Jon Heidenreich

Jon Heidenreich
Born	(1972-09-28) September 28, 1972 Los Angeles, California
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Big Bad Jon Jon Heidenreich Heidenreich
Billed height	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Billed weight	285 lb (129 kg)
Billed from	New Orleans, Louisiana
Trained by	Ultimate Pro Wrestling
Debut	2001

Jon Heidenreich, better known simply as Heidenreich (born June 28, 1972 in Los Angeles, California) is an American professional wrestler of German descent, currently working for the World Wrestling Council, Nu-Wrestling Evolution, and making appearances on 1 Pro Wrestling wrestling as a part of the NWE. He is best known for his stint with World Wrestling Entertainment.

Career

Early career

Jon Heidenreich is an accomplished martial artist who began training at age six, earning his first-degree black belt at the age of 12. He also played professional football as an offensive lineman for 2 seasons (1994 and 1995) in the Canadian Football League for the Shreveport Pirates before playing for the Texas Terror of the Arena Football League (AFL) in 1996 and the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europa in 1997. The AFL lists his year of birth as 1969 and his hometown as Duluth, Georgia. Though he was signed by several National Football League (NFL) teams (New Orleans, Atlanta, and Washington), he never played an NFL league game, always getting cut in training camp. As such, he does not appear on any NFL team's all-time roster.

After his departure from football, he was trained by the California-based Ultimate Pro Wrestling before he was first signed to a World Wrestling Federation (WWF) developmental contract in 2001 after he impressed Bruce Prichard, better known as Brother Love to wrestling fans. After being released from the WWF, he wrestled in Japan's Zero1-MAX promotion, where he won the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship with Nathan Jones, and impressed WWE scouts, who re-signed him in 2003.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2003-2006)

Heidenreich made his WWE debut on the September 29, 2003 episode of WWE RAW with a gimmick that had him first trying to secure a tryout on the different WWE brands, then being "controlled" by an entity known as "Little Johnny". Despite speculation as to Little Johnny's identity - Heidenreich's son, a doll similar to George "The Animal" Steele's "Mine," a split personality, or even Heidenreich's penis - the angle was dropped before being resolved. In an interview with ThePainClinic.net [1] on 6/2/2007, Heidenreich revealed that "Little Johnny" was actually meant to be a small doll that represented his inner child who was still angry at the world for being teased about his obesity. He stated that he used the gimmick in OVW and brought the doll out to the ring with him in the same vein as Al Snow used to bring out the styrofoam head. According to Heidenreich, the angle was supposedly inspired by his own childhood where he spoke to a doll himself at one point. Heidenreich claims that the writers in WWE mishandled the idea by trying to make 'Little Johnny' a sexual role, but if done correctly he felt it would have gotten over as "everyone has been teased for something." The mp3 archive of this interview from ThePainClinic.net can be found at this Link: [2] (http://www.thepainclinic.net/pc060207.mp3)

Heidenreich and Undertaker wrestle a match in Iraq.

Heidenreich was then sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling to further hone his skills.

He returned on the August 26, 2004 episode of SmackDown! as a heel under the management of agent Paul Heyman. His new gimmick was as a psychopath: running in during random matches, attacking fans, and reciting hateful poetry. He also had a controversial kidnapping of Michael Cole on the September 16, 2004 episode of SmackDown! where he appreantly read a poem, and tried to (kayfabe) rape him. His first feud came against The Undertaker, and began after Heidenreich ran in during Undertaker's WWE Championship shot at No Mercy 2004. Undertaker beat Heidenreich at the next months Survivor Series, but again Heidenreich cost him a WWE Championship shot at December's Armageddon when he interfered in the main event fatal four way match not once, but twice.

At Survivor Series 2004, and at 2005's Royal Rumble, Heidenreich had encounters with like-minded psychotic from the RAW brand, Snitsky. During their brief Survivor Series meeting they exchanged their views on each other -- while breathing heavily, a mannerism they shared, Snitsky told Heidenreich "I like... your...poetry."; and Heidenreich replied "I...like what you do...to babies."-- referencing an earlier RAW storyline that had Snitsky accidentally cause the miscarriage of Lita's baby.

