| Kevin Wacholz | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | Thor[1] Kevin Kelly[1] Kevin The Magnificent[1] Nailz[1] The Prisoner[1] The Convict |
| Billed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 297 lb (135 kg; 21.2 st) |
| Born | April 17, 1958 |
| Resides | Bloomington, Minnesota[1] |
| Trained by | Brad Rheingans[1] |
| Debut | 1982[1] |
| Retired | 2000 |
Kevin Wacholz (born April 17, 1958)[1] is a former professional wrestler who once worked for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1992 as Nailz. He was also known as "Mr. Magnificent" Kevin Kelly in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the 1980s.
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Kevin Wacholz started wrestling in 1982 in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) as Kevin Kelly, a babyface midcarder. By 1986, he was a top heel and challenged for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship. He was also using the moniker, "Mr. Magnificent" Kevin Kelly.
In 1987, he was issuing arm wrestling challenges and was managed by Sherri Martel. This caused him to feud with Tommy Rich, who answered one of his challenges on an edition of AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN. Kelly appeared to have the arm-wrestling match against Rich lost when Martel interfered on Kelly's behalf, for which Martel paid when Rich tore off her dress as payback.[2]
After Martel left the AWA, she was replaced by Madusa Miceli as Kelly's manager. He often teamed with Nick Kiniski as "The Perfect Tag Team" to contend for the AWA World Tag Team title.
He left the AWA for the independent promotions before it folded in 1991.
In 1992, a noticeably heavier Wacholz entered the WWF as Nailz, an ex-convict who, in a series of promos alleged that he was abused by former prison guard Big Boss Man during his incarceration,[3] and also claimed to be innocent of his crimes. Following Big Boss Man's squash of Dave Roulette on a May 30 edition of WWF Superstars, Nailz, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, attacked Boss Man, then handcuffed him to the top rope and repeatedly hit and choked him with Boss Man's nightstick.[4]
Nailz easily defeated numerous jobbers en route to defeating Boss Man's storyline ally Virgil at SummerSlam and continued to feud with Big Boss Man, who had recovered from Nailz's beating. Nailz is also credited with ending the full time wrestling career of Sgt Slaughter in October 1992 (Slaughter would not appear again on WWF TV in a wrestling capacity until December 1997). Eventually, Big Boss Man defeated Nailz in a nightstick match at Survivor Series, putting an end to their feud.
He was then set to feud with The Undertaker. The two had a stare down that aired on the October 24 edition of WWF Superstars and a picture of the two staring was used as the cover for the January 1993 issue of WWF's monthly magazine,[5] but the feud never went anywhere.
However, Wacholz was fired from the WWF in December 1992, reportedly after he attacked Vince McMahon in his office over a dispute over money,[3][6] while John Nord watched the door. Bret Hart recalls that Wacholz "cornered Vince in his office and screamed at him for fifteen minutes". Bret notes that he was just down the hall from the incident when he heard a loud crash, which was Wacholz "knocking Vince over in his chair, choking him violently".[7] The incident led to a series of lawsuits between Wacholz and McMahon. Wacholz fired the first shot, alleging that McMahon had given him steroids on a number of occasions; McMahon denied the claim, but Wacholz proceeded to file a wrongful termination lawsuit. The WWF filed a counterclaim against Wacholz, but later dropped the matter.
Wacholz later went on to testify against McMahon and the WWF when they were being indicted for giving their athletes steroids, saying that McMahon told him to take steroids and that he personally hated McMahon.[8] According to the 2003 book WrestleCrap, his testimony included the comment "I hate Vince McMahon's guts." Wacholz's testimony backfired and proved a catalyst in McMahon's acquittal.
He went to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1993 for a short stay as The Prisoner to feud with Sting.
Wrestled In Jim Crockett's Short Lived WWN promotion in 1994 Under the name "The Convict." He would also wrestle in New Japan Pro Wrestling that year.
In 1996, Wacholz used his Nailz gimmick in Tito Santana's American Wrestling Federation. He retired in 2000.
He has two adult children and continues to reside in Minnesota. Wacholz owns & operates his own business - AAA Trailers.