Dan Spivey
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Danny Spivey  |
|
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Starship Eagle Danny Spivey Waylon Mercy |
| Billed height | 6 ft 8 in (203 cm) |
| Billed weight | 310 lb (141 kg) |
| Born | October 14, 1956 Tampa, Florida |
| Resides | Parris Island, South Carolina |
| Trained by | Dusty Rhodes Rick Martel Barry Windham |
| Debut | 1984 |
| Retired | 1995 |
Dan Spivey (born October 14, 1956) was a professional wrestler who worked for World Championship Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation, and All Japan Pro Wrestling between 1984 and 1995. Before becoming a pro wrestler he played football while at the University of Georgia.
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[edit] Career
Dan Spivey and his workout buddy Scott Hall were trained in Florida mainly by Dusty Rhodes but also received training from Rick Martel and Barry Windham. When it was time for the team’s debut Dusty Rhodes made a deal with Jim Crockett for the two to work in Crockett’s territory based out of Charlotte, North Carolina.
[edit] American Starship
Spivey and Hall made their debut as a masked tag-team called American Starship with Spivey being called Eagle and Hall being dubbed Coyote. With their furry boots, massive stature, bright masks and Hulk Hogan’esque t-shirt ripping routine the two men were easy to spot on any card. Initially American Starship worked only sporadically. At first they were booked so sparingly that the two were given a job for the Charlotte Orioles (which Jim Crockett owned at the time) as part of the ground crew. When the two men did get into the ring it was with little success, the highlight of their stay in Crockett’s Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling was being defeated by Arn and Ole Anderson when the rookies challenged for the NWA National Tag Team Championship.
After working in MACW the duo joined Bob Geigel’s NWA Central States territory based in Kansas City in 1985. The duo had a shot at the NWA Central States Tag-Team champions Marty Jannetty and ”Bulldog” Bob Brown but did not manage to win the titles. Spivey’s stay in the Central States territory was short lived, according to Scott Hall Spivey did not like Kansas City.[1] Spivey returned to the Carolinas and the recently redubbed “Jim Crockett Promotions” where he works as “American Starship” Eagle as a jobber.
[edit] WWF
In the fall of 1985 Spivey signed with the World Wrestling Federation and started working without a mask and under his real name. Spivey was brought in to team with Mike Rotunda as the US Express after Barry Windham left the federation. The team had their first match together on November 1, 1985[2] less than a month after Spivey joined the WWF. The team was billed sometimes billed as The American Express most referred to them as the U.S. Express II since the patriotic gimmick of the original U.S. Express was recycled with Spivey taking Barry Windham's place. The team continued the U.S. Express’ feud with the Dream Team but once they were proven unsuccessful the two did not team from January to May as Mike Rotundo briefly left the WWF. During this time Spivey took part in the “Wrestlers and Fooball players” Battle Royal, Spivey was eliminated by the Iron Sheik without much fanfare. Once the American Express reunited they feuded with the Moondogs, The Hart Foundation and The Islanders Whom the team defeated in their last match together on February 9, 1987[3]
After Mike Rotunda left the WWF Dan Spivey was repackaged as "Golden Boy" Dan Spivey for a singles run. Spivey took part of the 1986 King of the Ring tournament. He lost to Nikolai Volkoff in the first round. Spivey was also part of the 1987 King of the Ring, this time he lost to Rick Martel in the first round. Spivey stayed with the WWF until the spring of 1988 competing mainly against such low carders as Lanny Poffo, Sam Houston and Outback Jack.
After working exclusively in the US since his debut Spivey started to tour with All Japan Pro Wrestling in the summer of 1988 and kept touring with the company every year until 1995. In his first tour Spivey gained ring experience by competing with Japanese wrestling legend Genichiro Tenryu. Spivey also teamed with Johnny Ace, a man he would team with many times during his Japanese tours.
[edit] NWA
in early 1989 Spivey returned to the National Wrestling Alliance and Jim Crockett. Spivey was made a member of the Varsity Club as a replacement for Rick Steiner who left the group. Spivey’s background as a football player at the University of Georgia was touched upon to lend credibility to his inclusion in the group. While in the Varsity Club Spivey feuded with Rick Steiner and the Road Warriors acting more as back-up while former tag-team partner Mike Rotunda and Steve Williams were pushed as the stars of the group. When the Varsity disbanded Spivey came under the management of ex-referee Teddy Long and started teaming with newcomer Sid Vicious under the name the The Skyscrapers. The Skyscrapers’ first taste of success came at the 1989 Great American Bash PPV where they first co-won a Two-Ring King of the Hill Battle Royal with Sid being the survivor in one ring and Dan surviving in the other. The rules called for the two to fight each other but manager Teddy Long convinced them to shake hands and share the prize money. Later in the night the Skyscrapers defeated The Dynamic Dudes due to their overwhelming size and power.