At the Royal Rumble, Heidenreich broke out on his own; he secretly partnered with Snitsky, who agreed to interfere in Heidenreich's Casket Match with The Undertaker. During the match it was revealed that Kane was hidden in the casket, who pounced on both Snitsky and Heidenreich; they continued their fight in the crowd, while Heidenreich lost the Casket Match. This started a chain reaction of feuds, originally planned to lead to a match at WrestleMania 21 in which The Undertaker would partner with Kane to take on Snitsky and Heidenreich. This idea was later nixed by The Undertaker, who instead fought Randy Orton.

After a short feud with Booker T, Heidenreich turned face, altering his psychotic gimmick to become a more sympathetic character, similar to Frankenstein in the James Whale films. Calling them "disasterpieces", his poetry became more light-hearted and began receiving cheers from the crowd.

Heidenreich was then given a segment on SmackDown! in which he "made friends" with audience members, read them a piece of his poetry, and had them to stand in his corner during his match.

Heidenreich went on from the man of poetry to feuding with MNM (Melina Perez, Johnny Nitro, and Joey Mercury) after they attacked him while he was eating chocolate with the divas, during an event in Hershey, Pennsylvania. After being attacked week in and week out on Smackdown!, he was finally helped out by Road Warrior Animal. Animal and Heidenreich then challenged MNM to a match at the 2005 Great American Bash, where they defeated them to win the WWE Tag Team Championship, Heidenreich's only WWE championship.

On the July 28, 2005, episode of SmackDown!, Heidenreich shaved his hair into a mohawk at Animal's request -- with (kayfabe) reluctance. After Animal convinced him he wasn't looking for a "replacement" for Road Warrior Hawk, but simply a partner with talent, Animal talked him into wearing face paint and, on the August 18 SmackDown!, he was made an "official" member of the Legion of Doom and presented with a pair of Road Warrior Spikes. Heidenreich and Animal lost the tag titles back to MNM on the October 28 edition of SmackDown!.

On January 17, 2006 WWE released a statement on their website, WWE.com, announcing that they had come to terms with Heidenreich on a release from his contract. According to him, he did not request his release. He claims that he was not given an explanation for his release and was fired despite working ill at house shows.

Independent circuit (2006-Current)

After his WWE release Heidenreich started competing for independent promotions, occasionally wearing full Legion of Doom face paint and shoulder pads.

In April 2007, he flew to England to compete for the Newcastle-based MEW promotion.

On August 10th, 2007, Heidenreich faced off against fellow WWE alumni Billy Kidman in a street fight for the World Series Wrestling title in Adelaide, Australia but lost to Kidman.

World Wrestling Council (2006-2007)

Heidenreich moved on to World Wrestling Council, where he defeated Abbad on October 28, 2006 to win the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship, the top title in the Puerto Rico based promotion. Two months later he lost the title to Carlito at the Event Lockout. However, he was given the title back when Carlito was stripped of the title due to Carlito's contractual compromises with World Wrestling Entertainment. He lost the title a second time to Eddie Colón, Carlito's brother, on January 6, 2007.

River City Wrestling (2006)

In Texas, Heidenreich made his debut in a local San Antonio wrestling promotion RCW (River City Wrestling) in an event called "Nowhere To Run II" on May 19th. He fought heel wrestler JT Lamotta and won.

World-Wrestling LIVE!

Heidenreich appeared on W-W Live!, a radio show on World-Wrestling.net, on Tuesday October 9, 2007 to promote the book he was writing. It is a tell-all book about the happenings in the WWE, including the real reason why he was released from his contract with the company. Heidenreich also jokingly compared Vince McMahon to Osama Bin-Laden in a game of Name Association towards the end of the interview. One of the interview highlights included the W-W Live crew reciting poems they had written for Heidenreich.

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves

• Spinning side slam
• Modified overhead shoulderbreaker
• Cobra clutch
• Big boot
• Electric chair drop
• Catapult backbreaker
• Clothesline
• Chokebomb - Independent circuit
• Chokeslam - Independent circuit

With Road Warrior Animal

• Doomsday Device

Managers

• Paul Heyman
• Christy Hemme
• Michelle McCool
• Road Warrior Animal
• Ty Dillinger

Championships and accomplishments

• Bluegrass Championship Wrestling

• BCW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX

• NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Nathan Jones

• World Wrestling Council

• WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

• World Wrestling Entertainment

• WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Road Warrior Animal

Personal life

• Heidenreich has numerous tattoos, including a devil on the left side of his chest.
• He is married (to Cassi) with two children and resides in Picayune, MS.
• Recently a born-again Christian, Heidenreich now travels the country sharing his testimony with teenagers and wrestling fans.