Steve Lombardi

Steve Lombardi
Steve Lombardi
	File:Brooklynbrawler.jpg
Born	April 18, 1961; Brooklyn, New York
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Steve Lombardi,; Brooklyn Brawler,; Boston Brawler,; Kim Chee,; Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz,; MVP,; Doink the Clown,; The Red Knight
Billed height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Billed weight	240 lb (109 kg)
Debut	1985

Steve Lombardi (born April 18, 1961 in Detroit, Michigan) is a professional wrestler and road agent, more commonly known by his ring name The Brooklyn Brawler. He is currently working for World Wrestling Entertainment.

Career

Lombardi is often recognized as the most famous "jobber" in the history of WWE. For the majority of his career, whenever he was seen on television, it was almost a guarantee that he was going to lose.

As the "Brooklyn Brawler," he had his only mid-card push in 1989, in a feud against The Red Rooster (portrayed by Terry Taylor). When Taylor left Bobby "The Brain" Heenan's heel stable and turned face, Heenan stated that he had made Taylor a star and could do the same to anyone in the company. Neither wrestler got over, however, and the Brawler ended up back as a jobber.

Lombardi has been used for a number of gimmicks, often masked. He has portrayed Kim Chee (Kamala's handler) and Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz (a heel baseball player), and was one of Jerry "The King" Lawler's knights. In late 1993, he briefly replaced Matt Borne as Doink the Clown.

Since the late 90's, he has been semi-retired from the ring, mostly working as a road agent for WWE and only occasionally appearing in the ring, usually for comic skits and matches.

File:Lombardi referee.jpg

Lombardi as a replacement referee on Raw is War.

Despite his status as a jobber, Lombardi had some very big wins and even title shots. In 1997, he won a battle royal in Madison Square Garden, and went on to face then-WWF champion Shawn Michaels (he lost). On the September 20, 1999 episode of Raw is War, Lombardi was one of the replacement referees while the original referees were on strike. In 2000, he scored a pinfall against then-World Champion Triple H in a non-title handicap match, and a rare singles victory over Just Joe on an episode of WWE Jakked.

As part of an angle on WWE television on Smackdown, he adopted the moniker of the "Boston Brawler," shedding his customary New York Yankees apparel in favor of Boston Red Sox clothing. This was done in response to the Red Sox' defeat of the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series, which propelled the Sox to their World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. He did this in a segment on Smackdown (in New York City) with Heidenreich. Heidenreich was looking to make more friends, but Lombardi decided he'd rather be the Boston Brawler. Heidenreich stopped wanting to be Lombardi's friend, which aided Heidenreich's ongoing face turn.

Still working behind the scenes of WWE, he has lately been working behind the camera with John Cena on his WWE.com show "5 Questions." Cena often makes references to Lombardi, even jokingly calling him the greatest technical wrestler of all time. Also, his face has recently popped up in front of John Cena's mouth to censor curse words, usually saying "Cena You Are Censored!" or "Brawler!". On the June 2, 2006 episode of Five Questions. Brawler showed his face on five questions. He even censored himself, saying "YOU are a piece of Brawler."

On May 8, 2006, WWE.com announced that, as a part of their "Classics" series, Jakks Pacific would be releasing a Brooklyn Brawler figure. [1]

On August 1, 2006, Lombardi returned on WWE's brand of Extreme Championship Wrestling in a match against Kurt Angle. He quickly lost when he got stuck in the Ankle Lock.

He also appeared that same week on SmackDown! against Vito, losing by submission. Right now he is in WWE

Personal Life

In 1999, he was the man behind the famous Nicole Bass controversy. Allegedly, Lombardi touched Bass during a flight after a WWF tour of Europe. Afterwards, Bass resigned from the WWF and took the promotion to the court. In the end, she lost the suit.