Stevie Richards

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For similar names see the disambiguation page Stephen Richards

Michael Manna


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Steve Richards Stevie Richards Big Stevie Cool Steven Richards
Billed height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Billed weight	220 lb (100 kg)
Born	October 9, 1971 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Trained by	Mike Sharpe Jimmy Jannetty
Debut	February 25, 1992

Michael Manna (born October 9, 1971) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. Best known by his ring name, Steven "Stevie" Richards, Manna has previously worked for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and, briefly, World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

1 Career
2 Wrestling facts
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 External links

[edit] Career

Stevie Richards was trained at Iron Mike Sharpe's wrestling school in Brick, New Jersey after being discovered by Dan Haney of the World Wide Wrestling Alliance based out of Colmar/Hatfield PA^[1].

[edit] Extreme Championship Wrestling

On February 25, 1992, Steven Richards had the honor of being one of the participants in the first ever ECW match, in a 20-minute time limit draw with Jimmy Jannetty.

Before the arrival of Raven in ECW, "Dancin'" Stevie Richards had a 'meta-gimmick' of mockingly adopting the persona of other wrestlers.

ECW announcer/color commentator Joey Styles frequently described the Richards character as a "clueless putz".

When it was announced that Scott Levy, then known by relatively lightweight gimmicks (ie, Scotty 'the Body' Anthony, Scotty Flamingo, and Johnny Polo), was coming to ECW, Richards began adopting and mocking those gimmicks. One of the first things Levy did in ECW in his new gimmick as Raven was thrash "Stevie Flamingo" soundly.

From that point out, Steven Richards acted as a flunkie for Raven in ECW, calling him "Boss".

After a dog collar match against The Pitbulls, which Richards lost, Stevie was thought of as a major superstar. Richards was in the locker room for most of that match.

Richards was also part of the bWo, a parody of the nWo. At one point, he hinted that he was bringing the band KISS ^[2] to perform. It ended up being the bWo in KISS regalia, lip-synching. This was quickly 'cleaned up' by The Sandman.

The highlight of his ECW career was perhaps participating in the main event of the first ECW pay-per-view, Barely Legal. He wrestled Terry Funk and The Sandman in a Three Way Dance to determine the number one contender to the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.

Richards would also do a telephone line for ECW under the name, Lloyd Van Buren. However, he would not wrestle under that name.

[edit] World Championship Wrestling

In May of 1997, Stevie suffered a neck injury so severe that he announced his retirement, before miraculously recovering and signing with WCW. Many people, especially Paul Heyman, debate the legitimacy of the injury to this day. Stevie wrestled briefly as a member of Raven's Flock but failed his physical exams and left WCW in October of the same year. Stevie commented on the Rise And Fall Of ECW DVD that Raven had told him that he was only there to be his "fucking lackey", and that he would get him fired if he pushed for more of a larger role, knowing both would suffer for demanding more than what was above their current status.

[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment

Stevie Richards, with the bWo, was one of the first ECW performers to perform on WWF programming, during a cross-promotional appearance.

In 1999, Richards went to the WWF in a full-time capacity. He would make his WWF debut on the August 15, 1999 episode of Sunday Night HEAT. After briefly using the Dude Love persona (he asked Mick Foley if he could use it and Foley agreed), being associated with the Dudley Boyz, bringing back the mocking gimmick, and teaming up with his old partner Blue Meanie, Richards got a haircut and formed a heel stable called Right to Censor (based on the WWF's then problems with the Parents Television Council organization). He changed his name to Steven Richards and became a manager for the many wrestlers that he recruited. When Chyna was featured in Playboy magazine, Richards demanded a match between Chyna's associate Eddie Guerrero and Val Venis. After Chyna had pantsed Richards leaving him in his white socks and blue briefs, costing Venis the match, Richards and his stable feuded against her.

