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53-515: Patrick Clark Jr. (born August 19, 1995) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently performing on the independent circuit under the ring name Velveteen Man . He is best known for his time in WWE , where he performed under the ring name Velveteen Dream from 2015 to 2021. Clark began his career in 2014, training and debuting in MCW Pro Wrestling . During his time there, he won

106-698: A minor league or farm system for the larger national promotions, as wrestlers in "indie" companies (especially young wrestlers just starting their careers) are usually honing their craft with the goal of being noticed and signed by a major national promotion such as WWE , All Elite Wrestling (AEW) (which also owns Ring of Honor (ROH)), or Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in the United States, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in Mexico, or New Japan Pro-Wrestling , Dragongate , All Japan Pro Wrestling , World Wonder Ring Stardom or

159-410: A champion there. Independent Mexican wrestlers may use a lot of gimmicks, including some that may be based on copyrighted characters from American television shows, such as Thundercats and X-Men . (These gimmicks are often changed if the wrestler playing them makes it into AAA or CMLL; the most prominent example of non-compliance with this method is midget wrestler Chucky from AAA, whose gimmick

212-527: A five-year extension on its TV wrestling monopoly from January 1982 to December 1986. However, by the mid-1980s Dixon had won over many wrestlers and fans from Joint who were tired of the Big Daddy -orientated direction of Joint. Eventually this culminated in All Star gaining a TV show on satellite channel Screensport and later, a slice of ITV's coverage from 1987 until the end of ITV wrestling in 1988. By

265-525: A good impression may be offered a developmental or even a full-professional contract. The advent of the Internet has allowed independent wrestlers and promotions to reach a wider audience, and it is possible for wrestlers regularly working the indie circuit to gain some measure of fame among wrestling fans online. Additionally, some of the more successful indies have video distribution deals, giving them an additional source of income and allowing them to reach

318-520: A homecoming to his former training promotion, Patrick Clark returned to MCW at the September Slam live event defeating "The Afro Samurai" Tony Macko. During early October 2024, he enjoyed successful singles victories during the two-night MCW Autumn Armageddon live events. After getting signed to a developmental contract, Clark initially debuted at NXT house shows with the gimmick of a Donald Trump supporter , wearing shirts with Trump's image and

371-581: A large enough crowd to fill such a venue were they able to do so. Instead, they make use of any almost open space (such as fields, ballrooms, or gymnasiums) to put on their performances. Some independent promotions are attached to professional wrestling schools , serving as a venue for students to gain experience in front of an audience. As independent matches are seldom televised, indie wrestlers who have not already gained recognition in other promotions tend to remain in obscurity. However, scouts from major promotions attend indie shows, and an indie wrestler who makes

424-549: A larger audience outside of their local areas. Unlike the North American or Japanese products which have large, globally renowned organisations such as WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling with several hundred smaller promotions , Australia only has approximately 30 smaller independent circuit promotions which exist in all but one of the states and territories, that being the Northern Territory . Tours from

477-541: A major promoter with shows featuring himself as headline heel. In 1958, when Bert Assirati was stripped of the British Heavyweight Championship , Lincoln formed the BWF alliance of promoters to support Assirati's claim, later recognising Shirley Crabtree as champion. Lincoln's BWF was eventually bought out into Joint in 1970. Welsh promoter Orig Williams also used the BWF name, promoting from

530-537: A match at NXT TakeOver: WarGames , where Dream lost. On the December 6 episode of NXT , Dream was supposed to face Kassius Ohno in a qualifying match for a number one contender's fatal-four-way match for the NXT Championship ; however, an injury kept Dream out of competition, and he was replaced by Johnny Gargano , who defeated Ohno and later won the fatal-four way to become the number one contender. On

583-534: A naked Clark on the SquaredCircle subreddit, though Clark denied the allegations. Two months later, amidst the Speaking Out movement , new allegations were made that Clark sent a sexually explicit photo to an underage girl and had "inappropriate communications" with underage boys he was allegedly grooming. WWE reportedly investigated the incident but found no evidence of wrongdoing. In August 2022, Clark

