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Adam Pearce

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Adam Pearce United States
File:APandJC.JPG
BornJune 24, 1978
Lake Forest, Illinois Illinois
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Masked Spymaster II
Scrap Iron
Scrap Daddy
"Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce
Billed height6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Billed weight245 lb (111 kg)
Billed fromSan Diego, California
Trained bySonny Rogers
Randy Ricci
Ace Steel
Danny Dominion
WCW Powerplant
New Japan Dojo
DebutMay 16, 1996

"Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce (born June 24, 1978 in Lake Forest, Illinois), is an American professional wrestler. Since his debut, he has become one of the most hated wrestlers on the independent circuit. He is under contract and working for Ring of Honor as well as National Wrestling Alliance Pro Wrestling.

Career

Adam Pearce grew up in Waukegan, Illinois and played football and baseball at Waukegan High School. He began his wrestling training as a Senior in November 1995 with Sonny Rogers' Pro Wrestling International school on the northside of Chicago, while going to school half-days. Notables in his class were Midwest indy worker Adrian Lynch and fellow Waukegan High alumnus, now Southern California-Based referee and actor Joe Furrer. Pearce was the standout of the class and was soon working independents, most notably for Carmine DeSpirito's Mid American Wrestling, where he feuded with Billy Joe Eaton. Pearce toured Europe in late 1998 with a crew put together by DeSpirito and defended the MAW Championship throughout the tour. His 50 minute, 2-out-of-3 falls defense against Billy Joe Eaton was viewed as the match of the tour. At this time, he also began traveling throughout Michigan with Dave Prazak, and began working for Dan Curtis' Northern States Wrestling alliance (NSWA). He was part of the "East Coast Invasion" angle that saw him have an early breakout match near Thanksgiving 1997 against Reckless Youth. Pearce sided with the local Michigan babyfaces charged with fighting off Youth, Don Montoya, Lance (Simon) Diamond, and Twiggy Ramirez. A rematch between Pearce and Youth took place in Ian Rotten's IWA-Mid South company, where Pearce had captured their Light Heavyweight Title by defeating Cash Flo. Pearce worked several more shots in IWA-Mid South, even as recently as 2004.

Also stateside, he soon moved on from the PWI camp and right into the newly opened Steel Domain Training Center. He became the first trainee under Ace Steel, Danny Dominion, and Kevin Quinn (along with Lynch, who came with him). Together Steel, Dominion, and Pearce became regulars in Minnesota, working under the St. Paul Championship Wrestling (later Steel Domain Wrestling) banner. Once again, Pearce's feud with Eaton grabbed headlines as they engaged in a Garbage Can Match. While it may seem tame by today's comparisons (and by Pearce's future matches), it was one of the first "ECW" style matches in the area. He'd go on to feud with Danny Dominion over the Northern States TV Title, which was showcased on ex-AWA announcer Mick Karch's weekly TV show, "Slick Mick's Bodyslam Revue". Later, future Domain trainees CM Punk and Colt Cabana would debut in Minnesota and begin their careers under the guidance of Steel, Dominion, and Pearce.

At the same time, Pearce began working in All-Star Championship Wrestling based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as the promotion's top babyface and later, top heel. His matches against Dino Bambino were viewed as being among the area's best, and their 1999 Cage Match in Green Bay was voted the 1999 Upper Midwest Match of the Year. Pearce captured the ACW Heavyweight Title by defeating longtime rival Adrian Lynch in Green Bay, and held it until losing to Rob Norwood in a 3-Way-Dance months later.

During this time, Pearce also made appearances in Nashville, Tennessee for Bert Prentice's Music City Wrestling, in Pittsburgh for Norm Connors' Steel City Wrestling, a couple of ECW tryouts, and made many appearances on WWF Television as "Adam O'Brien".

Pearce gained considerable attention wrestling for the very short lived WXO promotion, in early 2000. After being portrayed in the series as the "Golden Rookie", the show was canceled with only a few episodes aired via National syndication. He was the tag team partner of former "Fantastics" member, Tommy Rogers, and they were embroiled in a budding feud against "The Bodies" - once again, Ace Steel and Danny Dominion. Just as things got going, and Pearce turned heel on Rogers, the series was canceled. Right after WXO, Pearce got what many thought was his big break, being noticed by both WCW and the WWF.

