The Mecha Wolf 450

The Mecha Wolf

The Mecha Wolf in May 2017
Birth name John Jesús Yurnet
Born June 20, 1987 (age 29)
Hormigueros, Puerto Rico
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Hammett
Jesús De León
The Mecha Wolf
John Yurnet
Jesus Yurnet
Mecha-Balam
Mr. 450
Billed height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Billed weight 182 lb (83 kg)
Trained by Invader III
Cruzz
Debut 2004

John Jesús Yurnet, better known by his ring name The Mecha Wolf, is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. Yurnet is a former two-time WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship.

Career

A fan of heavy metal music, Yurnet adopted the ring name "Hammett" as a homage to Metallica's lead guitarist Kirk Hammett upon completing his training with Johhny Rivera (also known as Invader No. 3 from his days as an active wrestler). He started his career working on the independent circuit of Puerto Rico, in promotions including Xtreme Wrestling Entertainment (XWE) among others.[1] He later entered the New Wrestling Stars (NWS) in 2005 and was a member of the stable "HP" with Ash, Livewire, and, later on, Stefano. Hammett became NWS's first Junior Heavyweight Champion after winning a tournament on March 26, 2006 but, after having problems with the company, soon vacated the title and left for the International Wrestling Association (IWA).[1] During this time Hammett continued wearing the title until the New Wrestling Stars requested it back.

Hammett soon became IWA's Junior Heavyweight Champion just two weeks later in Bayamón, Puerto Rico defeating champion Blitz. During his time with IWA, Hammet teamed with both Tommy Diablo and Carlitos in tag matches before leaving IWA to return to the NWS.[1] Where on August 13, 2006 in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, Hammet made his first appearance after the match between Bolo The Red Bulldog and William De La Vega, running in through the crowd. Hammet helped out De La Vega, Noriega, and Sabu Kid clear the ring of his former HP team mates.

The appearance was a one-off, however, as Hammett left the company again the next day to enter the World Wrestling Council (WWC). While in WWC, Hammett feuded with Brent Dail, Alex Montalvo and Eli Rodriguez. Hammet soon won WWC's Junior Heavyweight title, becoming the first wrestler in Puerto Rican Wrestling to win the triple-crown by winning the junior heavyweight titles of the three main Puerto Rican companies (at that time) . He also had feuds with wrestlers like Rick Stanley, William De La Vega, BJ, Rico Suave and Tim Arson whom he wrestled for the WWC tag team championships. In his feud with BJ he became the WWC Television Champion on March 1, 2008, and held it for two weeks before dropping it back to BJ. By September 2008, he decided to leave WWC and joined Windy City Pro Wrestling. On February 19, 2010, he defeated Steve Boz to win the Lucha Chicago Championship, In 2014, Mr 450 traveled to Japan where he saw action on Michinoku Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Zero1. After Japan, he went back to the United States to wrestle in Fight The World Wrestling where he won the FTW World Championship. He later came back to Puerto Rico in October 2014 to World Wrestling League event Inssurection where he faced El Sensacional Carlitos, this match being named The Match Of The Year. Later that November they faced each other again.

In December 2014, Mr. 450 Hammett wrestled Bull Dempsey as Jesús De León on an episode of WWE NXT. On July 22, 2015, he made a second appearance on NXT losing to Baron Corbin in less than 5 seconds. On August 19, he made another NXT appearance in an eight-man tag team match, teaming with Jesse Sorensen, Aaron Solow and Jonny Vandal losing to Enzo Amore, Colin Cassady and The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley).

International exposition of the Universal Heavyweight Championship (2015–2016)

Mr. 450 during his tour as Universal Champion.

He returned to WWC on April 4, 2015 to challenge for the Universal World Hevyweight Championship in the main event of Camino a la Gloria, but the match ended without a clear winner and Carlos "Chicano" Cotto retained. The series between both peaked in a cage match, which Hammet won to become the Universal Heavyweight Champion. At Aniversario 2015, he defeated Carly Colón to retain. During his reign as champion, Hammet would wear the belt in his appearances outside of Puerto Rico, carrying it with him in matches throughout the independent circuit of the United States and Canada. In an interview with WrestleZone, he explained that his intention was to give the title the foreign exposition that it had when Carlos Colón and Dory Funk feuded over it in the NWA territories and that he wanted people to feel "[that] this guy is going over to Japan with the belt and representing the island there. [...] This guy is going to Ecuador and he’s representing there."[2] On October 16, 2015, he debuted in Caution Wrestling Federation (CWF) by successfully defending the Universal Heavyweight Championship against masked luchador Zoom Driver, marking the first time that the title had been on the line in Mexican territory.[3] On March 5, 2016, he lost the Universal Championship against Carlito.

WWE (2016–2017)

On July 12, 2016, Yurnet (under his actual name) was announced as one of the alternates of the Cruiserweight Classic (CWC), a group of wrestlers tasked to replace anyone in the official pool that was injured or failed to make the established weight limit of 205 pounds, but did not compete in the main draw.[4]

Mr. 450 in his 2017 ring gear.