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636-532: A region and maintain a consistent schedule. After Vince McMahon , seeking regulatory relief, gave in 1989 testimony in front of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission where he publicly admitted pro wrestling was in fact a sports-based entertainment, rather than a true athletic competition, many state athletic commissions stopped regulating wrestling. This obviated the need for complying with many expensive requirements, such as

689-762: A third secondary title for WWE, along with the WWE Intercontinental Championship and WWE United States Championship . In September 2021, however, NXT reverted to being WWE's developmental brand. In January 2022, the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was unified into the North American Championship. At the special New Year's Evil episode of NXT on January 4, 2022, reigning North American Champion Carmelo Hayes defeated Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong . The Cruiserweight Championship

742-482: A week or once a month in local towns. Independent promotions are usually local in focus and, lacking national TV contracts, are much more dependent on revenue from house show attendance. Due to their lower budgets, most independent promotions offer low salaries (it is not unusual for a wrestler to work for free due to the fact most promoters can only afford to pay well-known talent). Most cannot afford to regularly rent large venues, and would not be able to attract

795-738: Is Tony D'Angelo , who is in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Oba Femi on the October 8, 2024, episode of NXT . The championship was introduced during the March 7, 2018, tapings of NXT ( aired March 28) and the inaugural champion was Adam Cole . In September 2019, the company began promoting NXT as its " third brand " when the NXT television program was moved to the USA Network . Two years later, however, NXT reverted to its original function as WWE's developmental brand. In January 2022,

848-640: Is based on the Child's Play movies.) Until 1984, no independent puroresu promotion per se existed in Japan; potential talent went directly into the training dojos of either New Japan Pro-Wrestling or All Japan Pro Wrestling . ( International Wrestling Enterprise also was a third-party promotion until 1981.) The advent of the Japanese Universal Wrestling Federation offered a long-sought third alternative. From 1986 to 1988

901-573: Is considered by some to be a forerunner to indies since some stars of the past got their start in these low quality local rivals to the big regional territories. The modern definition of the independent circuit came about in the middle to late 1980s and fully formed and flourished after 1990. These promotions initially sought to revive the feel of old school territorial wrestling after former territories either went national, such as WWF , went out of business, or eventually did both, such as WCW . Several indies did in fact manage to tour different towns within

954-547: The CyberFight promotions in Japan. It is also not uncommon for veteran wrestlers who have had past tenures with major promotions to appear on independent shows, either as special attractions or as a way to prolong their careers. The "indie" scene in the United States dates back to the days of regional territories. When a promoter ran opposition in even one town controlled by a National Wrestling Alliance sanctioned territory, they were often called an "outlaw" territory. This

1007-532: The MCW Tag Team Championship with Lio Rush . After competing in several other independent promotions, he participated in the 2015 WWE reality show Tough Enough , a series focused on finding new wrestlers. He did not win the contest, but was signed to a developmental contract and was assigned to NXT , WWE's farm territory . In May 2017, Clark debuted a new Prince -inspired gimmick on NXT called Velveteen Dream, becoming popular and winning

1060-615: The NXT Cruiserweight Championship was unified into the North American Championship. The title is distinct from the WWF North American Heavyweight Championship , as it does not carry the lineage of the former title, which was contested from 1979 to 1981. At Stand & Deliver on April 6, 2024, a women's equivalent to the title was announced by NXT General Manager Ava . In June 2012, WWE established NXT as their developmental territory , replacing Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). It

1113-729: The NXT North American Championship once. After a long period of inactivity sparked by WWE's investigation into allegations of Clark sexually harassing children, he was released from WWE in May 2021. Patrick Clark Jr. was born on August 19, 1995 in Washington, D.C. Clark trained as a professional wrestler at the MCW Pro Wrestling training center under Patrick Brink. He made his debut for the promotion after four months of training on October 3, 2014, under

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1166-514: The " Make America Great Again " slogan. In 2017, he adopted the persona of Velveteen Dream, a character inspired by the musician Prince. The character was described by WWE as a "mysterious yet intoxicating presence [...] sporting a frilled, jewelled look that would have fit right in onstage during Prince's Purple Rain Tour ". Clark described the character as "a sexually ambiguous, genderfluid , self-absorbed diva ". As Velveteen Dream, his finishing move

