Bam Neely

Bam Neely

LaRouche on ECW as Bam Neely
Birth name Justin Bruce Rocheleau
Born June 18, 1975
Robbinsdale, Minnesota[1]
Resides Tampa, Florida
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Bam Neely[2]
Hellfire[3]
Hellraiser Gutz[3]
Justin LaRouche[3]
Magnus Maximus[3]
Billed height 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)[2]
Billed weight 275 lb (125 kg)[2]
Billed from Robbinsdale, Minnesota[2]
Trained by Richard Martin
Ohio Valley Wrestling[3]
Debut 2002[3]
Retired 2010

Justin Bruce Rocheleau[4] (born June 18, 1975) is an American former professional wrestler. He is best known for his stint with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its ECW brand under the ring name Bam Neely[2] (a take off of retired professional ice hockey player Cam Neely's nickname).

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit

Rocheleau started his career wrestling in the tag team known as the "Hellraisers". He wrestled under the name "Hellraiser Gutz" and was trained and mentored by his uncle Richard Martin, who wrestled as "Hellraiser Blood". They traveled across the United States, winning several tag team championships from the numerous independent promotions around the country and were the main event draw in almost every city that they appeared in for nearly a decade. However, Rocheleau struck out as singles wrestler due to Martin suffering a career-ending illness. He began wrestling as "Magnus Maximus" in Ed Hellier's Steel Domain Wrestling in 2002.[3]

World Wrestling Entertainment

Developmental territories

He WWE's former developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling under the name Justin "The Ox" LaRouche, where he won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championships with Charles "The Hammer" Evans.[3][5] They would lose the titles to the Major Brothers, who ironically became members of La Familia (as the Rated-R Entourage of Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder), the stable which he would join upon making his WWE debut.

ECW

Rocheleau made his WWE television debut on the ECW brand on April 8, 2008 when after Kane and Chavo Guerrero signed the contract for their ECW Championship rematch at Backlash, LaRouche stormed the ring, aiding Guerrero (as well as Hawkins and Ryder) in beating down Kane and putting him through a table.[6][7]

Rocheleau's character was then revealed to be "Bam Neely", a former border guard[2] who was hired as a bodyguard by Guerrero to help him win back the ECW Championship as well as provide backup for La Familia. He won his ECW in-ring debut by defeating then ECW Champion Kane in a handicap match while teaming with Guerrero.[8][9] He had his first singles match on the June 20 edition of SmackDown in a losing effort against Matt Hardy.[10] On the August 8 edition of SmackDown, Neely along with the rest of La Familia were all betrayed by Edge, and on the August 12 edition of ECW, Neely lost to Evan Bourne, with whom Guerrero and Neely had begun a minor feud.[11]

On the October 24 episode of SmackDown during a non-title tag team match against the reigning Tag Team Champions Primo Colon and Carlito, Guerrero and Neely had some miscommunication which resulted in Guerrero slapping Neely and Neely throwing (and missing) a punch at Guerrero which distracted Neely long enough for Carlito to hit the Backstabber for the victory. This, in addition to earlier storyline issues fostered by inability to beat R-Truth, caused the team to disband.

The following week, on the October 28 episode of ECW, the duo would team one last time, as they and Mark Henry defeated then-ECW Champion Matt Hardy, Evan Bourne, and Finlay. Afterwards, Neely only appeared on television once more in a losing effort to Hardy on the November 4 episode of ECW before he was released from WWE on January 9, 2009.[12]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. ↑ "Official MySpace". Bam Neely. Archived from the original on 2008-04-16. Retrieved 2008-06-16.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "Bam Neely Bio". WWE. Archived from the original on 2008-05-10. Retrieved 2008-05-07.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 "Bam Neely Profile". Online World Of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  4. ↑ IMDB profile
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Westcott, Brian; Dupree, Jim (2007-04-11). "NWA Ohio Valley Wrestling Southern Tag Team Title History". Solie's Title Histories. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  6. ↑ Passero, Mitch (2008-04-08). "Contract War". WWE. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  7. ↑ Rote, Andrew (2008-04-22). "Family feud". WWE. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  8. ↑ Medalis, Kara A. (2008-04-29). "Extreme lessons". WWE. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  9. ↑ Rote, Andrew (2008-04-29). "Two tame the Big Red Monster". WWE. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  10. ↑ Passero, Mitch (2008-06-20). "Debut loss". WWE. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  11. ↑ Medalis, Kara A. (2008-08-14). "World's Strongest message". WWE. Retrieved 2008-08-12.
  12. ↑ "Neely, Venis and Dlo Released". WWE. 2009-01-10. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  13. ↑ "Wrestlingdata Proflie". Wrestlingdata.com. 2013-09-01. Retrieved 2013-09-01.
  14. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2008". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  15. ↑ "SDW STEEL DOMAIN WRESTLING WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE HISTORY". Solie.org. Retrieved 2012-05-10.
  16. ↑ "SDW STEEL DOMAIN WRESTLING TELEVISION TITLE HISTORY". Solie.org. Retrieved 2012-05-10.

External links