On August 7, 2016, Mr. 450 defeated Ricochet to win the Wrestling Superstar World Submission Lucha Championship in Chile. Wrestling as "Jesús Yurnet", he returned to WWE NXT on the September 28, 2016 episode, teaming with Johnathan Cruz in a losing effort against The Authors of Pain. In November 2016, Yurnet debuted the parallel masked character of Mecha-Balam, a cyborg take on Lince Dorado's Balam character that was given a backstory tying both (as a mecha version improved trough "dark science") by designer Chris Parks of Pale Horse Lucha.[5] On the December 27 episode of WWE 205 Live, he wrestled in a losing effort to Mustafa Ali, under his real name.

On his first match since injury he defeated El León Apollo in WWC, and Chicano the next day. On April 16, 2017, Yurnet defeated Ray González in a match to crown a new WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion. Despite heavily promoting a changing of the guard in their television programming, WWC changed the ongoing storyline the following day so that veteran Thunder (Reynaldo Rodríguez) would win the title in a three-way match, reportedly concerned with his schedule. Yurnet was critical of the last minute decision, which he labeled "WWClogic" and left the promotion in the same card. Instead, he resumed his international tours with more appearances in The Crash, RONIN, WrestleCircus and the AAW's XI Anniversary.

Return to WWL (2017–present)

Mr. 450 (left) as part of La Junta along Willie Mack (center) and Konnan (right).

His falling out with WWC facilitated a return to WWL, which had entered into an association with The Crash after he left. Yurnet was included in a storyline where Konnan had manipulated then general manager Dennis Rivera and recruited presidential assistant Manny Ferno in order to complete a hostile takeover of the promotion, imposing a foreign administration exemplified by a heel stable called La Junta de Control (lit. "The Control Board", a reference to PROMESA), being recruited along Willie Mack in a bid to dethrone WWL World Heavyweight Champion Mr. Big (Miguel Maldonado) and replace him with a corporate champion. On May 13, 2017, he made his first appearance as part of the invaders, witnessing the betrayal of both against president Savio Vega (Juan Rivera), but refusing to participate in the attack despite receiving direct orders to do so. In the mainevent of the card, Yurnet was sabotaged twice by special referee and long-time tag team partner of the incumbent, Blitz (Freddy Lozada), allowing them to succeed in their collective effort to retain after brawling with the official. The result infuriated Konnan who confronted him, only for Yurnet to quit La Junta and in turn be jumped by the heels. After the faces made the save, he was welcomed back into the Westside Mafia and formed an alliance with new arrivals "El Judas" Mike Mendoza (Víctor Ortiz) and Ángel "Fashion" Pérez.

On June 3, 2017, Yurnet was involved in a confrontation with Ferno (now the COO of La Junta) and his Puro Macho stable, which led to that faction intervening in his titular match later in the event and forcing a double disqualification. Despite also being attacked, Big and Blitz (collectively known as Los Rabiosos) declined joining forces with the Westside Mafia. Later that month, Yurnet unveiled a new facet of his Mr. 450 character, named "MechaWolf". The change involved the confection of an original cyborg-wolf themed indumentary, which replaced assorted masks (depicting characters such as Iron Maiden's Eddie the Head) and the Dragon Ball-inspired scouter accessory that had remained a vestigial element from his previous gimmick.

On July 15, 2017, Yurnet defeated Joseph Cruz "J.C." Navarro in a first contenders match and stole the WWL World Heavyweight Championship belt, also turning on the Westside Mafia (while wearing the Mecha-Balam outfit) and insulting Johhny Rivera.[6] Afterwards he would carry the title in his foreign presentations, beginning the following day at the Arena Nacionalista. On July 22, 2017, Yurnet announced on his Twitter account that he was changing his ringname to "The Mecha Wolf", dropping Mr. 450 and making the aspects the June gimmick change more predominant. This was followed by another appearance with the belt in Wrestling Superstar's (WS) Lucha Conquest event, held at Orlando, Florida.

Big was given the original belt to replace the stolen one and defended it in a three-way against the latest contenders that ended without a winner, after which Wolf took that one as well and self-proclaimed himself the "Undisputed WWL World Heavyweight Champion".

In wrestling

Mr. 450 executing a 450° splash
Mr. 450 executing a suicide dive

Championships and accomplishments

WWL World Heavyweight Championship (Self-Proclaimed/Unofficial)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Former Triple Crown Jr. Heavyweight Champion of Puerto Rico: Mr 450 Hammet". Windy City Pro Wrestling. Archived from the original on October 12, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Bobby Melok (2016-07-12). "Meet the Cruiserweight Classic alternates". WWE. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  5. ↑ "Characters: Mecha-Balam". Pale Horse Lucha. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  6. ↑ Francisco "McGyver" Gaztambide (2017-07-16). "PR: Cambio de bando en show en Mayagüez" (in Spanish). Puerto Rico Wrestling. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
  7. ↑ https://fbstatic-a.akamaihd.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif
  8. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=1750
  9. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=1766
  10. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=1463
  11. ↑ http://www.ftw-wrestling.com/#!books/cnec
  12. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=259
  13. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=1266
  14. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=383
  15. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=2201
  16. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=155262
  17. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=115798
  18. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2016". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  19. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=358
  20. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=267
  21. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=3094
  22. ↑ http://prwrestling.com/nw/?p=3056
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