Larry Sweeney

Larry Sweeney
File:Larry Sweeney.jpg
Born	(1981-02-18) February 18, 1981 Redondo Beach, California
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Larry Sweeney
Billed height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Billed weight	185 lb (83 kg)
Billed from	Redondo Beach, California
Trained by	Mike Quackenbush Chris Hero Buddy Rose Colonel DeBeers Skayde
Debut	May 1, 2004

Larry Sweeney (born Alex Whybrow; February 18, 1981) is an American professional wrestler and manager who has appeared all over the continental US as well as in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Japan. He performs primarily on the American independent circuit in promotions such as Ring of Honor, CHIKARA, Full Impact Pro, IWA Deep South, Combat Zone Wrestling, and International Wrestling Cartel.

Life & career

Sweeney was born in Redondo Beach, California. After being voted 'Most Likely to Reach Englightenment' by his senior class at New Trier High School, Sweeney enrolled in Oberlin College. He decided to pursue a career in professional wrestling at the age of 21 while living in India and training in amateur wrestling at the Sri Satpal Pehlewan Akhara at the Chattrasol Stadium in Model Town, Delhi, India, in 2002. After returning to the states and completing his studies, he enrolled in the Chikara Wrestle Factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in September 2003, under head trainer Mike Quackenbush and co-instructors Chris Hero and Skayde. Sweeney also received training from Buddy Rose and Colonel DeBeers in Portland, Oregon before debuting on May 1, 2004 in Ludlow, Massachusetts. Since then, Sweeney has been a mainstay in many promotions on the American independent circuit. He won the CHIKARA Young Lions Cup in his seventh professional match, and has gone on to hold numerous independent professional wrestling championships.

Sweeney formed a team with The Sharecropper and gained entry into the 2005 CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix, but the two lost in the first round. On June 16, 2005, he defeated veteran wrestler Glen Osbourne for the PWE Heavyweight Championship in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He went on to hold the title for 11 months before losing it to Mike Quackenbush in May 2006; in the meantime he had become a regular for many of the larger independent wrestling companies in the US.

Formerly partners and good friends, Sweeney has been embroiled in an ongoing feud in various promotions across North America with Eddie Kingston, most vehemently in CHIKARA, where he ran over Kingston with a vehicle following an ICW/ICWA Tex-Arkana TV Championship match. The two engaged in several vicious strap matches in late 2006, but there was no decisive winner in the overall feud.

On July 31, 2006, Sweeney made an appearance on RAW, broadcast live from the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey, where he played an imposter Nick Hogan in a segment titled "Orton Knows Best." Later that year, he was the subject of the 'Introducing' feature article in the national magazine The Wrestler.

2007 has seen him go on to a feud with Bryan Alvarez, author of the Figure 4 newsletter, over the ICW/ICWA Texarkana Television Championship. On May 11, 2007 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, he won the IWC Super Indy Title after defeating "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal, Azrael, and Shima Xion in a one-night tournament. He has since gone on to feud for the title with "Fabulous" John McChesney, who defeated him for the title on July 7. After chasing McChesney for over six months, Sweeney regained the title on January 19, 2008 after winning a gruesome Texarkana Death Match. On July 20, 2007, Sweeney was crowned the first CWE Undisputed Champion after defeating Eddie Kingston and Chris Hero in separate matches in Youngstown, Ohio.

After competing in a War Games match for the NWA Upstate promotion in Rochester, New York, in April, 2007, Sweeney passed out due to blood loss. Sweeney competed in this bloody cage match after successfully defending the ICW/ICWA title against Eddie Kingston in a strap match the night before at Colgate University. Sweeney is noted for having competed against a good number of professional wrestling legends in his relatively short career, including Brad Armstrong, Tracy Smothers, Chistopher Daniels, Stevie Richards, Bob Armstrong, Bill Dundee, Sonny Rogers, X-Pac, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, One Man Gang, Axe and Smash of Demolition, and Kamala. He also arm-wrestled the Iron Sheik in July, 2006 for Totally Tool Wrestling, and has competed against one of his wrestling mentors, Steve Corino, on several occasions.

Sweeney made his debut with the Hawaii based promotion Action Zone Wrestling on Jan. 7th, 2008, losing to Dragon Gate superstar CIMAat their event Battleclash III.

Sweeney participated in a Boxer vs Wrestler match against Larry Barnes (44-3-0, 17 KO's) on April 5, 2008 in New Rochelle, NY at New Rochelle High School for the New York State Wrestling Federation.

In November 2008, the magazine "Inside Wrestling" gave Sweeney a 'turnbuckle turkey' award for an angle from February of that year in which he perpetrated the simulated rape of Alison Danger by Bobby Dempsey on his interview segment "The Larry Sweeney show starring Larry Sweeney."