1219-501: The 1990s there have also been numerous American-style "New School" promotions. Note: Minimum attendance of 5,000. General Specific NXT North American Championship The NXT North American Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE . It is defended as the secondary men's championship of NXT , the promotion's developmental brand . The current champion

1272-533: The January 10, 2018 episode of NXT , Dream interrupted Gargano to mock him for taking 20 minutes to defeat Ohno, claiming that he could've beaten him in "30 seconds tops." On the January 24 episode of NXT , Dream was confronted backstage by Ohno, who pushed him into a wall, starting a feud. At NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia , Dream defeated Ohno. During the rest of 2018, Dream participated in several TakeOver events, such as at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans , Dream competed in

1325-723: The Japanese system went back to the two-promotion system, but then the UWF was reformed and another promotion, Pioneer Senshi, was started. Because of Japanese societal mores which implied that a wrestler was a lifelong employee of a company and thus identified with it wherever he went, neither AJPW nor NJPW made an effort to acquire wrestlers trained in other promotions; wrestlers from the major promotions who left, such as Genichiro Tenryu , Gran Hamada , Yoshiaki Fujiwara , Akira Maeda , Atsushi Onita , and Nobuhiko Takada had to start their own independent promotions in order to keep themselves in

1378-479: The May 3, 2017 episode of NXT , Clark started appearing in weekly vignettes , debuting a new Prince-inspired character called Velveteen Dream. He made his debut as a heel on the May 24 episode of NXT , defeating Robert Anthony. On the September 20 episode of NXT , Dream interrupted Aleister Black , where he constantly stalked and harassed Black in order for him to acknowledge Dream and say his name. This led to

1431-481: The NXT Championship from Ciampa. On February 2, 2019, at Royal Rumble Axxess , Dream entered the 2019 Worlds Collide tournament, in which he defeated Tony Nese in the first round, Humberto Carrillo in the quarterfinals, Jordan Devlin in the semifinals, and Tyler Bate in the final to earn a future singles championship match of his choice on the NXT or NXT UK brands. Dream chose to challenge for

1484-504: The NXT Championship in a Backlot Brawl, but ended up unsuccessful, and due to a pre-match stipulation, Dream could no longer challenge for the title while Cole was still champion. Following several months off after an injury related to a car accident, Dream returned on the August 12 episode of NXT , where he lost to Cameron Grimes in a triple threat match also involving Kushida . After the match, Dream attacked Kushida, thus turning heel in

1537-716: The NXT North American Championship, held by Johnny Gargano. On the February 20 episode of NXT , Dream defeated Gargano to win the title, marking his first championship win in WWE. At NXT TakeOver: New York , Dream defeated Matt Riddle to retain the championship, handing Riddle his first loss in NXT. In the following weeks, he went on to successfully defend the title against challengers including Buddy Murphy , Tyler Breeze , Roderick Strong , and Pete Dunne . On

1590-595: The North American product are regularly sold out in capital cities such as Melbourne , Sydney , Perth and Brisbane . Lucha libre has many more independent wrestlers in proportion to the rest of North America, because of the weight classes prevalent in the Mexican league system as well as its emphasis on multiple person tag matches; just about anyone with ability can emerge from an independent promotion into either AAA or Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and be

1643-452: The September 18 episode of NXT , he lost the title to Roderick Strong after interference from The Undisputed Era , ending his reign at 231 days. Dream's single reign was the longest at the time until it was broken by Wes Lee 's reign at 269 days in 2023. After taking time off due to a back injury, he returned on the February 5, 2020 episode of NXT to attack The Undisputed Era. At NXT TakeOver: In Your House , Dream challenged Adam Cole for