Soon after the Right to Censor stable broke up, Richards joined The Alliance as the manager of KroniK briefly before Kronik was released. Richards remained on the brand's "B" shows until Team Alliance lost at Survivor Series 2001. Richards was fired along with the rest of the alliance roster ^(kayfabe) by Vince McMahon until Ric Flair was able to save his job and get him drafted over to the RAW brand. There Steven Richards began using the gimmick of a psychotic jobber and became a 22-time Hardcore Champion trading it several times with Bubba Ray Dudley, Booker T, Crash Holly, Shawn Stasiak, Justin Credible, Bradshaw, Terri, and Tommy Dreamer.

Richards eventually formed an alliance with Victoria in late 2002 as a psychotic couple helping each other win their matches. Richards also helped Victoria retain her WWE Women's Championship.

As Victoria (Who is curently a heel again) started to make her latest face turn, the duo quietly separated. In August of 2004, Richards began dressing in drag and helping Victoria win matches. He was finally unmasked at WWE Unforgiven 2004 when saving Victoria from then heel, Trish Stratus and Tyson Tomko, but ended up losing an impromptu match to Tomko. Richards made a name for himself as one of the mainstays of Sunday Night HEAT and became the self-proclaimed "General Manager" of "Stevie Night HEAT". After the death of Richard's friend Crash Holly, Richards would wear tights with a similar design to the ones worn by Crash, as a tribute.

Richards's role as a jobber has been at times physically tasking and he was legitimately injured during the RAW debut match of Chris Masters in February 2005. After returning from injury, Richards faced Masters in a rematch but lost to Masters for a second time.

Richards made an appearance at the ECW reunion event ECW One Night Stand 2005, reuniting with his bWo comrades and proclaiming "We have only three words for you. We're – taking – over!"

[edit] SmackDown!

Richards was traded to SmackDown! on June 30, 2005 and reprised the bWo group with Nova and The Blue Meanie. At the 2005 Great American Bash, the bWo lost to the Mexicools (Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis and Super Crazy) in a six-man tag team match.

Richards went on to become the main eventer of WWE Velocity (much like his time on HEAT) and began slowly dropping the bWo gimmick. After a while Steven Richards would not be used on WWE SmackDown! or even WWE Velocity, disappearing for over half a year. Richards made his return to the ring during an 18-Man pre-show Battle Royal before WrestleMania 22.

[edit] ECW

With the redevelopement of the ECW brand in 2006, Richards would soon leave the Smackdown! brand to join the other members of the ECW brand; making his first appearance as part of the new brand during the WWE vs. ECW Head to Head show on June 7, 2006. Richards would go on to appear on ECW's weekly show under his old ring name of Stevie Richards, though his Titantron video and the on-screen display would still refer to him as Steven.

Richards would soon fit back into his heel persona acting as a sell out to the other ECW originals and siding with the newer stars. Stevie Richards picked up his first win on ECW's weekly show on September 5, 2006 against Balls Mahoney after interference from Kevin Thorn, who was feuding with Mahoney at the time.

Richards was part of the new ECW brand's first pay-per-view December to Dismember; participating in the pre-PPV dark match. He defeated Rene Dupree in what many in attendance felt was one of the best matches of the night^{[citation needed]}.

Richards who hadn't appeared on television in months, returned in a match on ECW on February 27, 2007 against CM Punk. Richard's put up a valiant effort but ultimately lost the match. On the April 3, 2007 edition of ECW, Richards again fought CM Punk, and again came out on the losing side.

Although it is not certain it is believed that Richards will join the ECW Originals On the ECW television Program. At Wrestlemania 23 Richards particpated in a dark match in which he wore a ECW Originals tee shirt.

[edit] Wrestling facts

Finishing and signature moves

Stevie Kick / Steven Kick (Superkick)
Stevie-T (Implant double underhook DDT)
Stevie Bomb / Jackknife (Jackknife powerbomb) - as part of the BWO
Rat Trap (Full nelson camel clutch)
Cool Blue Slam / Emerald City Slam (Sidewalk slam)
Snake eyes
Sitout facebuster
Repeated irish whips with knees into opponent, then usually followed by a suplex