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Chris Hero

Chris Hero

Height: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Weight: 240 lb (110 kg)
Real name: Chris Spradlin
Hometown: Dayton, Ohio (billed from Metropolis)
Pro debut: September 12, 1998 for UCW vs "HeartThrob" Halsey
Finishing move: Hangman's Clutch (three-quarter chancery / STF combination), Hero's Welcome (rolling cutter), Rolling Elbow (Discus elbow smash)
Other aliases: Wife Beater, "That Young Knockout Kid"
Career highlights: Alternative Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Champion, ICW Heavyweight Champion, IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion (4), UCW TV Champion, HCW Tag Team Champion (w/Danny Blackheart), NWA WV/OH Junior Heavyweight Champion, VCW Triple Threat Champion (2), VCW Tag Team Champion (2), NSWA Heavyweight Champion, wXw (Westside Xtreme Wrestling) Heavyweight Champion, CZW Iron Man Champion, CZW (Combat Zone Wrestling) Tag Team Champion (w/Claudio Castagnoli), CZW (Combat Zone Wrestling) World Heavyweight Champion, ROH World Tag Team Champion (w/Claudio Castagnoli)
Trained by: Dory Funk, Jr., Les Thatcher, Ian Rotten, Skayde, Blue Bloods Camp (Regal/Finlay/Taylor)

After graduating from Northmont High School in Clayton, Ohio, Chris decided to train as a wrestler in the summer of 1998. After undergoing some initial training in Middletown, Ohio, Spradlin debuted on September 12, 1998, in Xenia, Ohio, wrestling Shawn "HeartThrob" Halsey in the Unified Championship Wrestling promotion. As Spradlin wrestled wearing a "wifebeater" T-shirt, he began using the ring name Wife Beater. He continued to use the Wife Beater character until a women's group, offended by the gimmick, organized a boycott of a show Spradlin was wrestling on in Platteville, Wisconsin. The character was discussed on the talk show Politically Incorrect, although Spradlin was not mentioned by name. After Spradlin was booked for a series of family-friendly shows for NWA West Virginia / Ohio, he changed his ring name to Chris Hero. He wrestled his last matches as Wife Beater in 2000. There was another wrestler named Matt Prince in CZW from 2001-2004 who used the ring name Wifebeater. Neither he nor his character is related to Hero.

Chris's initial training in Middletown, Ohio was under the supervision of a small time promoter named Gary Goffinet. Gary ran a promotion called OCWA from 1997 to 1998. Chris trained for a little while alongside his friend, Adam Ghazee, under a wrestler by the name of Bo Dacious. Bo had trained previously under Charlie Fulton at the Monster Factory. The OCWA school closed down in November of 1998.

At the suggestion of Matt Stryker, Hero underwent further training under Les Thatcher in Thatcher's Cincinnati, Ohio-based HWA Main Event Wrestling Camp between May 1999 and November 1999. Students at the HWA school at this time were Cody Hawk, Race Steele, Time Bomb, Nigel McGuinness, BJ Whitmer, Ranger Hayes, Chet Jablonski, Ash Parker, Bennie the Bookie, "Taxi Driver" Anthony McMurphy and Pepper Parks. Bull Pain also came to the school for a few special training sessions.

In December 1999, He traveled to Ocala, Florida to train under Dory Funk, Jr. in the Funkin' Conservatory professional wrestling school. His class included Abunai, Billy Reil, Deno Blade, Cuefa the Flyin' Hawaiian, Johnny Rayz, Gage Octane and TNT Keny G. He went back for another camp in February of 2000. This camp featured NFL player Josh Wilcox and Austrian wrestler Chris the Bambi Killer.

In 2000, Hero began working for the Indiana-based Independent Wrestling Association Mid South, where he received supplementary training from Ian Rotten. In the following years, Chris speant a great deal of time working with Tracy Smothers on IWA Mid South shows. He credits Smothers with being a mentor of his as well.