Velveteen Dream - Misplaced Pages Continue

1696-518: The company at a NXT live event in Lakeland, Florida on February 5, 2016, losing to Riddick Moss . He made his television debut on the May 24th episode of NXT , beating Robert Anthony . On the October 19 episode of NXT , Clark confronted and challenged NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura but was attacked and beaten down by Nakamura. Clark returned and had his first televised victory on the March 1, 2017 episode of NXT , defeating Sean Maluta . On

1749-461: The death of Giant Baba and retirement of Antonio Inoki , which effectively broke their control over the promotions they founded, the major promotions began looking to the smaller promotions for talent. In 2000, the first major signing from an independent, Minoru Tanaka by NJPW from BattlARTS , took place; soon after NJPW stocked the junior heavyweight division with independent talent such as Masayuki Naruse , Tiger Mask , Gedo , and Jado . On

1802-553: The end of this period, All Star had effectively replaced Joint (by now owned by Max Crabtree , brother of Shirley) as the dominant promotion in the UK. Joint, renamed Ring Wrestling Stars in 1991, dwindled down before closing with Crabtree's retirement in 1995, All Star has continued to be the dominant non-import live promotion in the UK up to the present day. Its principal competitors since that time have been Scott Conway's TWA, John Freemantle's Premier Promotions, RBW and LDN Wrestling. Since

1855-533: The independents that were signed included Akitoshi Saito , Takahiro Suwa , and Taiji Ishimori ). Although AJPW, NJPW, and Noah remain committed to their dojos, the reliance on independents is growing as obscure talent is recognized for its ability. For most of the years of ITV 's coverage of British Wrestling, the dominant promoter in the United Kingdom was the Joint Promotions cartel, which

1908-464: The ladder match for the inaugural NXT North American Championship (which was won by Adam Cole ) at NXT TakeOver: Chicago II , he was defeated by Ricochet , and at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV , he defeated EC3 . On the September 26 episode of NXT , Dream began a feud with NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa after Dream accused him of attacking Aleister Black, thus turning face in the process. At NXT TakeOver: WarGames on November 17, he failed to capture

1961-416: The late 1960s up until the early 2000s and then sporadically until his death in 2009. From 1982 to 1995, Williams had a Welsh language TV wrestling show "Reslo" on S4C. Brian Dixon, a referee for Williams, set up his own company Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead later renamed All Star Wrestling c.  1984 . An alliance with promoter and former top star Jackie Pallo failed to prevent Joint gaining

2014-405: The limelight ( Wrestling Association "R" , Universal Lucha Libre , Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi , Fighting Network Rings , Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , and Hustle respectively) . As the 1990s ended, though, things began to change. Independent promotions began gaining more prominence as they were featured in major specialized media such as Shukan Puroresu and Shukan Gong magazines. With

2067-426: The need for an on-site ambulance and trained emergency medical personnel at each bout. After the business was thus exposed and deregulated, just about anyone could be a promoter or a wrestler since no licensing beyond a business license was then required. Many thought they could save money by holding shows in lesser towns and smaller arenas with little to no televised exposure, leading to many shows being held only once

2120-435: The other NXT championships feature the WWE logo. As of November 28, 2024, there have been 23 reigns between 19 champions and two vacancies. The inaugural champion was Adam Cole. Johnny Gargano has the most reigns at three. Oba Femi 's reign is the longest at 273 days, while Trick Williams ' reign is the shortest reign at 3 days. Carmelo Hayes has the longest combined reign at 273 days across his two reigns. Velveteen Dream

2173-426: The participants in the match. At the event, Cole won the match to become the inaugural champion. While NXT had originally been established as WWE's developmental territory, the NXT North American Championship was introduced in the midst of NXT establishing itself as WWE's third major brand. This became official when NXT was moved to the USA Network in September 2019, thus making the NXT North American Championship

Velveteen Dream - Misplaced Pages Continue

2226-420: The process. The following week on NXT , he defeated Finn Bálor to qualify for a spot in a ladder match for the vacated NXT North American Championship at NXT TakeOver XXX . At the event, Dream failed to win the title. At NXT TakeOver 31 , Dream was defeated by Kushida. On the December 23 episode of NXT , Dream was defeated by Adam Cole in what would be his final WWE match and appearance. On May 20, 2021, Dream