Ring of Honor

On December 23, 2006, Sweeney made his debut in Ring of Honor, interfering on behalf of the Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) in their win against the Briscoe Brothers (Jay & Mark Briscoe). The following night, Hero announced that Sweeney was in ROH as his new agent. Since then, Sweeney has gone on to form Sweet 'n' Sour Inc., an agency consisting of Sweeney's "clients" Chris Hero, Sara Del Rey, personal trainer Tank Toland, and Bobby Dempsey. Matt Sydal was briefly apart of Sweet & Sour Inc. during the summer of 2007, but left when Sweeney signed him to a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. Former WWE Tough Enough winner Daniel Puder was also briefly part of the stable in January 2008 but quietly departed Ring of Honor when they could not afford to use him at every show. The storyline being that Sweeney is holding him out of action until he is paid more money. In February 2008 he declared a hostile takeover attempt of Ring of Honor, and has signed Adam Pearce, Brent Albright and Shane Hagadorn in the wake of this declaration.

On April 11, 2008, he signed Eddie Edwards into the group as well.

On May 10, 2008 Brent Albright quit the group following a loss where he and Chris Hero dropped a Scramble Match to Delirious and Pelle Primeau (also included were Jack Evans and Ruckus). Sweeney ordered him to beat down Bobby Dempsey with the rest of the group but instead he delivered suplexes to every member aside from Sweeney who escaped from the ring.

On June 6, 2008 Sweeney made an offer to No Remorse Corps leader Roderick Strong to join him in his stable. Strong declined as he had done in the past only to find himself attacked and beaten down by his NRC stable mate Davey Richards. Richards proceeded to tear away his NRC t shirt to reveal he was wearing a Sweet N'Sour Inc. shirt underneath, joining the stable.

On June 28, 2008 in Chicago Ridge, IL Sweeney proudly welcomed the newest member of Sweet N'Sour Inc, Go Shiozaki into the fold as well as welcome back returning member Tank Toland.

On August 2, 2008 in New York City Adam Pearce lost his NWA World Title to Brent Albright after submitting to the Crowbar

To date, Sweeney has wrestled only two matches in ROH; he competed in a six-man tag in spring 2008 and holds a singles victory over Cladio Castagnoli from Final Battle 2007. He is the only wrestler undefeated in singles competition in ROH. His largely non-wrestling role in ROH earned him the 2007 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Award for Best Non-Wrestler of the year, an award he won again for 2008.

On October 19, 2008 Sweeney made an appearance at SHIMMER Women Athletes taping, the sister promotion of ROH. He cutting a promo about how his client in ROH Sara Del Rey would get her SHIMMER Championship rematch in Ring of Honor. Later in the evening he would pull Del Rey out of the ring to save her from MsChif and Serena Deeb. This was the first time a male wrestler had been featured on the main show of a SHIMMER card and the first time a male manager had appeared on the show.

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves

• 12 Large Elbow (Diving elbow drop)
• '68 Comeback Special (Hangman's neckbreaker followed into a DDT)
• Boa Constrictor (Seated dragon sleeper)
• Belly to belly piledriver
• Bionic elbow
• Double underhook suplex
• Falling fist drop
• Fisherman buster
• Piledriver
• Shoulderbreaker
• Slingshot leg drop
• Slingshot suplex
• Spinebuster
• Sweeney Stomp (Multiple stomps while circling a fallen opponent)

• Wrestlers managed

• Chris Hero
• Sara Del Rey
• Matt Sydal
• Tank Toland
• Bobby Dempsey
• Daniel Puder
• Adam Pearce
• Brent Albright
• Shane Hagadorn
• Go Shiozaki
• Eddie Edwards
• Davey Richards

• Nicknames

• "Sweet and Sour"
• "Super Agent"

• Entrance themes

• More, More, More by Andrea True Connection
• Holiday Road by Lindsey Buckingham
• Don't Bring Me Down by Electric Light Orchestra

Championships and accomplishments

• CHIKARA

• Young Lions Cup II

• Championship Wrestling Experience

• CWE Undisputed Championship (1 time)

• International Wrestling Cartel

• IWC Super Indy Championship (2 times)
• IWC Super Indy VI tournament winner (2007)

• Pro Wrestling Entertainment

• PWE Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Pro-Wrestling WORLD-1

• WORLD-1/PWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with King Kaluha

• Ultimate Championship Wrestling

• UCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

• Best Non-Wrestler (2007, 2008)

• Other

• ICW-ICWA Texarkana Television Champion (22 times, current)

External links

• Grapple List: Larry Sweeney Profile
• Larry Sweeney's MySpace Profile
• Online World of Wrestling profile