Shane Douglas

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Troy Martin
Statistics
Ring name(s) Dean Douglas
Shane Douglas
Troy Orndorff
The Franchise
Billed height 6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Billed weight 249 lb (113 km)
Born November 21, 1964
New Brighton, Pennsylvania
Billed from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Trained by Dominic DeNucci
Debut 1982

Troy Shane Martin (born November 21, 1964) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler who is better known by his ring name, Shane Douglas. In the course of his career, which has spanned two decades, Douglas has wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling as "The Franchise" Shane Douglas and for the World Wrestling Federation as Dean Douglas. He is currently employed by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Starting out

Troy Martin was trained by Dominic DeNucci in the Pittsburgh suburb of Freedom, Pennsylvania, alongside Mick Foley and Brian Hildebrand in the mid-1980s, though he had been wrestling professionally to earn money since 1982. When he started, he used the character of Troy Orndorff, the ficitional nephew of Paul Orndorff. In 1986 he began wrestling as a face for the Universal Wrestling Federation using the name Shane Douglas, which was given to him by "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert and Missy Hyatt. Douglas defeated Eddie Gilbert for the UWF TV title,on August 3, 1987 but did not rise above mid-card status. Douglas lost the title on September 2, 1987 to Terry Taylor.

[edit] Getting established

Eventually he signed with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)/World Championship Wrestling (WCW) where, using the name Shane Douglas, he was put into a tag team of skateboarders known as The Dynamic Dudes with Johnny Ace. Since neither Ace nor Douglas knew how to skateboard the fans saw through the gimmick and refused to buy into it. Jim Cornette, who was managing The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) at the time, decided to manage the duo to help them get over. When Eaton and Lane (kayfabe) did not approve, they forced a match between the two teams with Cornette remaining neutral at ringside. He ended up turning on Douglas and Ace and the teams feuded for a couple of months. The Cornette turn was to have established the Dynamic Dudes as a top babyface tag team, but the turn backfired and made The Midnight Express more popular than they already were.

The Dynamic Dudes broke up in 1990 after Ace began competing progressively more for All Japan Pro Wrestling, which was breaking down its ties to American promotions. Douglas soon left NWA/WCW and wrestled on the American independent circuit. 1990 also saw him sign a deal with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). His most memorable WWF performance took place at the 1991 Royal Rumble, where he lasted for 26 minutes 23 seconds, thus making him the wrestler who spent the third longest time in the ring. Shortly after, he left the company to take care of his ailing father.

[edit] 1992-1993

He returned to WCW in 1992 and teamed with Ricky Steamboat to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham on December 18th. The team of Steamboat and Douglas had a long feud with The Hollywood Blondes ("Stunning" Steve Austin and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman), often wearing identical body suits and masks and calling themselves "Dos Hombres", they eventually lost the belts to The Blondes on March 11, 1993.

Soon after losing the tag titles Douglas left WCW for Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW). In ECW, he initially supported the faces, but then turned on Tommy Dreamer during a match in which Douglas was defending the ECW tag team belts with him (on behalf of Johnny Gunn, an old WCW comrade) against Kevin Sullivan and The Tasmaniac. Douglas blamed Dreamer for the loss and turned on him, effectively becoming a heel, an attitude that would define him permanently and give him success.

[edit] Extreme Championship Wrestling

Douglas was instrumental in the development of "extreme" wrestling when he won a tournament to become the NWA World Heavyweight Champion on August 27, 1994. In an angle which only he and Paul Heyman knew about, Douglas threw down the NWA belt stating that he did not want to be champion of a "dead promotion". He then raised the Eastern Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Title and declared it to be a World Heavyweight Championship -- calling it the only real World Title. Shortly afterward Eastern Championship Wrestling changed its name to Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Capitalizing on the controversy that surrounded his literally "throwing down" the NWA belt and the promo following it, Douglas was encouraged to express his true feelings in interviews by the ECW bosses and began calling himself The Franchise. This helped raise ECW prominence in the eyes of wrestling fans and journalists and allowed it to become an alternative to WCW and the WWF.