2279-487: The ring name Rick Powers . Clark went on to wrestle for MCW, winning the MCW Tag Team Championship with Lio Rush in October 2015. He briefly used the ring name Slugger Clark before settling on his real name in February 2016. In addition to working for MCW, Clark appeared with various American independent promotions throughout 2015 including Combat Zone Wrestling and World Xtreme Wrestling . Clark

2332-534: The same year, following the Pro Wrestling Noah split, AJPW was forced to fill its ranks with independent talent; Nobutaka Araya , Shigeo Okumura and Mitsuya Nagai signed up (Araya is the only one who remains, but other signings since then have been Kaz Hayashi , Tomoaki Honma , Hideki Hosaka , and Ryuji Hijikata .) Noah admitted one wrestler from the independents, Daisuke Ikeda , to its ranks as well (Ikeda has since left, but other wrestlers from

2385-465: The two side plates feature a removable center section which can be customized with the champion's logos; the default side plates feature a vertical NXT logo on a globe. This was WWE's first secondary title to feature customizable side plates. It was the only NXT championship to feature the NXT logo for the default side plates until the introduction of the NXT Women's North American Championship in 2024;

2438-460: Was arrested twice in Florida. On August 20, he was arrested on charges of first-degree battery and trespassing on property after a warning, to which he pleaded not guilty. He was arrested again six days later on charges of possessing drug paraphernalia. The battery and trespassing charges were dropped the following month. Independent circuit Independent promotions are essentially viewed as

2491-426: Was not until 2018, however, that a secondary championship was established for the brand. During the March 7, 2018, tapings of NXT ( aired March 28), NXT General Manager William Regal announced a ladder match for TakeOver: New Orleans to determine the inaugural NXT North American Champion. Later that night, EC3 , Killian Dain , Adam Cole , Ricochet , Lars Sullivan , and Velveteen Dream were announced as

2544-464: Was originally modelled on the NWA and later amalgamated into a single company. Nonetheless, throughout this period, untelevised alternative promotions flourished with at least one significant competitor to Joint for live shows. Initially the main rival was the former dominant promotion in the territory, Atholl Oakley 's BWA. By the time of its demise, wrestler/promoter Paul Lincoln had established himself as

2597-433: Was released from his WWE contract after five months of inactivity. On February 18, 2024, Clark made his return to wrestling after over 3 years for the promotion The Dynasty in a surprise appearance, now going by Velveteen Man, a tweaked version of his WWE ring name. His successful return match at Dynasty: It Was All A Dream in which he defeated Alec Odin marked the final use of his WWE NXT ring name. On September 21, 2024 in

2650-401: Was retired with Hayes going forward as North American Champion. Whenever the title is held by a main roster wrestler, it occasionally gets defended on main roster shows, such as when SmackDown wrestler Solo Sikoa defended it on SmackDown in September 2022. Raw wrestler "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio also defended it on Raw during his first reign in 2023. The championship belt

2703-501: Was selected as a contestant for the sixth season of the WWE reality television program WWE Tough Enough , which began airing in June 2015. Despite being tapped as one of the favorites to win the competition, he was eliminated in the fifth episode due to a perceived lack of humility, placing ninth overall in the series. On October 17, 2015, it was reported that Clark had signed a developmental contract with WWE. He made his in-ring debut for

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2756-478: Was the Purple Rainmaker, a diving elbow drop with a name also inspired by Prince. As Velveteen Dream, Clark is a playable character in the video games WWE Mayhem , WWE Universe , WWE Champions , WWE SuperCard , WWE 2K19 , and WWE 2K20 . In April 2020, Clark was accused of sending indecent images to underage boys on Instagram after a Reddit user posted screenshots of what appeared to be

2809-441: Was unveiled by WWE executive and NXT head Triple H on April 3, 2018. Featuring three gold plates on a thick brown leather strap, the rounded center plate features a globe that only shows the continent of North America . The banner above the globe reads "North American" and above the banner is the NXT logo. The lower banner at the bottom of the globe reads "Champion". In what has become a prominent feature of WWE's championship belts,

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