Robert "Bob" Howard (born
January 29, 1963) better known by his ring
name Hardcore Holly, is an American
professional
wrestler. He is best known for his 15-year stint with
World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE).
After debuting in 1990, Holly worked for
Smoky Mountain Wrestling and other
independent promotions, before joining
WWE full-time in 1992. Initially portraying the character of a
NASCAR driver,
Thurman "Sparky"
Plugg, his name was soon changed to
Bob "Spark
Plug" Holly, before forming a team with
"Bodacious Bart", known as
The New Midnight Express in 1998. After becoming known simply
as "Hardcore Holly" in 1999, he was joined by on-screen cousins,
Crash and
Molly. In 2002, he suffered a broken neck,
which sidelined him for over a year. Upon his return, he engaged in
minor feuds with wrestlers such as
Mr.
Kennedy and
Rob Van Dam, before
forming a tag team with
Cody Rhodes in
2007. He was released from WWE in 2009.
While in WWF/E, Holly held the
WWF/E Hardcore Championship
six times, the
WWF/E Tag Team
Championship three times (with
1-2-3 Kid, Crash Holly and Cody
Rhodes), and the
NWA
World Tag Team Championship once with Bart
Gunn.
Professional wrestling career
Training
Holly
trained under Stan Frazier, Eddie
Sullivan, Marcelle Pringle and Rip Tyler and debuted in 1987 in the
Mobile
area in the
World Wrestling Organization promotion where he held
titles on and off, including the WWO Tag Team Championship with Ron
Starr. He wrestled as "Superstar Bob Holly" and teamed
regularly with
Robert
Gibson.
From
there, he wrestled in Memphis
and then in the NWA with moderate success before
briefly going to Smoky Mountain
Wrestling in early 1992 where he wrestled as "Hollywood" Bob
Howard before adopting the ring name "Bombastic" Bob
Holly.
World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment
Early years (1994–1999)
Bob Holly as Bob "Spark Plug" Holly in
1996
Holly began working in the
World Wrestling Federation
(WWF) in 1991, working as an
"enhancement talent", losing to
established stars. Holly returned to the WWF on January 11, 1994.
His initial
gimmick was that of a
NASCAR driver turned wrestler called Thurman
"Sparky" Plugg, which was later changed to Bob "Spark Plug"
Holly.
At the
Royal Rumble in January
1995, Holly and the
1-2-3 Kid defeated
Bam Bam Bigelow and
Tatanka in the finals of a tournament to crown
new
WWF Tag Team
Champions. Their title reign lasted only one day, however, as
the next day, on
WWF Monday Night
Raw, Holly and the Kid lost the tag team title to
The Smoking Gunns.
On the May 7, 1995 (taped April 26, 1995) episode of
WWF Action Zone, Holly pinned
WWF Intercontinental
Champion Jeff Jarrett to win the
title; however, Jarrett had his foot on the ropes, which meant that
the pin was illegal, and the title was vacated. Later on in the
show, Jarrett defeated Holly in a rematch for the vacant title
after
pinning Holly
with a
roll-up.
Holly's title win is not recognized by WWE. Holly made very few
appearances in the WWF throughout 1996 and 1997.
In February 1998, Holly and
Bart Gunn
joined forces with
Jim Cornette as part
of Jeff Jarrett's
National
Wrestling Alliance stable. Holly,
renamed "Bombastic Bob", and Gunn, renamed "Bodacious Bart" were
known collectively as
The New Midnight Express. The New Midnight Express defeated
The Headbangers for the
NWA World Tag Team
Championship on March 30, 1998 and held the titles until August
14 of that year, when they were defeated by
The Border
Patrol. They challenged The
New Age
Outlaws for the
World Tag Team
Championship at the
King of
the Ring pay-per-view, but were unsuccessful.
In November 1998,
Al Snow, Bob Holly and
Scorpio united and formed the
J.O.B. Squad. During that same month on an edition of
Raw, they helped
Mankind defeat
Ken
Shamrock and
The Big Boss Man in a
triple threat match. In February 1999, both Scorpio and the
Blue Meanie were released by the WWF
while
Gillberg was later phased out of
storylines. After dwindling down to only two members, Snow wrestled
against himself on an edition of
Raw before Holly came
down to the ring to prevent Snow from hurting himself, which led to
the formal breakup of the J.O.B. Squad. Later that month at
St.