Douglas feuded with The Sandman and Sabu for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Douglas' wrestling style could not be accurately called "hardcore," and is better described as stylish brawling mixed with technical wrestling reminiscent of Ric Flair or Tully Blanchard in the NWA of the 1980s. Some maintain, however, that he is an expert in AJPW's King's Road style, on par with the likes of Toshiaki Kawada and Kamala II. Nonetheless, he was able to perform "hardcore" spots if he had to, as demonstrated during a long running feud with Sabu.

It was during this time that he formed the first Triple Threat, aligning himself with Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko. The highly technically skilled group of heels earned respect and hatred of ECW fans, holding at various times, ECW World, TV and tag team titles (the latter by Benoit and Malenko). All 3 left ECW during the summer of 95.

[edit] Shoot-style interviews

Over the course of his ECW career, Douglas was well-known for his method of cutting promos, in which he notoriously mixed worked (scripted) remarks with real-life, wrestling insider observations (also known as a shoot interview).[citation needed]

Douglas's promos (which usually incorporated biting criticism of ECW's competitors, older generation wrestlers, and the wrestling business in general), completely went against the grain of traditional wrestling promos, where wrestlers would stay in character and prepare the audience for their upcoming matches while still keeping kayfabe.[citation needed]

These types of promos are extremely common in today's wrestling business. However, back in the early 90's were almost unheard of. As a result, Douglas and the then-obscure ECW gained an extra bit of notoriety. Douglas in particular, with his smoke-burnished voice and articulate delivery, became something of an underground legend for his biting outspokenness.[citation needed]

[edit] World Wrestling Federation

In 1995, Douglas debuted in the WWF, becoming Dean Douglas, a College Dean character. To establish himself he filmed several vignettes with a chalkboard "teaching" wrestlers and fans. Upon his WWF debut, he became the first former ECW Heavyweight Champion ever on the active roster, and the only one until 1998, when Terry Funk debuted as Chainsaw Charlie.

He was awarded the Intercontinental Title on October 22, 1995 by forfeit when Shawn Michaels was unable to wrestle after being attacked and severely beaten by thugs in Syracuse New York (legit). His reign was short lived, however, as he was defeated by Razor Ramon later that night.

Douglas had been having backstage problems with Michaels and Hall, both members of the Clique, and took it personally, leading him to quit the company. He has since held a grudge against Vince McMahon and the WWF, and has stated that he will "never work for them again".[citation needed]

[edit] Return to ECW

In late 1995 Douglas returned to ECW and targeted ECW World Heavyweight Champion, Raven. During this time he also had a memorable feud with Cactus Jack. Cactus was getting ready to leave for WWF and was cutting promos encouraging Tommy Dreamer to come with him, deriding ECW hardcore style and promoting "clean" wrestling. During several matches, he refused to wrestle hardcore. Douglas eventually pinned Cactus Jack in a match after a memorable drop toe hold onto a chair. After finding himself unsuccessful in his title shots, he began a feud with 2 Cold Scorpio, based on Douglas' lack of respect for the ECW World TV Title. Douglas held the TV title briefly, but lost it to Pitbull #2.

Douglas eventually won the TV title back (from Chris Jericho) in a 4-way dance that also inluded 2 Cold Scorpio and Pitbull #2 (who had lost the title to Jericho) when The Pitbulls' manager, Francine, turned on them and aided Douglas. When The Pitbulls went on to superbomb her through a table as part of the postmatch altercation Pitbull #1 suffered a (legit) broken neck.

Douglas, with Francine, went on to feud with Pitbull #2 for the rest of 1996 and, by year's end, reformed the Triple Threat with Chris Candido and "Primetime" Brian Lee, later adding Bam Bam Bigelow when Lee left ECW. He held the TV title for a year before losing it to Taz. He then turned his sights on ECW World Heavyweight Champion, Terry Funk and, at Hardcore Heaven 1997, in a rematch from The Night the Line Was Crossed, Shane Douglas defeated Sabu (who had beaten Funk a week earlier for the title in a barbed wire deathmatch) and Terry Funk in a three way dance to regain the ECW World Heavyweight Title. In October 1997, he briefly lost it to Bam Bam Bigelow, but regained it 15 days later at November To Remember 1997, which was held in his hometown of Pittsburgh. With the exception of these two weeks, he would reign as champion until January 1999, finally losing the title to Taz, whom he feuded with all during 1998. It is notable that this was the point when Pro Wrestling Illustrated officially declared the ECW title a "World Title".