In October 2002 Hero attended the Blue Bloods Wrestling Camp, operated by English wrestlers David Taylor and William Regal and Northern Irish wrestler Dave Finlay. This camp was also attended by Ace Steel, CM Punk and Darryck St. Holmes.

In July of 2003, Chikara brought in Jorge "Skayde" Rivera from Ultimo Dragon's Toryumon Gym in Mexico City to teach some special lucha libre clinics. Along with almost the entire Chikara roster, Claudio Castagnoli, Ares, Arik Cannon and Jimmy Jacobs, Hero took part in the training sessions and was able to add an entirely new style to his repertoire. Chris has attended "Skayde" sessions in Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Mexico City from 2003 until 2006.

Hero debuted for IWA Mid South on July 1st, 2000, in a losing attempt versus Harry Palmer. In his first year in the promotion, he won the annual Sweet Science 16 tournament (now known as the Ted Petty Invitational or TPI), defeating four other wrestlers in the process (Colt Cabana, American Kickboxer, Ace Steel and Harry Palmer), and unsuccessfully challenged Sabu for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at Bloodfeast 2000. Hero engaged in feuds with the Suicide Kid, American Kickboxer, Mark Wolf and the Rugby Thug.

Throughout 2001 and 2003 Hero engaged in a bitter feud with CM Punk.

On October 21, 2001 in Charlestown, Indiana, Hero won the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship from the Rugby Thug. He held the title until December 5 of that year, when he lost to CM Punk. He regained the title on July 12, 2002, in Clarksville, Indiana, defeating Colt Cabana, and lost the title to M-Dogg 20 three months later on October 5 in Clarksville. He won the title for a third time on February 7, 2003, in Clarksville, pinning CM Punk in a match that lasted over ninety minutes. His third reign lasted until June 7 of that year, when he lost to Mark Wolf. Hero regained the title in a match with Danny Daniels on July 12, 2003, after Mark Wolf had vacated the title. Hero lost it for a fourth and final time to Danny Daniels less than a month later on August 2.

During the fall of 2005, Hero and Arik Cannon continued their feud that had started years before in IWA-MS. At the end of it, Hero turned heel after being eliminated by Cannon in the 2nd round of the 2005 TPI. He later turned his back on Rotten, his trainees Trik Davis, Mickie Knuckles, Bryce Remsburg and everyone else that had befriended him. Hero has since destroyed the IWA Mid South Heavyweight title belt. Cannon had just beaten Jimmy Jacobs for the title.

He is the only wrestler to have competed in all six TPI/Sweet Science 16 events. At the end of 2005, he won the 3rd annual Revolution Strong Style Tournament, defeating Necro Butcher in the finals.

In May 2002, Hero debuted in Combat Zone Wrestling, wrestling Ruckus in a match that went badly. He wrestled a second match later that year that "also ended in a debacle". Hero returned to CZW for a third time in the autumn of 2003, and this time he secured a regular place on the roster. Declaring himself the "Savior" of CZW, Hero defeated Jimmy Rave on May 1, 2004, to become the promotion's Ironman Champion. He became the longest reigning Ironman Champion before losing the title to B-Boy at the CZW year-end event, Cage of Death, on December 11, 2004. Hero recruited Claudio Castagnoli and Blackjack Marciano to be his "Few Good Men", but shortly thereafter, Marciano disappeared from wrestling altogether, leaving Hero and Claudio as a tag team. On September 10, 2005, the duo defeated the Tough Crazy Bastards (Necro Butcher and Toby Klein) to become the CZW Tag Team Champions. Hero and Castagnoli held the titles and defended them in an ongoing feud with Eddie Kingston and the rest of the faction known as Black Out. While Hero and Claudio dropped the titles to Eddie Kingston and Joker in February 2006, the feud with Black Out continued.

Chris Hero pinned Ruckus at the 2006 Best of the Best tournament to win the CZW World Heavyweight Championship.