Pearce was noticed in both cases by Terry Taylor (currently working for TNA Wrestling). Taylor was said to have liked Pearce's work and vocal skills as seen on tape, and invited him to a WWF Camp, which at that time were held in Connecticut in the original Trax training center. Taylor then moved on to WCW. Shortly thereafter, Pearce was contacted by JJ Dillon and Paul Orndorff at Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling. After attending the WCW PowerPlant on two occasions, Pearce was offered (and declined) a WCW Developmental contract in 2000, choosing instead to relocate to Southern California and leave the wrestling business for personal reasons. Pearce was rumored to have been the original choice as the mouthpiece of the "Natural Born Thrillers" featured in WCW (eventually Mike Sanders filled that role).

After his relocation, Pearce began wrestling for the now defunct Millennium Pro group after being recommended by Christopher Daniels, most notably coming out of "retirement" to face Spanky in a highly anticipated match for the time. He also began working in Rick Bassman's UPW, where he was teamed with Aaron Aguilera in a tag team called "Hardkore Inc." Pearce has worked several UPW events, most notably against Diamond Dallas Page at UPW's biggest event, "Overload", held in Las Vegas. He also wrestled Chris Masters in his last independent match before being signed by WWE.

He also was signed to be a part of the King of Indies 2001 Tournament, promoted by Roland Alexander's All Pro Wrestling (APW). He faced and was defeated in the opening round by Doug Williams of the United Kingdom. Pearce also competed in IWA-Mid South's 2001 Sweet Science Sixteen (later the Ted Petty Invitational). He defeated Chris Hero and BJ Whitmer only to be defeated by Ace Steel. He signed on to wrestle in the upstart EPIC promotion, which eventually failed under Gary Yap's leadership, but that led him to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where he was an early fixture of the promotion. He became the second ever PWG World Champion defeating Frankie Kazarian on February 22, 2004 at PWG's "Taste the Radness". he was the promotion's first heel champion until he lost the title on July 10, 2004 in Hollywood, California to Kazarian at PWG's One Year Anniversary Show "Reason for the Season" in a Steel Cage "Loser Leaves PWG" Match. Pearce has yet to return to PWG.

Upon leaving PWG, Pearce almost immediately debuted in Mexico for Promociones XLUM, where he feuded with Venum Black, Extreme Tiger, Nicho el Millonario, and Rey Misterio, Sr. XLUM's premiere event of 2004 entitled "Jaulamania" drew a sold out crowd to see El Hijo del Santo on top, while Pearce and his cohorts worked underneath, and ran in on a bloody cage match, attacking Damien 666 and Halloween. Other notable matches included a wild 8-Man-Tag filmed by Fox Sports Español which saw Pearce and his partners (Al Katrazz, Aaron Aguilera, and Jason Allgood) brawl all over the famous Auditorio de Tijuana. Pearce eventually turned babyface, even cutting promos in Spanish as part of his Dusty Rhodes-esque character. Pearce left Mexico when XLUM went belly-up in early 2005.

Pearce has been very active in Southern California as of late, working for Bart Kapitzke's Alternative Wrestling Show, currently as wrestler and matchmaker. Many in the local industry credit Pearce's booking as the reason for a huge upswing in AWS's attendance despite the lack of well-known or flown-in talent. Pearce won the AWS Title under a mask as "The Masked Spymaster II", defeating Babi Slymm (The mask of the Masked Spymaster II was later given as a gift to Colt Cabana for his MTV Wrestling Society X character, Matt Classic). Pearce lost the title months later to Human Tornado in a cage match at AWS' "Halloween Slaughterhouse II". Shortly thereafter, he began a feud with former tag team partner Aaron Aguilera (Jesus in WWE). The feud advanced and was tied into a huge War Games Cage Match in March 2006, where AWS drew their largest attendance to date. The feud ended in July 2006 when Aguilera defeated Pearce in a brutal Strap Match in City of Industry, California just two weeks after Ring of Honor's Cage of Death event in Philadelphia. Pearce was also very instrumental in early NWA Pro events in the area, serving as booker and matchmaker.

Pearce also became involved with the Los Angeles New Japan Dojo and trained there in addition to being a part of their short-lived television product "Toukon Fighting Spirit" which aired for 6 weeks in Los Angeles County. Pearce was involved in a storyline with NJPW talent Toru Yano, which eventually led to them tagging as "The Beer and Sake Connection". This led to Pearce's Japanese debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling on May 15, 2005 at the Tokyo Dome in a dark match against Don Frye's sparring partner, George Castro. Pearce was additionally offered a tour in place of Florida based wrestler Steve Madison, but was forced to decline due to work obligations. He has not returned to New Japan as of yet.