[edit] World Championship Wrestling again

Differences with Paul Heyman culminated with The Franchise's departing ECW for WCW in early 1999. Upon arriving in WCW he pledged to "cut the cancer out" of WCW, the cancer being Ric Flair (with whom he also has legit heat). He reunited with former Triple Threat members Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, along with fellow former ECW wrestler Perry Saturn, to form The Revolution. Asya was the group's valet.

Douglas had an onscreen feud with Ric Flair, who was a favorite target of his during his ECW interviews. However, the group was rarely featured prominently and never really challenged the dominant wrestlers of WCW, which led to them never really getting over as a idea, though both Benoit and Malenko were over individually. He was part of The New Blood group run by Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff which feuded with the older established Millionaire's Club. He won the Tag Team Championships (with Buff Bagwell), the Hardcore title and the United States Championship during this run which also saw Torrie Wilson become his valet.

[edit] Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

Following the closure of XPW, Douglas had a short stint with World Wrestling All-Stars before signing with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in June 2003.

When he debuted in TNA he immediately re-ignited his feud with Raven. The two ended up joining separate factions (The New Church for Douglas, The Gathering for Raven) and clashed throughout the summer of 2003.

When this feud ran down Douglas broke away from The New Church and began a quest, alongside his new valet Tracy, to find "The NEW Franchise". He decided on up and comer Michael Shane and took him under his wing throughout the end of 2003 and beginning of 2004.

When the grouping of Shane and Douglas broke up Douglas went into a semi-in-ring-retirement, becoming an onscreen commentator and interviewer for TNA's weekly television show, iMPACT!, and their monthly pay-per-views. In addition to this on screen role, he worked backstage as a road agent and took a few independent bookings.

In 2005 Douglas promoted (while still working for TNA) an ECW reunion show called Hardcore Homecoming. At the inaugural event on June 10, he lost a Three-Way dance barbed wire rope match to Sabu, which also included Terry Funk. The show would carry on in the form of "The Reunion Tour" in the month of September, putting on two shows. At those shows, he would pick up a victory in a Three-Way dance against Jerry Lynn and Sabu in Cleveland, as well as a victory over Pitbull #1 in Pittsburg. Hardcore Homecoming would hold one last event (billed as November Reign) on November 5, where Douglas lost a Dog-Collar match against Pitbull #1.

In 2006, Shane Douglas took time off to undergo rehab for an addiction to painkillers (see below).

He returned to television on the May 18 episode of iMPACT!, appearing on the entrance ramp as Andy Douglas (no relation) made the save for his tag team partner Chase Stevens after a brutal squash by Samoa Joe. A few weeks later, on June 15, Shane confronted them on their recent losing streak and their squandered talent, offering to become their manager, which they accepted. During the promo when he offered his services he shot on the revival of ECW by WWE, admonishing Vince McMahon for "exploiting the memory" of the company he helped build nearly 15 years earlier. Since taking him up on his vignettes showing Douglas training The Naturals have been shown on TNA programming, though he doesn't stand at ringside during their matches like most other managers. On the December 21 episode of iMPACT! after The Naturals lost to Team 3D in a Tables Match, Douglas turned his back on them, saying, "This experiment is over." However on the February 8th 2007 edition of TNA, he along with Andy Douglas came to the aid of Chase Stevens after he was attacked by Abyss. Abyss ended up taking out both The Naturals and their manager that night.

[edit] Wrestling facts

  • Finishing and signature moves
  • Signature illegal weapon
  • Managers and valets

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

[edit] Personal life

Douglas graduated cum laude from Bethany College in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in history and political science. He went on to receive teacher certification from Geneva College. Douglas taught at Beaver High School and Western Beaver Jr/Sr High School throughout the early 1990s, teaching emotional support classes, economics and the history of the United States.

Douglas is married to Carla. Their first son, Connor, was born in early 2001, and their second son, Caden Andrew, was born on December 6, 2005.

Douglas entered drug rehabilitation in February 2006 after becoming addicted to the analgesic Oxycontin. He left rehabilitation in April 2006, having taken no Oxycontin tablets since January, 2006.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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