Elijah Burke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
Elijah Burke
An image of Elijah Burke.
Statistics
Ring name(s) Elijah Burke
Billed height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1]
Billed weight 230 lb (100 kg/16 st)[1]
Born May 24, 1978 (1978-05-24) (age 30)[2]
Jacksonville, Florida, United States[2]
Trained by Ohio Valley Wrestling[3]
Debut 2003

Elijah Samuel Burke[2] (born May 24, 1978) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand.

Contents

Career

Burke is a former officer for the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office in Florida who would become an amateur boxer in Jacksonville's Club 5 and Club Plush where he claims to have had a 98-1 win/loss record. According to his WWE.com profile, Burke has a record of 103-1 with 102 knockouts in his amateur career.[1] Both of these records are unsubstantiated. Still, according to WWE, the only loss he sustained was a disqualification, after he knocked his opponent out and refused to back down to his corner.[3] Before each of his matches he writes the phrase "4-Up" on his wrist tape. According to Joey Styles, this stands for "four knuckles upside your head".

World Wrestling Entertainment (2003–Current)

After signing with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), he was sent to their developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). There, he won the OVW Heavyweight Championship on December 8, 2004, by defeating Chad Toland. [3] On April 14th Burke lost the Championship to Matt Morgan. Burke was offered a spot in the Spirit Squad by the WWE Creative Team, but turned it down, forcing him to stay in Ohio Valley Wrestling on a longer stint before moving to Smackdown! with Sylvester Terkay.[2]

SmackDown! (2006)

After training with OVW, Burke would be brought up to the main roster of SmackDown! on July 28, 2006 working a mixed martial arts cornerman gimmick with the also debuting former MMA fighter Sylvester Terkay.[4] His first WWE match saw him defeating Scott Wright[5] and he would also break Vito's four month winning streak while on SmackDown!, albeit with Terkay's assistance.[6]

ECW (2006–Current)

On November 7, 2006, Elijah Burke and Sylvester Terkay debuted on the ECW brand by cutting a backstage promo.[7] The following week, Burke replaced Tazz, who had knee surgery, as color commentator alongside play-by-play announcer Joey Styles.[8] Two weeks later, Burke returned to the ring; he and Terkay lost to The Hardys.[9] At the ECW brand's December to Dismember pay-per-view, Burke and Terkay defeated the Full Blooded Italians,[10] a feat which the duo have since repeated. The pair were later dubbed The Knock-Out / Tap-Out Connection, in reference to Burke's amateur boxing career and Terkay's Mixed Martial Arts background.

On January 18, 2007, Terkay was released from WWE.[2] Since then, Burke has wrestled in singles matches, and appeared in a segment where WWE owner Vince McMahon showed disdain for members of the original ECW and called Burke to the ring, naming him "The Future Of ECW". Burke was then attacked by Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam, Sabu, and The Sandman, who would later form the ECW Originals stable. Burke then became the official leader of the "New Breed", a group of new ECW stars including Matt Striker, Marcus Cor Von and Kevin Thorn, who proceeded to feud with the ECW Originals. At WrestleMania 23, The New Breed faced off against The ECW Originals but were ultimately defeated.

After several weeks of trying to recruit fellow roster mate and new ECW superstar CM Punk, Burke and the New Breed were successful on April 10. However, just two weeks later, CM Punk betrayed the New Breed, attacking Burke after a match. The next week, Kevin Thorn quit the New Breed due to lack of interference in his match with CM Punk. The same night, Matt Striker and Marcus Cor Von were defeated by the Major Brothers, a debuting tag team. After being pinned, Burke screamed at Striker creating tension between the two. The New Breed would then feud with the ECW Originals, CM Punk and the Major Brothers at the same time. At Judgment Day, Burke was defeated by CM Punk. Then, at One Night Stand, Burke, Marcus Cor Von and Matt Striker were defeated by Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman and CM Punk in a Tables Match. On June 19, 2007, Burke lost to Chris Benoit (which would be Benoit's last match before his death) in a match that would decide who would face either CM Punk or Marcus Cor Von for the vacant ECW World Championship at Vengeance: Night of Champions. Burke lost to CM Punk in a best two out of three falls match, which would see the winner becoming the number one contender to the Johnny Nitro's ECW Championship. On July 10, Burke rebounded with a decisive victory over Balls Mahoney.[11] He was then named the number one contender for the ECW Championship and went on to face CM Punk at the Unforgiven pay-per-view where he was beaten after CM Punk cleanly pinned him.

Two days later on ECW, an elimination chase was set up by ECW General Manager Armando Estrada. This challenge was to determine the number one contender to CM Punk's ECW Championship in order to compete for the title at No Mercy 2007. Estrada pitted four of the best wrestlers that ECW would offer (Burke, Kevin Thorn, Tommy Dreamer and Stevie Richards) in a fatal four way that night, which was won by Elijah Burke. It also meant the loser of the match, Stevie Richards, was out of the chase to No Mercy. The following week, Burke eliminated former New Breed comrade Kevin Thorn from the competition after Tommy Dreamer nailed Thorn with a Dreamer DDT.

On the November 20, 2007 edition of ECW, Burke introduced and formed an alliance with the newest member of the ECW roster, Shelton Benjamin, who jumped over from the Raw brand.

Burke reappeared on WWE television by participating in the 2008 Royal Rumble, entering as 28th entrant but was eliminated by Triple H after having Mick Foley pushed into him, after which both Foley and Burke were eliminated. Burke also has a journal on WWE.com called Elijah Experience where he discusses the happenings on ECW on Sci-Fi.[12]

In wrestling

  • Finishing and signature moves

Championships and accomplishments

Other media

Burke was a guest on Sci-Fi's Ghost Hunters, on the October 31, 2007 Halloween live special episode.[13]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e WWE: TV Shows > ECW > Superstars > Elijah Burke > Bio. WWE.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
  2. ^ a b c d e SLAM! Sports - Wrestling - Elijah Burke. SLAM! Sports. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
  3. ^ a b c Online World of Wrestling: Elijah Burke Profile. OWW.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
  4. ^ WWE SmackDown results - July 28, 2006. OWW.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
  5. ^ WWE SmackDown results - August 4, 2006. OWW.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
  6. ^ WWE SmackDown results - October 20, 2006. OWW.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
  7. ^ ECW results - November 7, 2006. OWW.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
  8. ^ ECW results - November 14, 2006. OWW.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
  9. ^ ECW results - November 21, 2006. OWW.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
  10. ^ ECW December to Dismember 2006 results. OWW.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
  11. ^ Corey Clayton (2007-07-10). Nitro and Punk continue to roll toward The Bash. WWE. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  12. ^ http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/superstars/elijahburke/eexperiencearchive/
  13. ^ a b c Kara A. Medalis. Elijah Burke goes Ghost Hunting. WWE.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-30.

External links

Professional wrestling
Portal