Steve Lombardi: Difference between revisions

Steve Lombardi
Steve Lombardi
Born	April 18, 1961; Brooklyn,New York
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Steve Lombardi; Brooklyn Brawler; Boston Brawler; Kim Chee; Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz; MVP; Doink the Clown; The Red Knight
Billed height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Billed weight	240 lb (109 kg)
Billed from	Brooklyn, New York
Debut	1983

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Revision as of 11:15, 19 July 2007

This article is about the professional wrestler sometimes known as Kim Chee. For the traditional Korean dish, see Kimchi

Steve Lombardi (born April 18, 1961 in Brooklyn, New York) is a professional wrestler and road agent, more commonly known by his ring name The Brooklyn Brawler. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Career

Lombardi is often recognized as the most famous "jobber" in the history of WWF. For the majority of his career, whenever he was seen on television, it was almost a guarantee that he was going to lose.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Steve Lombardi began his WWE career in 1983, competing under his real name and being used primarily as a jobber. Lombardi continued jobbing until early 1989, when he was repackaged as The Brooklyn Brawler and, under the tutelage of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, entered a feud with The Red Rooster. When The Rooster left Heenan's heel stable and turned face, Heenan stated that he had made The Rooster a star and could do the same with anyone in the company. However, neither wrestler got over, and the Brawler's alliance with Heenan was phased out as he ended up back as a jobber, a role he would remain in through the 1990s.

Lombardi was used in a number of gimmicks, often masked. He has portrayed Kim Chee (Kamala's handler) and Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz, also known as MVP (a short-lived heel baseball player gimmick used during the 1994 Major League Baseball strike). In late 1993, he briefly replaced Matt Borne as Doink the Clown.

Since the late 1990s, he has been semi-retired from the ring, working mostly as a road agent for WWE and only occasionally appearing in the ring, usually for comic skits and matches.

He faced Dwayne Johnson, who would later become The Rock, in Johnson's first ever match. Brawler lost.

Despite his status as a jobber, Lombardi had some big wins and title shots. In 1997, he won a battle royal in Madison Square Garden, and went on to face then-WWF champion Shawn Michaels, but he lost. On the September 20, 1999 episode of Raw is War, Lombardi was one of the replacement referees while the original referees were on strike. In 2000, he scored a pinfall against then-World Champion Triple H in a non-title handicap match and a rare singles victory over Just Joe on an episode of WWE Jakked.

Although he didn't have a speaking line, it's interesting to note that on a now famous segment of Raw is War when Stephanie McMahon said to an aging Freddie Blassie "Fred- you and the WWF have one thing in common... you're both about to die!" It was Lombardi who wheeled Blassie out the arena where they saw Stephanie and Shane McMahon.

As part of an angle on SmackDown!, he adopted the moniker of the "Boston Brawler," shedding his customary New York Yankees apparel in favor of Boston Red Sox clothing. This was done in response to the Red Sox' defeat of the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series, which propelled the Sox to their World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. He did this in a segment on SmackDown! (in New York City) with Heidenreich. Heidenreich was looking to make more friends, but Lombardi decided he'd rather be the Boston Brawler. Heidenreich stopped wanting to be Lombardi's friend, which aided Heidenreich's ongoing face turn.

In early 2006, he still worked behind the scenes of WWE, including behind the camera with John Cena on his WWE.com show "5 Questions." Cena often makes references to Lombardi, even jokingly calling him the greatest technical wrestler of all time. Also, his face popped up in front of Cena's mouth to censor curse words, usually saying "Cena You Are Censored!" or "Brawler!". On the June 2, 2006 episode of Five Questions, Brawler showed his face. He even censored himself, saying "YOU are a piece of Brawler." In another episdoe of "5 Questions," Cena acknowledged that Lombardi was actually born in Detroit, and not in Brooklyn.

On May 8, 2006, WWE.com announced that, as a part of their "Classics" series, Jakks Pacific would be releasing a Brooklyn Brawler figure. ^[1]

At Vengeance 2006 (RAW produced PPV), Brawler appeared as Doink the Clown when he came out to the ring with Eugene during Eugene's match with Umaga (source: http://www.answers.com/topic/doink-the-clown). On August 1, 2006, Lombardi went to the ECW brand for a match against former ECW Extremist, Kurt Angle. He quickly lost so to the Ankle Lock. That same week, he appeared on SmackDown! against Vito, losing by submission. On the December 18 edition of RAW, Lombardi appeared in the 30-Man Battle Royal as the Brooklyn Brawler.

On the May 5, 2007 edition of Smackdown, Lombardi made an appearance, in the Brooklyn Brawler get up, back stage, waiting in line for interviews to become the Smackdown General Manager's assistant, for Theodore Long.