| Joe Hitchen | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | Billy Johnson Bluto Belushi Dragon Joe E. Legend Joe Sampson Just Joe Legend Master Joe Storm Nord XL Legend |
| Billed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
| Billed weight | 252 lb (114 kg) |
| Born | September 2, 1969 |
| Billed from | Toronto, Canada Glasgow, Scotland (as Nord) Parts Unknown (as Dragon) |
| Trained by | Ron Hutchinson |
| Debut | 1992 |
Joseph Edward "Joe" Hitchen (born September 2, 1969) is a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Joe E. Legend.
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Joe Legend began wrestling in Canada before becoming a part of the successful tag team Sex and Violence with Sexton Hardcastle in the Detroit area. His debut match was against Zakk Wyld (Keith Assoun) in Brampton. Ontario in 1992. During 1997, Sex and Violence were a part of a bigger gang which was known as THUG Life, which was composed of Legend, Hardcastle, Christian Cage, Zakk Wyld, Bloody Bill Skullion and Rhino Richards. Among his catchphrases used was "Heroes come and heroes go, but legends live forever!"
Hitchen later competed under XL Legend in the Catch Wrestling Association which is based in Germany. He later teamed with Rhino Richards to win the vacant World Tag Team Championships by defeating Rico de Cuba and August Smisl on October 10, 1998 in Hanover, Germany. The title were vacated in October 1998 when Rhino Richards left the promotion after signing with Extreme Championship Wrestling. After his departure from the WWF in the spring of 2001, Legend found success in Germany and England.
In April 2005, he was one of the lead trainers of Celebrity Wrestling in the United Kingdom on ITV. This Saturday evening reality show saw celebrities learn wrestling and compete in challenge matches. After a few weeks the program was set to be cancelled, but instead was moved to Sunday morning to finish its final episodes.
He can now be found wrestling in and around the United Kingdom for promotions such as All Star Wrestling, working regular shows at Butlins holiday parks after throwing out an open challenge to potential rivals for his Pan Pacific and GSA heavyweight titles. He has also toured Wales for both Orig Williams and Alan Ravenhill.
During his time in the now defunted Frontier Wrestling Alliance he wrestled for the FWA British Heavyweight Championship in a five-way match at The Champions Series Final on January 5, 2006 in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, England, but was defeated by Hade Vansen.
He made his TV debut on the July 2, 2000 episode of Heat. He competed as Just Joe in the WWF before going off to wrestle in Japan and Europe. When he was in the WWF, his gimmick was that of a messenger who tried to stir the pot. His catchline in the WWE was "The Boys in the back are talking." He would always try to stir up a bad situation. He wrestled a few times in the WWF, including matches against Dean Malenko, Essa Rios, and Raven. All of these matches were shown on programs such as Heat and Metal. On an October 2000 episode of Jakked, he had the distinction of having to job to the Brooklyn Brawler, who was infamous for jobbing to other wrestlers as well. Probably his most memorable moment came when he was attacked by Stone Cold Steve Austin at Unforgiven 2000.
During his time in the Puerto Rican International Wrestling Association Hitchen wrestled under the ring name Nord. On March 8, 2003 he captured the IWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship by defeating Glamour Boy Shane in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. He lost the championship to Chicano in Bayamón, Puerto Rico on April 19 the same year.
He returned to America in 2004 to compete in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. During his time in TNA as part of the Red Shirt Security, he won the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Kevin Northcutt. They held the belts from January 28, 2004 to February 4 of the same year.
Joe E. Legend tours annually with World Wrestling Professionals (WWP), a South African promotion currently airing on a nationally broadcast network. He also acts as their scouting agent, having been responsible for bringing Mikey Whiplash, Angelico and Murat over to WWP. Joe Legend worked for WWP in 2007 and 2008, and returned in 2009. The January 10, 2009 episode of WWP saw Joe Legend defeat PJ Black (current WWE superstar Justin Gabriel) to capture the then vacant WWP Heavyweight World Title for the first time.
Hitchen competed at Independent Wrestling Federation's Wrestliada 2007 in Moscow, Russia, under the ring name Joe Legend. At this event July 28, 2007 on he defeated Volcano to become the first IWF World Champion. During his reign he defeated Raven to retain the championship.
On October 26, 2009. Hitchen competed at the first ever show for Do Or Die Wrestling, based out of Poland. In this show Austin Aries defended the ROH World Championship against Ruckus.
On May 8, 2010 at the "All or Nothing" PPV, Joe became the first ever Do or Die Wrestling International Champion after winning a gauntlet match and defeating, in the main event, Jędruś Bułecka and Kamil Aleksander in a Triple Threat Match. Earlier that night, he also competed in a 10-man Battle Royal to determine who would enter last in the Gauntlet match (That match won by Jędruś Bułecka).
January 29, 2011 Murat Bosporus defaeted Joe Legend (Intercontinental Championship Match)
February 12, 2011 Batdal defaeted Joe Legend via of DQ (Singles Match)
May 8, 2011 Joe Legend defaeted Soldier (Singles Match)
October 16, 2011 Joe Legend defaeted Big Boy (No DQ Match)
In December 2007, Joe E. Legend became the co-host of The Main Event Radio, which is the official podcast of TotalWrestling.net.
In May 2009, Hitchen was announced as one of the competitors on the Turkish version of "Gladiators", which began filming in September 2009.[1]