| Bill DeMott |
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| Bill DeMott
Height: 6'2" Weight: 280 lbs. Real name: William (Bill) DeMott Hometown: Titusville, FL Finishing move: No Laughing Matter/The Last Laugh (Moonsault), No Joke (Outward rolling cutter) Pro debut: 1990 Other aliases: Crash the Terminator, The Laughing Man (WCW), The Man of Questions (WCW), Hugh Morrus (WCW), Captain Rection (WCW), General E. Rection (WCW) Career highlights: AWF Heavyweight Champion, HWA Tag Team Champion (w/Raven), PCW Champion, W*NG Champion, W*NG Tag-Team Champion (w/Mr. Pogo), WCW United States Champion, WCW World Tag Team Champion (w/Alex Wright) Trained by: Johnny Rodz DeMott was trained by Johnny Rodz in his New York wrestling school beginning in 1989. From there he began working at small independent promotions using his real name. In 1992 DeMott began wrestling for the American Wrestling Federation and started using the name Crash The Terminator. Under this name he found some success, first capturing the AWF Heavyweight title from Steve Strong in Puerto Rico, before moving on to Japanese promotion W*ING and winning their tag team championship with Mr. Pogo. While competing in W*ING (now in 1993), Demott won a 16 man tournament to be crowned their heavyweight champion. When DeMott returned to the United States, he wrestled for Extreme Championship Wrestling for a short time, before moving on to Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling where once again he won a heavyweight championship, this time outlasting a number of competitors in a battle royal to get it. In 1995, DeMott was signed to a World Championship Wrestling (WCW) contract at the behest of Kevin Sullivan who had been impressed by him. He debuted in dark matches as The Man of Questions and The Laughing Man, a strange gimmick that saw him wearing a singlet covered in question marks and laughing a lot. He made his television debut using the same gimmick, but with the name Hugh Morrus (a pun on the word "humorous") and he would stay with that for most of his WCW career. The most prominent thing about Hugh Morrus was his finisher, a moonsault dubbed No Laughing Matter. Seeing the nearly 300 pound man sail through the air impressed a number of people (both in the crowd and backstage) and Hugh was soon pushed as a mid-card face, usually in tag team matches. In 1996 Morrus turned heel by joining the Dungeon of Doom in their quest to end Hulkamania. Unfortunately, he joined at a time of flux in WCW as the Dungeon of Doom was breaking up and Hogan was making a heel turn as well. Upon the dissolution of the Dungeon Of Doom, Morrus was relegated to a lower spot on the card than even before joining them. As a curtain jerker he made history on September 22, 1997, when he became the first wrestler to lose a televised match to Bill Goldberg. After this, still using the Hugh Morrus gimmick, he changed tracks completely. Now joining the growing Hardcore wrestling style in WCW he joined Jimmy Harts "First Family" stable and seemed that he (along with the rest of the group) were on their way to a major push when they secured a Pay-Per-View win over their Revolution rivals until the group suddenly broke up. DeMott took some time off from WCW, at this time, returning in early 2000 utilizing the same name and ring attire, but as an angrier version of himself, squashing a number of wrestlers. The angry Morrus gimmick came to a halt when Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff took over and promised to take WCW in a "new direction." After getting on Russo's bad side (in kayfabe) Morrus was fired from his "New Blood" stable along with a number of other wrestlers. These ex-New Blood members (including Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and Booker T) formed the comedy stable Misfits In Action, all adopting new military-themed names for themselves. Morrus, the leader, re-christened himself General Hugh G. Rection, and lead the group in a feud against the Filthy Animals. The group's comedic nature and the workrate of some of the wrestlers made the group immediate favorites with fans. Upon the introduction of the heel "Team Canada", the Misfits In Action became Made In America, though much of the gimmick remained the same. Rection feuded with Team Canada leader Lance Storm, beating him and Hacksaw Jim Duggan in a handicap match at Halloween Havoc. The Misfits In Action eventually broke up and DeMott took the name Hugh Morrus again for a feud with former members of the stable. Morrus competed in WCW's U.S. Championship division until World Wrestling Entertainment's buyout of WCW. Like many former WCW wrestlers, Morrus signed a deal with WWE and became part of the Invasion angle. When that angle was over, Morrus was fired (in kayfabe) by Vince McMahon until Ric Flair was able to save his job and get him drafted over to the SmackDown! brand. Morrus competed on SmackDown! until he was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and had to take a leave from the ring. During this time he became a trainer for the 3rd series of the WWE's Tough Enough program. Sufficiently healed, Morrus made his return to SmackDown!, billing himself simply as Bill DeMott. However, this small push did not last and DeMott was soon demoted to Velocity. He retired from in ring action at this point, citing years of knee injuries, and began working as a color commentator on the Velocity show until Tough Enough 4, where he once again became a trainer. When Tough Enough 4 wrapped up production, DeMott did not make a return to Velocity, and instead became a full time trainer for WWE. While training wrestlers in WWE's Deep South Wrestling promotion, DeMott would return to in-ring action on a few occasions. |