Valentine's Day Massacre, Bob Holly, now renamed Hardcore
Holly, defeated Snow for the
WWF Hardcore Championship to
permanently end the J.O.B. Squad.
The Holly Cousins (1999–2001)
In 1999, Holly entered the race for the WWF's new
Hardcore Championship, winning it
six times in total, and billing himself as Hardcore Holly. He
teamed up with an on-screen cousin
Crash
Holly, with whom he won the
WWF Tag Team Championship.
In 2000, Hardcore Holly challenged
Chyna for a
shot at the disputed Intercontinental title on
Raw is War.
He lost the match due to interference from
Chris Jericho, and later lost a Triple Threat
Match against Chyna and Jericho for the Intercontinental
Championship at the
2000 Royal
Rumble. Holly then missed several months of ring time due to a
legitimately injured
shoulder, suffered in a match with
Kurt
Angle. After his return, later in 2000, another on-screen
cousin,
Molly Holly was
introduced.
SmackDown! (2002–2006)
In 2002, Holly became a villain on
SmackDown! and began a
short feud with
Randy Orton. Holly
suffered a broken neck during a 2002 match against
Brock Lesnar, when he was
powerbombed neck first on the mat, although it has
been suggested that he refused to cooperate in completing the move
safely and easily. He had a thirteen month hiatus from wrestling
after surgery. In October 2003, Holly began training at
Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE's
developmental territory, in
preparation for his return to the main roster. Holly returned at
the
Survivor Series in
November 2003 for revenge. He challenged Lesnar to a match for the
WWE Championship at the
Royal Rumble, but lost.
During 2004 and early 2005, he formed short-lived tag teams with
Billy Gunn, and later
Charlie Haas in the hunt for the
WWE Tag Team Championship, but was
unsuccessful with both partners. He also failed to claim the WWE
Championship from
John "Bradshaw"
Layfield in a hardcore match.
In mid 2005, Holly went into singles competition trying to acquire
the
United States
Championship from Champion
Orlando
Jordan. After being defeated twice by Jordan, Holly finally
managed to pick up a non-title win over Jordan via disqualification
on
WWE Velocity, which aired
on August 6, 2005. Holly then entered a short feud with
"SmackDown!" newcomer,
Mr. Kennedy. This
feud climaxed on October 9, 2005 at
No
Mercy, where Kennedy defeated Holly after a
Green Bay
Plunge.
Holly then underwent several surgeries to repair nagging injuries.
He was hospitalized after a
staph
infection developed in a right arm wound. The infection was
possibly career-threatening, as doctors were worried at one point
that the arm may have to be amputated. The subsequent treatments
were a success, however.
ECW (2006–2007)
Holly made
a surprise appearance at WWE's ECW house
show event on August 21, 2006 in Allentown, Pennsylvania
, defeating Balls
Mahoney. Holly made his ECW television debut the next
night, August 22, appearing in a promo with
Paul Heyman, and later attacking
Rob Van Dam (RVD) and
Danny Doring during a match. Holly, as a heel,
soon joined with Heyman and his other associates to feud with RVD
and others.
On
September 26, 2006, Holly received 24 stitches from WWE Doctor
Louis Rios in his back after
suffering a severe laceration during an Extreme Rules match against Rob Van Dam
when he landed on the metal railing of a table he was suplexing Van
Dam out of the ring and through during an ECW show in Tulsa, Oklahoma
. Holly attained the injury early in the
match but continued to wrestle until the match's conclusion when he
was pinned, and after the match, as he was being helped out of the
ring, he received a
standing
ovation from fans. The legitimate incident caused fans to cheer
Holly in the following weeks, leading him to become a
fan favorite character and a
feud with Paul Heyman's other enforcer
Test. His second to latest run as a fan
favorite was short lived as he eventually turned on Rob Van Dam
when they were partners in a tag match.
