The World Tag Team Championship in a Baseball Brawl match at Hardcore Heaven . Bad Breed next entered a feud with The Pitbulls , to whom they lost in a match at November to Remember . On the January 17, 1995, episode of Hardcore TV , Bad Breed lost to Pitbulls in a rematch which stipulated that the losing team would be forced to break up. Both Rotten brothers blamed one another for the loss and Ian turned on Axl by hitting him with

Axl Rotten - Misplaced Pages Continue

1664-690: The World Tag Team Championship on numerous occasions including the House Party event on January 16, 1999, but failed to win the title. They also entered a feud with Danny Doring and Roadkill after beating Doring and Roadkill and FBI in a three-way dance at Guilty as Charged , resulting in Mahoney and Rotten taking on Doring and Roadkill in a series of matches including one at Crossing the Line , which Mahoney and Rotten won. At CyberSlam , Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks and New Jack lost to Mr. Mustafa and

1716-470: The early years of the company until the team was forced to disband after losing to The Pitbulls and engaged in a rivalry against each other that Pro Wrestling Illustrated named Feud of the Year in 1995. After an unsuccessful singles career, Rotten formed short-lived tag teams with Hack Meyers and D-Von Dudley before forming Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks with Balls Mahoney in 1997. The team lasted until he departed ECW in 1999. He then wrestled on

1768-624: The future owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling. In 1993, the Bad Breed were hired by Paul Heyman , the then- booker of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -based Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion as a fan favorite tag team, debuting for the promotion at NWA Bloodfest on October 1 by defeating Chad Austin and Todd Shaw. They made their televised debut on the October 5 episode of Hardcore TV , losing to Badd Company . They competed in ECW's tag team division, where they unsuccessfully challenged Tony Stetson and Johnny Hotbody for

1820-484: The independent circuit and appeared at World Wrestling Entertainment 's ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view in 2005. Knighton was trained to wrestle by Ricky Lawless at a gym on Baltimore's North Avenue , receiving supplementary training from Joey Maggs . He debuted on the independent circuit at the age of 17, adopting the ring name "Axl Rotten", a portmanteau of the rockers Axl Rose and Johnny Rotten . Rotten won his first championship teaming with Lawless to win

1872-482: The independent circuit to keep their ring names (or, in Gargano's case, his real name). Gargano and Ciampa have since signed exclusive WWE contracts. "In-house" WWE wrestlers still use WWE-owned ring names. In rare cases, the rights to a wrestler's ring name may be owned by a company with little or no connection to professional wrestling, such as Marvel Comics ' ownership of the name Hulk Hogan until early 2003, which

1924-517: The lawsuit in September 2018. Ring name Ring names are much more common in professional wrestling than any other sport; famous examples include Terry Bollea becoming Hulk Hogan , Michael Shawn Hickenbottom becoming Shawn Michaels , Roderick Toombs becoming Roddy Piper , Dwayne Johnson becoming The Rock , Christopher Irvine becoming Chris Jericho , and Phillip Jack Brooks becoming CM Punk . A number of wrestlers adopted their real name or

1976-448: The match and formed a tag team with D-Von, thus turning into a villainous character for the first time in his ECW career. Beginning at Natural Born Killaz , Rotten and Dudley wrestled Dudley Brothers in a series of matches throughout the fall of 1996. Rotten defeated his former tag team partner Hack Meyers at November to Remember . Rotten and D-Von pursued the World Tag Team Championship , receiving title shots against The Gangstas on

2028-423: The more mainstream program on TNN. Hardcore TV aired in permanent time slots in ECW's home territories of Philadelphia and New York City , and was also syndicated . Shows were broadcast on a Philadelphia local cable sports station, SportsChannel America's local affiliate, SportsChannel Philadelphia , on Tuesday evenings at 6pm until January 9, 1997 when the show moved to Thursdays at 11pm. In April 1996,

2080-566: The prefix "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Numerous boxers have used ring names or nicknames as their mode of identification during their professional boxing careers, particularly during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The ring name "Kid" was particularly popular, indicating the boxer's comparative youth. Since the mid 20th century, ring names for boxers have typically been less common, although nicknames have become more popular in recent years. Famous examples of boxers who used ring names include: ECW Hardcore TV ECW Hardcore TV

2132-458: The rescue for Rotten by attacking Impact Players and Smith, resulting in Mahoney substituting for Smith and went on to lose. Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks would feud with the likes of The New Dangerous Alliance and Da Baldies during the fall of 1999. At November to Remember , the Freaks teamed with New Jack to take on Da Baldies ( Spanish Angel , Tony DeVito , P. N. News and Vito LoGrasso ) in