In July 2005, Pearce debuted for Full Impact Pro in Florida, facing Sal Rinauro and Azrieal. ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky was said to have liked Pearce's heel schtick, and that, on top of recommendations from Punk, Cabana, Samoa Joe, and others led him to book Pearce for Ring of Honor's "Glory by Honor IV" show in September 2005. At that point, the storyline had him displeased with the way Commissioner Jim Cornette had been treating him, not giving him high-quality matches or title shots.

This booking continued until January 2006, when Pearce became involved in ROH's war with CZW by challenging, and then pulling Necro Butcher over the rail in Cleveland, Ohio. For this feud, Pearce put his differences with Cornette aside and became one of the main ROH wrestlers leading the fight against CZW. Because of Pearce's speaking and promo skills, he was appointed Lieutenant Commissioner of ROH during the storyline to voice Cornette's intentions on ROH events that he could not attend. During the 7 month feud, Pearce was a part of many brawls with CZW's Chris Hero and Necro Butcher, and was part of the famous match at ROH's "100th show", which saw CZW defeat ROH after Claudio Castagnoli betrayed ROH. Pearce suffered a severe cranial laceration early in the match which required 20 staples to close it. At Ring of Honor's Death Before Dishonor IV on July 15, 2006 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pearce competed in and helped win the 8th Cage of Death match, teaming with Samoa Joe, Ace Steel, BJ Whitmer, and Bryan Danielson (Later replaced by Homicide) over CZW's Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, Necro Butcher, Nate Webb, and Eddie Kingston. This feud carried the majority of ROH's 2006 profits, and in the process brought many of the talents involved to higher levels.

This feud proved huge in storyline, and even more so for Pearce, as post-match Pearce and JJ Dillon attacked and handcuffed Homicide to the ring post to allow Cornette to administer a beating. This action elevated Pearce into a main event level feud with Homicide, which began with Pearce turning also turning on former friend and partner, BJ Whitmer, and siding with a returning Steve Corino. This was pivotal in the Corino V. Homicide feud which saw Homicide team with Samoa Joe to defeat Pearce and Corino at "Suffocation". Homicide went on to finally defeat Corino and rid ROH of him. Pearce at this point named ROH School Graduate, Shane Hagadorn, his "man-servant" and the two began working as a tag team.

Pearce's highest level ROH match since Cage of Death also came in a cage against Homicide at "The Chicago Spectacular; Night 2". Pearce had challenged Homicide to the first strap match in ROH history, only to have Homicide rebuke it and throw out the cage challenge. In perhaps Pearce's finest ROH display, he was defeated by Homicide in the cage in a violent and bloody affair. Pearce went on to attack and seemingly cost Homicide his chance at the ROH World Title at "Final Battle 2006" in Homicide's match against "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson. ROH Senior Officials would have nothing of it and restarted the match, which Homicide eventually won.

The feud with Homicide seemingly went to the wayside, as Pearce started interaction with Pelle Primeau and Delirious.

Pearce has also been feuding with Sean Waltman over the NWA Heritage Title on NWA Pro events throughout the US on their "Wrestling Summit Tour", notably at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas among other arena venues. Waltman took the title in El Paso, Texas on April 21, 2007, only to lose it back to Pearce in Laredo, Texas on April 29.

Lately ROH fans have been using chants of "Repo Man" to irritate Pearce due to his apparent likeness to Barry Darsow. On two occasions, Pearce has pulled a Repo Man mask from his tights to play to the chants. Most recently in a ROH World Title match with Takeshi Morishima, Pearce pulled the mask from his tights and put it on only to be defeated moments later.

Pearce will face Brent Albright in the final of the tournament to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion. He had lost in the semi-finals to Bryan Danielson, but Danielson pulled out due to injury.

Wrestling facts

Finishing and Signature moves

  • As "Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce
  • As Masked Spymaster II

Nicknames

  • Scrap Iron
  • The Scrap Daddy
  • The Maniac in Black - Mid American Wrestling

Managers

Championships and Accomplishments

  • Alternative Wrestling Show
  • AWS Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • Mid-American Wrestling
  • MAW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • Steel Domain Wrestling
  • SDW Northern States Television Championship (1 time)

Miscellany

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