Paul Burchill

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Paul Burchall
Statistics
Ring name(s) Paul Birchill
Paul Burchall
Burchill
Paul Burchill
Billed height 193 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Billed weight 112 kg (247 lb)
Born October 8, 1979
Guildford, Surrey
Billed from London, England
Trained by FWA Training Academy
Mark Sloan
Debut August 2002

Paul Kenneth Birchall (born October 8, 1979 in Guildford, Surrey), better known as Paul Burchill, is an English professional wrestler. He was a former primary school teacher from Surrey, England however Burchill got into pro wrestling in 2001 by walking into a FWA Weekend Training camp, and quickly impressing the man running the camp, Mark Sloan. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling in the developing territory Ohio Valley Wrestling.

Contents

[edit] Wrestling career

[edit] British promotions

After finishing his training at the FWA Training Academy, under Sloan's guidance, Burchill made his debut in August 2002. He made a huge impact in the Frontier Wrestling Alliance, interfering in many matches and leaving a trail of broken bodies along the way.

In May 2003, Burchill's exploits earned him the notice of top British manager, "Twisted Genius" Dean Ayass, who took Burchill on as a client. Over the rest of that year, Burchill competed in several handicap matches, defeating FWA-based tag teams by knockout. During his time under the management of Dean Ayass, Ayass would proclaim to opponents that they would "be stepping into the ring at their own risk and that Mr. Burchill and Mr. Ayass would accept no responsibility for any broken bones". This catphrase would even scroll across the bottom of the screen during FWA vignettes. At the end of 2003, Burchill was named Total Wrestling and 1 Stop Wrestling's "Rookie of the Year".

Burchill would continue to wrestle in the FWA as well as various other promotions in 2004, both in England and around Europe, promotions such as the Frontier Wrestling Alliance, The Wrestling Alliance, All Star Premier Promotions, GBH, HCW, High Impact Promotions, WXW Germany, International Wrestling Promotions, British Championship Wrestling, Italian Championship Wrestling, and Wrestle Zone Wrestling.

On August 1, 2004, Burchill defeated Doug Williams and The Zebra Kid (Roy Bevis) in a No Holds Barred Three-Way Dance to become the IWP Champion, a title he would hold until November 6, when he lost a Falls Count Anywhere match to D-Lo Brown. Five days later, on November 11, 2004 Burchill signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment, and left England to train at its farm federation Ohio Valley Wrestling.

Before leaving, during one of Burchill's last appearances in the FWA at its British Uprising III event, which saw him team with Terry Funk and Paul Travell to defeat Drew McDonald, Raj Ghosh and Thunder, Burchill received a standing ovation and a "Please Don't Go" chant from the 1800 fans in attendance.

[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment

Burchill continued to train in OVW. During January 2006, Burchill would still make regular appearances in Ohio Valley Wrestling. He was teaming with Ken Doane in a match against Brent Albright and CM Punk, often acting face and seeming on a championship hunt for the OVW TV title. In an OVW match against Ken Doane, Burchill would hit a second rope C4. Burchill would feud with Aaron Stevens for the OVW Television Championship until he went to SmackDown.

Burchill made his WWE debut on the August 27, 2005 episode of WWE Velocity, when he interrupted a match between his fellow Englishman, William Regal and Scotty 2 Hotty. Burchill quickly established an alliance with his countryman, helping Regal to beat down Scotty 2 Hotty.

His SmackDown debut occurred on the September 1, 2005 episode of SmackDown in a tag team match. In this match Burchill teamed up with William Regal to defeat Scotty 2 Hotty and Funaki, after Burchill forced Scotty to tap out with the "Royal Mutilation". The next week on SmackDown, Burchill defeated Scotty 2 Hotty in a singles match with the same armbar submission.

Regal & Burchill were part of a Fatal Fourway Tag Match facing The Mexicools, MNM, and Road Warrior Animal & Heidenreich, with the Winner acquiring the WWE Tag Team Championship. Regal & Burchill came up short, when MNM won the titles from Heidenreich & Animal. Regal & Burchill continued tagging together, mainly feuding with The Mexicools on Velocity. Regal often acted as a manager for Burchill during his singles matches.