The Skyscrapers quickly became involved in a feud with the Road Warriors, sparked by Teddy Long’s actions while still a referee. The two teams were very evenly matched in power and intensity creating a series of matches that did not favor one team over the other. Spivey and Vicious were disqualified against the Road Warriors at Halloween Havoc 1989 but did not look like losers on the night. Shortly after Halloween Havoc the Skyscrapers faced the Steiner Brothers at Clash of the Champions IX in a hard hitting match. A match that was so hard hitting in fact that Sid Vicious suffered a punctured lung due to a broke rib. With Vicious out of action Teddy Long brought in another tall newcomer in the same mold as Sid Vicious and Dan Spivey and dubbed him ”Mean” Mark Callous. The New Skyscrapers immediately picked up the feud with the Road Warriors and kept on having inconclusive matches with them. At Clash of the Champions X the Skyscrapers finally got the better of the Road Warriors, not in the match but afterwards when they beat the Road Warriors down. At this point in time no one had ever been able to physically dominate the Road Warriors, something that pointed that big things had been planned for the Skyscrapers.
But big things never happened, in the days before the scheduled Chicago Street Fight at Wrestle War 1990 Dan Spivey suddenly left WCW leaving the bookers to scramble for a replacement. Exactly why he left the federation so suddenly has never been stated.
While working for the NWA as one of the Skyscrapers Spivey also competed in his homestate of Florida winning the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship in late 1989, however this title win was not referred to on NWA Television. Spivey would go on to hold the title until July 1992 where he lost it to Lou Perez. Spivey also kept on touring with AJPW while working for the NWA, mainly teaming with Stan Hansen. Spivey and Hansen formed a very popular Gaijin team that almost won AJPW’s “Real World Tag League” in 1990. By the end of 1990 Dan Spivey and the WCW worked out whatever differences that caused Spivey leave in the spring and Spivey returned to WCW television. The Skyscrapers briefly reunited at Starrcade#1990 as he and Sid Vicious took on and beat The Big Cat and the Motor City Madman.
With Sid Vicious being part of the Four Horsemen the Skyscraper reunion was short lived. Instead Spivey started to focus on his singles career in WCW challenging WCW U.S. Champion “The Total Package” Lex Luger at the [[February 24[[]], 1991 PPV Wrestle War. Spivey did not win the title and he did not get another high profile title opportunity while with the company. On April 18 1991 Dan Spivey and Stan Hansen captured the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship from Terry Gordy and Steve Williams in Tokyo Japan. Spivey and Williams even brought their successful tag-team to WCW during this time. On June 22, 1991 Spivey and Hansen were booked to face Rick Steiner and Tom Zenk and Spivey was told to lose the match to Zenk. Spivey refused since the duo were the AJPW Unified tag-team champions, after more discussions Dan Spivey once again left WCW.[4]
Spivey and Hansen would lose the tag-team titles back Gordy and Williams. After the title loss Spivey started to team with other wrestlers than Stan Hansen, mainly with Johnny Ace but also linked up with Jim Brunzell, Kendall Windham and Jim Steele. Spivey managed to mend fences with WCW enough to work with them once more during the summer of 1991. His biggest match during this time was his appearance at Starrcade 1992 where he teamed with Van Hammer to defeat Johnny B. Badd and Cactus Jack to advance in the “Lethal Lottery”. Spivey was eliminated from the main event battle royal by eventual winner The Great Muta.
Between 1993 and 1995 Spivey only made regular American appearances for Herb Abrams’ Universal Wrestling Federation. He defeated Johnny Ace at UWF’s Blackjack Brawl to become the first and only UWF Americas Champion
[edit] Waylon Mercy
Dan Spivey rejoined the WWF in 1995 adopting the name “Waylon Mercy”, a gimmick based on Robert De Niro's portrayal of "Max Cady" in the 1991 re-make of Cape Fear. “Waylon Mercy” was introduced through a series of vignettes that always ended with Spivey saying “Lives are gonna be in Waylon Mercy’s hands. Know what I mean?” a line that quickly became well known with wrestling fans all over the world. Spivey’s portrayal was very convincing and he was pushed right off the bat with victories over Bob Holly, the 1-2-3 Kid and Doink “The Clown”. Soon after he starting having matches with the top faces of the WWF at the time Bret Hart, ”Razor” Ramon and WWF World Champion Diesel. Spivey only made one PPV appearance as Waylon Mercy, at In Your House 3 where he lost to Savio Vega. Spivey suffered a back injury against Diesel that forced him to permanently retire from professional wrestling in October of 1995.
A similar gimmick to the “Waylon Mercy” was used for a short time by Bull Buchanan in 2003 while he competed in WWE's developmental territories, but was dropped when he was promoted to the main roster to become John Cena's sidekick.
[edit] Retirement and beyond
After Spivey retired from the wrestling business, he did some modeling work. Spivey's defunct official website featured some modeling photos of him.
[edit] In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
[edit] Championships and accomplishments
- National Wrestling Alliance
- Regional
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- PWI ranked him # 244 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
[edit] References
- ^ Wade Keller (2006-09-13). Scott Hall Interview. Retrieved on 17 March, 2007.
- ^ Graham Cawthon (2007-02-5). WWF Ring Results 1985. Retrieved on 17 March, 2007.
- ^ Graham Cawthon (2007-02-5). WWF Ring Results 1987. Retrieved on 12 February, 2007.
- ^ Graham Cawthon (2007-03-10). WCW Ring Results 1991. Retrieved on 17 March, 2007.
