Don Callis

"The Jackyl" redirects here. For other uses, see Jackal (disambiguation).

Don Callis
Ring name(s)	Cyrus Cyrus The Virus Don Casablancas The Jackyl The Natural Don Callis
Billed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) weight 217 lbs
Billed weight	95 kg (210 lb)
Born	October 13, 1967 (age 44)
Resides	Winnipeg, Toronto
Trained by	Tony Condello, Bad News Allen
Debut	1989
Retired	2004

Don Callis is a Canadian former professional wrestler and manager, known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation as The Jackyl, and Extreme Championship Wrestling as color commentator Cyrus.

Early life

Callis lettered in five sports at Kelvin High School in Winnipeg Manitoba (football, basketball, rugby, wrestling and boxing). He made the varsity football team at Kelvin at only 14 years of age. He became a wrestler after looking for a sport to play while attending the University of Manitoba, where he earned a Degree in Political Studies.

Career

He was trained by local wrestling promoter Tony Condello and debuted in 1989. Wrestling under the name The Natural, Callis, being managed by the Golden Sheik, quickly established himself as an up and coming star. He wrestled for Condello's West Four Wrestling Alliance, where he became Canadian Heavyweight Champion 5 times.He also wrestled for various independent promotions in BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. Callis was the booker, executive producer and color commentator of IWA Hardcore wrestling based out of Winnipeg. The territory was notable due to the talent that Callis brought in based on his longstanding friendships and reputation. Talent for TV tapings included: Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Jim Brunzell, Rick Martel, Bad News Allen, Ultimo Dragon, Johnny Smith, Gerry Morrow, Gama Singh, Adam Copeland (Edge) Christian Cage, Joe Legend and Tim Flowers. Callis was the first North American promoter to use Chris Jericho and Lance Storm as heels. The show was known for its focus on clean finishes, as well as Callis' long promos (interviews) which were among the best in the industry.

International

Callis wrestled all over the world, including tours of South Africa, the Middle East, Japan, Puerto Rico, Europe and the U.S. His first international tour was South Africa in 1994. Callis remained in South Africa for several weeks, wrestling at outdoor stadiums and training with Gerry Morrow and Bad News Allen during the down times. It was on this tour that he first met Allen, who would become his close friend and mentor until Allen passed away in 2007 (Callis spoke at the funeral). Callis returned to South Africa in 1995 and won the All-Africa Junior Heavyweight title which he lost to Gama Singh's brother. Callis won the European Jr. Heavyweight title in Hannover Germany that year on a tour with the Hart family. Later that year he was signed to wrestle in Puerto Rico, a tour he cut short after getting a better offer from another promotion. Callis also starred on a tour of Japan for Tokyo Pro Wrestling in 1996, after being booked by friend and former IWA champion Ultimo Dragon.

Lebanon Situation

Callis was signed for an international tour of Lebanon in June 1995. He was the only non-former WWF star on the tour. After being shorted on pay, the wrestlers threatened their Kuwaiti promoter with a work stoppage. The promoter threatened the lives of the wrestlers and cancelled their return tickets, holding their passports and keeping them confined at their compound. This has been described in other articles as the Hostage Situation. After stopping Warlord from trying to escape through Israel, Callis arranged an extraction of the group through his ties to a local Lebanese family, who involved the Lebanese army, with everyone returning home safely. Despite this incident Callis has descried Lebanon as one of his favorite countries.

Rick Martel Connection

Rick Martel had been brough in to the IWA promotion in the summer of 1994. Callis (working as The Natural) had an excellent match with Martel in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. Martel was impressed with his opponent, and begain mentoring Callis, and agreed to come back for an extended series of matches. Over the course of a year, the two had several more matches across Manitoba, culminating in a series of cage matches and the debut of Callis' friend Bad News Allen playing the role of his bodyguard. Callis and Allen quickly became the most hated tandem in recent memory, as the combination of Callis' arrogant interviews and the real life storyline of Allen being the legitimate toughest wrestler in the business got a lot of 'heat' from fans. At several of the events Callis was attacked by fans, including a dangerous situation where a fan pushed Callis from the top rope as he was setting up his finishing move, the Top Rope Kneedrop. Allen nearly got into a brawl with several bikers at an outdoor show in Winnipeg, and Callis had to have security with him if he went out at night in Winnipeg during this run. During this entire series, Callis always insisted on putting Martel over, out of respect.