Axl Rotten - Misplaced Pages Continue

2184-539: The show now belong to the WWE . The show was voted as Best Weekly Television Show in the 1994, 1995 and 1996 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards. Hardcore TV was edited from footage of ECW's live events from the ECW Arena and other house shows . It also included backstage promos and vignettes , which were not shown to the live crowd or included on home video releases of the events. A segment called Hype Central advertised upcoming events and ECW merchandise in

2236-469: The show traded back and forth among WCIU 26 on Saturdays, and UPN station WPWR 50 , broadcast in both Chicago and Gary , on Friday nights, a week behind. Meanwhile, KBS Chicago (a Korean station that also carried Big Japan shows at midnight) broadcast Hardcore TV on Friday nights. WRBW in Orlando aired Hardcore TV in a very late night timeslot on Saturdays. Also, WNFM (then known as WSWF),

2288-691: The surrounding area at 1 am (late Saturday night/early Sunday morning). Empire Sports Network (western NY) and WBGT-LP (Rochester) also carried the show. WPTT-TV in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania aired Hardcore TV late on Saturday nights. The station, now known as WPNT and owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group (which at the time operated the station on a local marketing agreement with sidecar Glencairn, Ltd. alongside WPGH-TV , which Sinclair owned outright), now airs Ring of Honor Wrestling from Sinclair-owned Ring of Honor , which

2340-734: The tag team titles in Frank Cain's Star Cavalcade Wrestling during the summer of 1988. He also succeeded Lawless as the promotion's heavyweight champion when, shortly after reigning champion Ricky Lawless was murdered, he won the vacant title from The Psycho in Thomasville, Georgia , on November 30, 1988. In the early 1990s, Rotten trained Ian Rotten , who formed a tag team with Axl, masquerading as his brother and taking his stage name from Cheech Marin 's character in Get Out of My Room . The duo, known as The Bad Breed , wrestled primarily in

2392-403: The tag team titles including one at Wrestlepalooza on May 3, 1998, but came up short in their title opportunities. Rotten was out of action due to injury in September and returned to ECW on December 4 by attacking Buh Buh Ray Dudley with a barbed wire baseball bat after a match between Dudley Boyz and The Gangstanators. Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks would then challenge Rob Van Dam and Sabu for

2444-473: The viewers. Hardcore TV showed graphic violence (including blood ), sexual frankness, and harsh language , all of which were key elements of the ECW product itself. Due to the late night time slots, expletives and violence were not edited from early broadcasts, and this helped to get ECW noticed. After the ECW on TNN program became available, this was a major difference between the syndicated Hardcore TV and

2496-409: The wrestler's gimmick changes, either subtly or dramatically. After debuting in WWE as the " Connecticut Blueblood " Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Paul Levesque's character later morphed into Triple H . A more drastic change sometimes occurs when a wrestler turns heroic or villainous , such as when Hulk Hogan joined the villainous nWo (New World Order) and became "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan. His new attitude

2548-480: Was a heroin overdose. In July 2016, his estate was named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred traumatic brain injuries during their tenure and that the company concealed the risks of injury. The suit was litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE. On October 21, 2016, it was revealed Knighton experienced CTE . US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant dismissed

2600-596: Was due to Hogan being advertised as " The Incredible Hulk Hogan" early in his career, while Marvel owned the trademark for their comic book character. Sometimes, a wrestler will buy the rights to their own ring name; for example, Steve Borden owns the rights to the name Sting and licenses it to the musician of the same name . The wrestler formerly known as Test took this one step further and legally changed his name to "Andrew Test Martin". Jim Hellwig, known as The Ultimate Warrior , had his name legally changed to simply "Warrior". In many cases, ring names evolve over time as

2652-604: Was enhanced by changing his costume color scheme from his famous red and yellow to nWo's black and white. Steve Williams adopted the ring name Steve Austin to avoid confusion with the then-more established performer "Dr. Death" Steve Williams . Austin would wrestle under that name for several years before signing with the WWF and being given the name "the Ringmaster". This gimmick failed to catch on, and Austin reverted to his established name, reaching his greatest level of success with

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2704-443: Was to maximize the show's limited airtime in order to keep the fans up to date with current wrestling storylines. In keeping with ECW's unconventional approach, episodes were not structured with a build toward a main event as with typical professional wrestling programming. Any given week's program could feature any number of matches or match type. Owner/producer Paul Heyman's intent was to keep things fresh by providing variety for

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