Mike Sharpe
| Mike Sharpe | |
|---|---|
| File:Sharpe.jpg | |
| Born | Hamilton, Ontario |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Iron Mike Sharpe |
| Billed height | 193 cm (6 ft 4 in) |
| Billed weight | 125 kg (275 lb) |
| Trained by | Dewey Robertson |
| Debut | 1977 |
| Retired | 1995 |
Mike Sharpe is a professional wrestler better known as Iron Mike Sharpe.
Career
Sharpe comes from a family legacy of wrestling, as his father and uncle were a successful tag team combo in the 1950's recognized as champions from San Francisco to Japan. He grew up in California but moved with his father back to Canada as a teenager, and in high school he dabbled in boxing and weightlifting before choosing to follow in his father's footsteps.
Dewey Robertson trained him for the ring at age 25 and shortly thereafter Sharpe made his mark wrestling for promotions around Canada such as Gene Kiniski's NWA All Star Wrestling. He became a two-time NWA Canadian Tag Team Champion, partnering first with Moose Morowski and later with Salvatore Bellomo, and also won the Pacific Coast Heavyweight title. His career picked up steam after moving to Louisiana, where he became a fan favorite and won two different Mid-South Wrestling belts - Louisiana champion (two times) and the Mississippi title (also two times) along with a Brass Knucks title in 1979. Sharpe also did some work for the then-WWWF, even receiving a title shot against heavyweight champion Bob Backlund which was ultimately unsuccessful. New England area fans were less impressed with Sharpe and reports from the era say 'WIMP!' was a common insult flung his way.
Despite the derision, Sharpe became a regular of World Wrestling Federation programming throughout the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Although he was announced and self-proclaimed as "Canada's Greatest Athlete" (a nickname taken from Kiniski) Sharpe never held a single title for the promotion and is largely regarded to have been a jobber to the up and coming stars of the then-WWF. Despite this Sharpe was involved in many memorable matches in his WWF career. He wrestled Ivan Putski at Madison Square Garden, competed in a battle royal on Raw won by Razor Ramon, teamed several times with Barry Horowitz and in what may be his last televised match was defeated by the short-lived Man Mountain Rock on May 15, 1995. For some time after his retirement Sharpe had made his living teaching aspiring wrestlers at 'Mike Sharpe's School of Pro-Wrestling' located in Asbury Park, New Jersey (the school has since closed down). Among the better known of his proteges are Mike Bucci (b.k.a. Nova and Simon Dean), Chris Ford (a.k.a. Crowbar and Devon Storm) and the Haas brothers, Charlie and Russ.
Finishing/Trademark moves
- Leather forearm smash, believed to contain a foreign object
- Bear hug
Championships and accomplishments
- NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Champion (1 time)
- Mid-South Louisiana Champion (2 times)
- Mid-South Mississippi Champion (2 times)
- NWA Canadian Tag Team Champion (Vancouver version) (2 times)
- NWA Pacific Coast (Vancouver) Heavyweight Champion (1 time)
- Stampede International Tag Team Champion (1 time) - with Duke Myers
PWI
Mike Sharpe was ranked #272 in the PWI Top 500 in 1994.