WWF Tryout & the birth of the Supermodels

Callis was asked to provide an audition tape to WWF head of talent Chief Jay Strongbow. Strongbow loved the tape and told Vince McMahon that Callis was the next Roddy Piper. Callis went to Green Bay Wisconsin where he wrestled two tryout matches, with Barry Horowitz and Peter Polaco. Strongbow was annoyed that McMahon did not have Callis do any interviews which were his strong suit. Callis went on an extended tour of Japan shortly after and met with Carl DeMarco (President of WWF Canada) while in Toronto in October 1996 for a wedding. Callis watched one of his tapes with De Marco but became discouraged when DeMarco told him he should try and "look more like Ultimate Warrior" However, in November 1996, DeMarco called Callis and asked him "you know who loves your tape? - Bret Hart". DeMarco had shown the tape to Hart, who met with Callis in Winnipeg in November telling him he could get him booked and saw him as the next Piper. Roughly a month later, Callis received a call from former opponent Rick Martel who informed him he wanted to get back to the WWF and wanted Callis to be his partner. Callis came up with the idea of the tag team being called the Supermodels. With Callis as the long haired Fabio styled model, he changed his ring name to Don Casablancas. Casablancas and Martel spent six months doing various independents in Quebec and the eastern seaboard of the U.S. getting ready. In May 1997 Callis and Martel were brought to Titan Towers to meet with Vince McMahon, about their debut. McMahon loved the Supermodels gimmick and set the two to debut with a big push starting in August in Atlantic City. Contracts were mailed out, but Martel resisted signing it as he was looking for a larger downside guarantee. The two spent one month working eight shows per week for Grand Prix Wrestling in the Canadian maritimes in the summer of 1997, regularly doing 45 minute main events against Edge and Christian. These matches have been described as excellent, and apparnetly the Supermodels had the makings of a very good heel tag team.

End of the Supermodels

In August 1997 Martel informed Callis that he wanted the team to go to WCW instead. The issue was that Eric Bischoff did not want tag teams anymore and suggested each could be a single. Callis, knowing that he would be unlikely to get much microphone time in WCW at a time when Hulk Hogan and the NWO were dominating the attention, called Bret Hart and went to WWF on his own while Martel signed to WCW. Callis developed an issue with front office VP Bruce Prichard who was upset that Callis had gone around him to Bret Hart to negotiate his signing. Hart, however was world champion at the time, so Callis was welcomed by McMahon.

World Wrestling Federation

On September 20, 1997, Callis debuted at Madison Square Garden in the WWF as "The Jackyl," a member (and eventually leader) of a group of wrestlers known as "The Truth Commission" (a take on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission).Callis hated the gimmick, and refused to get his hair cut, again by going thru Bret Hart. Knowing that being an South African army officer would never work, Callis came up with the David Koresh inspired cult leader Jackyl gimmick, which quickly got over with fans. callis then came up with the Kurrgan gimmick for the former Interogator, and gave him the claw hold he had watched Baron von Rashke use while growing up in Winnipeg. Callis wrote a few weeks of television for the two of them, and was approached on two occasions by Jim Ross about moving to Connecticut to write television for Vince. Callis politely turned the offers down as he wanted to perform. The two were held back off the road, and eventually Callis was told he would be managing either Al Snow, William Regal or John Tenta. Callis asked for Snow, and he wrote four weeks of television around Snow using the head gimmick in ECW and that the head would end up being the Jackyl. He got Tenta, who Vince wanted to be a hunchback.

With the WWF afraid of heat from the religious right in America over Callis' cult leader gimmick, Callis again made lemondade from lemons and created the "Parade of Human Oddities", adding Luna Vachon, Tenta and Giant Silva to the group. He famously came out for Raw with Hank the angry drunken dwarf from the Howard Stern show. It was the highest rated segment on Raw that week (4.2). The oddities gimmick was highly controversial and Callis was called in and told that Vince didnt want him associated with the freak show as he was 'too valuable'. He was then approached by vince regarding doing a gimmick Vince called ' The Messiah' based on the original Jacklyl gimmick, but more related to Jesus. Callis, despite understanding the potential for death threats, agreed to the gimmick. He was told to cool his heels and they would plan the appropriate timing.