During a large portion of 2006, Hero feuded with the entire Ring of Honor promotion. It started when he issued a challenge to ROH at CZW's Cage of Death 7 in December 2005. Hero then challenged and lost a match for the ROH World Heavyweight Championship on January 14 at "Hell Freezes Over" in Philadelphia, to current champion, Bryan Danielson. He, along with Necro Butcher, had been attending various Ring of Honor events, which would usually involve he and Necro getting kicked out after excessive heckling or harassing of a Ring of Honor wrestler, in the middle of a match. One interesting point of the feud is that most of the promos are being put on the internet, either through Chris Hero's livejournal, or the ROH Newswire. With this feud, it seems that Hero has turned heel. According to him "2006 will be all about destruction.", while this is presented as a heel turn in Ring of Honor, he is still a face with CZW. This feud culminated at the former ECW Arena on March 11th in Philadelphia, where both promotions' locker rooms were in a double header. The event was named "Arena Warfare" as both locker rooms were expected to cause chaos throughout the event. This was inspired after Hero, Necro Butcher, and the CZW locker room invaded ROH's 4th Anniversary show on February 25.

Although Chris Hero was not in attendance at "Arena Warfare" (according to Danielson, he was in Mexico with Claudio Castagnoli), CZW proved to come out on top in the end. After the ROH main event did not go as planned, the CZW locker room took on Samoa Joe and BJ Whitmer. This resulted in an all out brawl between the Ring of Honor locker room and the Combat Zone locker room, and Whitmer being tortured by the Combat Zone roster after the Ring of Honor roster was chased away. The Combat Zone roster proceeded to destroy the ring ROH had set up, and chase Ring of Honor out of "their house".

Hero and Necro Butcher came to ROH's "Best in the World" event in New York on March 25 to answer a challenge made by Adam Pearce. They proceeded to beat him down, but in a suprising turn of events Chris Hero's long time tag partner, friend, and pupil Claudio turned on both Necro and Hero by saving Pearce. Claudio beat them down, and then chased them out while screaming "Fuck CZW!".

The next weekend, March 30 through April 1, in Detroit and Chicago, Hero and Necro again caused a disruption during the ROH shows. They ran in each night, beating down and injuring ROH Commissioner Jim Cornette as well as Whitmer and Pearce. They also finally got the attention of Joe, who personally declared war on CZW in Detroit. On April 22, ROH's 100th show in Philadelphia featured a battle between Team ROH (Joe, Whitmer & Pearce) against Team CZW (Hero, Necro & Super Dragon). In his LiveJournal, Hero proclaimed that Team CZW would make ROH look like fools on their biggest stage and regret not ending this war before.

Chris Hero walked into ROH's 100th show in their home at the National Guard Armory, and proclaimed that he wasn't a stranger to being up against overwhelming odds, and he wasn't a stranger to being "the everyman". He stood in the CZW bleachers in the crowd and declared that these people were "his army". The team of Hero, Necro Butcher, and Super Dragon went on to win the ROH vs. CZW main event in an extremely chaotic match. Adam Pearce of team ROH was pinned after Claudio turned on ROH and helped Hero deliver the Hero's Welcome on Pearce for the pin. Claudio hugged Hero and went on to celebrate with Zandig, Team CZW, and the CZW section of the crowd who were chanting "match of the year!".

Hero led Team CZW into the Cage of Death at Ring of Honor's Death Before Dishonor IV. This was the first time Cage of Death was featured in a show outside of CZW. Hero had teased that he had made a deal with a mystery fifth man, which he stated would be a "deal with the devil". This lead to rampant speculation as to whether or not the fifth man was someone from ROH jumping ship. Homicide had been a likely candidate, due to a recent storyline involving his frustration with the company. However, their fifth man turned out to be Hero's hated rival Eddie Kingston. Although ROH's surprise fifth man Bryan Danielson turned on Samoa Joe in an effort to incapacitate Joe before their title match, Team ROH finally put CZW away when Homicide arrived in the Cage and pinned Nate Webb for the win. Two days later on their Newswire, ROH stated that the war with CZW was over, thanks to Homicide.