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Adam Pearce

Adam Pearce

Height: 6'2"
Weight: 233 lbs.
Hometown: San Diego, California (born in Chicago, Illinois)
Pro debut: May 16, 1996
Finishing move: Jumping Piledriver, Rackbomb II (Spinning Torture Rack Suplex)
Other aliases: "Scrap Iron", "Scrap Daddy", Adam O'Brien (WWE)
Career highlights: IWA Mid-South Light-Heavyweight Champion, Steel Domain Wrestling Northern States TV Champion, MAW (Mid American Wrestling) World Heavyweight Champion, UPW (Ultimate Pro Wrestling) Heavyweight Champion, PWG (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla) Heavyweight Champion, NWA World Heavyweight Champion
Trained by: Sonny Rogers, Randy Ricci

Adam Pearce began training in November 1995 with Sonny Rogers' Pro Wrestling International school on the northside of Chicago. Notables in his class were Midwest indy worker Adrian Lynch and Southern California referee 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 the viewed as the match of the tour. At this time, he also began travelling 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 was 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 and 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 it to Rob Norwood in a 3-Way-Dance months later. NOTE: Unfortunately, an altercation between Pearce and a fan in Kiel, Wisconsin would prevent an attempt in 2001 for Pearce and Bambino to have one final match, where Pearce was scheduled to drop the ACW TV Title to Bambino before Bambino left the wrestling industry.

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 cancelled after only a few episodes made it to air 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 cancelled. 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. 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) WCW Developmental contracts 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 Brian Kendrick (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 the 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 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 (Psicosis), 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. He lost the title months later to The Human Tornado in a cage match at AWS' "Holloween 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 just 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 has also been instrumental in early NWA Pro events in the area.

Pearce also became involved with the 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 stroyline 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 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.