Callis sat at home for three weeks, until being called in the middle of the night be Vince, and told to get to Los Angeles in the morning, as he was going to be (along with Shane McMahon) the lead color commentator on the new WWF program WWF Heat. Callis flew to Los Angeles but McMahon was deemed too inexperienced and the idea was abruptly scrapped.

Callis was again offered an office position this time on behalf of Vince thru lead agent Jack Lanza. He again refused. He later was called by Vince Russo about shaving his head into a mowhawk to manage Bradshaw and Ron Simmons. Callis refused, telling Russo " i have three months left on my contract and you wont be the one walking around winnipeg with a bad haircut if the gimmick doesnt pan out". Callis tweaked the gimmick to resemble the Louis Cypher character in Angel Heart, but only appeared for three weeks in the gimmick.

In an interview in the U.S. Callis says he was called two weeks before Christmas by Bruce Prichard and told he was being released. Callis was given several reasons why he was being released and none made any sense and he called Prichard a liar. One of the reasons was that he was getting himself over. Callis asked Prichard: "Are you telling me that the point of the business is to NOT get over?" Prichard blamed Callis for Kurrgan not getting over to which Callis said: "I guess that was you in the ring with him for hours before all his matches showing him how to work?" Shortly after this discussion, callis wrote a newspaper article related to a memo that the office had sent out discouraging the wrestlers from getting legal representation (agents) to handle their contracts, because it "deprived the talent from getting the oppportunity to handle their own business". Callis, as noted by Mick Foley in his first book Have a Nice Day, compared the luncacy of this statement to someone being told it was fine to go to the doctor for an operation, but it deprived the patient the opportunity to perform surgery on himself." Shortly after Vince read this article, callis was banned from all WWF events. Callis had an opporunity to once again go to WCW thru Bret Hart, but chose ECW as he felt he needed the tv time to re establish himself. Later, during his tenure in TNA, callis indicated that Vince Russo admitted to him that all the reasons for his dismissal were made up and that they were related to a personal issue with one person at a very high level in the company.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

Shortly after telling Bret Hart that he wanted to go to ECW as he thought he would get more TV time, Callis signed with ECW in February of 1999 on the recommendation of Lance Storm to Paul Heyman. Heyman indicated to Storm that he was not sure what to do with Callis (wrestling, writing, commenating, managing) given that Callis had shown he could do all of them. By Summer of 99 Callis was the PPV color commentator along with close friend Joey Styles. The two had excellent chemistry and would eventually be recognized by many as the top tandem in the industry. Callis incorporated his "I'm office" character into his commentary which was more cutting edge and 'smart' than what was being seen on WWF and WCW. It was suggested at the time that his 'office' character was based on several of the 'yes men' he had met while in WWF. Callis however, indicated in an interview in New York that he had other origins of the idea: "My Dad had always said, wherever you go, walk in like you own the place and you can get whatever you want.", "It reminded me of a Seinfeld episode where George shows up every day for a job and totally works it." "So I thought, you have a company with an owner that no one ever sees on tv (Paul) who is very mysterious. There is a vacuum. It makes sense that in an environment where everyone is wondering what is going on that if someone steps into the vacuum from another company and acts like they are in charge, that it will work." Paul and Callis got together in late 99 to talk about an idea that Paul had where the 'office' would become real, as in the network TNN. Callis took the ball and ran with it, and from a heat perspective was in Heyman's words "top heel in the company." Callis actually had a show idea pitched to TNN who were running Dallas reruns, where he would host all day Dallas programming, called "Dallas with Callis". Callis continued to do color commentaary with Joey Styles and also to perform as Cyrus from the Network. His Feud with Joel Gernter was based on the real life paranoia of Gertner regarding Callis taking his job as host of the ECW TV show. Heyman had told Calllis that the issue with him not doing the TV was that he had to be flown in from Canada and Gernter was local. Gertner and Callis had a months long teased feud which got some of the bigger crowd reactions at TV's and ppvs. He had several segments where he beat on Gernter, and with much speculation that Callis who had been a wrestler for 8 years would take liberties, he was very easy on Gernter in the ring. Callis and Rhino nearly caused a riot in New York City at Hammerstein, when Callis, at the height of the heat of his promo knocking New Yorkers, challenged the fans to fight him in the ring. This was ill advised, and several fans were able to get near Callis and Rhino before security and NYPD prevented a disaster. With close friend Lance Storm leaving for WCW and a bigger contract, several assumed Callis would be next to leave. Heyman talked with Callis about extending his contract for five years and told him to name the price he needed to stay. Callis has indicated that at the time he still had over a year left on his contract and that he told Paul that he had no desire at all to leave. Heyman insited that Callis come up with a number for the extension. Callis related the negotiation in an interview in Toronto: "Our first negotiation took place in the Marriott lobby in Buffalo. Very casual, Paul was great, I gave him a number and he agreed to it. I asked him in the second negotiation how much he wanted to pay me and that I would be OK with that, given how much he had done for me. He insisted I come up with my own number. Based on all the things he had told me about my performance and based on the fact that I was on air talent and the PPV color commmentator, I gave him a number based on what Joey Styles made, which was, by ECW standards at or close to the top money in the company. I felt funny about it, but he told me to give him a number so I did. I dont know that it helped our relationship. In Paul's defense, I am quite sure he was under significant financial pressure at the time." Despite the issues Callis has always been steadfast in his support and admiration for Heyman: "Paul gave me an opporunity to get over without interference or being held back. As a talent that is all you can ever ask. He was great with me and I love the guy. My only regret is that I didnt get to spend more time with him to learn." Callis stuck with ECW until January 2001, when cheques stopped coming and shows were no longer being booked. Shortly after, Callis received calls from Dave Meltzer and Lance Storm indicating that Eric Bischoff wanted to speak with him. Simultaneously Joey Styles was pitching Bischoff on using Cyrus for his color man on Nitro. Callis talked to Bischoff, who indicated a deal would be on the table, as soon as he closed his deal to purchase with investors, WCW. Callis prepared himself to go to WCW. then news broke that Bischoff's deal had fallen thru and that Vince McMahon was purchasing the company. The industry had changed from a highly competitive three company war with escalating salaries to a monopoly overnite. Callis decided that it was time to retire, considered doing a law degree but ultimately did his MBA just a few months removed from his wrestling career.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