When
Sabu was found
kayfabe unconscious in the locker room area before
the
Extreme Elimination Chamber
at
December to
Dismember, Holly was chosen as his replacement. Holly entered
with Rob Van Dam as the first of two combatants. He was the second
to be eliminated; he was eliminated by Test by a
running big boot.
Subsequently, he entered into a feud with
CM
Punk whereby Holly, now a
tweener, showed his
endurance by surviving Punk's
Anaconda Vice
submission hold. Holly then gave Punk his first loss in ECW; Punk
had been undefeated for half a year. After Test replaced Holly in a
match against
ECW World Champion
Bobby Lashley, Holly vowed he would
become champion whether he faced Test or Lashley. Holly then was
one of ECW superstars entered in the
Royal Rumble, but was eliminated by
The Great Khali. Holly soon became
the number one contender for Lashley's ECW Championship and faced
off against Lashley, albeit unsuccessfully.
On April 3, 2007, Holly lost to
Snitsky. After the match, Snitsky wedged
Holly's arm between the steel steps and repeatedly hit the steps
with a steel chair, resulting in a broken arm in the storyline.
Holly had surgery on April 16 because of a
staph infection and missed around five
months.
Raw; teaming with Cody Rhodes (2007–2009)
Holly was drafted back to SmackDown! from ECW on June 17, 2007 as
part of the 2007
WWE Supplemental
Draft. Despite this, he returned to the ring as a member of the
Raw brand on September 24, 2007, defeating
Cody Rhodes, and starting a "respect" feud in
which Holly defeated Rhodes on the two following episodes of
Raw. On the October 22 edition of
Raw, Holly
became a fan favorite by saving Rhodes from the post-match assault
of
Shelton Benjamin and Charlie
Haas. On the October 29 episode of
Raw, Holly and Rhodes
emerged victorious in a tag team match against Benjamin and Haas.
They earned a shot at the World Tag Team title by defeating
Paul London and Brian
Kendrick and
The Highlanders in
a WWE.com exclusive match after an
Alabama Slam.
Holly and Rhodes lost their title match, however, against
Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch
at
Survivor Series.
On December 10, 2007, on the
Raw 15th Anniversary
episode, Holly along with Rhodes defeated Lance Cade and Trevor
Murdoch for the
World
Tag Team Championship. The following week, Holly and Rhodes
retained their title, in their first title defense, against Cade
and Murdoch. They successfully defended their title against the
teams of
Carlito and
Santino Marella and Paul London and Brian
Kendrick. At
Night of
Champions on June 29, 2008, Rhodes
turned on Holly by
defeating him with
Ted DiBiase, Jr.
in a handicap match to crown the new team as champions. This was
his last appearance in WWE as, on January 16, 2009, Holly was
released from his WWE contract, after 15 years with the
company.
Personal life
Howard was married to
Cathy Dingman,
but they are now divorced.
He later remarried and he and his current
wife, Sandra Howard, reside in Mobile, Alabama. Howard is close friends with fellow
professional wrestler
Monty Sopp.
Howard worked as a trainer for
Tough Enough III, a
reality television show produced
by WWE and
MTV where participants underwent
professional wrestling training and competed for a contract with
WWE. The show caused some controversy when, during the course of a
practice match, Howard assaulted a competitor,
Matt Cappotelli, leaving him bleeding.
Cappotelli has since said that there is no ill-feeling between the
two because of the incident. Howard has a history of working
stiff in the ring,
and was involved in further controversy, when at a November 21,
2004,
SmackDown! house show, he
was involved in a tag team match with
René Dupreé. Howard broke
kayfabe during the match and legitimately attacked
Dupreé, punching and kicking him over a speeding ticket that Dupreé
had picked up whilst in Holly's rental car. Howard also later
injured Matt Cappotelli again, giving him a
concussion, and also injured
Carlito.
In wrestling
-
- As Hardcore Holly
- As Thurman "Sparky" Plugg / Bob "Spark Plug"
Holly
Championships and accomplishments
- World Wrestling Organization
- WWO Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ron Starr
- WWO United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
References
External links
Wikis
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