On the December 31 edition of Velocity, Burchill debuted his C-4 move in WWE, which aided him in a victory against the jobber, John Xavier. He then disappeared from WWE television to go back to OVW for a while to receive more training and compete.

On the February 3, 2006 edition of SmackDown, Regal and Burchill told SmackDown "network representative" Palmer Cannon that they no longer wanted to be a tag team so they could go their separate ways. During this discussion Burchill informed Cannon that his family heritage traces back to the pirate Blackbeard, and that he wanted to do a pirate gimmick on SmackDown. He followed through on this promise the following week when he appeared backstage dressed as a pirate, with a look similar to that of Captain Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Burchill with his babyface persona would start a rivalry with former team mate Regal who would weekly try to convince Burchill to return to his ruthless ways. Burchill had his first match as a pirate on the March 10 edition of SmackDown, during his entrance Burchill would stand on a platform located at the far end of the entrance way and then swing down to the entrance floor on a rope. As he made his way down to the ring he threw beads to the crowd and pulled out his sword as his opponent William Regal looked on in disbelief. Burchill defeated William Regal using his C-4 move in this match.

Burchill would once again defeat William Regal in a singles match on the April 7, 2006 episode of Friday Night SmackDown. However, this match saw a stipulation that would see Regal have to dress like a "buxom wench", since he lost the match. Lady Regal, as SmackDown announcers would jokingly refer to him, would have no choice but to dress like what ever Burchill felt like having him wear until Burchill lost a match.

On the April 21, 2006 episode of SmackDown, Burchill made Regal dress up in various costumes such as a gorilla suit and a chicken suit. Eventually, he made Regal dress up like a buccaneer for their tag match later in the night against Gymini. Burchill ended up abandoning Regal during the match, which led to Gymini picking up the victory.

Burchill was soon joined by an unnamed buxom wench (Shelly Martinez) who made appearances with Burchill in OVW before debuting and appearing on the May 6, 2006 edition of the WWE Velocity webcast in Burchill's corner [1]. Shelly Martinez disappeared after that one appearance because WWE management was upset with her performance.

In mid 2006, Burchill required knee surgery and, to allow him time away from the ring to get it performed, was kayfabe injured by Mark Henry. This time away from the ring was also used to develop a new gimmick to replace his pirate character on his return because Vince McMahon, who apparently wasn't aware of the Pirates of the Caribbean films and Johnny Depp's pirate character, believed the character should have thought he was a real pirate; acting more like the Carl Ouellet pirate character (Jean Pierre Lafitte) from the 1990s, and felt it couldn't work as a crowd favorite despite the positive crowd reactions Burchill received [2].

After recovering from the surgery, Burchill returned to the OVW development territory under a heel gimmick more reminiscent of his original WWE appearances. First he was billed as "The Most Dangerous Man in OVW" and later he called himself "The Ripper" Paul Burchill (reminiscent of Jack the Ripper), Burchill became the first British OVW Champion after defeating Chet The Jet for the title on December 15, 2006. On February 17, he lost the title to Cody Runnels at a house show. He won the title back the next night at another house show. On March 14, 2007, Burchill lost his OVW Championship to Aaron "The Idol" Stevens.

[edit] In wrestling

  • Managers
  • Finishing and signature moves

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

  • International Wrestling Promotions
  • IWP Heavyweight Championship (1 Time)

[edit] Trivia

  • Burchill's C-4 move was also commonly named the C-4 Hotwired, as it was debuted at the FWA event Hotwired in 2003 and the subtitle of the C-4 on video was taken out of context.
  • Since his pirate gimmick started, the C-4 move has been dubbed by some fans "The Plank" in reference to announcer Michael Cole's comment that Regal was walking the plank. Walking The Plank would later become the official name of the move.
  • Burchill was one of the masked men in Muhammad Hassan's attack on The Undertaker.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Webcast from WWE's Velocity Archives, May 6, 2006
  2. ^ Wrestling Observer Newsletter, June 5, 2006

[edit] External links

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