In 2003, while finishing his MBA degree, Callis was contacted by good friend Scott Damore regarding coming in for TV every Wednesday to Nashville. Callis began working with TNA in July of 03, as a Management consultant as well as on-air talent. Callis has described TNA as one of his favorite places to work and has said that the company and Jeff Jarrett treated him well. He has also indicated that because he knew he would be there for a short time due to having retired from wrestling, he really didn't fight for his character, and simply went with the flow and did whatever he was asked. "Things that used to get me upset where I would fight for my character didnt really bother me anymore. They asked me to smoke a pipe and wear a bow tie thinking it would be a problem. It wasnt, i did my deal, got over anyway, then would go for a nice dinner with Scott Damore and Shane Douglas." After a couple of months Callis' character had tremendous heat and he was chosen to manage World Champion Jeff Jarrett. He did this until he left the company in February 2004 after winning his pay per view match for control of the company from Erik Watts. Callis had a job offer two weeks before the match, went to Jarrett to tell him he would finish up with his pay per view match with Watts. Callis had been scheduled to beat Watts, but offered to put him over on his way out, but Jarrett still wanted to have Callis over in the match. The two had a match with a lot of heat, with Callis surprising those who did not know him well, with his ability to work, including taking a high backdrop on the ramp. Later that night part owner Jerry Jarrett told Callis he was one of the best workers in the company, referencing the psychology he had used.

Callis left the following week on good terms to start a new career that made use of his MBA. Years later, he was offered a job in the company by Scott Damore, but Callis was by then firmly established in his new career.

Personal life

Callis does a radio show called The Sunday Night Sports Show with longtime friend Joe Aiello in Winnipeg

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Top Rope Kneedrop

• Signature moves
  • Superkick
  • Fisherman Suplex
  • Jumping Front Kick

Championships and accomplishments

Canadian Heavyweight Champion - 5 times

IWA Hardcore Champion - 3 times

All Africa Jr. Heavyweight champion

European Jr Heavyweight champion

Middle East Light Heavyweight Champion

Border City Tag Champion (with Terry Taylor)

External links

• Don Callis's columns at Canoe.ca